Intimancer

The wall had grown.

Within hours of everyone returning home after combing the city for clues, Rick had done his best to annotate and organize every scrap of information they could give him.  As a result, his creation became a twisting mass of paper and string that slowly consumed more and more of the painted plaster it grew over.  And at the center of it all, like the beating heart of this conspiracy, was the map of Shatak itself.

If Rick was being honest, he was beginning to feel like he was searching for Pepe Silvia rather than his wife.  It wasn’t quite that bad for the moment, but only time would tell.

As evening fell, Rick stared at all the bits of ink and paper they had collected during the day.  Most of what they gathered had been from the students and event staff working at the arena since they would have the most pertinent information on the inciting incident as it were.  Most of the work Tyr or Daniela had done was to put out feelers for anyone who had seen what happened after Sade was taken from the premises.

So until those leads bore fruit, Rick could only focus on how Sade had been taken and possibly motivations.  And so, he stared at the wall, taking in all the small details one small sheet of paper at a time.

“Has it started speaking to you yet?”

Rick turned from where he stood to see Lilie padding softly over towards him, her tail gently swinging side to side with each sway of her generous hips.  The appendage was so often covered up by her clothing that Rick sometimes forgot she even had it.  It was odd how he was suddenly focused on the small details he never really noticed up to that point.

“So, has the map started speaking to you?”  She repeated with a smirk.

Rick chuckled softly.  “No, not yet.  I’m just taking it all in.  Shifting the pieces around in my head until something falls into place.”

He felt soft arms slide across his shoulders and wrap him in a warm and gentle hug.  “We miss you…”

“Sade’s out there, alone!  I can sleep when she’s finally back in my arms!”  He snapped.

Rick felt Lilie’s arms tighten their hold until he was trapped in a squeeze that would put a constrictor to shame.  “You don’t really mean that.  Now, as your personal physician, I’m well within my rights to drag your sorry ass through the halls and toss you into bed so Tyr and I can take out our own personal frustrations on your cock.  How about that?”

Rick gulped.  Even just the idea made his pelvis twinge in phantom pain.  “I… I… Aw fuck… I’m sorry Lilie.”  He sighed.  “I just feel so useless!  Nobody saw or heard a damn thing and none of the things we found are helping at all!  The thought that she’s gone forever just-”

“Don’t.”  Lilie said, cutting him off in a quiet yet firm voice.  “You should know as well as I do that dwelling on this will do fuck all for Sade or for you.”

Rick stared at his pale lover.  “When did you get so wise?”  He joked.

“I listened to you.”  She shot back and nuzzled his cheek.  “Tell ya what.”  She said while turning them both to face the wall once more.  “Walk me through what we know happened.  Maybe going over it together will help us spot something we might have missed on our own.”

Rick sighed once more. “Yeah… okay”

“And then you will come to bed?”

“Ugh… fine!”  He shouted in mock exasperation.  “I swear there’s no use fighting you when you dig your heels in.”

Lilie let out one of her musical giggles.  “Look who’s spouting words of wisdom now?”

Rick just shook his head and looked towards his timeline.  “How far back you want me to go with this?”  He asked.

“Let's go over the events of today and then go from there.”

Rick nodded his head and concentrated on the facts they had lined up in the beginning.  “Let’s see… We all woke up from the wild night we had before.”

“She was quite vigorous after her fight, wasn’t she?”  LIlie giggled again.

Rick shot his companion a sideways glance, but otherwise ignored the question.  “After that, we got dressed, ate, then walked to the arena with Rayna and the others.”

Lilie nodded her horned head.  “Sounds about right, did anything abnormal stick out from the walk?”

“Aside from the occasional glances at seeing such a large and eclectic group of people all walking together, I didn’t notice anything.”  Rick replied with a frown.  “Remind me to ask Tyr and Daniela if they spotted anything odd during that walk.  If anyone noticed something, it would be those two.”

“After we finish the day’s events.”  Lilie chided.  “Now continue.”

“Once we arrived, we split off towards the separate entrances.  Then Sade headed towards the contestant waiting room and we went off to the stands.”

“Was the attendant in the lobby the same rude man we argued with later?”

Rick paused and did his best to recall who was sitting at the desk when they first walked in that day.  “Hrm… Now that you mention it, no.  I think it was a woman that time, but not the same woman on that first day.”

“And what does that tell us?”

“It tells us that they are quite well staffed and like to rotate them around periodically.”  Rick mumbled.  He walked towards the nearest table and scribbled a few words on the note before pinning it above the timeline.

“Is that an important detail?”  Lilie asked with a smirk.

