Jeza IV

14th night of the Month of Ice, 18:36, After Moonfall

The list is too long.

Darule snickers at her side as Jeza glowers at the paper.

They had spent most of the night recompiling possible names and cross referencing them with other data, mostly reports of fights and complaints against Mikhe Drest, and their list had twenty possible killers. Twenty suspects were one too many, and they had to question all of them. Jeza groans and drops her head on her desk.

"On a change of note, how is your nomad doing? Has your lady mother devoured her yet?" Chuckles Darule and Jeza turns her head to glare at him without rising her head.

"Cira doved me a while ago, she fed Enuma and invited more nomads for her to meet, for what she told me it all went pretty well" replies Jeza with a sigh "Mother disappeared as soon as possible, supposedly to buy her clothes"

"That's nice of her" teases Darule "No evil plan in the works?"

"Not that I know of, but she is refusing to talk to me" says Jeza with a frown "so there's that"

Darule laughs and Jeza sighs. Her mother was complex to understand most of the time, she was too active, her mind always a few steps ahead of everybody else, she had high expectations for her daughters, something that she showed in less than ideal ways. Jeza had always failed every expectation put on her by her mother.

The fact that she had decided to become a Nocturnal instead of just being the heir of the family had created a disagreement and the recent decision to add a nomad to their bloodline, had brought the silence treatment to the Zasya household.

"Also, I need to leave by supper time" adds Jeza "My father doved me and informed me that I had to, no matter how busy I was"

"Looks like an awkward family dinner is in your future, good fortune, may Ayth bless you with patience" mocks Darule with a fake sad expression as he pats her shoulder.

"I should pray to Bari for patience that I don't kill them all by the end of it" groans Jeza. She is tired, she needs a long sleep if she wants her brain to work properly.

"Then let's go, the sooner we finish, the sooner you can suffer your mother" says Darule as he stretches.

"Go where? There are too many people in the list!" Says Jeza, looking at Darule with confusion.

"Well, there's a way to shorten that list" says Darule as he starts to walk away "We talk with the friends first"

Friends? Did Mikhe Drest actually have friends? How? He was awful to everyone.

"Who?" Inquires Jeza as she gets up and follows her partner.

"I don't know specifics, but I know Mikhe Drest liked to drink cheap Karmot and fight people without repercussions. And there's only one place in Neth where both of those things happen frequently"

"The Golden Maid" breathes out Jeza with realization.

With that said, Jeza starts to walk faster towards the Night Hall's stables.

— · —

The Golden Maid was the most deplorable establishment in all of Neth, located in the Mud district—named as such because during heavy rain, the river would overflow and flood that part of the city and later leave the streets covered in mud—the poorest part of Neth, filled with the everyman and woman trying to eat and get drunk for the cheap price of five khali, with the added danger of drunk people getting into fights, with both asha and bladed weapons.

Long before he died, Mikhe Drest had been kicked out of every reputable pub in the city, with only the Golden Maid allowing him entrance. The gossip that followed the Infans marked him as a drunk and violent man, that enjoyed fighting anyone after a few glasses of cheap Karmot so it wouldn't surprise Jeza that much if the man had been at the Golden Maid after moon fall of the night of his death.

And with that possibility came the hope of witnesses or even culprits.

When they arrive the pub is mostly empty, only a couple of patrons hunched over at the bar or at some of the wooden tables. The little noise in the place stopped the moment Jeza and Darule entered the room.

Both Nocturnals approach the bar where the owner of the place, an older woman called Obzhora Danay, glares at them as she wipes the grimy bar with an even grimier cloth.

"And what do the two of you want?" She asks in a growl, her voice scratchy like gravel was stuck in her throat—a typical result of smoking Tyrian for many years—and eyes as cold as the weather outside the pub. Her whole attitude contrasted wildly with her soft pastel pink hair and round face.

Jeza doesn't answer at first, preferring to look at the three patrons of the Golden Maid, it looks like a slow night for the pub. An older man at one of the tables, with his face covered in Bisha tattoos and missing an eye that is nursing half a glass of karmot, a woman with dark hair devouring a bowl of meat stew at the bar and a younger man with dark green hair and pale skin sitting at a table and glaring directly at Jeza. Bingo.

"I Am Jeza Zasya and this is my Partner Darule Iahms. We are investigating the death of Mikhe Drest, we know he frequented this pub and we wanted to know if any of you know of anyone that would have wanted to hurt him" announces Jeza to the entire room, but her eyes locked with the green haired man.

"Why would anyone tell you nothing, rich brat?" Sneers Obzhora "Get-"

"Zhora" speaks up the green haired man as he gets up from his seat "Let me speak with them"

The older woman glares and stays quiet, meditating the order the man had just given her, before huffing and waving towards a door behind the bar.

"Take the backroom, don't touch anything" she says "I'll send Gula in when she gets here"

The green haired man bows his head in thanks and nods towards the door while staring at Jeza. Darule and her walk behind the man and follow the man example when he sits in one of the chairs at the lonely table there. It looks like a room for inventory, judging by the shelves at the walls filled with food and bottles of many sizes, but the table has many chairs around it and Jeza thinks some illegal betting may be happening after moonfall.

