Closed [NMSS] High Noon (Inoadar)

[Verin Rush]

*

91st Day of Spring, 514AV
Noon

It had been quite some time since Verin had seen the poisoncrafter - their visit to the lakeshore had led to a variety of interesting discoveries for both parties, and he had hoped to meet with the man sooner in order to continue with their lessons, as per the agreement they had made two seasons ago. Yet time had escaped both men, with Verin working as many bells as he could at the Malt House, and Verin had finally managed to arrange a date for the two to meet again. Whilst he had not had much time to continue with his own studies, working his monotonous job had given Verin the time to consider a number of theories in regards to the development of poisons, in particular relation to making one undetectable in both smell and taste. But his own equipment, from his small poisoncrafting kit was not good enough for him to do the experiments he desired to do.

As such, Verin had asked Master Parnell for permission for the pair of them to use his lab at Ino Vations. A few messages had passed back and forth between the pair, Verin wanting to keep the idea as vague as possible and actually discuss it with him face to face (anything this complex could likely be lost in translation in messages, and it would be faster to hash the details out in person), Parnell had eventually invited Verin to the Nitrozian-Moletta Sanitary Station in order to conduct the research, saying that the lab was more advanced and could, therefore, offer more exact results and better tests and products.

Sitting in a ravosala, Verin glanced up at Syna, who was just a few chimes or so before her peak in the sky. Reaching the end of spring, he was glad, as he often was, that he lived in the Defiler's domain, with the temperate climate, as he felt the sun's rays beating down upon his face and dark, crisp clothing. Sitting there, Verin considered his situation; the elder of the Rush twins wondered if Parnell was aware of Verin's earlier treatment at the NMSS and, thus, whether the man was aware of Verin's contract to the Station when he could not pay for his treatment.

Most importantly, he wondered whether or not he could build up enough of his working relationship with Master Parnell in order to work with the man, and pay some of his treatment off in a more dignified way, rather than just be a subject for his childhood friend and the unsociable, self-important aristocrat. Though a relatively proud man, he found no shame in inquiring into the possibility of paying his debt in such a way.

The ravosala stopped at the small dock just outside of the familiar building, which loomed overhead. Verin thanked the ravosalaman and tipped him for the speed of travel, as well as the blissfully silent journey; making small talk was not one of the skills that Verin had mastered yet, and he did not understand why most ravosalamen insisted on meaningless chatter and gossip for the entire length of the journey. Once out of the ravosala, Verin walked over to the entrance of the NMSS and pushed the doors open. Surprised not to see Amolina seated behind the desk near the entrance, the blond glanced around, searching for signs of life, before calling out a greeting in the hopes that someone would come out to meet him.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar's eyes contested between glaring and rolling at the interruption. The equipment was overdue for a cleaning. There were undoubtedly a number of professions whose gear did not require the degree of soaking, boiling and scrubbing that poison-crafting necessitated. It was not that if someone was intended to die from heart failure, that it mattered if there was just a twinge of mental confusion first. It was that some poisons, while both deadly, could offset each others' effects.

It had been too long since he'd really performed a good, detailed job of cleaning his lab, well, technically, the facility's lab. His scowl lessened somewhat at the acknowledgement that he always referred to it as "his lab" and neither of his partners ever corrected him. He'd gotten started on it the night before and now had an end in sight after taking a couple bells sleep on one of the unoccupied patient beds.

The uneducated probably assumed that the large beakers, chambers and alembics encompassed the bulk of the effort. He would have slapped someone were they to say that to him right now. No, it was the coiled glass tubes and eyedroppers, the rubber valves, with their flaps and folds, the brass fittings and test tubes, the delicate gadgetry needing disassembling. THESE were the components that tested the resolve of the crafter bent on true professionalism.

Part of the problem was his own increasing resistance to toxins. In the past, he'd boil all these small implements, dump the water, refill it, boil them all again, THEN test the water by drinking a bit of it. 'If you want something done right, do it yourself.' If he felt no effects, he'd drink some more. In the past, he often felt good and sick after the first round. But not too sick to dump it out and repeat the process until there was no result at all.

