Then There Were Tons -Search for Byzan-

Innokantious died today. Or maybe, yesterday; Nikolette wasn't sure.

She had been locked away in the bridge of her husband's ship for hours now, just waiting for something to happen, anything at all. This night was supposed to be nothing more than a simple party, a way for her husband to gain some political clout with some of the minor nobility. Innokentious had talked about this party for weeks, wanting so badly to gain some good standing with the Emperor after his latest political blunder.

She had been the person to find him; lying face down in a pool of his own blood in their bed chamber. At first, Nikolette wasn't sure what to do, and she just stood there looking down at her husband's corspe. She couldn't wholly process what she was seeing. Nikolette figured that she must have let out a scream at some point, otherwise all of the guests wouldn't have piled in behind her to see what had happened. She remembered there being a big commotion, and someone trying to drag her away from the doorway. It might have been Cécile, but Nikolette wasn't certain. She was brought to the bridge and sat down, and had been there ever since.

What happened next was a blur for Nikolette. The Golden Kestrel quickly rerouted back to Byzan, and the authorities were alerted. She was whisked away to the bridge, and forced to sit there with her own thoughts for hours until the detective arrived, and began questioning everyone that was on the ship at the time of the murder.

The heavyset lion looked up as the hydraulic door swung open, and a uniformed individual walked in. They looked rather tired, and like they would rather be anywhere else but here.

"You must be the detective," Nikolette said with a low, hushed voice, trying incredibly hard to keep the sadness from her voice.

The lion stood up and looked around the bridge. She could look out and see all the lights of Byzan out in front of her, a brilliant golden yellow hue like molten gold. Millions upon millions of people were down there, going on about their lives, and not having to worry about having a dead husband in their bedroom. Nikolette let out a ragged sigh and looked back at the detective. Tears began to well up in the corner of her eyes.

"Well, tell me, what do you need from me?"

Sooner or later, it was bound to happen, someone was going to up and kill that son of a bitch. Millicent was really only surprised that it took as long as it did, she really truly thought that the man known as Innokanious would have been killed years ago. Still what was done, was done, and no sweat off her back either. In fact in her opinion, this was probably the best thing that could have happened tonight. The man had hated her, and refused to help finance her campaign out into the unknown to fight the Varia, and it had come to bite him in the ass. It seemed only fitting for a man like Innokatious

Millicent paced around the smoking lounge, the low lighting was beginning to give her a massive headache, and she was beginning to grow tired of waiting for the detective to come and talk to her. She paced around like a caged animal, seething with rage at having to wait here for so long. She was the Defender of the Empire, she was the person that saved the entire galaxy from Vairian conquest and was now being treated like some kind of common riff-raff. She should be treated better than this, allowed to just walk off the ship, and answer any questions whenever it was convenient for her! Instead, she was stuck in this stupid little room that reeked of smoke and liquor having to wait for some two-bit deceptive to show up and make a mess of everything. When the detective does finally decide to show up and do their job, Millicent would give them a piece of her mind. For now she just paced.

It took about another thirty minutes of pacing and rising anger before the detective walked into the lounge, standing there looking all smug and holier than thou. Who do they think they are, don't they know who they're dealing with? Millicent could rip them in half if she really wanted to, no problem.

"Well it took you long enough to show up detective," Millicent said angrily, crossing her muscular arms over her soft chest.

"This is ridiculous, you know that right? You have the eight of us locked away like a bunch of zoo animals, for what? Your own sick twisted amusement?"

Millicent loomed over the detective, trying her hardest to look as intimidating as possible. It was working.

"So detective, what stupid questions are you going to ask me?"

Happy couples were all alike; every unhappy couple is unhappy in its own way

Wallrum had to admit to himself that his marriage with Benedictia was by no means like anyone else's. The morbidly obese dragon sat in the dining room alone, waiting for something to happen. He had somehow managed to eat the rest of his meal, and quite a few of the other guests' meals as he waited. The dragon let out a weary sigh, he could feel his doublet as it clung to all his rolls and curves. Wallrum knew that Benedictia would most likely chastise him for his brazen displays of gluttony and greed, even thinking about it made Wallrum spiral into another anxiety induced binge.

With a great effort Wallrum managed to get himself to his feet, his belly just beginning to graze the floor. He lumbered around the room red faced and out of breath as he tried to collect his thoughts. He remembered Benedictia telling him that listing out all of his worries made it easier to deal with.

