The day wasn't nice. There were few nice days to be had, but it was nothing that the people from Vienda weren't used to. They had simply trained themselves to wear more clothing, walk faster, and generally ignore the rain pelting them in the face.

The Seventen Headquarters seemed deserted, but one only had to walk by to feel the strength of the galdori fields that were coming from inside. Nobody was outside if they didn't have to be.

Except Patience, who was dutifully mopping up the large puddles of water that had gathered on the porch from one of the larger storms.

"Oh huuush li'l starfly go to sleep...something... something..." She sang to pass the time, a task made much harder by the fact that she didn't really know the words to any of the songs she was trying to sing.

Campion felt nervous entering the barracks- for a reason he couldn't quite pin down, like rainwater slipping through his fingers. He had not long ago discarded the broken umbrella which had caused him some amount of annoyance and had decided to take his chance with the elements- which were not kind.

But it was Loshis, and the rain was a fact of existence, perhaps even comforting to the young galdor as a consistency. On a small scale, one's world may be spinning out of control so fast that the motion sickness is almost unbearable- but one can always rely on the constant patter of rain at Loshis.

Eran's punch had blackened into a rather satisfying bruise skimming his jawbone and Campion, loathe to attempt some spell on it- for fear of backlash in the form of a nosebleed or worse had simply to pray that in his darkest, least worn looking suit he would look at least slightly respectable. If only his mother could see him now, thought Campion, face like a brawler, dressed like some kind of damp spiv- she may well have a fit. And to learn what he had done...well, Hyzenthlay Luccullis would drop down dead where she stood, glass of champagne shattering as it hit the floor.

The humming of a woman mopping over the rain, was almost ethereal to Campion's ears as he approached- tipped his hat to her and tried to smile, a facial expression he was rather having difficulty achieving as of late- through both the pain in his jaw and other reasons.

But I must think of Daisy, after all I am here for her These women would turn him mad, Campion deduced.

"Hullo, you wouldn't happen to know where I could find a- ah," he consulted the paper, "A Captain Brinny Pitt. It is rather important you see."

Patience paused and cringed for half a moment when a strange galdori approached her.

This is your job now.

"Oh. Um." She cleared her throat, "C-Captain Pitt? Lordy." She put her broom down and curtsied deeply.

"Right this way. Dunno why you'd want to see her anyway. Mean old gnat, she is." Patience talked when she was nervous. "To gollies anyway. Always has been nice t'me and Ben. My son, is who."

She hiked her skirts up as they walked by a puddle. "When she was on patrol, anyhow. Now she's gotten right nasty. Harmless, but she talks mean. En't gonna cut you no slack, if you catch me driftin'."

Patience scratched her head, "Mebbe she was always mean. I dunno."

She stopped in front of a door that looked like it was often slammed. It hung crookedly and the edges were very worn.

"Right. Here you are!" She curtsied again and hurried off like there was a fire under her tail.

The human woman was amiable enough, though he listened to her description with a growing sense of gloom like the thick clouds over head. He wasn't sure how often he could take being punched in the face.



No. She wouldn't do, would she? thought Campion, almost despairingly as he was led to Pitt's office. A bit of slack would have course been far too much to ask for. He watched the woman run off and called, rather pathetically, "Th-thank you, then."

Spotting the broken door, the young galdor sort of mentally hitched up his trousers, practising how he was going to phrase this particular predicament, hoping that for once, just once he would be able to do something right.

He knocked on the door and called, "Captain Pitt, might I trouble you for a few moments?"

Captain Pitt sighed when she heard the voice. Her head was pounding. The rain outside was making her leg ache like a bitch, and these gods curst files on the hatcher killer were scrambled like somebody had decided to take them and make breakfast with them. The Gods are laughing at me because I don't believe in them. She thought bitterly as she got up and limped to the door. She hadn't lowered herself to using a cane... yet.

The door opened quite suddenly and hit the wall with a bang. Captain Pitt glared into Campion's face.

"I don't like you already." She snapped, "Nobody ever troubles me for just a few moments. They all say that, but every time--" She paused and poked him in the chest, "Every. Damn. Time. one of you bloody galdori come in here I wind up having twice the amount of work that I had before you all grace me with your gods damned festering presence."

Captain Pitt might have been a little politer to someone who looked less young, and more important, but Campion struck her as the type that could be bullied into not reporting her to the higher authorities. That suited her.

