The Chase for the White Mist - Chapter Six

Dinner with Mother

The sun had set in the horizon, showing its last rays of light over the city. Alex’s carriage pulled into the courtyard of his mother’s estate. It had been awhile since he last was here. The staff have definitely done their job, since his mother would rather spend three weeks in the mountain fighting ogres and channeling her inner stone giant, or sail around Austpolia fishing and hunting for sea monsters, then stay here for an evening. 

Alex had considered moving out here, but the allure of living in the city, to be in the center of everything brought a smile to Alex’s lips, one he didn't quite understand. The estate is located on the outskirts of Frosthall, with an ocean view from a cliff and a forest within an hour’s walk, making it perfect for Lady Alissa Chalignis, the right hand of Edward Giledorn. 

Alex stepped out of the carriage and continued on foot to the side entrance he always used, back when he used to live here. The door sprang open, as a giant hound sprinted towards Alex. First caught by surprise, but then realizing what this beast is and then to fear, as he understood what was about to happen.

“No, no! Mr. Wrinkles? Slow down! No no no…” Alex screamed as the giant hound pounded him to the ground and started licking his face. “Mr. Wrinkles! Get off me!”

“Haha… Alex, you need to be faster than that! Haha!” a cheerful familiar female voice laughed from the door. “Mr. Wrinkles! Come here boy! I think Alex knows how much you love him. Haha!” 

“Hello mother. I’m glad to see you are in high spirits.” Alex smiled as he was wiping Mr. Wrinkles’ ‘love’ off his face. “Did Mev show up yet?” 

“I am! My little Alex decided to come see me before I leave for a fishing trip near Sanctum tomorrow.” Alissa beamed from ear to ear. Even though she was a head shorter than him, Alex always felt like she was looking after him, even when she wasn’t around much.

“I’m surprised you stayed this long?” Alex questioned as he embraced his mother. 

“I had some meetings with Edward today and I was hoping you would figure out I was at Lady Whitecroft’s dinner the night of the theft.” The last part Alissa whispered in his ear. “What took you so long?” 

Alex stood back holding his mother at arm's length and looked her in the eyes. “You knew?”

“Haha!” Alissa laughed “No, Mev told me. She arrived half an hour ago. Haha!” 

“Oh God of Knowledge, you got me!” Alex laughed back. “So, she’s here, good good.” 

“I have kept you waiting long enough, come in.” Alissa said, as she turned to enter. Mr. Wrinkles stormed past both of them, believing he was the intended recipient. “Hold on, you giant furball! The door is not big enough for all of us!”

“How does he still have so much energy?” Alex asked, trying to make him as flat as possible, with the giant hound squeezing past him. “He must be at least 20 years old.” 

“28 actually.” she replied, reminiscing. “I found him as a pup deep in the king’s forest, where sunlight rarely reaches. He might be part fey. It would also explain why he is so big.”

“Anyway, come in, my dear.” Alissa smiled a bit more fondly, than Alex was used to. “We have a lot to discuss and delicious food to eat.” 

The two of them went through the kitchen past the serverans' living quarters into the dining room. Alex went through his teenage years living in this mansion. From a hard life on the streets, as a war orphan, surviving. To a life in high society, with the most unladylike mother. Her growing up without parents too, they found a kinship in each other.

They entered the dining room, a 12 person table greeted them with a familiar halfling sitting at the far end of the table with two extra table settings next to her.

“How come we are dining in the dining room?” Alex asked, a bit bewildered.

“Well, we have a guest, why not use the dusty old room?” Alissa replied.

“I’m sorry, I started without you. I haven’t eaten all day.” Mev said, cutting in a piece of meat. Alex suddenly realized he hadn’t eaten all day as well, his stomach was roaring at him. I guess I have been too caught up in the investigation to notice. 

“No need to apologize, that's why the food is here.” Alissa laughed. “Eat all you can! The cook is just happy there are people to cook for.” 

Both Alex and Alissa sat down to join Mev and without a second thought, all three were eating. 

Several minutes went by before anyone said a word. 

“So, what do you want to know about the dinner?” Alissa started, startling the two investigators from their eating. 

“First of all, thank you for the dinner and for having us over on such short notice.” Alex replied, wiping his mouth. “Second, we talked to some of Lady Whitecroft’s staff earlier today and we might have a clue that could help us in the right direction. But we need your testimony for the dinner. Can you please tell us everything you remember from the evening?”

“Oh, It is exciting to see you work, my dear.” Alissa replied with a smile. “The evening was fine, another boring diplomatic dinner with all the lords, ladies and high standing merchants who wanted to be noticed with the old families and governing body. We ate and talked. I embarrassed the hostess. Great fun.”

