After Carol's startling revelation, the three of them sat down and began to discuss what they should do now that they had this information. Carol and Falaen had differing opinions on what they should do, and differing reasons on why. For Carol, she was thinking that the Jacket alone was not enough evidence to accuse the duke. She believed that they should investigate some more and gather more proof before confronting Adam.

Falaen on the other hand believed that the best approach they should take was to confront Adam directly and crack him. She agreed the Jacket alone was not enough to take to the guards, but if they confronted Adam they could get him to spill more incriminating info. Then Falaen said "If we sit around on our asses, he could very well kill someone else."

Veronica frowned and thought about it. "I'm not sure about this Jacket. Don't you think it's a little too convenient that it was left at that murder scene?"

"I did think that, but murderers do make dumb mistakes." Falaen said.

"Then what if he is indeed the killer? Do you not think it's dangerous to go confronting him inside his own home? Who knows what sort of things he could have set up in case he was caught." Veronica said.

"I don't want to fight Adam while Mianda is in the mansion." Carol said.

"Which is why we need to confront him there. We know he likes Mianda, he would not do anything to risk her." Falaen said.

The two of them looked at Veronica to see what her opinion was. Weighing the pros and cons of each plan, she eventually came to a decision. "Each of your ideas has their merits. Falaen I think we should take a look for some more evidence at his mansion before we confront him directly. Carol, we will confront him today even if we don't find any more evidence."

Falaen nodded and said "Good. I'm fine with that plan."

"I find it hard to believe that the Duke is capable of these murders, if it was just the Empire Spy I have no doubt he would be capable of doing it, but I have no idea why he would murder all these women." Carol said.

"Sometimes these murderers are just sick in the head." Falaen shrugged.

"Before we go, I will check in on Jack." Veronica said. 

Falaen nodded and said "I think we can handle this on our own, but it's a good idea to have Jack as a backup."

Standing she went and carefully opened the door to Jack's room. Seeing it was still dark inside, she slipped inside and found him lying fully clothed on the bed. Walking up to his bed Veronica could feel that his spirit was not residing within his body. She leaned down and kissed his lips, only for his body to remain lying still. She hated to see him like this, she would prefer if he took his avatar back up with him when he left.

Unfortunately she could not bring him back down from here, so she sent him a message informing him that the three of them would be going to confront Adam about the Jacket they had found last night. Veronica waited a few moments but did not receive a message back from Jack. Perhaps he was busy at the moment.

Leaving the room after putting a blanket over Jack's body, she found that the other two were ready to go. Veronica said "When we confront Adam, we need to watch what we do. I would not want to have to chase him in that crazy base."

Carol nodded and said "I can read his mind a bit, so hopefully I can tell when he is lying."

They left the room and headed to the ground floor where looking out the door they found it was raining incredibly hard. The rain was coming down so hard they had trouble seeing a few feet in front of them. No yellow carriages passed in the street. They did see a few people walking down the street struggling in the waters that were getting deeper in the streets.

"Is it going to flood?" Falaen said.

"I don't know. I've never seen heavy rain like this in the capital before." Carol said.

Checking with the staff of the Inn, there were no available carriages that they could borrow. They were however provided with three umbrella's that they could use. As they readied to step outside, Veronica asked Carol “How did you get here this morning?"

"I was lucky and managed to get one of the hired carriages to pick me up. Though to be honest, it was not raining as hard as it is right now." Carol replied.

Leaving the inn they went into the storm. Luckily there was no wind so the rain wasn't being blown in under the umbrella. Unfortunately the water  in the street was already above her ankles. Each step soaked her feet, but honestly Falaen probably was suffering the most. She was wearing a pair of high heels and a skirt so her legs were left bare to the cold waters of the rain.

It was a long walk to the Evercral mansion. Other than the occasional person struggling through the streets there weren't many out in this storm. Even with the umbrella's help, they were completely soaked in the cold rain water by the time they made it to the mansion.  Except for Carol, who had used her psionic powers to remain relatively dry. While Veronica had been tempted to use her shield to do the same, it was simply to MP intensive. She needed to have that MP when they confronted Adam.

Entering the mansion, Armandias the butler greeted them. "Miss Carol, I see that you were out. I ask that you take care, Lady Mianda would not wish you to be injured."

"Thank you for your concern Armandias. Where is the Duke?" Carol said.

"He is currently sleeping."

"Alright, please let me know when he awakens. We have something important to discuss with him." Carol said.