But now, his own lack of any ill effects was getting more and more meaningless. He'd entertained the thought of making some tea for Valerius with it. The man could be insufferable at times. He still held a grudge over the fact that Inoadar had withheld a few details of events at his patron's party the year before. 'By the Voice! I didn't even know him then! I had to consider the downside of incurring the wrath of the Lark family, at a time when I'd have had no support from the Nitrozians to offset it.'

Admittedly, the man had eventually acknowledged the truth of it. But always with the condescending additions of such phrases as 'a man of your station...', or '...the likes of you...' and '...a man of few prospects, and fewer friends...' But he'd been instrumental in clearing several 'status' obstacles, enabling Inoadar to follow though on the whole "Forus Operation" with his new-found mage friends, Miro and Lessomm. That had been HUGE for him.

He shook off this reverie to see who was intruding on his work, and to see where anyone else was that could be answering the door in his place. He placed the attachment he was cleaning on the worktable and stepped through the door to find Verin Rush, his recent partner in a recent, and truly advantageous, exchange of knowledge. His mood rose immediately, enough to actual inspire a genuine smile.

"Verin! Good to see you. I guess we never actually decided on a particular day, did we. All well and good. I AM in the middle of something, but it's nothing pressing. Now, what was it you wanted again?" He stepped forward and extended his hand as he spoke.

x

[Verin Rush]

An easy, and very natural, smile fell onto the blond's own lips as he saw the poisoncrafter exit a room and greet him. He walked over to the other, hand also outstretched and they grasped each other in a firm handshake; a vast change in greetings since when they first met. Verin would not go as far as to say that he and the poisoner were friends, as such... but he might argue that Nolan Parnell was a little more than an acquaintance of his.

“Master Parnell,” he returned with a greeting as they each released the other's hand,at which point he clasped his own behind his back, a position he found both comfortable and professional. “No, no, we didn't. But, speaking to Miss Moletta, I got the impression that if you were not at Ino Vations, you would be here, working on something or other. Given the exceedingly slow speed of sending messages around, I deemed it more prudent to visit you in person and discover if you were free and, if not, we could arrange a date.”

He looked around as he took a step back, inclining his head once, keen not to intrude on Parnell's work in the Nitrozian-Moletta Sanitary Station, particularly given his own status here at the Station. Given his treatment, he owed a rather sizeable amount of money to the NMSS, and as of yet he had not been asked in to begin paying off his debt to his childhood friend, or her pompous aristocrat partner. Yet, his debt extended to Parnell, which he was very conscious of, even if the poisoncrafter himself didn't know. “But yes, if you're busy, I am happy to return at another time, or day. Or perhaps you might permit me once again to watch what you are doing for now.”

Thinking back to how they had been out to the lakeshore and Verin's realisation that the detection of poisons, either by smell or taste, might stop the mark from ingesting. He shared this thought with the master poisoncrafter, wondering how it might be possible to negate the noticeable smell or taste without rendering the poison useless or entirely changing the way that the poison even worked. He had thought about it often and, whilst he had tried a little, he did not have the necessary equipment to continue experimentation. He'd even considered the nature of alcohol, which was also a poison of sorts. Ale, for example was much weaker than Ravokian Whisky and, as a general rule, whilst it still had a distinctive taste, its palate was not nearly as strong as the whisky.

“If, as you say, you are comfortable with leaving your current work, that is acceptable to me. It can wait until you are ready, though,” he finished by adding. He wouldn't be surprised if master poisoncrafters before him had already considered this; common poisons clearly had a track record of people ingesting the poison. But if it was that simple, Parnell and other poison makers would not be needed. There were always improvements to be made in this line of work, whether it be to make the resulting products more effective, or cheaper, or even making them easier to create. The bartender's idea would likely only have an effect on the former, if any at all, he thought.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar paused moment, considering. "Well, I've been cleaning the equipment. I'm sure you can appreciate the need, in this line of work. But I could take a break now. I was only beginning to start now on the large items, and as you are probably well aware, they are the quickest and easiest to do."

