Giselle - The Guard Captain Died

The guard captain died before a clap of thunder hit Giselle in the face. The Goddess of Glaives had arrived. Her heavy pole arm split the captain almost straight down the middle. Crackling lightning evaporated half his blood before it reached the ground. Esmaralde's glaive swung up. The Censors fell backwards.

"Rebellion!" the Managing Censor cried.

He died. The deputies died. Members of the Tianming Guard began to die.

"Get on the ground and surrender, you fucking idiots!" shouted Giselle.

The idiots complied. Esmaralde looked at Giselle, smirked kindly, leapt straight into the air – and vanished inside a thunderbolt. Nobody got up off the ground. Even the Peach Topaz Palace guardsmen remained prostrated.

Giselle walked up to the shaking Magistrate Berge.

"I'm not sure what's going on," she said. "But I am sure that you will take me to the sites 'Consort Chen' attacked."

"Yes," nodded the Magistrate.

"Uncharacteristically, I'm not going to kill anyone," said Giselle. "Everyone can get up."

Everyone got up. Giselle asked them if she had provided a warning about the Crown Princess. They mumbled. Giselle asked the question more forcefully. Everyone agreed. Giselle told the Tianming Guard to return to whoever was in charge and explain the situation.

"The only avenue to protest what happened is for Tianming Duke to appear before the Emperor and state a grievance," said Giselle. "Coming back with more force will only get more people killed – and the Crown Princess would then take the fight to you."

The Tianming Guard retreated. Giselle turned to the Peach Topaz Guard.

"I'm sorry to ask," she said, "but could you clean up this mess? You shouldn't need any gory evidence, Magistrate. What happened was observed by all."

"I don't need anything," agreed the Magistrate eagerly.

"Then let's you and me visit some other murder scenes," said Giselle.

They departed.

"I've never seen anything like that," said Magistrate Berge.

"Our Emperor is a pioneer in the art of marrying for strategic advantage," said Giselle. "The Crown Prince has continued the tradition. There's about twenty people in Great Yao who stand on a level comparable to the Goddess of Glaives. The woman who used to own that mansion…."

"Lady Wu?" asked the Magistrate. "I always considered her terrifying."

"Recently you've interacted with Mu Lang, of Jian Peak Abbey," said Giselle, "and Bon Bao, a former tenant of Lady Wu."

"Those two were in a brawl," said Magistrate Berge.

"You told the boys from Jian Peak to leave town," said Giselle.

"I did," agreed Berge. "I worried that officials would characterize their brawl as an attempt to disrupt the docks. Those officials would then use that attempt as an excuse to extend their own power over the docks – with attendant economic benefits."

"I wouldn't have thought of that right away," said Giselle. "But I agree with your assessment."

"Jian Peak's young men are always flashy," said Magistrate Berge. "People watch where they go. So by leaving town, it became widely known they had fled. Consequently, the brawl could not have been an attempt to take over the docks."

"I'm glad the Crown Princess didn't kill you," said Giselle.

"Only half as glad as I am."

"Do you know what Mu Lang and the others did after they left town?"

"I've more than enough to worry about in Tianming Town," said the Magistrate. "If they caused trouble elsewhere, I'm afraid I don't know anything about it."

"They were abducted," said Giselle.

She had been using all of her tricks, which were many, to track the Magistrate's biorhythms while he talked about Mu Lang and the others. So far, she did not believe that he was deceiving her.

"Abducted?" sputtered the Magistrate. "Impossible. Mu Lang is too strong."

The Magistrate passed Giselle's tests again – but not without a few blips. She was prepared to believe that he had nothing to do with Mu Lang's abduction. But the idea of abductions was not foreign to him.

"Mu Lang's skills aren't all there yet," said Giselle, "but he is widely considered the successor to Jian Peak Abbot. His forms are called the third most beautiful in Great Yao."

"First place belongs to Her Majesty the Empress," said Magistrate Berge. "Who's second?"

"Consort Chen," replied Giselle.

"Of course," said Magistrate Berge. "Let's remember that point!"

He laughed.

"Fair enough," said Giselle. "Magistrate, do you have information about a systematic effort to abduct martial artists?"

"Well…," he said.

"It's perfectly acceptable," said Giselle, "to say that the information is not solid enough to qualify as evidence of a conspiracy. But this is more important than a few missing street boxers."

The Magistrate sighed.

"Yes," he said. "Members of Raggedy Star Alliance disappear now and then. With that organization, disappearances are to be expected. Members of other societies go missing less frequently. But they do go missing, and my deputies have no leads. People go missing for a variety of reasons, of course. Abduction is only one such reason. No one as prominent as Mu Lang has gone missing, however."

"He wasn't abducted in Tianming Town," said Giselle. "And we know it was an abduction."

"How?" asked Magistrate Berge.

"One of them escaped and told us."

Giselle paid extra close attention to the Magistrate's vitals. 

"Which one escaped?" he asked.

He genuinely appeared not to know.

"The pretty one," said Giselle.

"Ah, yes," chuckled Magistrate Berge. "Pin Fun."

"What about the people in that brawl other than Bon Bao and Jian Peak gigolos?"

"No one has reported any missing," said Magistrate Berge.

"Could you have your people look for them?"

"Of course. Here we are."

They reached a bland government building.

"What's this?" asked Giselle.

"A makeshift morgue," said Magistrate Berge. "We've run out of space at the real ones. Once you examine the wounds, you'll agree Consort Chen killed these people."

They went inside. There were a dozen bodies. Giselle examined the wounds. Most were almost impossible to see. Each body had several precise stabs. Each stab was potentially lethal. There were no stray or inconsequential wounds. All together, the stabs would have been instantly fatal if they occurred in rapid succession.

"It's hard to tell from the bodies alone," said Magistrate Berge, "and I will take you to the sites. For now, just trust me that these wounds happened at the same time. Not just on one body. They happened at the same time on all of the bodies. All these people died in the same instant."

"That's consistent with Claws and Fangs of the White Tiger," agreed Giselle.

Snowblind Tigress used a single wakizashi – and spectacular ice magic.

"More formidable opponents were sliced in half," said Magistrate Berge. "The bodies were still frozen when we found them."

"On the list of more formidable opponents…?" asked Giselle.

"Mr. Woe's name is there," nodded Magistrate Berge.

"Well," said Giselle. "I have no idea what to say."

With Sorrow Woe Society destroyed in one night, having no idea what to say was putting it mildly. What could have provoked Snowblind Tigress?

How could Sorrow Woe Society do something so stupid?

Why hadn't anyone told Giselle about it?