Quarrels and Quills

Eve Travers and Cambria Morehouse

"Hm," Eve mused. "I don't think we have to just. Accept this. Like it's a done deal. Can't we ask for more time?"

"And give them other options," Cambria agreed. "After all, Keeva is your responsibility, Rosemary. She can't live the rest of her life in the castle, but you should have some say in what happens to her. This isn't an emergency. She's in no danger for the time being. I think it's reasonable to ask for more time to figure this out."

Something was still bothering Eve. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Yes, the possibility of Keeva leaving was sad and distressing, especially with a sibling who caused Rosemary such distress - but there was more to it than that. A lingering question.

"I wonder..." Eve said. Then, realizing she had never finished that thought, she added, "I wonder how Saundra knew. She said she 'heard the good news.' But how? How did she hear before you?"

Cambria nodded. "Eve is right. Why is Saundra even involved in this? It seems suspicious to me."

Rosemary Bain

"You're right, of course. We just have the rumour - not the official word. We need to go get the whole story."

Rosemary established a rather vigorous pace on the way to her chambers. She could only assume there was an owl waiting by her window with a letter. Her brow lowered in thought and she clasped her hands behind her back.

"I don't know. Saundra...is a bit of a puzzle. She was with the group at my door protesting Keeva, but then she shows up at my classroom or in the hallway with a smile and a friendly word. I can't tell if she's playing the field, or...well, playing another kind of field. She actually makes me rather uncomfortable. Mostly because I can't figure out her motives."

They reached the door and Rosemary entered only to stop abruptly at the opening. Webs. Everywhere. A smell.

"Keeva? Keeva, are you alright?"

Keeva was not in sight. Nor was Lucie. And no letter or owl sat at the window.

Rosemary closed the door behind them, looking round the hallway before doing so. She looked up at the ceiling, under the bed...before turning to her friends.

"We need to find her. I don't know what happened, but we need to find her."

Cambria Morehouse

"We do," Cambria agreed. "As quickly as possible."

It was unclear exactly what had happened here. Had Keeva been taken? But who would do that? And why? There already seemed to be a plan in place to forcibly relocate her - if those people were trying to kidnap her, why didn't they just wait for their plan to come to fruition instead of jumping ahead of their own efforts? Or was another group in play too?

...Or had Keeva run away for some reason? Had she somehow heard what was in store for her? But... how, when they had only just found out themselves?

Eve had another question entirely. "Where is Lucie? She wouldn't be easy to catch."

Not unless someone startled her, at least...

Cambria looked around at the mess in the chamber. "Revelio!" she said, casting about with her wand to search for any traces of magic, spells, or charms that had been used in this room - if anything lingered.

Eve, meanwhile, engaged in some more mundane detective work, sniffing around to identify the odor, examining the webbing that seemed to be obscuring almost every surface, and looking for footprints or visible fingerprints or any other physical traces left behind.

Rosemary Bain

She was so thankful for her friends in this moment. While she was looking under furniture as though searching for a lost button, the effects of Cambria's spell flit through the air and Eve's pursuit of the smell gave way to answers. Rosemary looked up at two ribbons of light that appeared to be wafting through the open window. One, a speech spell. The other... As Eve pulled a chest forward, following both a visible and invisible line, a small body flopped out of the opening. An animal. Poisoned, like the rat had been before, but this poor thing had been dead for longer.

A flash of anger moved over her and her want appeared in her hand. "incendio" she whispered through gritted teeth and the fetid creature burst into flames. It was quite unlike her to light a fire in her own room outside of the fireplace, but Rosemary was quite past behaving in the usual manner.

"Someone tried to kill Keeva - and when that didn't work, they sent something else in here." The incensed witch pointed at the other spell, slowly dissipating like mist.

Rosemary marched to the window and leaned out to inspect the courtyard below. Professor Davies looked up at that moment and smiled at her, lifting her coffee cup in a sort of salute before continuing on her way - seemingly unaware of her distress. She narrowed her eyes at the other professor's retreating back before returning to her inspection of the area outside of the window. There was nothing below to suggest anything nefarious. Whoever had cast the spells was long gone. Probably. She closed her eyes and let the wind brush her face, cooling her flushed cheeks. Taking a deep breath, she turned to go back inside.

It was then that she spotted it. A bit of web stuck to the wall outside the window. Keeva. Rosemary leaned out further, eyes travelling up and down the rough-hewn stone - there, another scrap.

"Keeva's left on her own, I think. There's a trail outside. Perhaps that's why Lucie isn't here. She might be following her."