Rick shook his head.  “It could be important, it could not.  But my gut is telling me that it’s a detail we should at least mark down.”

“It’s not that uncommon.  It’s boring doing the same thing all day.”

“True.”  Rick admitted.  “But I guess it all depends on the frequency of the rotations.  See, if someone is in one spot all day, they can quickly spot if anything unusual happens.  By shuffling the staff around every which way, no one knows the full story of what’s going on in any given area.  Especially if the shift times aren't consistent.  That would make interviewing them for details even more difficult.”

Lilie’s smile grew wide.  “Good.  That’s the same thing that stuck out to me when I talked to each of them.”

Rick was surprised.  “You already knew the shift changes were odd?”

“Yep, but I wanted to see if it stuck out to you as well without me pointing it out.”

“Why didn’t you mark that down on the wall?”

“Because at the time, I only thought it was frustrating to deal with.  This exercise isn’t just to help you pick out the details you know.”

RIck paused to consider her words.  Just going over the details by himself admittedly hadn’t really done much to help.  But in the span of a few minutes with Lilie and a few pointed questions, they had already spotted a small detail that they individually missed.

“We’re going to have to get the others.”  He announced.

Lilie held up her hand.  “Oh no.  Not tonight.  We’re all worn out and exhausted from the day’s events.  We won’t be helping Sade at all if we wear ourselves ragged by staying up all night.  She’s a smart woman, and far, far tougher than anyone gives her credit.  Now continue.”

“But-”

“But nothing!”  Lilie said sternly.  “I’m humoring you by letting you go over everything one last time.  If you want, I can still drag your ass out and toss you to Tyr.”

“... Fine, you win.”  Rick sighed.  “So I’ll focus on Sade’s perspective from here on out.  After she gets to the waiting room, she waits her turn to fight then heads out to the field with Ferdinand.”

“Which she kicks his ass.”

“Which she most definitely kicks his ass.”  Rick agreed.  “Despite all the flashy spells, she barely used any mana for that fight.”

Lilie nodded her head in agreement.  “Which means she had no real reason to take that spiked mana potion.”

“About that.”  Rick mused.  “According to your notes from talking with Hattepa, they handed out those bottles to all students so they would be topped off for their next fight.  I’m thinking Sade still wanted to appear weaker than she was and just took what was offered.”

“That makes sense.”  LIlie mused.  “And then she drinks the drugged potion, then heads out for her fight with Hattepa.”

“Now that I’m thinking back on it, she did seem distracted before the fight.  You think she was fighting off her lady boner when the dean started the match?”

Lilie snorted at the crude phrase.  “Almost certainly.  Aphrodisiacs hit the system pretty quickly, so she must have been swimming in her juices by the time she was called out to fight.”

“I am both amazed and unsurprised Sade pulled off that win while under the influence.”  Rick said softly.  “Anyways… She wins but needs medical attention, so she’s sent to the infirmary.”

“Where she gets patched up and the drugs purged.”

“Exactly.  Once she and Hattepa were alone, Sade sent the girl to grab us.”

“After which, she was left alone for a length of time and got snatched.”

Rick cupped his chin in thought.  “Hey Lilie, how long did it take us to get from our seats to the infirmary, minus the conversation with the rude attendant?”

The pale shaytoni tapped her own chin while she went over the journey in her head.  “It was what, ten minutes at the most?  We had to circle half the stadium to get to our seats from the lobby, and those corridors in the interior were quite extensive.”

“That means roughly a twenty minute window to sneak in, incapacitate Sade, and get out before we barged in through the door.  We would have probably taken a bit longer if Tyr didn’t hear the healer scream and we all rushed in.”

Lilie nodded gravely.  “Yeah, If I remember correctly, after the healer gave Sade and Hattepa some space, she was approached by an attendant to give a checkup on a couple other students in the waiting room, which is why she wasn’t in the room until after it all went down.”

“Hrm…”  Rick hummed in thought.  “Which means either the kidnappers knew the room would be empty, and Sade was inside, or they got extremely lucky.”

LIlie scoffed.  “You think luck was involved?”

Rick shook his head.  “It’s always a factor to consider, but no, I don’t.”  He let out a big sigh and held out his hand for his lover to grab.  “My head hurts, and I agree that going to bed is the smart call.”

Lilie smiled sweetly and kissed him on the cheek.  “We’ll find her, I know we will.”

“I know we will.”  Rick agreed.  “But first thing in the morning, we’re grabbing Daniela and combing the arena once more.  I have a feeling these bastards were far more embedded in the event than we originally thought.