He started with the most obvious problem, one of the guests here was a murderer. Someone that he had just been having a pleasant conversation with, most likely about some new trend, or maybe even the latest chariot race, had killed a man with their bare hands. This realization sent a shudder down his spine, and a dark thought passed through his mind. What is Benedictia had done it? She was normally a patient woman, but she was a warrior, and Innokantious tongue had been quite loose tonight. Who's to say that she grew tired of listening to the lion make a fool of himself, and fix the problem permanently

Wallrum sat back in the chair with a groan, if his wife had committed this crime his life as he knew it would be over. She was an Overseer for the Episcopate, and their primary source of income. If that flow of money were to be cut off then Wallrum could forget about his daily lobster thermidor, and popping over to the most expensive restaurant in town for a snack. Just as Wallrum began to realize just how bad this situation could turn out for him the detective walked into the kitchen holding a notepad and a pen.

"Oh thank the Emperor you're here detective!" Wallrum said as he stood up from his chair.

"You gotta tell me detective, do you think that my wife Benedictia did this? I mean if so, I'll tell you everything I know."

Last night Junius dreamed he went to Reme again. The fox hadn't dreamed in years, but somehow even after all that had happened he had managed to get at least a few hours of sleep on a sofa in the parlor. Junius stretched, trying to release all the tension that had built up over the last few hours. He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep, but it had felt like awhile. Junius yawned and padded his way over to a mirror to give himself a once over. He was thin, almost scarily so. That was typical for a Gordian fox, their vice was avarice, not gluttony. He had been sent here as an ambassador for the Gordian House in an attempt to spread the idea that Spice Trade belonged solely in the hands of House Gordian, and not split between them and the Merchant Guild, like it had been for centuries now.

It had been going exceptionally well too, the blundering oaf Innokantious had been hanging on to his very word. Junius was positive that by the end of the night Innokatious would have completely needed up in the House's back pocket. That is until he had gone off and died. It was a real shame too, now that the Emperor's own cousin was dead there was no longer the chance of having Innokantious espouse Gordian propaganda directly to him. Months of planning and preparation all gone in an instant.

Junius tried but ultimately failed at fixing his fur, which was sticking out in a myriad of directions, that's what he gets for sleeping on the job he supposed. Junius looked around the parlor for a bit, just looking for something to do. He had been stuck in here for hours now, just waiting for the detective to come up and question him on his testimony. To be honest there wasn't much to say on the whole matter. Junius heard Nikoletta scream, he and everyone else went to go figure out what had happened, and when they got there they found the fat lion dead on the floor.

As Junius finished his thought the door to the parlor opened, and the detective stepped in. A distinguished and defined fellow wearing a crisp uniform and holding a note pad with a pen.

"Salutations detective, I guess it's best to just jump right in and tell you everything I know."

Junius sat down on the sofa where he had slept, and gestured for the detective to sit across from him.

No one who had ever seen Guo'er in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a celebrity. She was not meant for a life in the limelight, instead she preferred to be in her lab working. However, after discovering a new source of energy that made interplanetary travel both significantly cheaper and at the same time infinitely more efficient the deer had been thrust into the a-list celebrity status almost overnight. Now, the normally shy deer was attending parties with the heads of states, and with Dynastic leaders as well, in fact, that's why she was here in the first place.

Guo'er had been invited to attend a dinner party by Innokantious, the second cousin of the Emperor. An invitation of that degree is not something that you can ignore, of course if she had known how all this would have played out Guo'er would have said no, despite the lions station. Right now Gou'er was stuck in the ship's baths, and she had to admit that it was much nicer than what she had expected. It had been modeled off of the public bath houses found on Reme with the mosaic tiles and everything.

However, it was incredibly humid, and while that might be good when taking a nice bath it wasn't very fun when waiting for hours on end. To alleviate the intense humidity Guo'er had stripped down to her underwear and was laying down on the tile. Her round stomach rose and fell with every breath that she took, and sweat dripped down her body, collecting in her various rolls of fat. Gou'er tried to keep her mind off of the fact that her host, Innokantious was dead, and that she unfortunately was one of the suspects.

Gou'er sat up and put a hand on her stomach, giving in a pat and watched as it jigged. She had put on a lot of weight recently, and she wasn't too sure about how she liked it. She knew that it was the norm in the upper class these days, but still it made her feel undesirable. The deer let out a sigh and got to her feet before stretching.

Just as she did that the door to the baths opened and the detective stepped in. Upon realizing that she was half naked Guo'er dove towards her clothes on the bench and held them in front of her.

"I-I am so sorry detective! It's just that it's so hot, and I need to cool down a bit. I hope you don't mind."