She wished not for the first time that she'd given Lucie some sort of trinket Rosemary could use to track her. It had scarce been necessary - the jackdaw had been her constant companion - but there were times when she had been concerned and wished she could look in on her friend. Rosemary had never done so because of that very reason. Her concern was no reason to invade Lucie's privacy.

"If Keeva goes to the forest, Aragog may take offence. It won't be safe for her...and oh dear, we need to get after her. Brooms, ladies? Meet you outside?"

Rosemary was already moving toward her wardrobe, throwing the doors open before standing stock still, staring inside. Her broom was webbed to the wooden structure, but perhaps most importantly, a small lump hung from the top of the structure by a single thread. The lump danced around on its own, faint squawks coming from it.

"Lucie." the word was spoken so softly that it might not have been heard at all.

Eve Travers and Cambria Morehouse

"And someone murdered another rat," Eve added with quiet anger. This was getting even further out of control. She was able to get a close enough look at the unfortunate creature before the impromptu cremation to be certain it wasn't Shelby, but still. A crime was a crime.

"It does appear that way," Cambria agreed when Rosemary said that Keeva had left on her own. But of her own volition? That seemed unlikely. Someone had surely scared her so badly that she thought she had no choice.

And why exactly was Professor Davies turning up everywhere? Cambria didn't necessarily put it definitively past the realm of coincidence yet, but it was becoming highly suspicious. Why was she involved, though? What connection did she have to Keeva? Or to Rosemary?

For now, that question had to wait, because Rosemary was right - Aragog and his kin were unlikely to take kindly to a strange acromantula not of their brood wandering into their forest. They needed to find her. Quickly. Then the whys could be sorted out.

The two witches nodded and turned to go for their brooms... then they saw the sad little web-wrapped bundle.

"Oh no..." Cambria whispered.

Eve produced a small silver dagger from on her person. The blade was tiny, intended for chopping and slicing potions ingredients, so it was wickedly sharp and utterly precise. Eve took Lucie into her palm and carefully sliced away the webbing with a fast and practiced hand; despite the blade's sharpness, not a feather was nicked as as she hastily freed the bird, then - before Lucie had time to panic - passed her back to Rosemary.

"Is she alright?" Eve asked worriedly.

Rosemary Bain

She took Lucie in her hand, whispering words over her as the bird lay on her back cradled by Rosemary's fingers. When offered a droplet of water, the jackdaw drank it down greedily. The witch slowly gave the bird additional droplets until she turned her bill away. She flipped over onto her feet and allowed Rosemary to set her on a perch on the other side of the room by the window. There, she wavered back and forth before settling in and closing her eyes to rest.

Rosemary stepped away from the perch and finally replied to Eve's question. "Yes. She will be fine with some rest. Keeva didn't poison her, only wrapped her up. Lucie just wore herself out trying to free herself. She'll bounce back."

Stepping to a curio cabinet, Rosemary pulled out a blade of her own, with which she cut away the webbing holding her broomstick fast to the wardrobe. She'd deal with the mess later - she really needed to prevent a much larger mess. Broom in hand, she looked at the window, then back at her friends.

"Meet you outside? I will see if I can find where the trail ends - and we can all hope she hasn't made a break for the forest."

~~~~~~

As Rosemary's shadow passed overhead, Saundra smiled at the empty courtyard from her shaded perch under a canopy. She had quill and paper in her hand now and she made a few decisive strokes even as she sipped from her floating coffee mug. Yes, things were finally getting underway.

Eve Travers and Cambria Morehouse

Eve and Cambria quickly got their own brooms and joined Rosemary in the air.

"I'm going to go find Aragog," Eve announced. At Cambria's look of alarm, she hastily clarified. "I'm not going to get near him. But we need to know where he is. So he doesn't surprise us. And we can't keep Keeva away from him if we don't know where to keep her away from."

Cambria had to admit that was a good point. She didn't like it, though. She bit her lip and said, "Be careful. Please be careful."

Eve smiled reassuringly. "I will. I'll stay in the air. You can help Rosemary look for Keeva."

Doing it from the air was trickier than Eve had anticipated. The trees were thick. She found herself diving lower and lower, trying to see through the canopy, and it was slower going than she would have hoped - the alternative was smacking face-first into a tree, though, which wouldn't help anyone. She kept up her search.

Meanwhile, Cambria was flying loops near where Rosemary was examining the trail, hoping to catch sight of the wayward acromantula.