EXT to INT - Windgrace Manor; Callisto Isle (evening)
Naoki Sato | It was much easier to move at night. The Ghasts and the Night Gaunt kept Wolfe's people busy and isolated to wherever their sanctuary was and the constables were easier spooked, easier to avoid. It made for smooth travels from the house in Seiiki where he'd left the poor woman in hiding and ensured they reached the Windgrace's front lawn in one piece.
Sato was dressed in Academy colors and formal clothing, mostly appearing to be an upstanding citizen but for the oddly-shaped sack strapped to his back. His guest had opted not to take any spare clothing from the abandoned house in Seiiki and was still in the forest-worn shirt and trousers she'd run away in. Sato did not approach the door or even mount the steps to the porch. Instead he held out a hand to grab the woman by the shoulder should she try to do the same. "Wait. Wards," is all he told her before letting go and sidestepping to fully face one of the ground-floor windows.
Blood seeped from the palm of the prosthetic he wore, the contraption obviously connected enough to have access to his bloodstream. A small bead the size of the marble flew from his hand and over to the window across from him to start rapping incessantly against the glass.
Dinah: it hadn't been that long since dinah had emerged from the tunnels. Not that she had been harassing max tonight, there was still the fading, luridly pink marks across every bare patch of pale skin where her ritual knife had carved to feed the shard. her hands, arms, chest, even her face until the marks crept into her hairline and vanished there. she was pacing, staring at her orrery with a cup of practically cold tea in one hand as the rapping started, and she turned to scowl at the door.
"someone get that?" she asked sharply to the maids, one of them hurrying to get it open. She turned, resting her hip against the metal, tugging her robe into a more modest fashion as one of the housemaids opened the front door.
Dorian was in the kitchen building a meal that would dismay many people. He'd cut hunks of bread and plied his sandwich with chicken, plum jam, raw mushrooms and onions, and was ready to brag about it, just as soon as he finished making and plating his new monster. He'd never manage to spare a thought for putting away anything he pillaged, down to leaving spoons in jars and half vegetables on the counter with knives stuck in them. Thanks to his brother's transmutative genius and Pandora's greensinging there was plenty stocking the kitchen again. So much that he almost took his plate without getting himself a beverage. He was considering the conundrum of asking for tea to be brought to him, or winging it at making his own. How hard could it be?
A certain tapping on the window had gone on for some time when he realized there was something going on outside of his brain's raptness in what he was preparing to devour and moved to investigate. This movement involved putting his sandwich down, brushing the crumbs off of his hands and making his way to the source of the sound. He was clad casually, in pajamas and barefoot to boot. When he arrived, he'd look out the window, spotting company on the lawn. then he'd jog to the door calling to his sister, "It is Sato and a companion, sister dearest, were you expecting company?"
Naoki Sato ceased his rapping and called the blood bead back though did not disperse it. He returned to the woman's side as the door opened, the little red glob hovering there ny his shoulder. The face of the maid was met with a bit of impatience and he was halfway through saying "I need to speak with a Windgrace - " before Dorian appeared. The male twin was met with a nod of his head and finally, the blood sunk back into his hand. "This woman can help us reach Hunter. Can we pass? It is the two of us and part of a cadaver and I'd rather any Wards present not change that."
| The woman for her part remained quiet but visibly nervous. She was not keen on remaining nearer to the man that had escorted her to the premises and once the door opened to the warm interior of the house, more welcoming than anything she'd experienced thusfar, she very nearly ran inside. It was only another tug at on her elbow from Sato that prevented it, keeping them both firmly on the grassy side of the perimeter.
Dinah pushed herself up when Dorian appeared, though she didn't know he was in the kitchen, she'd probably be mildly grateful for the fact that no other sort of massacre leaving the kitchen with him.
As he said it was Sato, she straightened up, golden eyes owlish and she shook her head when her twin asked if she'd been expecting guests.
"Im quite sure i'd not be entertaining guests dressed like this, dear" she managed the ghost of a tired smile, but when Sato spoke up from the threshold about a woman, a part of a cadaver, and being able to reach hunter, she strode towards the open doorway.
<"athg y-sll’ha"> she flicked her fingers in a gesture with her fingertips, watching the woman intensely. "Enter. Quickly. Sato, who is this woman?"
