User blog:Leea/The Tale of Voronwe, Chapter 52

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4th Era 150, 2nd of Second Seed, Pyandonea
He lay, but not at rest. The bedsheets were crumpled and heavily dissarayed, and his fingers were stuck, frozen, clutching fistfulls of the sheets, pulling them taut from the corners of the bed. They had tried to pull them free from his grasp, but no matter how long they tried, his grip never relaxed. The sheets would have to be taken away with him, the priests mused quietly.

No one could look at him for long, even the most stalwart of healers that had been summoned to his residence the moment he was discovered in this...state. His eyes were wide open, but sightless, and his mouth stretched as far open as it could go; the whole countanence was of pure, hopeless terror. When they had laid their own eyes on him, half of the healers fainted on the spot, and an hour later were still out cold. The rest quickly realized that the Elf on the bed had died in the night, thus being well out of their reach of restoration. They quickly called for an Investigator and priests of Arkay, as their help was clearly not needed.

The Investigator made them stay, however, further implanting the ghastly scene on the concious healers' minds. They would need lots of Lavender tea and baths to be able to sleep in the coming nights.

"And you found him exactly like this?" the Investigator asked, showing the gathered healers a drawing of the man's corpse before he had been hauled away by the priests of Arkay in preparation for his burial. The priests had agreed to give him a report of any of their findings when they were done embalming the deceased.

"Yes, sir," one of the healers said, and the rest nodded, barely glancing at the upheld drawing.

The Investigator nodded, and tucked the drawing into a pocket in his clothing. "Allright. And tell me how you came to be here."

Another healer spoke up, a woman this time. "We were called by the lady of the house."

As he had been told. The lady of the house, a frail woman named Niranya, had heard nothing in the night - she was not the dead man's wife (he was single), but rather his housekeeper. Carodaar had not appeared for breakfast, so she went to his room to summon him. That's when she saw him and called for the healers, though it was obviously too late for such a thing. The scene of his death was one of such horror, he suspected that it would take off a few years of her life, no doubt such a shock to see her employer in that state.

There was no evidence to be had in the room whatsoever, and no eyewitnesses. Doing the only thing he could, he had the (concious) healers and the housekeeper write statements as to what they had seen, and sign their signatures at the bottom. After sectioning off the room to prevent further contamination of the scene, he ordered the healers to leave and shortly left the residence himself. Good thing, too. The whole scene gave him the willies, even after seeing hundreds of horendous crimes in his career.

* * *

"We still can't pry his fingers from the sheets," one of the priests said, rubbing the side of his head in confusion. "I don't know how we will...detach him from it."

The Investigator nodded, examining the body laid out on the preparation table.

"Its rare to see this rapid rigor mortis. Usually it sets in 12 hours after death." the other priest offered, setting out the embalming tools on the adjacent table.

"Not entirely true," the first priest argued. "The condition can be delayed or hastened by any number of factors, like extreme distress."

"I think that Carodaar here was under extreme duress when he died," the Investigator remarked.

"No argument there." the two priests replied at once.

After giving the body another once-over (and fighting the growing uneasiness) he asked, "There are no signs of assault?"

The female priest answered. "Not that we can tell right away." She looked up. "When we are done, would you like to pick up the report, or..."

He shook his head. "No, have it sent to me. If there is anything more urgent, however, send for me, and I'll come as soon as I can."

The male priest nodded. "Very well. Take care, Oncalimar."

The Investigator nodded, as well. "You, too. Both of you," he added, giving a last, parting glance at the horrifying corpse on the table before heading to the exit.