She took a breath, recovering from her brief tirade and leaning heavily on the door knob. She hoped the boy wouldn't notice. It didn't do for people to think you were a cripple. "Who sent you?"

He looked at the woman hardened by time and the service, he guessed, or perhaps she was just born harsh- Campion didn't want to judge really.

"Yes, I am sorry. That was something of a euphemism, perhaps the 'trouble' I was talking about is slightly more appropriate than the 'few moments', Ma'am," said Campion bowing, still not smiling. He didn't bother to be offended by her dressing down of gollies and the notion of his 'festering presence'. The young man simply removed his hat from his head and ran a long finger nervously along it's brim.

"It was your nephew who sent me here- and he sends warm greetings to you. Domitian Pitt," Campion confirmed, one of the people that had triggered this messy chain of events- though Campion couldn't blame it all on the bespectacled galdor, that pleasure was mostly his own.

"He said you would be able to help me. I'm sorry if you're busy," he continued quickly, " It's just that I've lost someone."

Campion looked at his hands, realizing that this was probably the wrong way to phrase it- that he had lost quite a few people, mostly by pushing them away, abandoning them and disappointing them. "Rather, somebody I know is missing- an acquaintance, old housekeeper of mine,. Her family is very worried about her and I thought it my duty to help find her." I owe it to her. I need to do something to earn my penance

"I'm worried about her too, I mean, I haven't seen her since Bethas. Nobody has. But she's human..." he tried to smile, "nobody ever cares much when a human goes missing- not as much as if she were a golly at any rate." He looked up desperately, "I need help."

Her face cleared and then darkened when he said the name of her nephew. That boy was nothing but trouble... still, he was one of the only members of the family (the only one, in fact, since her father had died) she could stand. And now she was sending his friends to her for favors. She opened her mouth to say it.

"Fine, fine. Who is it you want me to beat up for you? The person who gave you that bruise? Would you like me to arrest them?" She had the sentence all lined up, ready to roll off her tongue like any other of her thoughtless insults.

And then he surprised her as he continued talking.

And then he surprised her more.

By the end of his explanation, Captain Pitt was surprised and extremely suspicious. People like this weren't real. There had to be some ulterior motive, and she'd be damned if she wasn't going to find out what it was.

"Come in." She said finally, standing aside and then shutting the door with a careful click. Her mind was racing. She walked back to her chair without limping. Every step caused a sharp pain to manifest itself all the way from the base of her foot to her brain.

She'd pay for her pride, but right now that didn't concern Brinny.

She sat down behind the desk and pulled out a thin cigar. She didn't offer one to Campion, as was polite. Brinny was the commanding officer here, and she didn't give a damn about being polite.

"Nobody's seen her since Bethas." She mumbled after taking a moment to suck on the cigar. Captain Pitt let out a stream of smoke through the corner of her mouth.

"And you say she was your housekeeper?" Brown eyes stared at him, narrowed suspiciously, "Why do you care what happened to her? Your duties to the family end once you stop paying her."

Campion suddenly felt, in the seventen's barracks, talking to a hardened officer, as though he were under questioning- which wasn't a pleasant thought since the young Luccullis boy already felt guilty about a million and one things at once. He played with the tip of his hat more nervously, trying to glean some comfort from his one constant companion.

"Yes, she stopped being my housekeeper," he cleared his throat trying to phrase things in a way that the average golly would understand, not able to bear a scrutinizing gaze from Brinny Pitt- as though the whole of galdori society were watching him, willing him to mess up again- they could be taking bets, though winnings would never be great the odds were stacked pretty high against him.

"I couldn't afford to pay her any more so she had to get another job. But Daisy was nice," he said shortly, "she worried. I gave her a very good reference and in return she kept checking in on me. You know what us male creatures can be like, constantly forgetting to eat and change our underclothes," he laughed somewhat hysterically.

"Daisy was nice," he repeated, willing himself to not sound so clocking guilty all of the time. "And that's why I care about what happens to her." Let her think what she wants, Campion decided, human is still better than passive. The fiction is still far far better than the truth.

"Is it bad, that she's been gone for a month?" Campion bit his lip. Returning to Vienda for a dead woman, leaving Brunnhold for nothing but a month old body was more than he could bear.

"She was a nice girl. Wouldn't even be able make an enemy out of a hatcher. Her sister..." he continued slowly, "she's different. But that wouldn't put Daisy in danger. Couldn't, could it?"