Dorian had freed the maid who opeened the door from dealing with the strangers, only to neglect the guests by taking a moment to silently, and with a wolfish turn to his grin, appreciate the manner in which she was dressed. He needed to turn to look to his sister to make certain of the answer to Sato's question anyway. When Di answered and did her magic thing he was reminded of the people on the threshold though and turned to smile at them and with a gesture inside bid after his sister had done so, "Do come in, please."
He'd be sure to close the door behind them, but from where he stood he called to the maid that was dislodged, "A spot of tea would be welcome for our guests."
Naoki Sato did not wait for Dinah to make up her mind about finding more appropriate clothing. Taking the woman by the elbow he all but dragged he up those steps and through the doorway, pushing past the siblings if he needed to. "One of Wolfe's. She wants to help," he explained but said little else. He either hadn't asked her reasoning or didn't feel comfortable speaking until they were behind closed doors. He let her go to move toward the dining table, quickly usurping it to slap down the burlap sack of whatever-it-was despite anything that was already present there. Luckily it didn't smell and wasn't, for the time being, causing a mess.
"If she won't be useful enough than he may be," Sato added with a nod at the sack. Which was a bit too much for the poor woman who was quickly shrinking into the nearest corner she could find. It took her a minute or two to find the breath to speak up - "It-It's true! I am - WAS following him. But no longer - please! Hear me out!" she pleaded in case either of the siblings was coming at her by then.
Dinah didn't take her eyes off the woman, particularly when Sato mentioned she was one of Wolfes. Her head canted to one side and she drifted around the table.
"One of his?" her voice was placid, eerily so, but her shoulders were tense, her posture rigid. "One of those who took my boy?" she flicked her fingers again with an almost palpable hum of energy as the house's wards closed around them once more.
"Give me your name" dinah said softly, her attention solely focused on the living interloper for now rather than the dead man's parts in the burlap bag. "I am dinah windgrace. Speaker of the gods. Magus of the windgrace family. and very, very good at telling when people are lying to me. so. speak. And be aware...if you lie to me. if this is some Trick... you will not want to find out what happens"
Leaving dorian to wrangle the maid, one of Dinahs' hands lifted, palm tilted to regard Sato. The stranger wouldn't know it, but beneath her glamour, one of her eyes glinted from the middle of her hand.
Dorian didn't seem to understand who their stranger guest was until he did at which point he saw Dinah approaching her. He looked the woman up and down to spy if there way anything that she might have that could cause his sister trouble, but few such things existed, so he went to catch the maid and redirect her upstairs. He was explaining, "The thing is, this turned into the sort of conversation that needs stronger drink and I can manage. But be a lamb would you and..."
Given he'd half chased the uniformed woman up the stairs, the maid certainly got the point, that the meeting was a sensitive one and to make herself scarce along with anyone else until called for.
Coming back down, his royal deluxe sandwich forgotten, he'd call to Sato, "Well done, chum. Thank you for bringing her to us. I feel like I should be handing you a reward for her." He took a moment to notice the bag on the table but he didn't think twice about it, as he was invested in hearing how this woman responded to his sister.
Naoki Sato | The woman was shaking like a leaf and when she nodded in response to Dinah's question she half-flinched like she expected to be struck or worse. "E-Eh -" Speaking was a trial. "Emily," she answered, any surname lost to the winds in the face of one obviously enraged sibling and two others that were, in her mind, just as likely to either back Dinah up or get violent on their own.
"I am not lying! He killed my boy - my boy, my boy who was just being KIND, who - who was trying to help - " she stammered out, eyes on Dinah's hands as she stepped backward and into the plant behind her. "He wanted to free it - to free the one Maximillian has contained, and he was killed for it! He was... he was only being kind." She sucked in a breath and shook her head, hands covering her face.
Sato was far from violent though there was a little twitch to his face when she called Hunter an "it". He had been busying himself with unwrapping the 'gift' he'd brought in that burlap sack but at that he looked up, tilting his head to add to the eyes glowering. "She's unarmed. I held her in one of my hidden places in Seiiki. The spirits likely took anything she could have used." A pause though and he looked at Dinah, then Dorian. "I can strip her if you need to see for certain. Or you can kill her and we can talk to the head. I don't care either way." Obviously he hadn't heard any of her story - or just didn't care.
