un: yuheng

[wooden_one]

The Honourable Chu Wanning
In Service of the Esteemed Macaluso Spina
Speaking Only Their Truth and Their Wisdom
Humbly Puts before the Piazza:

What defines a city--a ruler if not how their most vulnerable are treated? For servants to disappear without explanation or investigation, what does that say about those running this city? Those who should offer protection and justice to those working under them? What does it say that those who are vulnerable feel they need to seek sanctuary from a stranger to the city?

And then to have their concerns brushed off as them wanting money without further investigation even when the person disappears? In a city with so much knowledge and wealth, why are there still people who suffer this way? Only because they are servants?

If the people here will not fight for them then I will. I had failed to provide the sanctuary that maid sought and I will carry that failure with me. But know this: I will not stop until I've given them justice. I will get to the bottom of this no matter what it takes.

May All Good People Hear, May All Good People Know!
May Fortune Ever Favour Don Bonaccorso!

video; un: yuheng; to other characters only

[He looks as he always does, except his coldness seems more angry than his usual aloofness.]

Two servants from Don Bonaccorso's wing have gone missing, most likely killed. The second maid....it was my fault. I was asked for sanctuary and protection and I failed to keep her safe. [He admitted it without hesitation even though the guilt and self-loathing was eating him alive. He failed and another had to bare the consequences. But he's more angry than he is sad (right now, right now he has to focus on that anger).] But in that case, I have a responsibility to give her justice, to at least find her body and give her a proper burial and make those responsible pay for their actions.

I-- [This part is hard. He has no problem admitting guilt but admitting he needed help? That felt impossible. But this wasn't about him. He had a duty.] I need help. The healers I interrogated weren't lying when they said they didn't know what was going on, but like this I have no leads left to follow.

Comments

un: Xunxian; the narrower network

[topoiran]

There are... some very strange things happening. I will see what I can find.

As to whether it was your fault - one, it's unlikely that you did it, and two, if you had not promised her, she likely would still have gone missing, so how does this make it your fault?

[wooden_one]

[He nods curtly....but then he glares.]

I promised her protection and I failed. Even if not directly, my failure had contributed to this outcome as such I bear responsibility.

[He has the tone of voice of someone who is going to fight you on this.]

voice; [un: sprite bulb] - network

[bearshermark]

..I don't know how to help, but if there's anything I can do, I will.

[wooden_one]

[He doesn't know how to ask for help so he knew even less about how to delegate...]

The maid who disappeared attended Bonaccorso's quarters. It, whatever this is, has something to do with the man even if the healers truly seem to know what happened.

[Which he wouldn't have believed if he hadn't checked with Tianwen. Because that just seems all too convenient, didn't it? But also, maybe he should explain how he knows...it doesn't occur to him to, though. After all, Tianwen's ability had been well-known where he's from.]

[bearshermark]

He was very frail when I met with him. I don't think.. unless he has some magical ability, I can't see him managing to kill anyone as he is. Certainly not disappearing a body on his own without assistance..

un: the blue spirit (text, the closed network)

[elfuego]

I can't get close to his part of the palace to try and find out what's going on, and what I have managed to pick up is about as much as you have. Nobody has a clue.

I want to help you. If we can find out where they brought the maid, maybe we can find out something about what killed her, and go from there?

[wooden_one]

I had some access before but I haven't been particularly welcome since I interrogated the healers.

I don't know her body might have gone.

[And not knowing only made his guilt and anger worse.]

She said when the previous servant went missing, all she found was a bloodied apron in the laundry.

[elfuego]

They have to be getting the bodies out of the palace somehow. Passages out like the aqueducts at the witch's tower. Maybe finding out where the poor bury their dead, and working backwards?

un: absterge | the private network

[downswing]

We must search garden grounds, rivers and the kitchens.

[wooden_one]

I haven't been very welcome in the kitchens or the wing in general since I interrogated the healers.

[Which didn't surprise him but he'd be lying if he said it didn't sting.]

[downswing]

If there are inconvenient bodies, they will be burned, buried or drowned.

( No. Wait. Here, they could be - )

...or surrendered to necromancers.

un: wei laozu

[weifinder]

Comes to the worst, I can play to call on what new wrongs may respond.

( what new resentments have birthed, if they've been... allowed. if they weren't consumed, as some forms of necromancy manage here, as he worries when it comes to magics and disappearing people may indicate.

or else the feeding of other appetites, but still. )

UN: peerless cucumber

[softheartedshizun]

This is troubling indeed, and cold and callous.

[ And sadly expected of this sort of set up. ]

Can we plant a new maid to see what happens? Perhaps in that way we can investigate within.

[downswing]

We number few who could pass so innocent.

...unless you wish a gown.

un: dappled pearl of the parted sea [voice]

[beitangmoran]

... This is concerning indeed. There is something fishy both about Don Bonaccorso and Lady Vannoza's health, but servants disappearing is never a good sign.