Armandias nodded and Carol led them down the hall to a bathroom where she handed them towels to help dry themselves off. While they were doing that Carol said "We should take a look at his study. If there is anything here it will be there. He spends the most time there in the mansion."

Nodding they left the bathroom, as Carol opened the door they bumped into a woman. Veronica got the strong feeling the woman had been right up on the door. Carol frowned and said "Michelle what do you want?"

"How daring of you. Taking your lovers right under the Lord's roof." Michelle snorted.

"Michelle these are not my lovers, they are my friends."

"Whatever." The woman walked quickly away.

Falaen frowned and said "What is her deal?"

"She hates me, she wants to take position as Mianda's maid." Carol shrugged and then led them to the study. When they got to the door she looked around and then reached into her dress and pulled out a key and unlocked it. Veronica slipped in after her and Carol locked the door behind them.

"You have a key?" Falaen whispered.

Carol nodded and said "Mianda liked to slip into here to visit her father. Sometimes she would fall asleep and I had to retrieve her. Eventually the Duke just gave me a key."

The three of them began to look around the study looking for anything that could be a clue. Carol checked the bookshelves that lined the study, and Falean focused on the desk. Veronica was looking around the various interesting objects in the room when she came to a globe, it was of the world painted on a sphere.

Taking a look at it, she spun it around. As she did so she noticed several interesting points on it. Pressing on it she realized it was a button. There were several buttons, she guessed she needed to press the buttons in a specific order to get something to happen.

Seeing that it would have thousands of combinations, she looked around to see if she could find a hint on the correct combination. On the wall nearby was a painting of the Duke's grandfather. Carol came up to her and said "That's Duke Eldan one of the greatest explorers of all time. He once went on a journey across the world."

"Did he?" Veronica said. "Do you know the path he took?"

"Not off the top of my head. But he did leave an autobiography of the journey here." Carol went to the wall and pulled out a book and handed it to Veronica.

Opening it, she found a hand drawn map of the world and the stops he took. Going to the globe she pressed the buttons in the order Duke Eldan travelled and when she pressed the last button, the globe clicked open. She looked inside and found three items inside.

One was a medallion, the second was a vial of what looked like blood and the last was a candle. Using Examination she took a look at each of them.

"Hey look at what I found." Veronica said.

The three of them gathered around and Falaen said "The Dragon's have hidden away for milenia. I was unaware that Duke Eldan had met Dragons."

"The Duke's grandfather never spoke about it. I guess it was kept a secret for some reason. Still this medallion looks suspicious. This is exactly what could be preventing the killer from being tracked."

"You think this is enough to confront the Duke?" Veronica said.

"Yeah, this should be enough. We should hold onto these until we find the truth of the matter." Carol said and placed all three things into her inventory.

Leaving the study carefully, they made their way upstairs to Adam's room and looked inside. He wasn't inside at the moment, the bed looked made up indicating that he had not slept in it. Carol frowned and said "He's probably in the library. He's there most often these days."

Going back down, they entered the library where the Duke was currently lying on a chair in front of the fireplace in the library snoring. He looked incredibly ragged to Veronica, Falaen picked up a book and dropped it on a table next to the duke who sat up startled and then glared at them "What is it? This had better be good Miss Carol, I am in no mood to get disturbed. I am exhausted. Who are they? Friends of yours?"

Walking around, Veronica took a good look at Adam. There were thick bags forming under his eyes. His clothing looked ruffled and his arm had thick bandages along it. Blood stains could be seen on the bandages. Carol said "They are Sir Telvin's friends. They are here to ask you some questions."

"What?" Adam looked confused. "Can we do this later, I must get some sleep. I will need to go to the castle again later."

"You can get some sleep when you can explain this." Falaen said and pulled out the Jacket and tossed it onto the table in front of the Duke.

Confused Adam took a look at the Jacket and picked it up. "Why do you have this?" He frowned and said "And why is it covered in blood?" He put it back down in disgust.

"We managed to find where the Empire Spy was staying. When we entered the place to our surprise they had been murdered in a gruesome way. Looking around we found this jacket. Which according to Carol, it is yours."

A flash of surprise crossed Adam's face, and then he said "It certainly looks like it is the Jacket I own. I have no Idea why you found it there. You should know that whoever killed the Empire, will be hunted down with extreme vengeance by the Empire." 

"Yes they will. That is if they can track them down." Falaen said pointedly.

