Blood from Stone [AU]

[Tethras Clan]

Aveline slowly relaxes as she studies each of them in turn- including Beka and Hunter, just in case. "We're clean. Okay. Carver, hold a minute." Looking at the two scholars, she takes a slow breath. "I assume the two of you know how to handle a cursed substance for testing?"

[Helene Dakesh]

"This one is quite familiar with the procedure," Helene reassures her.

[Tethras Clan]

"Good." How should I... "Carver... I need you to head back to HQ and put out a full alert. Take Hunter. This case just became high priority." To the hells with politics right now. We can a hair's breadth from having a possessed Light. "I want guards- full squads- heading to every known person that's taken this stuff. You can assign yourself to Liz, that's fine. You two keep breaking this stuff down- I want to know as much as you can figure out about what it does and what produced it. Nikolaos, we need to have a talk. Everything you know? I know in the next ten minutes."

[Nikolaos "Niko" Kingfisher]

"What do you mean everything?" he asks, aghast.

[GamesMaster]

Everything, it turns out, is an awful lot of detail that means nothing to Captain Vallen but a lot to Huntinghawk, if her increasingly thinning lips are any indication. With Aveline's ability to cast Detect Evil on the vials, they abandon testing the other batches and get to work cross-referencing the ingredients and the sources. When added to Cindy's list, they come up with a few candidates, including one smoking gun: a base carrier oil that Varric starred because he doesn't use it so he can't verify if it's tainted or not. This same base was in the batch Niko brewed, and both he and Liz picked up some supplies recently from a new seller in the Undercity.

Because of course it's in the Undercity.

Aveline takes no less than two full squads of guards down with her, aiming for quick resolution rather than stealth. As such, the merchant has some warning they're coming; when they arrive, the man is shovelling the last of his notebooks into a roaring fireplace before turning on them, armed with a fireplace poker and a beaker. This seems laughable at first... until he swallows the contents of the beaker, doubles in size, and goes into a rage, swinging at them with abandon and refusing to be subdued even when wounded badly.

[Tethras Clan]

Thankfully, magical healing means that Aveline's three broken ribs are healed in a few moments and while her guard tabard is shredded and blood soaked, replacements aren't hard to come by. What's less easy to handle is the longer-term aftermath. Divination and object based restoration magic is able to provide some information on what happened but not nearly enough. They determine that the man's 'sponsor' was a devil, and a fairly powerful one at that. They can't get a name, however, but that very thing provides the information that said sponsor was a contract devil, who are notorious about including clauses citing their identity as 'privileged information' in every contract. And when a devil signs a contract with a mortal, the mortal keeps it, even in death. Not even the brewer's corpse or hand-written papers are able to break that vow of secrecy.

Still, they find the source of the tainted oil, more or less. Evidently, the brewer- tentatively identified as Drusin Catterly- was soaking a fetish made from a lilin's skull wrapped in a dreamthief hag's skin in the oil as part of a ritual. Attempts were made to use the fetish to track the afflicted but that route was quickly determined to be impossible. As such, as soon as the fetish's magic was recorded to at least create a test for whether a person had been touched by its effects in the last year, it was destroyed. Vigorously. They also find a half dozen slumbering homeless in the back of the house whom they determine were destined to be the start of a basic labour force to spread the reach of the enterprise. Everyone that they can manage to track down is woken and treated as best they can, netting a few dozen sleepers. And four people who were broken into accepting deals.

[Carver Amell]

Liz is safe.

Thwack! The axe comes down, splitting the log nearly halfway. Carver presses his boot against it, pulling the tool free, absently noting how dull it's getting.

Aveline will take care of it.

Thwack! This time the log splits, and he tosses the pieces aside, grabs another.

Nobody's been possessed.

Thwack! 

[Tethras Clan]

The poor man's calm is likely not helped by the sound of the gate being yanked open, then slammed shut. Nor does Aveline's dark and scowling face as she strides into view. Her eyes dart over the scene before her and she relaxes, just a hair. "Carver." She's in her uniform, a fresh guard tabard draped over her armour, which is unhidden by glamour at the moment... mostly. Carver, long familiar with her, is aware that actual armour is much less... ornate than it appears to be right now. That's a common trick she does when having to speak with nobles or the like, in order to make them take her a little more seriously.

[Carver Amell]

Carver glances up, taking in her expression, her armor. Without a word, he passes her the axe.

[Tethras Clan]

Aveline blinks, then steps forward to take the axe with a very faint smile. She cuts a few blocks of wood, then sighs. "...how are you doing?" I suspect I know but that's the best I have to start this.

[Carver Amell]

"Liz is safe," he says, dully. "I trust you took care of the problem?"

[Tethras Clan]

"That doesn't actually answer my question," Aveline notes pointedly as she clears the block and places a fresh log to be split.

[Carver Amell]

"Liz is safe. Nobody's possessed. You're taking care of it," he replies, monotonously. "That's all I can let myself think about. Otherwise I get so mad I could kill someone."

[Tethras Clan]

Aveline pauses in her work to study him. "Do you need a spar then?" Getting to the point- no, past the point were I can afford to play with him but there's still no real danger in it for either of us, even should we go all out.

[Carver Amell]

"Gods, yes," he says, with a nod. "Unless you wanted to talk about something first or something."