"Mikhe was here last night" starts the man. He looks tired and Jeza looks carefully at every movement he makes, looking for clues "He drank here often after moonfall and usually left before Walpurgis, last night was the same"

Jeza sits straight and pulls out her notebook, immediately taking notes.

"Your name?" She asks, rising her eyes to meet the man's, when he stays quiet, Jeza insists "If you are a witness, I will need your name"

"Dorherd Yush" Says the man finally "I was Mikhe's friend"

Jeza nods, it checks out, it still surprises her, with how unapproachable the man was and a member of the royal family too, maybe the Infans had a secret charm she had never heard of. She wrote everything, and when she wrote the man's name she stopped and stared at it, her brain ringing alarms of all kinds.Yush…that was familiar, where had she heard that name before?

"Was he talking about anything before he left? Maybe mentioned someone he had fought with?" Asks Darule.

"He loved to talk, more so when he drank, Gula and I had been always a way for him to decompress" Replies Dorherd, nails scratching the table, a thoughtful frown on his face "That night was a bit different, he was angry, very angry, kept rambling about the prince"

"Can you remember what he rambled about exactly?" Asks Jeza, stopping her note taking to make eye contact.

Dorherd avoids her eyes, deciding the table's surface to be more interesting.

"He kept repeating something about…the prince mocking him for something that had happened five years ago" mumbles Dorherd, then he clears his throat "He got really worked up about it, but he left soon after, I offered to walk with him—he was very drunk—but he said he wanted some time to think"

Five years ago? What happened to Mikhe Drest five years ago? Jeza couldn't remember if something particularly worthy of mockery had happened to Mikhe, but then again, maybe it had been a political thing, Jeza didn't have time to pay attention to those. The statement makes her think. The prince was not shy but not one to go for the offense unless he was provoked, if he had made his uncle that mad, it must have been for a reason.

Jeza shared a look with Darule.

"What happened five years ago that had Mikhe so ruffled?" Asks Darule "it must have been something big to remember it after such a long time"

Dorherd nods, but before he can answer, the door to the room opens and a young woman enters. The girl shares the same pink hair and round face of Obzhora Danay and Jeza believes this must be her daughter, Gula Danay, barmaid at the Golden Maid and still a student at the Ogdra.

The young barmaid takes a sit next to Dorherd, face flushed and not making eye contact with anyone. The table, again, gets all the attention.

"Please, continue" asks Jeza looking at Dorherd and making a motion with the hand holding her pencil.

"Err, yes. Mikhe never mention specifically what had happened, but he enjoyed insulting the one that had done it" says Dorherd, he puts an arm on the table and leans forward, his voice lowering as he does "He never said a name, but he always referred to a nomad when he got in one of his moods"

Gula nods at this. She looks less shy, her face contorted into a glare, like she's remembering whatever Mikhe enjoyed so much to talk about.

"Last night he was mostly insulting his nephew, when he left he was very drunk, but he was still angry" she adds, then the glare turns into a sad frown "We were…distraught when we heard the news"

"I'm curious" interrupts Darule with interest clear on his face "Why were you three friends? for what I heard, Mikhe was not an easy man to get along with"

Dorherd and Gula share a look before looking back at the Nocturnals.

"We shared interests" mentions Dorherd offhandedly "And he was always kind to us, his anger was…external"

"We just talked and complained" adds Gula curtly, eyes still down.

"I can make a pretty good guess of what you three complained about" accuses Darule, leaning forward and smirking.

Dorherd glares harshly while Gula seems more embarrassed than angry. Jeza can also guess. The way both had looked when saying the word 'nomad' was enough for Jeza. And Mikhe hated nomads very publicly, it had to be nice, Jeza deduces, to talk to someone without the fear of judgment.

"They were silly things! Just the typical things people complain about!" Exclaims Gula, but she sounds too eager "We never hurt anyone, I swear on Ayth!"

"Would Mikhe hurt anyone?" Asks Jeza with narrowed eyes. That could be a possibility, angry and drunk Infans finds a nomad on the way home and attacks, nomad defends themselves and accidentally kills Mikhe. Plausible and also a reason why, if it had been an accident, nobody had come forward.

"He wouldn't! He was all talk, he never raised a hand against Outsiders" says Gula, defending an already dead man "He wanted to make changes the legal way, through laws!"

"There are already laws in place for nomads" says Darule and then frowns "Did Mikhe ever mention someone that was obstructing his efforts?"

"Just the prince" says Dorherd. He still looks angry, fists on the table clenched with enough force to turn his knuckles a sickly white. "Mikhe just wanted to take nomads out of the Creed, they have too much power there and most don't follow tradition"

"Ah!" Says Jeza with wide eyes, making every person at the table look at her for the interruption "That's why I know your family name. Yush, there's a Yush in the Creed, a High Echelon, good position, but I guess it's not the Vyshe"

Dorherd glares and Jeza knows she is right. High Echelon Yush had been one of the contenders for the position of Nashe for the previous Haruspex and had eventually lost to the current one. A nomad.

"This conversation is over" hisses Dorherd "But allow me a word of advice: you should be interrogating Mikhe's enemies instead of his friends. Start with the prince "

Well, Jeza thinks, they at least got a good lead.

"Thank you for your time" smiles Darule as both Nocturnals get up "And stay out of trouble!"