He'd seen Verin's name scribbled on a pad on Amolina's desk, but did not yet know what it indicated. He wondered if Amolina's current absence was the reason Verin had shown up right now. Amolina, Valerius, and Inoadar all definitely had their own private agendas. None were of a kind to bring recriminations down on the facility as a whole, but they were decidedly exclusive in nature.

Inoadar tried to keep the suspicion from his face, but it was just too much a part of his attitude to stifle the thought that this might be some kind of set-up. If Amolina had some kind of arrangement, or hold, on this young man, could she be using him to get the poisoner out of the facility?

He suddenly found himself wanting to smile. If Amolina had developed such subtle tactics in intrigue, was there anyone but himself to take the credit? In a sense, he hoped she WAS trying to pull something over on him. 'It would be high time the girl showed a bit of treacherous initiative.'

Though their beginnings had been marked by high levels of lethal intent, he'd come to develop a strange fondness for the girl, that stemmed from far more than the fact that she'd not killed him the one time he'd been completely at her mercy in a spot where disposal of his body would have been both easy and unnoticed. She had become a sort of project for him. Much as the child 'Vera' was, as his protégé in toxins back at his own shop, 'Ino Vations'.

He decided to use the same simple strategy on Amolina that he'd used with much greater threat against Alice Lark. He excused himself, and retired to his desk, writing a completely facetious note about an entry in his NMSS log book that he was going to the IHL to investigate in three days. He hid this note in the drawer of his personal desk, slipping just a bit of one of the two elements that combined to make "False Fire" on the edge of it.

The other element he smeared on the actual log book. False Fire was a light, alchemical concoction that did little or no damage to a person, but left a glowing mark where it came into contact with most things, including skin. If Amolina touched both items, she would have glowing, violet fingertips for a few days, which would offset onto the first several things she touched.

He would know she had been into his private papers, and she would know that he knew. Amolina knew vaguely of this tactic. That is, she had heard him tell of doing it to others, most recently Alice Lark, to implicate her of treason. He was not doing now it to entrap her, he just wanted to lord it over her that he'd caught her.

All of a sudden he was eager to be out and about. He returned to Verin, sweeping the grin from his face first. "Well, Mister Verin, my schedule has just been cleared. What did you have in mind?"

x

[Abstract]

OOCHello!! There are reasons for this... trust me. It'll be fun.

Interrupting their conversation, a large group of men and women stepped through the door, filling in the space and half-surrounding the pair. There was about five in total, five stern, official Ebonstryfe soldiers, all armed and armored. They looked like they were on official business.

"Nolan Parnell?" one said, stepping forward. She was taller and better equipped than the rest, apparently in charge. Her hair, long and dark, was tied back in a tight braid, giving her sharp, harsh, features.

"You are under arrest. Please, come with us... and don't cause any trouble. "

[Inoadar]

Several possibilities ran through the poisoner's mind. And though the clear outward indication was one of confusion, inwardly, he was assessing the best course of action to be silence in every one of them. It was possible that this stemmed from the incident at the Ebonstryfe's weapons display earlier this season. The Commander had let him go with the understanding that he was going to continue researching 'Mr. Parnell's' activities. Spewing a bunch of alibis without knowing the charge was likely only to produce additional suspicion. It was equally possible that this was exactly what he'd been thinking only moments before. That Amolina had recruited Verin to initiate some situation she could exploit. There was again that odd surge of pride that 'he'd taught her well'. But also the determination not to let on that he suspected, the better to discover what was really afoot and turn it back around. So he suppressed the urge to glare his toxins at the citizen beside him. He also had to admit, Verin was doing an admirable job of looking innocent of any complicity. Then there was the possibility that these troops had simply uncovered any one of a number of past incidents that could convict him of treason. And though he knew there was some highly placed individual that had always wished him kept in play, he could not discount the possibility that his usefulness had run out and it was time to serve his sentence. OR that it was only a matter of time before that same person released him again to resume his service to Rhysol. But in either event, alibis, excuses and loose lips would only be nails to be pounded into his coffin. A last, grasping thought occurred to him that this was a prank. But this was madness to do such an impersonation. Surely only prison awaited the perpetrator of such an act. And even though he too had made such a claim at one time, he'd fully disclosed the deed, and explained the need, and had been exonerated. And anyway, he still found no gain in commenting on it. Then one last scenario struck him. Perhaps a highly placed suspect was at large, and the authorities needed to reinforce the impression among the city's subversive element that Nolan Parnell / Inoadar was a counter agent to the Black Sun, so he would be approached and in position to betray the traitor. More than all the other scenarios, this required absolutely NO blabbing of protests and claims of innocence. However, it would not do to offer NO comment whatsoever. That would not be a credible reaction. So he simply took a deep breath, held his hands out in submission and said, "I want you to know that when this mistake is cleared up, I will not hold this against any of you. You are simply performing your duties."