"Checking up. On you." She repeated sarcastically. Disbelief was clearly written all over her face. She wanted to say: I know what Dom does. You're probably as low as he is. I'm not some delicate flower whose ears you have to protect.

But she didn't. She had a sense of propriety... she was a galdor, after all.

She sighed. "What's your name, boy?" And then waved her hand to indicate it didn't really matter.

"Look. I'm sure Domitian means well, but the average Seventen's job doesn't involving conducting a search for your favorite missing hooker. First of all, women like those go missing all the time. Whether it was the husband, or the boyfriend, or the lover, or the pimp-- they'll always end up in trouble in one way or another."

She paused to suck on her cigar for a moment, "Secondly, isn't it in your best interest to keep those... habits to yourself? I know Dom thinks that just because I don't harp at him for his...relations... means I'm fine with them. I'm not. It's not right for galdori to be involving themselves with the lesser races. Besides being vile, it is taking advantage of them. We have a responsibility towards them. I have a responsibility towards them. I don't like to see people spitting in the face of that responsibility."

Captain Brinny Pitt let out smoke and stared at him sternly.

Speaking of responsibility.

"Has the family filed a missing persons report?" She ignored his last two questions. No sense dashing his hopes right away. It was possible they had already found the girl. As she waited for his answer she got up and walked towards her files (making sure to only limp a tiny bit) and opening the drawer.

Pitt jumped to a conclusion that didn't necessarily surprise Campion but it still stung, he opened his mouth to interject at Pitt's sarcasm but stopped himself.

Swallowing, Campion picked at the brim of Margaret more savagely than he had done in a long time, some of the beloved wicker-work coming loose.

He sniffed sharply when Pitt implied that Daisy was a whore and stared at his boots. The biggest blow however, was the Captain's labelling of any form of relations with the lower races as taking advantage it hit so close to home that Campion could see his door mat smoking- he'd been thinking nothing but that of himself already, and to have his fears confirmed by a woman he barely knew was like salt water on a red raw wound.

Responsibility to the lower races, he dug his nails into his palms, so hard it would draw blood. If there had been a plate of cookies in the room Campion felt sure that they would have been pitched at a wall by this point.

As it was, he looked at the scuff marks on his boots and tried very hard to block both her and another sharp voice in his head out, and not to break down, not again and not in front of a galdor.


Campion was snapped out of his reverie by the direct question and winced. His answer wasn't about to endear him to Captain Brinny Pitt, though he'd clearly made such a good job of it already, "Umm, I don't think so. I think they were rather under the impression that she had...run away with me he mumbled. "But she hadn't!"

"And she wasn't...isn't a prostitute," he said desperately, "She's a house.keeper. A nice girl. There's no husband, or boyfriend, or lover, and there is certainly no pimp! And as for my...my habits...I'm not," he stopped sharply- about to say that he was in no way the sort of vile person Pitt had him pegged as. Before remembering that he couldn't argue otherwise, not after what he'd done. That he really was the sort of vile person Pitt had him pegged as. He was probably even worse.

"I've met Domitas a grand total of once, Captain" he continued, struggling to stop his voice from trembling, "in Brunnhold where he informed me of my friend's disappearance wherein I returned immediately-" not quite immediately "-to Vienda."

"I just want help finding a friend," he sighed, "but if all that you're going to do is write her off as a whore, with all due respect Ma'am- I shall do this without the seventen if I have to."

At least he seems ashamed. Not like Dom. She glanced back at him and nodded, closing the file drawer with a thump and heading back to her chair. She was walking more gingerly than she had been. There was no hiding the pain when it was this intense. It was the damn rain.

"So she's been missing almost two months. Her family didn't file a missing persons report. And she's not a whore." Brinny scratched at her head, staring at Campion.

"According to you, anyway."

Gods she hated gollies. The Captain sighed. "I wouldn't recommend going to search for her in the Dives. It's not safe for galdori."

She pulled out a piece of paper and shoved it towards him along with a fountain pen. "Fill this out. And while you're doing that tell me what you knew about this friend of yours. Don't leave out any details. I'm not some frilly woman that needs to be spared of these things."

The paper was a missing persons report.

"And how on earth did Dom get in contact with you if you've never met? He's not exactly...social." Suspicion was creeping into her voice again.

"Are you alright?" he wondered, tipping his head to the side and finally looking at the way Brinny Pitt was walking, he could have sworn she wasn't limping before.

