~Chapter 6- Fire ~

"Why would we burn the house down!?" Ceptance snapped back angrily.

Lieutenant Aingr and soldiers of the Kingsguard arrived on horseback and were dowsing the flames. The house was destroyed, with the walls coated in soot and the second floor caved in.

A furious Aingr shouted back, "Seamus was associated with your daughter's death, there's a motive there! I never should have allowed you to roam around as you have. I should've known this would've happened."

"It wasn't us!" Lumb asserted, "While we were there, a man in a hood came and set fire to the place!"

Aingr rolled his eyes, "Very likely."
"They must've noticed us when we entered the city and wanted to destroy evidence!" Lumb replied.

Ceptance wagged her finger at the Lieutenant, "You should be thanking us!"

"Excuse me?"

"We found evidence that you overlooked!" Ceptance shouted. She dove her hand into Lumb's jacket and pulled out the notebook they found. "In the basement, there was a hidden room with a dead body. We found this too."

"You really think we would've missed a dead body?" Aingr questioned.

"I only noticed because of the terrible smell. If you investigated the house around the time that person died, you might not have noticed," Lumb explained as calmly as he could.

Aingr obviously didn't believe them, but he was curious where they were going with this. His eyes fixated on the notebook. "What's in that?"

Ceptance handed it over, "Just a few pages with a list of names."

Aingr thumbed the pages with a curious look, "Seamus's name is the last on the list."

"I'm not sure what they mean. But they were in the hidden room with the dead body. After the fires simmer down, check the basement. You'll find a body!" Lumb asserted.

Aingr closed the notebook and slid it into his armor. A beleaguered sigh left him. "You two are to stay within the city limits until I say otherwise. If you leave the city without permission, you two will be tried for arson and putting other citizens at risk. Don't do any more investigation on your own either!"

Lumb's eyes narrowed, "We didn't do this."

"We'll see. We'll have questions for you after we've checked the basement."

Lieutenant Aingr returned to the other soldiers. Among the crowd of soldiers, Schwartz stepped out with a sad expression on his face.

Lumb narrowed his eyes, "What?"

Schwartz took a breath and solemnly said, "I understand you've been through a lot, but this needs to stop. For the girl's sake."

Lumb scowled, "Mind your own business."

Schwartz frowned, nodded, and headed back to the group of soldiers. Lumb could hear one of the soldiers say.

"Maybe the little girl was better off without them."

If Lumb could've picked out which soldier said that, he might've tried to brawl with him then and there.

"They're all idiots," Ceptance vindictively said. Lumb couldn't have agreed more.

"You can't blame them for not believing us," Deporah said with a small voice.

Ceptance simply grunted. She didn't want to hear that. "It's been a long day. We should find an inn."

Aingr and the other soldiers managed to douse the fires in Seamus's house, and were summarily exhausted. Many of the soldiers saw the Dolor family as the culprits. Some, like Schwartz, vouched for them, saying that they weren't the sort of people to do that.

Aingr remained silent. As he and the rest of the soldiers marched through the dirt streets of Mortel back to the Kingsguard, he pondered who might've done it. Deporah obviously wouldn't have. He'd spent enough time with her while she was staying with the King to know that. But Lumb and Ceptance... he didn't know what to think of them.

Aingr looked over the notebook of names as they walked, looking for any sort of hint there... Nothing of note there. Just a bunch of random names....

Lorenz Mayhew

That's peculiar. Aingr recognized that name as a missing person. He had Horace and Schwartz look into that, but they couldn't find anything. He had to have gone missing around the time of Urba's case.

Agatha Payne

Another name of a missing individual. That was months ago though. Her case had already been dropped.

Aingr pored over the notebook and the names and started to recognize more and more of them as people who had been reported missing. There were plenty of unknown names, but the sheer quantity of missing people on the page was odd. If he went to the Kingsguard and checked the documentation for these names, he might find more.

Neither Lumb nor Ceptance could've written this Aingr figured. It was unlikely, at least. They must've legitimately found this in Seamus's home. But how could this have been missed?

Aingr had instructed Horace and several others to search Seamus's home for any evidence of motive for Urba's murders. But they found nothing. Horace assured them that they had been very thorough.

Horace had gone home for the day... perhaps he could check with him on it.

Aingr turned to the other soldiers he walked with, "All of you head back to the Kingsguard without me, I'll be along in it a moment."

"Yes, Lieutenant!" The soldiers responded, moonlight beaming off their armor.