"You believe that I killed that spy?" Adam said dismissively. "How absurd. While this is the jacket my wife got me, it's been years since I wore it."

Carol nodded and said "I haven't seen him wear it for years that is true."

"Still you have plenty of reasons why you would want that spy dead." Veronica said.

Adam snorted and said "Of course I have reason to want that spy dead. Half the bloody city does too. I myself am not actually insane enough to actually kill them. While there are several  issues I have in regards to the Empire, I am still loyal to my Kingdom. Killing the spy would only bring trouble to the Kingdom, which at the moment is hardly the time for it."

"Yet you were okay with telling me about the spy in hopes I would take care of them?" Carol said.

"I trust you would have a sensible plan about it. Perhaps that was a mistake." Adam glared at Carol. 

Falaen continued "Yet the spy obviously knew the person who killed them. You had been told about the spy, maybe you were actually told who they are. You met with them, maybe you attempted to bribe them in getting their eyes off Mianda. It doesn't work, and the spy threatens to take Mianda that moment back to the Empire. You snap and kill them in blind rage. You clean yourself up and accidently leave the Jacket behind."

"This is preposterous." Adam growled out. He glanced at Carol and said "You actually believe I did this?"

Carol looked at him and said "Your mind is blocking all access to it at the moment.  All I can sense is pain and frustration coming off you. Despite that, I am completely certain that you are fully capable of killing to protect Mianda. You may not share the curse of your brother, but you do have a temper at times My Lord."

"How dare you?" Adam looked increasingly aggravated and then said "I have nothing to do with what happened to that empire spy. What does it even matter to you Carol? You should be working on a way to get Mianda out of the damn city not fucking accusing me of this nonsense. This is the job of the guards, I am sure that they will be able to track down the killer."

"What if they couldn't?" Falaen said. "What if they could not scry? If you hadn't left the Jacket there would have been no way they could have found out you killed them."

"What?" Adam said.

At that point, Carol pulled out the Medallion and showed it to Adam. "We found this in your study."

"You dare go into my study and take that? That's a family heirloom. Give it back to me." Adam said angrily. 

"Not just yet." Falaen said. "What time did you arrive in the capital?"

"What?" Adam said, confused. "I came about a month ago, what are you getting at?"

Falaen pulled out the button that had fallen off the Jacket and tossed it to Adam who caught it and looked at it. "While investigating the murders that have taken place in the city we found this button. Not only do we suspect that you are behind the Empire spy murder, we suspect that you murdered those women."

Adam's face turned red in anger, and he glared at them and said "Damn you, do you have no sense? I have nothing to do with those horrific acts. Get out of here, I don't want to see you again Carol."

"Not yet. You haven't given us a satisfactory answer about why your Jacket was at that place. I'm sure the Empire would be happy to learn of it." Falaen said.

Pausing Adam frowned and said "It's been years since I even saw the blasted Jacket. Armandias!" 

A few seconds later the butler came into the Library. "Yes My Lord?"

Adam rubbed his head "It appears that someone is attempting to frame me for something I have not done. Take a look at this Jacket. Do you recognize it?"

The butler looked at it and nodded "Yes my Lord. This Jacket appears to certainly be the one gifted to you for your birthday."

"Armandias has served as my Valet as well. He knows every piece of my clothing. Can you tell me what you did with this Jacket?"

"After the Lady took ill, we put it into storage here on your command. It should still be in storage, so I am surprised to see it here My Lord."

Seeing the questions on their faces Adam sighed and said "I put it away because it reminded me of my wife. Whoever took it is obviously attempting to frame me for this. Has anyone been in that storage room recently Armandias?"

Armandias nodded and said "Yes My Lord, when we arrived I scheduled a deep cleaning of the entire mansion. At that point I gave the storage key to Michelle in order for her to clean the storage and bring out some unused furniture."

"Michelle... that new hire?"

"Yes My Lord, I'm sorry if she has caused any problems. She came with a letter of recommendation from Lady Herald. I will go send for her."

"What?" Veronica said. "Where is she?"

"I passed her in the hall, she was taking up a tray of food for Lady Mianda."

Adam frowned and stood up with some trouble. "If she is the one setting me up, I will see that she pays for it." Veronica followed him out the door. They went up to the second floor where they heard Mianda shout in fear. Adam ran forward and threw open the door to his daughter's room.

