Chapter 3 #2
“He never says no to his cousin,” Khazak mumbles. He didn’t mention that wrinkle before. “Do we have any more information?”
“Afraid not,” she sighs. “High Priest Bhok was insistent that it be you he speaks to.”
“Of course,” Khazak sighs in return.
“Officer Silentfang in the forensics laboratory is prepared to go down with you whenever you are ready.” She offers a small smile. Wait, Silentfang? Glasha works in the forensics lab?
“Thank you, Deputy. Excellent work.” Khazak stands, taking the papers with him. “We will head down there shortly. I do not like that we are already a day behind.”
“Yes, sir. Please let me know if you need any assistance.” She salutes on our way out.
We cross the hall to what should be Khazak’s office, which is confirmed when he opens the door and sets down his bag. It’s much sparser than his other office, nothing hanging on the walls or sitting on the desk. In fact, the whole thing might be a little smaller.
“Is her office bigger than yours?” I point my thumb across the hall.
“I saw no reason to take the larger room when I would use it so infrequently.” He’s a good boss.
“I bet Ragnar was jealous.” Or at least pretended to be.
“He has been actively plotting my demise ever since,” Khazak jokes after setting his bag down on the desk. “Come, let us get our mage and then begin the investigation.”
We walk to the forensic lab, which like the other station is a large room located toward the back of the building on the opposite side from the captain’s offices.
It’s split in two, one half filled with desks for the officers working there, and the other half with lab equipment.
There are potion beakers with different colored liquids, desks set up with crystals and mirrors on them, and all manner of magical items in glass cases that I couldn’t begin to imagine what to do with.
All the officers salute Khazak when we enter, including the gnome I’ve heard about.
“Good morning.” Khazak returns the salute, and they all relax. “I am looking for Officer Silentfang?”
“Right here, sir!” A female voice speaks up, attached to the body of an orc raising her hand.
One that is definitely not Glasha. She a little shorter than me with shoulder-length black hair pulled into twin braided ponytails.
She’s wearing a pair of round silver-rimmed glasses over her brown eyes and a less elaborate uniform than Khazak’s. She smiles as she walks up to us.
“Pleasure to be working with you, Officer Silentfang.” Khazak salutes at her approach.
“Please. Call me Nikka, sir.” She salutes again smiling, then she turns to me. “You must be David. Nice to meet you. My sister has told me a lot about you.”
“Nice to meet you too, Nikka.” She seems bubbly. “Glasha is your sister?”
“That is her.” She nods. Cool.
“Do you need to prepare anything before we leave?” Khazak really wants to get this over with.
“No, sir, Captain. All ready to go.” She holds up a small journal and tugs on the strap of the bag she’s got around her shoulder.
It’s a short walk to the House of the Three, only a few more blocks east past the station.
It sits behind a large courtyard, the stones arranged into patterns of circles and spirals.
The building itself is bigger than most of the others I’ve seen in the city, though not nearly as big as the arena or tribal hall.
It easily takes up a quarter of the block.
The walls are made of wood and stone, like most of the other buildings, with a rounded domed roof adorned with flowers and leaves.
Above the entrance is a symbol of a triangle, which is made up of three four-sided diamonds: one red, one green, and one blue.
The courtyard isn’t packed, but there are some people, mostly orcs, milling about.
Along the outskirts on either side are smaller structures that look like altars and statues.
They’re the areas where the most people are congregated, some bent over in prayer.
Shrines to other religions? I think I remember Khazak mentioning something like that to me.
We head straight for the building’s doors and walk into a large open room.
There are lined rows of benches (pews?) with a few orcs seated, worshipping in silence or maybe just thinking.
In the front of the room is a large statue.
Well, three statues. Three figures are set against the wall, laid out in a triangle.
On the bottom right is a burly looking orc with short, spiky hair.
Seriously, he’s all muscle. To his left is a more feminine looking orc, though I wouldn’t say for sure that they’re necessarily female.
