Lorick watched in silence as Aider left the room. Where the man was going, Lorick didn't know. It annoyed him of course, because now he had to handle the woman alone. And he was never very good at handling women, a weakness Lorick knew he needed to address. But in truth, he found women often responded best to other women. He hadn't wanted to do this; Trahern's now-wasted Hypnotism earlier had consumed valuable Djed, but if he was going to get any usable information from this woman he needed to be less intimidating.
"If you will excuse me," Lorick said dryly, pushing off the wall and silently moving toward the door. Normally, he'd have rushed to the Flaxen district to acquire a dress or at least different clothing, but the maid appeared to be too distraught to really notice fine details, so Lorick thought he would be safe.
Finding a quiet corner, Lorick began the transformation, beginning with his head and working his way down. As ticks went by, he made sure to remember in his mind's eye what the woman looked like, having seen her so many times. The flowing brown hair, large expressive eyes, full red lips, ample bosom. As the female form filled out his gender-neutral clothes, Lorick also made sure to recall the woman's voice. It was very important to remember this; after all, it was useless to look like a woman, but sound like a man.
There really wasn't any moment that the transformation would be "complete". Lorick always had to check; were the hands too large? Nose too sharp? Making minor corrections until he was satisfied he had achieved something close enough to the desired result. He could feel the tell-tale signs of a headache coming on. With his depleted Djed, he could not maintain this form for the entire Bell. Perhaps only fourty-five chimes, or less if he had to use Hypnotism in this form. Lorick hoped he wouldn't have to.
Clearing his throat, Lorick tested his voice, murmuring a few phrases to himself to ensure his voice actually sounded passably female. It was still much lower in pitch than he'd prefer, but it was definitely of the female persuasion, which was all that really mattered. Taking out his small steel mirror, Lorick gave his new appearance one last review, deciding it was sufficient.
The maid might or might not notice that "Lorraine" was wearing the same clothes as Lorick, but Lorick figured in her current state of emotion, such details would escape her. And he was confident he'd be able to lie his way through it even if she did notice.
As soon as Lorick entered the room again he dashed to the maid's side, throwing his arms around her. "Oh your poor dear, to have been there for such a horrible thing!" he cried, as he patted her back.
"Lorick asked if I could maybe ask you a few things," he explained, giving her an apologetic smile. "I suppose he thought you'd be more comfortable with me... I'm Lorraine, by the way. I'm his sister."
Lorick grabbed the chair from the other side of the table and plopped it down next to the maid, so that he was seated right next to her. He gave the maid an encouraging smile and his left hand went to her back, rubbing it comfortingly.
"Don't you worry about a thing, dear. You're perfectly safe now," he cooed. "Oooh, I don't know why Lorick would ask me to do this. I don't know anything about this sort of thing!"
Lorick frowned, pretending to think for a bit. "Well, why don't we start, maybe, with, like, unusual people? I mean, did the ambassador get any weird guests recently? Maybe some guy coming around a lot?"
Lorick pursed his lips just so. "Take your time dear..." he comforted. "Or, umm, how about sounds? Can you describe what you heard? Did you maybe smell anything unusual? If the killer didn't leave the room the way you came, were there any other places he could have left from? Like, a window maybe?"
Lorick didn't want to overload the woman with questions, but he knew he was on an hourglass. An hourglass that had already lost more than half its sand. He needed to get as many answers out of the woman as he could in this form, before his time ran out. Because he could not afford to transform right in front of her; the shock would be too great and he'd not get anything else out of her. So he continued to hug the maid from the side, gently rubbing her back and waiting for her responses.