[Verin Rush]

*

The blond cracked a smile at the realisation that the interrupted work had been cleaning. Whilst he fully agreed that the cleaning of equipment was essential to good poisoncrafting, he had been expecting the man’s current work to be a little more unstable, should it be left alone for too long. He was glad that it was not; they could begin work immediately and, internally, Verin’s giddiness grew. Having seen Master Parnell’s lab back at Ino Vations, and just recently having been informed that the lab at the NMSS was even better equipped, it was an exciting prospect, and an honour, to be invited to play with the gadgets here.

Such was his excitement that Verin almost missed a fleeting expression that passed over his instructor’s features – one of doubt, though he couldn’t place why. He wondered if the poisoner had reservations at inviting a colleague’s experimentation subject into the facility for other purposes, possibly to learn more about what the facility did, other than the front of being another medical centre for Ravok. His attempts at research had not gotten him far in learning the extra purposes of the NMSS, and he’d briefly considered the possibility that Amolina and the self-important aristocrat just wanted someone to test new treatments on before they went out to the general public. Reasonable enough, in theory, but his amateur knowledge in poisons had him believing that most substances that affected kelvics had the same results on humans – the same would be true for medicines as poisons, and the two had ample supply of kelvics just a boat’s ride away.

This train of thought had led him down a darker path: two members of staff at the Kelvic Research Institute and a poisoner… what could they possibly be doing, that would need such a strange trio of founders in an organisation..? A poisoner in particular, with his own business, and whose name did not appear in the facility title. Yet, in their few meetings so far, he felt like he knew the man a little. A worshipper of Rhysol, Verin expected secrets to be harboured, and he would have been disappointed were the poisoncrafter an open book to be read at will. That didn’t stop him from wanting to know more, and even trusting the man.

Master Parnell spoke, offering the blond the floor and he took a step forward, “Well–” he began, before the front doors flew open, revealing a number of Ebonstryfe soldiers, who surged forward, weapons clearly visible. Pale blue eyes grew wide and threatened to pop out of his head as Nolan Parnell was arrested on the spot. His gaze flickered over to the poisoner, whose expression was just as shocked as his own. Verin was even more surprised when Parnell offered himself up willingly.

It wasn’t his place to intervene, and though he’d just had his own doubts about the man, he couldn’t believe what was happening. Without giving him time to talk himself out of it, Verin spoke up on behalf of his associate, “On what charges are you intending to take him away, soldier?”

*

[Abstract]

"Of course," the Stryfer said calmly, in reply to Inoadar's statement. "In turn, I have nothing against you. Duty is duty... we follow the Black Sun and Rhysol's law. And at the moment, that is against you."

Taking the submission as a note, one of the soldiers behind her stepped forward and began binding the poisoner's hands. He was actually rather gentle about it, though made sure they were tight and well tied. They'd simply been ordered to do the arrest... though only the higher ups understood why a well-to-do and law abiding business man was in this situation.