Above them both is a third orc who is a woman, at least judging from the large breasts on her chest. She’s upside down, suspended as if she’s floating, or even swimming down toward the others.
All three orcs look at peace, and all have one arm extended to each other, hands touching at the center of the statue.
Two orcs in large red robes are speaking in front of the statue.
One of the two notices our entrance and begins making his way down the aisle to us after waving off his companion.
He’s tall and thin, his robes flowing in the air behind him.
His long white hair has been braided, and his left tusk has a slight crack in it.
“Khazak!” The orc calls out before speaking in Atasi.
“High Priest Bhok,” Khazak says in Common for my benefit. Usually that gets everyone else to respond in the same language.
“It has been too long.” He reaches out and clasps one of Khazak’s hands in his own. “I do not think I have seen you in here in years.”
“Yes, sorry... Work takes up much of my free time these days.” Well, that’s definitely a lie.
“Of course. I am sure you are very busy.” It doesn’t sound like he doubts Khazak’s sincerity. “Are you still reciting your nightly prayers?”
“Yes, sir. Of course.” That lie sounded believable at least. “High Priest, this is Officer Silentfang and my avakesh David. They will both be assisting me in the investigation.”
“I had heard about that.” The priest eyes me up and down before offering a small bow. “It is nice to meet the both of you.”
“If you could direct us to the location of the break-in, we can get started.” Khazak tries to gently move things along.
“Right this way.” The priest turns on his heel and leads us toward the statue, then enters a side door on the right.
He takes us into a hallway, one side lined with windows and the other with doors.
At the end of the hall is another door—or what’s left of one.
It looks like it’s been hacked to death, chunks of wood all over the floor.
I can make out shards of glass mixed with the wood, the sunlight reflecting off them onto the ceiling above.
“Here we are.” The priest comes to a stop in front of the destruction, a broken window on our right. “This is the closet we keep the ceremonial supplies in.”
“You were the one who found it this way yesterday morning, correct?” Khazak steps up to look over the damage with the priest.
“That is correct.” He nods. “It must have been around six when I came to gather my materials for the day.”
“Thank you.” Khazak squats down to inspect some of the damage closer. “And we are sure this happened overnight? Who was the last person here?”
“That would also be me.” Bhok sighs. “We have had the odd vagrant hiding in the building overnight, so I always walk through each of the rooms once before I retire in the evening.”
“The only thing stolen was brimstone?” Khazak sounds skeptical.
“Yes, all of it.” Bhok nods. “Enough to last us the rest of the year. Now I must order more and hope it is here in time for the festival this weekend. I just cannot fathom who would do something like this.”
“I promise we will do everything we can to locate the person responsible, sir.” Khazak stands and does his best to reassure the older orc.
“Thank you, Khazak.” At that moment, the door we walked in through opens again, another orc in robes calling out. “Sorry. I must prepare for my next sermon. You remember where my office is?”
“Yes, sir. I will let you know when we have some information for you.” Khazak nods.
“Thank you. Please give my love to your fathers and siblings.” He turns and leaves.
“Well, I think it is safe to say they did not use magic, officer.” Khazak looks over the destruction.
“I agree, sir. I will still see if I can pick up traces of anything.” Nikka closes her eyes and brings her hands together, chanting softly to herself.
“Thank you.” Khazak steps carefully over some of the larger pieces of wood and glass to get into the closet doorway. “By the look of these grooves, I would say they used an axe. No finesse at all.”
“Looks like they knew exactly what they were doing, too.” Khazak looks to me for more of an explanation. “The only broken window is right in front of the supply closet, and if they brought an axe, they probably knew the door would be locked. You wouldn’t bring an axe just to break a window.”
“Which means our suspect is likely a parishioner,” Nikka comes to an even better conclusion than I did. “I was not able to detect any residual magic, sir.”
“As I thought.” Khazak takes another step into the closet. “Let us see if our friend left us anything more tangible.”
“What would someone steal brimstone for anyway?” I ask both of them. I’ve heard of brimstone, but I’m not sure I’ve actually seen it before. “What is it used for?”