“What do you mean by embarrassing the hostess?” Alex inquired.

“She got some facts about the three-way-stalemate wrong.” Alissa replied dryly. “And I corrected her, after which she insisted that she was there and I again corrected her, since I knew she wasn’t there, because I was.”

“When did this take place?” Alex asked. 

“Some time after midnight, I believe.” Alissa replied after thinking for a moment. “There was something different about her. Her walk, smell and pronunciation. Also she should know the three-way-stalemate.”

“What did she get wrong about the three-way-stalemate?” Mev asked, an interested look in her eyes. 

“It was a couple of small things, first, she mentioned the stalemate was between the three warlords: Renard, Lucious and Edward.” Alissa scoffed. 

“It was Renard, Edward and the Bandit king to the north Dorian.” Alex whispered to the confused looking Mev.

“Secondly, she claimed it was Renard’s second in command who broke the silence first!” Alissa raising her voice.

“It was my mother.” Alex continued in a whisper. 

“AND Then! She has the nerve to try and correct ME!” Alissa was full blown shouting at this point.

“Well, I was there.” Alissa mocked in a surprisingly good imitation of Lady Evelyn Whitecroft. 

“We have reasons to believe, this lady you were correcting was not Lady Whitecroft, but an imposter or a lookalike to create an alibi for Lady Whitecroft.” Alex, matching his mother’s energy in the attempt to calm her down. “One of the staff members mentioned seeing lady whitecroft leaving in a carriage around midnight. Which fits with your story.”

“There are some options for lookalikes nowadays. Expensive options, but they are there.” Mev interjected. “Magic, doublegangers or actors.”

“Thank you, Mev.” Alex sighed. “Mother, do you recall anything that might be helpful to our investigation?”

“Hm, yes!” Alissa replied. “Some time after our discussion, she seemed awfully beside herself, she was barely talking to anyone other than her butler .”

“The timing of events doesn’t seem to match up well.” Alex pondered. “She didn’t speak about anyone at all?”

“She did, to a few. But not with the same vigor and excitement.” Alissa replied, shrugging her shoulders. “I don’t know, all I can say is she was visibly less excited in the later part of the evening.”

“This could mean, She stole the White Mist, Alex.” Mev pointed out.

“It could and this leads us to the second point of our visit, mother.” Alex continued as he reached into his slightly wrinkled vest and pulled out a small notebook. “Can you help translate this notebook?”

Alex handed the notebook to Alissa, who looked puzzled at him. She flipped the notebook open and glanced at the pages. 

“Hm, the script is Elvish, but the grammar and subtext is not.” she noticed. “I expect you did see the structure: date, job, description of some kind and an amount?”

“Yes, but what we are really interested in is the last couple of entries.” Alex mentioned while looking over his mother’s shoulder. “They might have something to do with the theft.” 

“I think this is undercommon. But the person who wrote this, they had extremely bad grammar.” Alissa said, squinting her eyes to read something in particular. “I think I have something here, Date: 42th of Low Sommer 72. Job: stole gam for lady. Description: first delever gam to half ork. In night stole gam back. Delever gam to lady. Amount: 2.000 gold coins.”

“Mother, do you really have to read out the spelling errors?” Alex sighed, while looking warily at her. 

“I don’t have to, I chose to.” Alissa smiled back over her shoulder at her taller son. “Besides, I’m doing this for free. Let me have my fun.”

“Does it mention where he might go, if he left town?” Mev asked, looking up at the two half elves. 

“I couldn’t say from a short glance.” Alissa shook her head. “Give me a couple of days and I can translate all of it.” 

“Aren’t you leaving for Sanctum tomorrow?” Alex mentioned off handedly. 

“Yes, that’s true.” Alissa grimaced. “I know! I’ll send a Crow with the translation. I managed to train a couple of crows to deliver small packages and letters for me. Isn’t that great?”

“You train birds too?” Mev smiled, uncertain of what else to do.

“Yes, all animals can be trained.” Alissa smiled back, unaware of the uncertain present on Alex and Mev’s faces. “With the right amount of time.”

“Yes, if you could send a translation on the notebook that would be perfect.” Alex nodded.

“Now, I promised you, Mev, that I would tell you why I have been on errands the last couple of days.” He continued with a sigh.

“Finally, I was starting to think you were going to skip this part.” Mev replied, looking into Alex’s green eyes.

“Mother, can we borrow your study to discuss some case related topics?” Alex turned to his mother, who had sat down on the floor together with mr. Wrinkles.

“Hm? Yeah of course.” Alissa replied absent mindedly.

“Thank you, mother.” Alex expressed.