All this happened, more or less. Everything that had occurred tonight had truly happened, regardless of what Benedictia wished for. The tall dragon found herself in the ship's chapel, kneeling before the alter. Her mind swarming with fear and doubt.

She had been the one to take Nikoletta to the bridge and try to calm her down as best she could. I was at time like these that Benedictia wished that she was not some warrior zealot, but instead just someone that could be a shoulder to cry on in times of hardship. Benedictia looked up at the stained-glass window, which was illuminated via a back light that been installed when the ship was first built. Innokantious had once confided in her that the chapel was only here to help foster more goodwill with House Vaud, in fact Innokantious admitted to never stepping foot in this room until he had shown it to her. Now the little chapel, which had sat unused and forgotten for most of it's life, acted as Benedictia's holding cell.

Benedictia hated this ship, she hated this chapel, she hated Innokantious, she hated everything right now. She so desperately wishes that this was all just some terrible dream and that she would wake up in bed next to Wallrum, his massive arm wrapped around her. Of course, it wasn't a dream, and Benedictia wasn't sure that Wallrum would be wrapping his arms around her anytime soon. She could just imagine him right now, sitting in the dining room alone, eating the food off of everyone's plates. This thought made Benedictia smile, if just for a brief second, before she turned her mind back onto the problem at hand.

Someone had murdered Innokantious, her bet was on Aarif. The rat would be the kind of person to murder a man that invited him into his own home. The thought of the fat rat looking down over Innokantious'lifeless body and laughing made her blood boil. The only thing that she could hope for at the moment was that justice would be swift, and that the punishment would be great.

Benedictia looked up as the detective walked into the chapel, a small and nervous looking individual. Hopefully the other guests hadn't been too hard on them.

"Good morning, detective. I hate that we are meeting in such terrible circumstances, but I do hope that I can be of some use for the investigation."

Benedictia stood up and strolled over to the detective waiting by the door.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a good fortune, will have it squandered by a cowardly man.

That is what Cécile had come to realize tonight through this entire fiasco. She had never wanted to come here tonight, but had acquiesced due to the constant nagging from her husband, Jaufré. He wanted to make sure that the other guests there would be able to see that Jaufré, the middling playwright, and overall coward had somehow managed to bag famous actress Cécile Silverpelt. She was nothing but a prize for him, the third in a long line of failed marriages on his climb to the top of the invisible ziggurat known as court politics. Cécile had not known about this when she had married the man. She had been new to the world of fame and unaware of all of its dangerous intricacies. She had learned quickly that her marriage to Jaufré was not one built on love, but instead one built on appearances.

Cécile looked around the ballroom. A crystal chandelier hung over the center of the dance floor, at least the room she was stuck in was nice. The wolf sighed and adjusted her dress. She wasn't expecting it to be as tight as it was, all that time on holiday with Jaufré must have left her heavier than she have liked.

Tonight had gone much worse than expected a mundane but manageable evening full of terrible jokes and thinly veiled boasting about one's station. A quiet, claustrophobic kind of hell, but one that she could live with in small doses. Her worst fear was maybe making a faux pas, perhaps spilling a drink on herself and ruining her dress. Instead, she was now a suspect in the murder of a member of the Imperial House. Cécile crossed her arms and sighed. She really didn't want to be here right now.

After about two hours of waiting, the detective finally entered the ballroom, now finally ready to question the wolf. Cécil stood up from her seat and held out a hand to shake.

"Good evening detective, I'm sure this isn't how you expected to spend your night, or morning. I really don't know anymore."

Cécil wrapped her arms around herself and let out a deep sigh.

"Well, ask me any question you'd like, detective. I'm an open book."

The candles had burned low and Innokantious had been dead for several hours before Jaufré came to understand the gravity of the situation they were all in.

Jaufré had been taken to Innokantious' study after the first wave of Imperial Guards flooded onto the ship. They broke up the group of guests that were still in shock at what had just happened, and each of them had been taken to a separate room on the ship, keeping them isolated from each other. Jaufré had been mulling over what had happen for the last few hours, and had finally came to the conclusion that all eight of them were fucked. Regardless of whoever killed Innokantious, everyone on the ship was now forever marred by the fact that they were there when Innokantious Kostaos, the Duke of Boam, and second cousin of the Emperor himself was murdered. The playwright in him was elated by this prospect, believing that this entire event would make for a great story. However, the more instinctual side of Jaufré knew that this was going to be bad for all involved.