"And you needn't tell me it's not safe in the Dives for a golly," snorted Campion, "I live there." He pointed to the bruise on his jaw.

Picking up the fountain pen, Campion sighed; on a list of things he despised most in the world mindless bureaucracy was only just pipped to the top spot by the clothes his mother used to make him wear. Alioe, what on earth was the date today? Since Brunnhold, Campion had lost all track of time and he had sold his grandfather's pocket watch long ago.

"What I knew about my friend was what she told me. Though your nephew was kind enough to tell me that her sister is a whore. Which I think explains his involvement in this all- he seemed more than social enough to me when I met him.

Daisy cares about her mother quite a lot, she was teaching herself to read, and she ran an impeccable household." as he spoke, he absentmindedly doodled a female profile in the margin before looking down and scribbling it out savagely.

"There's nothing to spare you, unless you're offended by a girl who spoke back far more often than she should have done, was preternaturally good at card games and who was always telling me I was too thin."

He scratched his chin, wondering if he should tell her what else happened. He hardly wanted to admit it himself now with everything that had transpired between himself and Triston, that night in Bethas seemed so long ago, just the tip of the iceberg of his total ruin. He had changed so much since then- but it could be important.

"The last time I saw her, I kissed her," he said looking at the paper closely, the black ink blurring on the sheet of paper, "but it was just a kiss. Nothing more. And she left and I never saw her after that. I assumed that she was angry at me- so I didn't press it. I went to Brunnhold and I...allowed myself to become preoccupied with other matters" I met someone else to take advantage of, "until Dom knocked on my door." And by gods, I wish he hadn't.

"Well you're certainly not the most chivalrous of men, are you?" Brinny said with grim good humor. It was refreshing to have an honest man in front of her. One who seemed genuinely worried over the fate of his friend... even if he had been quite an idiot.

It was also fucking hilarious.

"I hope you don't do that with all of your women. A kiss, and then a vanishing act. Really that's quite terrible. Keep it up and some day some poor woman is going to snap!" She chuckled.

Aaaand back to cop mode. This wasn't Domitian she was speaking to!

"Do you know where she lived? Who she kept company with? Who her sister was? Her parents? Anything to start the investigation from?"

Campion groaned like a wounded animial Just don't. Please. Start talking about vanishing acts. A thread of wicker came loose from his hat. Why was it that talking to Captain Brinny Pitt felt like being kicked savagely and repeatedly in somewhere sensitive?



He looked at his feet, trying incredibly hard to remember what Daisy might have mentioned about her family at all...and drew a complete mental blank. It was though a teacher at Brunnhold had taken it upon themselves to actually ask him a question "Umm, not anything specific as such... No. I don't really know anything about her home life at all."

Oh Alioe. If the whole situation hadn't been so clocking awful, and if he hadn't felt so horrible about himself at this minute, Campion might have actually started laughing. As it was, he simply wanted to find a nice cosy corner of Pitt's office and curl into a ball and not come out until he was at LEAST sixty.

A cloud of smoke covered Pitt's face for a very long, very quiet moment. Then the laughing started. Captain Brinny Pitt laughed, and laughed and laughed and laughed until she started to cough. And when she was done coughing she laughed again.

It must have been a very long, painful time for Campion as she laughed.

"So wait. Let me get this straight." She coughed and held her cigar out to the side, leaning back in her chair. "You want me to go look for a girl who you supposedly care about. This girl..." She glanced down at the paper and read the name backwards, "Daisy. You don't know anything about her, do you?"

Brinny rolled the brown tube back and forth between her thumb and her forefinger, "Bells and Chimes, are you sure she wasn't a prostitute? You can tell me." Now that her amusement had died down her eyes were steady and serious upon him, "I could care less about bringing your name down, so you wont have to worry about that. My own nephew does that sort of unspeakable thing anyway, so I suppose you could tarnish my family name in return, if you're really worried about it."

Not that our family name is even worth tarnishing. The Pitts are a disgusting family.

Well, he was being laughed at. Not with, definitely at. Hardly an unusual occurrence- but all the same, it was hardly pleasant when he was trying to do some serious internal angsting about his morals and his treatment of the fairer sex.

"That's kind of you, really but this most certainly isn't about family names," he said, shutting his eyes in a kind of mental pain. "I am sure that yes, Father would pitch a fit if he got to hear of this- but I really think he stopped having a right to worry about this sort of business when he disinherited me. Not that there's anything to hear about or any sort of business at all."

