Raiders of the Temple of the Last Crusade (Aiden, Fergus, Karlsen)

Aiden's suite is as he left it, but a note waits for him on a small desk in the foyer -- one designed to leave messages, letters, small gifts, items promised and the like. It is sealed with green wax and a green ribbon. The seal is of the unicorn.

The letter reads:

Lord Aiden, son of Prince Caine,

It is requested you undertake the mission you desired regarding the Crimson Unicorns and other mysteries, in the company of your cousin Fergus. We had presumed one of the Kier twins might accompany you on this effort, but they seem to have vanished as suddenly as they arrived. A team shall be dispatched in an effort to learn what has become of them. Meanwhile, may I suggest that Lord Karlsen, son of Gerard, might make a worthy third for your expedition with Lord Fergus?

Tomorrow morning seems like an excellent beginning. Kindly prepare yourself. Do not leave until you and Fergus and Karlsen receive a gift from His Majesty, which shall be forthcoming on the morrow.

Your obedient servant...

Horatio, Assistant Minister of State for Special Affairs

Aiden does not know this Horatio, but recognizes the title well enough. On Earth, in the United States his job would be Director of Central Intelligence. In the United Kingdom, according to popular culture, he would be known simply by the letter 'M'. He was someone who worked closely with certain members of the royal family. Here in Amber the unofficial title was "Master of Whispers." Not entirely accurate that. From what his father hinted, this official did a lot more than merely listen or gossip.

Well, good and good. Seems things will at least start off the way I want them to.

"Karlsen, huh?" Aiden curls his lip and fans the note against his hand, thinking. "I wonder what he did to get mixed up in this. Hard to believe he'd leave the shop and all his projects to go chasing a pack of cards around the universe. Still,.... If that's what he wants."
Sure, why not? He's a good guy and built like a brick shithouse. A little extra muscle can be helpful on occasion."

Setting the letter aside on the mahogany writing desk, Aiden looks through a couple of drawers, pulling out a set of lockpicks and a Browning semi-auto pistol along with a spare magazine. These he lays on the desk. From the small entry foyer closet he pulls forth a worn, brown leather aviator jacket as well as a slightly battered wool-felt fedora. These he lays out on the loveseat in the living room.

Aiden then walks across the room, past an orderly little study and into a large bedroom with furniture of mostly rosewood and cedar set upon a large Persian carpet of turquoise, ivory, and deep gold. Launching his party attire into the hamper with a little jumpshot from across the room, he proceeds to ready himself for bed.

Aiden wakes, hours later and quite refreshed, to a polite but firm knocking on the door of his suite. Checking, he will find several servants lined up with covered dishes, all behind a middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed auburn beard in exquisitely cut clothes of silver and brown. He wears a ring, white gold fashioned into a unicorn wrapping around his finger holding a stone known as a tiger's eye. Aiden recognizes that.

Here then is Lord Horatio, Assistant Minister of State for Special Affairs. Master of Spies and Whispers.

Aiden beckons the servants in and gestures toward a half-round oak table in the corner near a window, indicating where the covered dishes should go. Eyes smiling with the anticipation of the adventure ahead, he addresses the Minister for Special Affairs. "Ah, Lord Horatio, good morning. What's the word today?"

"Personally," says Lord Horatio, "I'm fond of the word service." He smiles as he enters, managing the trick of seeming both confident and diffident at precisely the same time.

"I don't know if you've heard yet, but several of your cousins would appear to have gone missing. Two apparently simply went ahead on errands pertaining to the mysteries popping up of late. Lady Mint and Lord Winnow will, everyone feels sure, check back with us later. Both Their Majesties trust each of them. Our new arrivals, the Kier -- well, they seem to have simply vanished and gone off to do...well, Unicorn knows what?"

"The Kier do seem to have a mildly disconcerting habit of popping in and out of places, I've noticed," Aiden says, moving over to the table and lifting a couple of the lids from the covered dishes.

"I believe I did see Kierenne poof away from the party late last night, presumably through one of the Trumps they brought with them. I'd reckon her brother joined her shortly after. They seem to be connected like Siamese twins. I am somewhat curious about Mint and Winnow, though. I had figured they made it back here to the castle before I did. I'm sure they will be in touch soon enough, but I wonder what came up."

"As it happens, some more information has come up, via a rather exceptional interrogation last night." Horatio raises one hand. "Please -- I'm sure that sounds terrible. Especially coming from a man who has dungeons at his disposal. But in truth I've discovered torture quite unreliable. Other methods exist far, far more effective and far less harmful to the subject." He shrugs. "No good burning bridges--or breaking people--one doesn't have to."