Horace's home was a short distance away from there, a modest one within the city. Aingr stopped at the door and rapped his knuckles on it a few times.

He heard movement inside until the door parted. Candlelight from inside revealed Horace. He parted the door with one hand while gripping his shoulder firmly with the other. He had a pained look on his face, but that turned to alertness as he saw Aingr.

"Aingr- Err, Lieutenant! What're you doing here?" The red-haired soldier replied.

Aingr eyed his shoulder. There appeared to be a bit of blood sleeping through the knitting of his shirt. "What's wrong with your shoulder?"

Horace winced a little bit, "I got a bad gash in it. It hurts terribly."

Aingr raised his eyebrows, "How?"

"I honestly don't know. Didn't notice until I just woke up... Maybe I had a bad fall or something. The whole day's been a blur."

"Should you get it checked out?"

"Probably. But that can wait until tomorrow. What did you need?"

"Oh, it's about the Urba case. The Dolor family visited Seamus's home and claimed to have found a hidden room in the basement."

"The Dolor Family?"

"Yes."

"They're here? In Mortel?"

Aingr cocked his head, "Yes. You saw them today."

Horace made a disgruntled look, as if trying to recall such an exchange, "... I don't think I did."

"You were with Schwartz and I when they came to the barracks." Aingr insisted.

Horace thought again for a moment before shrugging, "I'm sorry. I can't recall."

"...Well whatever. You said when you and the others searched Seamus's house, you didn't find a hidden room or anything out of the ordinary," Aingr stated.

Once again, Horace returned a blank and clueless stare before replying, "I said that?"

"Y-Yes!" Aingr shouted, starting to become frustrated with him.

Horace's green eyes looked up and to the right as he tried to remember, "I-I don't recall that either."

Aingr gripped the door frame, "What is with you tonight?"

"I don't remember!" Horace exclaimed, seeming just as frustrated as Aingr was. "I'm sorry, lately it feels like I've been missing a lot."

"That's strange."

Horace placed a hand on the wall, and his eyes looked straight. His posture straightened up, and he took his hand away from his shoulder. He winced from the pain. He swallowed before speaking again.

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant. I only just woke up. I remember now. You said they found a hidden room?"

"Yes, in the basement with Seamus's collection. Behind a cabinet."

Horace nodded in a rather stiff way, "I doubt it, but I suppose I could've missed something like that. If it was especially well hidden."

Aingr looked Horace up and down; he was much more talkative now. "Hmm. They said they found a dead body there, as well as a list of names. Many appear to be that of missing people."

"I wouldn't trust that family. If they're anything like Urba, they probably started the fire." Horace stated.

Aingr shifted in front of Horace, "...You know about the fire but don't remember meeting the Dolor family?"

"I-I remember now. Memory was just foggy after waking up," Horace said, stepping out of the doorway and closer to Aingr, one hand slightly reaching out for him.

Aingr couldn't place why, but he instinctively stepped away from Horace as he approached. As soon as he did, Horace took a step back.

Horace nodded rigidly again, "I wouldn't trust them. Don't be surprised if they try to skip town tonight."

Aingr stared into Horace's green eyes... Something seemed off about him. Aingr said, "We'll see. Either way, I'll be taking a closer look at Seamus's house tomorrow. I certainly hope nothing was missed."

"Let me know if you find anything," Horace said with another nod.

Aingr didn't say anything. He simply stepped away from Horace and began making his way towards the Kingsguard.

The Dolor family found a modest inn not far from them. Ceptance and Deporah shared a room, while Lumb had his own. He lay awake in bed, trying to piece everything together.

It went without saying that Urba wasn't guilty. Perhaps, Seamus had broken into their home, killed Gregor, and Urba had to fight back. Or perhaps, Seamus was a victim as well. Those cuts on his body may not have been self-inflicted.

The hooded man could be the culprit. But that didn't explain why Urba confessed.

...Why did he burn the house down today? Of all days, why the same day that they came to the city? It's too much of a coincidence... The hooded man must've known they were looking into the case and wanted to destroy evidence.

Eventually, the long day caught up to him, and Lumb fell asleep.

He was awoken by a great weight on him. His arms were pinned down while a damp cloth was being forced over his mouth. A powerful individual was looming over him, and Lumb could feel his consciousness fading. He tried to force the individual off him, but it was no good. The last thing he could make it before his consciousness left him entirely was bright green eyes.