He looked up, "I know what I must look like,...but she wasn't a prostitute- I know she wasn't, and I'll confess I don't know many particulars about her life. But what I did know about her, I was very fond of. Surely that counts for something? I just want her to be alright." After that, I'll probably have to go and join the Everine- hide behind a mask for the rest of my life and practice total abstinence.

Brinny looked at him for a long time, searchingly, and the nodded as if deciding something. She put her cigar out on the table and got up. Or tried to. She almost fell. She winced and leaned heavily on the table. The look on her face would have told Campion not to mention what had just happened.

Captain Pitt walked over to the door and poked her head out. There was some shouting that went on that Campion couldn't quite make out.

She came back in and limped back to the desk.

"You'll be meeting the officers who are going to look for this girl, soon... Word to the wise, though. Don't expect too much. Gone two months in the dives. Well. Let's just say it can't be good."

Brinny left it at that.

Nevinia did not enjoy office work; she was the sort who'd rather be outside, on the streets, whether on her chrove or not. Anything but office work. A riot over office work. Stacks of paper on the narrow desk that required stamping and re-reading and signatures and follow-up requests.

"Ugh." The stack never seemed to really get smaller some days, piling up on the smooth wood surface buried underneath like so much Loshis rain water in a ditch.

Then a familiar voice was shouting from down the hall. That must surely have been Captain Pitt. The Constable winced, briefly, before realizing that it was actually an excuse to give her hand a clocking break for a while. Glancing at the next desk over and offering a coy sort of grin, the dark-haired woman stood, waving a hand almost demurely to the officer stamping dates onto files next to her,

"I got this one."

With a smirk, she straightened her sash, checked her three snaps, and wandered down the hall at the slightly ambiguous summons. Nia knocked on the door once,

"Constable Greymoor, sir." She said firmly before turning the handle and standing in the threshold, grey eyes briefly darting from the blond galdor to the Captain, "You called?"

"Indeed I did. Constable Greymoore, meet Mr. Luccullis. Mr. Luccullis, meet the woman who will be helping you find... what has happened to your friend."

She had been about to say 'the whearabouts', but she didn't want to give the boy any illusions.

"At your service, Mr. Luccullis." Nevinia arched a dark eyebrow after bowing politely in Campion's direction, "Is this to be a missing persons investigation?"

The young galdor bowed politley, distractedly, to Constable Greymoor still toying with Margaret between his fingers. He felt constricted within the barracks, held down like a mouse with a trap on its tail- though the trap was of course all one of his own makings.

Campion was most keen not to have to relay the whole pathetic story to Constable Greymoor as well as to Brinny Pitt, finding refuge in the illusion of respectability that went hand in hand with a field- however weak his was.

"Missing persons," mumbled Campion with a nod of his head. It wasn't just Daisy who was missing though, a part of Campion- the part so certain of his own behaviour, his own beliefs and motives and character- was missing too. Was it with the human? In a seedy inn at Brunnhold? Or had it slipped away unnoticed like a whisper or a sigh some months ago?

"Nice to meet you Constable," said Campion bowing and trying to smile, "I really do appreciate the help, and I'll try to be as useful as a possibly can. It's not a great deal of use though, I'm afraid," he grinned sheepishly, falsely.

"Splendid." Brinny said, sounding much like her nephew had at one point during Campion's previous meeting with him.

"A human woman has gone missing in the Dives. It's been about two months since her disappearance. You know as well as I do this happens all the time..." Brinny trailed off, "However, I'd like you to look around, a little. Hopefully find out if she's dead or not. Set Mr. Luccullis's mind at peace." She glanced up sarcastically, as if she still quite didn't believe Campion was truly worried for this 'friend' of his.

"The report is right there..." Captain Pitt sighed and rubbed her head, "I know we don't have people to spare-- if we did I'd send one of my more...well known subordinates... I trust you will handle this investigation with the highest amount of formality, Constable? I don't want to hear of any human beatings coming from you or your partner. I have people there who know things and they will tell me. And I will put you on suspension if such a thing is to happen." Hard brown eyes looked at Nevinia humorlessly.

"That will be all. For both of you. Out of my office!" She barked suddenly.

"And Campion? If you ever need a hand again, talk to my nephew. He'll get in contact with me. You seem well enough, for a galdor." It was the closest she would come to a compliment towards the boy.

"Now out! I have work to do!"