Terrible? No. Horrifying? Most definitely. Especially if you've ever witnessed it first hand.
Aiden winces slightly, but half-turns toward the table to hide his momentary expression.

"Would you care for some breakfast?" Aiden asks pleasantly, gesturing towards the dishes. ( OOC I'm assuming that the dishes contain a large breakfast and not the severed body parts of last night's interrogation )

"Can you tell me this information or do I have to wait until the meeting with King Random this morning?"

"Thank you," says Lord Horatio. The dishes actually contain enough food for three Winnows so there's plenty to eat -- fruit, eggs prepared in various ways with an assortment of condiments, shredded fried potatoes with melted cheddar cheese, slices of roast beef, etc.

He sits and serves himself a tiny portion of virtually everything. "Our involuntary guest--or prisoner if you prefer--does not quite know as much as any of us would like. Seems she was in the employ of two different parties, essentially doing the same task. Both arranged for her to visit various and sundry members of the Golden Circle and report back. One was far more explicit as to aims -- The Oracle Group they call themselves, although she believes them a front organization. They wanted information on Amber and also required her to seek out a male individual matching the description of your cousin Fergus--although according to her they called him Ferguson. They indicated that in the unlikely event of getting a member of Amber's royal family alone, that acquisition of that person would be one of the group's top priorities."

"Not at all the kind of work anyone loyal to the crown is pleased to hear about, I can assure you!"

Aiden takes a seat at one of the two wooden chairs beside the breakfast table and helps himself to a generous portion of everything there and proceeds to attack it wholeheartedly. Between mouthfuls he continues the conversation.

"These two groups; are they working in tandem or in competition? Also, I'm also curious if the name Dragan Forrester came up. He was Fergus' jailer, a very unpleasant seeming bloke who sports a monocle. I had the displeasure of running into him on the Isle of Gont yesterday afternoon - didn't know who he was then or I might've brought you a present."

"That name did not come up, although she did mention it was from this Oracle Group she received a monocle that in effect allowed her employers to potentially see and hear all she did whilst wearing it."

"But her other employer proves rather more mysterious. He is a man in black, cleanshaven but with long black hair. Curiously, his eyes are of two different shades of blue! And his brief to the young lady was to simply travel and at an appointed hour every day open a tiny wooden box."

At that, Aiden raises a mental eyebrow.
?? Interesting, Prospero. Exactly how many agents do you have working for you and are we all on the same team? And this girl; a double agent? Triple agent. You better not be dealing me a cold deck, mate.

"A fella with oddly differening eyes, huh? Quite probably a relation to the Fergus/Josette/Isabel family, I would suspect. What was in the box? "

"A tiny clay bird that instantly flew away. A new bird every single time you opened it. Karlsen has the box now, been studying it all night most likely. I've asked Fergus to join us at Karlsen's works at nine o'clock."

"Ah, indeed! Karlsen is a whiz with things like that. I'm sure that he will have something useful to tell us when we arrive."

Looking across the room at the magical clock on the mantle, Aiden exclaims, "That dowsn't give me much time does it?" Shoving down the last few bites of his huge breakfast, Aiden excuses himself from the Minister's company. "Be ready in a few tick tocks."

Aiden dashes back through his bedroom and into the bath. Within 15 minutes he emerges cleaned up and wearing his traveling clothes, a light grey-safari style shirt, long khaki pants, and a pair of low hiking boots. He dons the slightly weathered brown fedora from the loveseat in the living room. And then stuffs the Browning semi into the outside pocket of his leather jacket. Sitting down on a small, cushioned hassock he opens a tiny compartment in the heel of one of his boots and slides the small set of lockpicks inside.

He returns to the table and the company of the minister. "Ready when you are."

Horatio indicates the door and proceeds to accompany Aiden to Karlsens' Clockworks.

Fergus follows the factory manager and indeed asks several questions about the machines. He is genuinely interested in them, particularly how the machines are powered, what they do and how they are operated.

It is some 15 minutes later therefore before he arrives at the meeting, somewhat wiser to some of the methods of his host in the manufacture of the quality artefacts that he produces.

The clock in the room chimes a quarter past the hour and Fergus realises that he is in fact late for the meeting.

In response to Karlsen's offer of breakfast, Aiden smiles and replies, "Aw thanks, mate, but I'm already fit to be stuffed. I couldn't eat another bite."