The wolf had only come here to show off the new play he had written. He considered it magnum opus, the play that would turn him into the next Averiis. A noble tale of a young man throwing off the chains of tyranny, and rebelling against a corrupt monarchy. Something akin to what you would have read during the Golden Age, back when literature was still about good versus evil, and morals were upheld to the letter of the law. As it should be. He rubbed his stomach through his ornate doublet as he paced around the room. Tthe smell of parchment and tobacco permeated throughout the room, making Jaufré's head spin. He hardly noticed as the detective entered into the room to question him about what events had just taken place.

"By the Emperor!" Jaufré exclaimed, startled from seeing the detective,

"My sincerest apologies detective, it's just been a very long couple of hours. I've been on edge, since, well you know..." Jaufré trailed off before sitting down in a nearby chair, which creaked loudly under his weight.

"Please tell me, is there anything that you need to know from me? I wasn't there when they found the body, but I aim be as much use as possible."

Innokantious was dead, to begin with. This fact brought great sorrow to Aarif, his greatest ally, and confidant now lies dead on a bedroom floor covered in his own blood.

Aarif floated in his quarters, his body now too fat and weak to carry itself without the aid of a machine. The rat was a massive creature who had succumbed to his gluttonous desires years ago, he no longer resembled what a typical bipedal creature should look like. He was instead a mass of fat and blubber that had dedicated its life to the pursuit of filling its stomach. Every part of his body was covered in stretch marks, even places that one would assume were immune to such things. His neckline, and hands were covered in the tell-tell crisscross of rapid expansion and overindulgence. His breath came in ragged pants, both from the overwhelming emotions that he was currently experiencing and from the fact that his own ribcage was beginning to collapse under the weight of his own moobs.

With tear-stricken eyes, Aarif floated into his bathroom, his belly dragging on the floor, to grab himself a cold drink of water to help calm himself. It was there, that the rat finally came out of the hedonistic stupor that he had been living in for the past several years. He could hardly recognize his own reflection anymore, his face had become so bloated and swollen that he was but a mere caraicature of the rat he had once been, but instead of disgust or regret, Aarif felt a deep sense of pride. He felt pride at being able to turn his body into this engorged mass of fat through sheer willpower. The rat grabbed one of his moobs, which was larger than most fat people's stomachs, and struggled to lift it. He was delightfully suprised, a part of his chest, had become so massive that he could no longer lift it.

As Aarif was lusting over himself in the mirror, the detective walked into the room. It took a few moments before he realized that there was someone watching him during this intimate moment. The rat quickly turned around, or rather as quickly as he could turn, and gave the detective an embarrassed smile.

"Oh, excuse me, detective, I-I did not realize that you had entered. Please do make yourself comfortable."

Aarif gestured to a lone bench at the foot of the bed

"What would you like to know, Sir?"

Euhocari was so incredibly fucked. If he even made it off this ship alive then he would most definitely be the one charged with that lion's murder, regardless of whether or not he did it.

He wasn't even supposed to be here, he had stowed away on the ship by hiding in the cargo bay. His goal for tonight was to steal as much as he possibly could, and get back to Byzan without being caught. Of course, that wasn't what happened. After the ship docked, the imperial guards began a sweep of the entire ship. During that sweep the guards found Euhocari hiding in a box that he had been using to stash his loot until he got back on land. From there the crow was quickly locked in the boiler room and forgotten until the detective came and officially declared the bird the murderer. For now, Euhocari sat on the floor with his knees to his chest trying not to cry.

It was all such bullshit, some stupid fat cat had to go and bite the dust, and now the bird was caught up in this noble's mess. Euhocari let out a strained groan, and rested his head on the wall behind him. His only way out of this mess now was if he were to figure out who the murder was all on his own, and then some how convince the detective that he, a thief for the Smuggler's Den, and a crow, was right.

All of this was too much for the crow, but he didn't think that he had many other options, so he rummaged through the boiler room for a piece of charcoal and began writing everything he knew about all ten of the other people on this ship down.

By the time the detective walked into the boiler room, finally ready to interrogate the crow, the walls of the boiler room were completely covered in the crow's frantic writing. When Euhocari saw the detective, ominously standing in the door way, he threw himself at the detective's feet

"I figured it out! you've got to listen to be. I know who murdered Innokantious," Euhocari begged, his eyes filled with a crazed look that wasn't there a few hours ago.

"I'll tell you everything I know, but you gotta promise that you won't have me killed. Please! You have to promise me that I won't be killed."

At this point Euhocari had his arms wrapped around the detective's leg, trying desperately to convince them that he was right.