Arriving behind him shortly, she could see the maid from earlier holding Mianda glaring at Adam. She had a knife held to the girls throat. "Not a step further, or I will be sending you a bloody knife." Michelle giggled. In one hand was the knife and in the other she was wearing a strange-looking glove that had a metallic sheen to it.

Carol yelled "Michelle let her go or I will kill you."

"Careful, I’m the one caring for her right now. She belongs to me." Michelle giggled and licked the side of the girl's face.

"Dad help me!" Mianda cried out.

"Quiet girl. I need to think." Michelle snapped.

"Unhand my daughter you fiend!" Adam growled and stepped closer.

"Be careful daddy dearest, you wouldn't want me to knick her neck would you. That would be a shame, all her juicy red blood staining the floor." Michelle tsked.

Adam stopped and said "What do you want? I can get you gold. Just let my daughter go."

"What do I want?" Michelle laughed and said "You can't give me what I want, you don't have the right parts. I take what I want, do what I want. All was going to plan, yet you two stepped in and found that damn jacket. I had left it for the guards to find not you two morons. I was the one who alerted them after all. But no, you two got in my damn way. Now I have to improvise."

Falaen stepped into the room next to Adam signalling Veronica behind her back to get ready. "So you are the killer who has killed those women?"

"All those pretty little flowers, I had such a great time playing with them. But seeing as they weren't using their wombs, I decided to take them. Now that the ceremony has been prepared, the sacrifices are all lined up, all I need now is the child." Michelle traced a finger over Mianda who whimpered in fear.

"Why did you kill them?" Veronica said moving a bit closer. "Why them?"

Michelle frowned and snarled out "I had been introduced to the world of lily's by Juliet. Yet I was just a plaything of hers, nothing important. They deserved it, they were just playing with the heart's of others. But I had so much fun slicing up their pretty little bodies. Plus I had all the fun taking their final time, I used them like they used others."

Falaen walked beside the wall to get a better vantage point and asked "Why did you kill that Empire Spy?"

"Mianda is mine. Not his, how dare he plan to take her away. He contacted me wanting my help to retrieve her from this place. What a fool, I enjoyed tearing him to bits. To bad the plan to pin his murder on the Duke failed."

"Let my daughter go and you can take me instead?" Adam said carefully, stepping forward.

Michelle snorted and said "Let me think about that? How about no, and hell no. In fact that's where you can go. Be sure to send a letter to me from there." She laughed and she waved the gloved hand. Veronica felt an immediate sense of crisis and threw up a shield in front of her.

As she did so, there was a fluttering of space right in front of Michelle that reached out towards them. It only took seconds but the butler moved fast and shoved Adam to the side just as the spatial blades reached out towards them. The butler managing to save his lord's life was sliced in half. 

Carol managed to block the blades with her psionic blades. Falaen simply dodged them with an agility incredibly fast. Adam being shoved unexpectedly lost his balance and bashed his head on the nearby wall and collapsed. The spatial blades slammed into Veronica's shield and dispersed.

"Oh only got one of you? Oh well." Michelle said. Mianda freaked out and tried to break free from the madwoman's grasp. "Quiet girl, or I will turn you inside out. Now, it's been fun, but I have to go. I wanted to wait a bit longer, but it seems like I'm out of time. Be sure to stick around, the ceremony is going to be killer." Michelle laughed and reached out with her hand and space twisted around them and she disappeared.

Carol shouted "No!" and reached out just as they were disappearing and dropped to one knee when they did. She grunted and said "I managed to put a marker on her. It looks like they teleported deep beneath the city."

Falaen nodded and went to Adam. "He's out cold. I don't think he's going to be waking up anytime soon."

"We need to go to that base. I don't know what she has planned for Mianda, but it doesn't sound good." Veronica said.

Before they left, they alerted the other servants about what happened, and they promised to send for a healer to look at Adam. "The nearest entrance is in that storehouse." Veronica said and they got some horses and used them to run through the city. As they were running, one of the streets began to glow an ominous red color.

"That cannot be good for us." Veronica said. 

Falaen nodded and said "It's not. If I'm right, whatever is down in the base seems to be activating." They soon reached the storehouse where they raced up to the second floor. As they pulled open the trap door, the ground shook as if an earthquake had passed through the city. 

"I'm coming for you Mianda!" Carol climbed down the tunnel fast.

ElKriJa

Thank you for reading my story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Were you able to guess who the killer was? I hope I left enough clues so this doesn't come as a complete shock.