The woman turned to Verin, one eyebrow raised at his inquiry. "That is not for you to know. I'd highly recommend you stay out of this... for your own safety." Another man came from behind her and rested a warning hand on the Rush's shoulder, mimicking the expression. They wanted to avoid as much fuss and complication as possible.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar made no attempt to resist. He instead was focusing on the subtleties of Verin's behavior. But he could find no flaw in the young man's indignant question. Inoadar waited for the soldier to face the blonde down, and then added his support for the given advice. "He's right Verin. This will be settled soon enough. I believe we earn our fate through our past lives. So if this does not work out well, just see to it, as best you can, that Burke and Vera retain control of my shop. And tell...my associates at...the NMSS that I may not be in for a few days. Tell them you saw me heading for the ferry, but you didn't know where I was going. Spread no rumors of an arrest." He had nearly mentioned the names of his associates. As well, he had almost said the full name of the medical facility, which would have been tantamount to the same thing. There was also the moment's urge to speak out about his relationship with Marcus Ahysen, a known agent of the Black Sun. He was curious if this arrest stemmed from his recent purchase of his old assistant, Burke Trovias, back from slavery. Burke's arrest on treason had been a charade to implant agent Ahysen as Inoadar's replacement assistant. The real purpose was, of course, to spy on Inoadar, known even then as "Nolan Parnell". Their interactions had greatly contributed to Inoadar's eventual embrace of Rhysol. And with that accomplishment, Marcus had been reassigned, telling Inoadar that he could have his old assistant back now if he wished. Inoadar could not help but wonder if this particular squad was unaware of this development, and had simply picked up on an old alert regarding him. But his feeling that silence was golden still held true. If he was to convince anyone that he was now an imbedded agent in the populace, kept unaffiliated to better lure malcontents to their doom, he would get nowhere by spilling these same beans here and now. It was best that he waited for his mysterious advocate to hand down the word for his release. He could not deny that he'd prefer to wear his devotion openly, but he knew that each one served in whatever capacity was allotted them. In the meantime, he gave a slight smile to his captors, "Well, I guess we may as well be on our way." Somehow, this was striking him as an adventure and not an arrest.

[Verin Rush]

*

Glancing over to the poisoncrafter, Verin noticed that the other was watching him intently. It was clear that Nolan Parnell was just as shocked as he was at the arrival of the Ebonstryfe soliders, but Parnell was much better at hiding it. The blond hesitated but turned back to look at the woman and nodded once, backing down from his attempt to defend his associate. Stepping to the side, he slid out of the grasp of the soldier who had walked to stand behind him, and took a step bas so as to stay out of their way.

As Master Parnell spoke, he nodded at the appropriate intervals, preferring to say nothing – it was clear that the man was not embellishing his requests for fear of incriminating himself further, and anything that Verin said from now on might result in more fuel for an unknown fire. Verin did not completely understand this; wouldn’t it have been useful for Parnell to mention the Nitrozian name, as one of his associates? Surely being linked to such an affluent and influential family would not cause damage to his case. It would surely be more of a help than a hinderance… once again, Verin’s only conclusion was that the facility was more than its façade suggested.

He would do as asked, of course, though he would probably only approach the actress, rather than the Nitrozian scion, whose company, for however short a time, Verin could do without. “This time of year is particularly good for plant life, after all.” Verin spoke softly, smiling at Parnell, “I have an appointment to keep, and will you’re the new on then. And I shall call in at the shop.”

It was hard, Verin found, to look at someone he was working with, and might even go as far as to call one of his few friends, bound by the Stryfe. As a follower of Rhysol, and a Ravokian, the bartender had to have faith that those who upheld the law always did the right thing. Nolan Parnell must, therefore, be guilty of something. Naïvely, perhaps, Verin hoped that it would be something to do with the man’s craft – a poison gone wrong, or they could trace a death back to him and wanted to know who purchased the lethal dose. With cooperation, which he was already showing, Parnell would be out within the day, his name and reputation intact. “Send a message to me when you are no longer… indisposed. We shall rearrange.”

OOCWell.. I suppose that's me done for this thread O.O are you two done too? If so, would you like this submitted just for you to grade, Absy?
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