If the healers don't know what is going on, then who is taking care of the Doxe right now?

[wooden_one]

...is there?

[He honestly.....hadn't really paid attention? Should he have? Would the maid still be alive if he were more aware?]

I am not privy to that. But the maid who came to me said the healers had given her friend coin and shortly after her friend went missing.

un: lady mockingbird (text/closed network)

[notsansa]

[ After some long deliberation, later than he had probably hoped for, some elegantly written text appears. Of course, she's had some time to consider this and learn that she might have seen one of those bodies. In reality, she has no reason to risk her neck for any of these people, as if she can actually trust what she's been told...

But this person seems like he still has some honor. Honor that could endanger the rest of them if he isn't careful, and over a maid of all things. How honest should she be? Does it really matter what she saw? Best to feel out this person's wits before sharing anything.

She still can't believe this works... Is it really magic? ]

Why do you think they were killed? Is it not possible they too might have fallen ill in their care for Don Bonaccorso?

[wooden_one]

The maid who spoke to me did not fall ill.

There's a spell I use, it creates a flower that can delivery messages. I tried to use it to contact her but it failed.

I would be glad to know if I were wrong but it seems unlikely.

[aprescoup]

( Chu Wanning's open plea seems to have a remarkably deep impact on the good people of Taravast, with his speech repeatedly cited and shared across the piazza.

Some echo his feelings that the lower classes remain underprivileged and frequently overlooked in Taravast, for all the citadel's claims of equality before the might of magic. But most flag that these problems have only exacerbated since Bonaccorso Spina increasingly withdrew himself from the public eye and from aggressive command of Taravast, leaving his less competent descendants to (fail to) step in. Is it any wonder that things have come to a head now that Bonaccorso finds himself at death's door?

They must see him returned, in full strength. )

un: vast & furious | text.

[valeas]

( the news itself is what draws emilia to this post, but she is not unmoved by his righteous anger. his desire to right what she, too, fiercely believes is a wrong. she feels the same she did the day she learned matteo ballatini was in macaluso's custody the day of the poisoning, and it simmers underneath. )

Most likely killed. So it is not certain?

( it's wishful thinking, perhaps, to believe they might still be found alive. )

[wooden_one]

I have not seen a body. That is the only point of uncertainty.

{As much as he wishes it were otherwise...]

I have a spell that should be able to locate her. It cannot find her.

un: civil serpent | text.

[inferus]

I visited Bonaccorso following his apparent sickness. It appears some type of magical rites were performed on him. There were three deaths which occurred within his wing. I believe one of them was his own. ( The feeling of death and magic was attached to him specifically, and he was still in recovery- at a loss and then distressed by Wrath's presence, which could be due to what Wrath is. As a former angel of death, as someone who rules in Hell, as someone who is a sharp blade of justice when necessary, Wrath is angry, but he controls it well - Macaluso's wing where he stays is simply colder than usual in response to his ancient anger as if winter has come. )

The other two deaths may well be the maids who have gone missing. In my own world, such resurrection spells or spells to save someone who is near death have a grave cost. The servants themselves have been spelled in some way, which may be preventing them from remembering or speaking more clearly on the subject. ( Another reason to be angry, Wrath is cursed, unable to speak certain truths because of it. ) It is difficult to speak more in detail, and I hesitate to assume. There have been few Doxes in Taravast. These few live for hundreds of years if their tombs are to be believed. This may be common practice for the leader of Taravast.

I feel I should not have to say this ( But... mortals ) , but this information should be kept within the group. Do not reply to this with voice. Proceed with caution.

[un: sprite bulb] text;

[bearshermark]

I didn't put it together until now. When I'd spoken with him, he said if he could live forever to spare his heirs the trouble, he would.

I never thought he'd have actually..

un: yuheng; text;

[wooden_one]

So these maids are only two of possibly many innocent victims? And we are supposed to stay silent on this matter?

[He's so angry right now that if he felt he were a split second away from leaving his rooms and storming over to Bonaccorso's wing.

It was only the maid's death that stopped him. Because acting before thinking hadn't helped her.

Proceed with caution.

He will heed that advice...for now.]

It seems more likely that their memories may be tampered with. Unless of course, they had a way to get around Tianwen's ability.

un: lady mockingbird

[notsansa]

Forgive my impertinence, but are you suggesting that the grave cost was the lives of the servants?

When last I spoke to Don Bonaccorso, he was suffering but seemed well enough to speak and take pleasure in song and poetry. If what you say is true [ And that is such a big if, at least to her, but she really still doesn't believe any of this undead nonsense. They're just...stories. ] then do you suspect what I witnessed was before or after his resurrection? How?

[ How can he tell, or sense magic? How is it possible? How are you all talking about this like you're discussing spice trade? ]