Aiden turns slightly and makes a gesture indicating the man beside him "I'm not sure whether you two have met before, but this is Lord Horatio, Assistant Minister of Special Affairs."

After they are introduced, Aiden goes to shake Karlsen's hand. Looking around, he continues. "Wonderful place. I really don't get in here often enough," he says, shaking his head.
And then, fixing his gaze back on Karlsen, he says, "I understand you've been examining a marvelous little magic box from one of our 'guests'. Figure out what makes it tick?"

Fergus looks around the room as Aiden asks about the box. He knows both his cousins so the spare part in the room must be Lord Big Ears himself. Fergus studies the man whose vacuous title does not accurately describe what he does. Potentially a dangerous man to make an enemy of, though Fergus has taken a strong dislike to the man's presumption and his obvious attempts to ferret out information about him at the party.

By now he'd probably also know about his abilities, although he'd only used it very briefly at the party and last night at the workshop. He'd expected Flora to tell Random about them, but as master of spies it might be only natural that Lord Big Ears would find out as well.

He heads only to the man and slaps him on the back, a brief analysis the man's biology in the touch. The more contact he could get the better though.

"You must be Horatio, I'm Fergus" he says emphacising that he has no title and gives no titles.

"Pleased to meet you, my...that is, Fergus." He smiles. "Please excuse my fumbles in adapting my usual set of courtesies to one more in tune with your own good self." He gives a tiny bow of his head at this. "As you have perhaps already heard, I am one of those charged with gathering intelligence for the Crown...or Realm. I hope you will be pleased to learn King Random and his Queen regard learning the truth of your parentage as a high priority."

Fergus gives a false smile back and he adsent mindedly puts his hand on the picture of Isabel in his pocket that Mint had left him the night before, before offering his hand to Lord Big Ears. Good to have more biological information, the more touches the better.

Keep up the pretense of friendliness and pump him for information. I have been watched all my life, so I'll be damned if I let you make me your subject in a larger prison.

"Yes I heard that you receive the whispers for Random. I am pleased to hear that they rate my parentage as high priority, though I hear alot of whispers about Crimson Unicorns that seem somewhat interesting. What do you make of all such talk?"

(occ - Sorry all, I swear the first time I ran my cursor over the link it didn't show a link so I thought it would be a new thread. Also sorry for the delay in posting, been kind of an odd day here.)

Karlsen walks over to where the box is sitting on the table. “This little beauty is a real piece of work. I wish I understood what some of the spells do. But the basics are this. It is a recording device. Anything said, done, Trumped, Patterned, cast and possibly even done with the Logrus is recorded. It is then stored in the base of the box. When the box is opened the information is downloaded into the dust you see at the bottom of the box. Then the box transforms the dust into a small bird such as you see here.” He taps the bell jar where the other bird is sitting dejectedly on the bottom. “Then the bird flies off and heads to…” he waves his hand vaguely, “someplace. But the same someplace each time. The imperative directive does not change.”

Karlsen walks over to the envelope containing the monocle. "This one is fascinating. From what I have observed it is a trump construction that was made using pure Trump Artistry. It was drawn by somebody that I have never seen and have no records of. It was etched with an advanced method using relatively primitive implements.”

“I was hoping to inspect the lady that you removed this from to see where it was attached. I believe that the thing that it attached to might have some bearing on the investigation.” He picks up a large magnifying glass and then then picks up the envelope. “It is light enough now that I should be able to see what is etched into the monocle. However, before I take it out be warned that I believe that it is still active and may still be transmitting.”

Horatio says "I only know this is a matter about which I am to learn. Policy is not my specialty."

When Karlsen examines the monocle more closely, he will definitely get an impression of what lies on the other side of this trump. It isn't the easiest image to make out, but appear blue and violet, with a woman's face. But there are also wings.

More, this woman's face is watching back. Most definitely.

Oh "Mr Policy is not my Speciality", you're pretending to hide it but I can see right through you. If you managed to hear Mint calling me Professor then you certainly heard about the Crimson Unicorn at the party. So you are either lying to me now or are incredibly bad at your job. I favour to believe that you must have been given the Head Spymaster role as you have some competance in that regard, so I call you a liar.

Fergus says simply "Fair enough" and turns his attention to Karlsen studying the artefact.

Aiden leans over to Karlsen and, almost in a whisper, says, "Don't keep us in suspense, mate. Whatdiya see?"