Blood from Stone [AU]

[Tethras Clan]

"All the names will be keep in the strictest of confidences unless charges are filed," Aveline says in a low voice as she follows him. Her jaw twitches a little, and she begrudgingly offers some carrot. "Right now, I'm only looking for potentially lethal issues. If there's some... gray medicine or sources, I'm far too busy to care right now."

[GamesMaster]

"Of course, of course," he mumbles, opening the ledger. "Here are the suppliers," he says, then offers her a stack of pads like the one at his register. "These are the weekly sales." 

As she skims down the sales lists, she finds only a few names she recognizes, and not all of them from this case. There are many names, and many of them buying exactly the same tonic Juniper did; if this were the source, or the sole source, she'd expect an epidemic, with wagonloads of dead cats. Instead, it looks like at best one of their suppliers has tainted goods, and there was perhaps one or two bad batches.

[Tethras Clan]

Hmm. He says that all the brews are the same but even I know that's impossible. As much as it horrifies every alchemist I've ever met, brewing and cooking are not entirely dissimilar. And no matter how good you are, there are variations when you make the same dish over and over again. So... "This customer... this one and this one. They all bought the same tonic, but so did others. Was there anything- anything at all- special about them?" Aveline looks up from the book as she speaks, letting a bit of steel come into her eyes.

[GamesMaster]

He leans over, studying the names. "This tonic is of interest?" he asks, tilting his head. He squats again, pulling out another book: one with a little lock on the cover. He deftly unlocks it, paging through, reading the notes in Catfolk therein, and nods, turning it around to show her: "This is the batch Juniper bought. Brewed Caelday, full moon. Very good vibes, the full moon brews. Slightly more potent, better for your skin."

He points a claw at the ledger, jabbing it over the names she indicated, next to a number beside the price. "Twelve bottles. Here, here, here, these seven bottles were sold. Two the brewer kept -- very good for fur, good for attracting mate. Three still on the shelves. If you like, I can recall the three. Problem solved, yes?"

[Tethras Clan]

Aveline leans in to read the book, frowning. "Mavis was the brewer?" She can read catfolk just fine, though the handwriting is a touch challenging at her angle. "Have you seen her since? Do you know if she's taken the tonics?"

[GamesMaster]

He flinches slightly at the name, shaking his head. "No, no, the brewers use code names. I have to ask the owner which brewer that is. I can find out, for you. It is, you see, we had some trouble, some threats, when -- we have a generous return policy, you understand, but those for whom a tonic did not meet their expectations sometimes become violent."

[Tethras Clan]

"Magic can't fix every problem but people don't like to hear that sort of thing." Aveline snorts grimly. "How about the other buyers? Any of them repeat customers or friends that you haven't seen since they bought their tonics?"

[GamesMaster]

"Ah, yes..." he says slowly. "We all heard about Basil, of course, and last I heard Margery was being cared for at the Temple with some illness." 

[Tethras Clan]

"I see." Aveline taps the page. "Did you supply whoever Mavis is with their ingredients or did they?"

[GamesMaster]

"They came from the store's inventory, of course. All the purchase records are in here," he adds, gesturing to the bound notebook.

[Tethras Clan]

"I see..." With that, Aveline redirects her focus to the bound notebook, a quick prayer to Vangal that there's a common source to find.

[GamesMaster]

There's... a lot of sources. Many of them are grey market or listed with suspicious vagueness. And all of them include lists of raw ingredients purchased. She's going to need an alchemist to make sense of this, of what might have been in that tonic in the first place, how long things could be stored...

[Tethras Clan]

Damn. So much for getting an yes or no right now. "Hmm. Are you able to determine what shared ingredients are shared between these brews?"

[GamesMaster]

"I'm, I'm really not allowed to share the recipe," he hesitates, one ear flicking. "But..."

[Tethras Clan]

"I'm not an alchemist- might as well be baking ingredients for all that I could use the recipes for. All I need is to find out what they have in common," she assures them. Truth be told, I'd do better if it were a cake or bread.