Dinah didn't take her eyes off the stranger. All of them, except the one in her palm, were fixed on the woman cowering in the corner. She wasn't a tall woman, and even when she wasn't in her dressing gown she wasn't terribly imposing but she clenched her free hand tightly, answering through gritted teeth when Emily spoke, stalking closer still.
"*IT*?" she hissed. "HIS name is hunter. He is MY boy, and he was taken. Snatched from our home by the fucking charlatan you served. And I know they're hurting him. I could feel it. I heard it" she snarled. "I ought to throw you to the fucking Deep Ones. Speak, Emily."
The hand tilted, turning towards the head on the table.
"...who was he?"
Dorian was ready at a moment's notice to spring into action should the woman run or start to fall over from fright, but he'd hang out between her and the door, behind his twin. To Sato he'd reply, earnestly, "I don't think you weren't thorough, beside that I am not sure there's aught she could possess that'd save her at this juncture. Except the truth, of course. And a bit more courtesy."
He'd lean upon the wall, looking between Emily, Sato and his sister, as well as keeping an intermittent eye on the staircase for any sign of the help forgetting they weren't needed just now. They were paid well to see that they were discreet. He didn't have any questions for the terrified woman, but he did give her a look of profound pity.
Naoki Sato | Dinah was more than imposing enough. The woman covered her head with her arms, yelping out apologies until Dinah turned her attention to the head on the table. She did try to answer, to her credit. Sato was however a great deal calmer and less, at that moment, afraid of being torn to bits and fed to the beasts below.
"A constable. Either a cultist in disguise or one that infiltrated the ranks, not yet sure," he explained and flicked the forehead of the dead lump on the table. Sato had the good graces to at least move over to the side so Dorian had a nice and clear view of both head and Emily if he wanted to come and inspect either. When he went over to Dinah's side of the room Sato nodded to him and took up his spot again at the edge of the table closest to the head. "Between you and your sister, probably not. Though I'm less familiar with what you can do," he admitted to Dorian. "The head - the constable. He was chasing her. I figured it would be easier to figure out the whole story with him dead and her here."
Dinah huffed out an exasperated sigh as the woman in the corner cowered, turning away from her in a whirl of black silk. She leaned closer to the head, examining it carefully.
"Dead things are more your speciality aren't they? But I can put down a circle to prevent it from becoming..wayward. Just because something is a severed head it doesn't stop them misbehaving" she muttered flatly, a free hand lifting to point towards Emily even if dinah didn't turn her attention away from the head on her dining table.
"you, do not move. I am not finished with you, but you stink less than this one, so it's a matter of priority" she pulled a face at the thought of the constable being a cultist and she shook her head, turning to fix Emily again with a golden-eyed stare.
"How many does he have in his service? the charlatan? Was this wretch one of them?" she gestured towards the head, nodding at Dorian's words.
"My brother is right. The truth and a little more courtesy is the only thing that will save you right now, emily. So I would make haste with both of them"
Dorian took a good look at what Sato had brought to put on the table and closed his eyes against it. They had just got rid of the last disembodied head that Di had kept in her room. Well at least this one probably wouldn't wind up looking at him when he crept into his sister's bed. When he looked again the head was still there and he sighed. It was going to be some time before he could get back in an eating mood now, not to mention the business at hand. He was already doing mental calculus on how likely it'd be that he'd be able to get to bed without changing clothes given there might be a body to dispose of.
Looking at Emily again, he fought the urge to comfort her, but moved to get a cup of brandy. It was hard to imagine the stuff had been just water in a bottle before the right magic was applied, but it had. He'd poured himself a heavy cup and held it up to Sato in silent offering, and Di as well. He would have done the same for Emily, but she seemed to be far too busy cowering. Anyway, it'd be better to give her something after she handed over the information they needed.
Naoki Sato furrowed his brow and leaned in to stiff the air near the head. "It doesn't smell," he protested but then again he was accustomed to such things. It wasn't, at least, significantly rotten. What little effort he was spending to preserve the thing ensured it was mostly intact and free of the usual parasites corpses would typically harbor. The thought of the spirit going wayward made him blink exactly twice then turn to study the head in silence. There was enough of a pause where he said absolutely nothing that Emily took the liberty of interposing.
"There...there are at least two in the constabulary," Emily answered from behind her arms. "That one there and - and one other, a Captain. A handful in the banks, a couple of magistrates... he-he gathered lots from... storied families. Ones that've been here as-as long as you. Or longer," she said as steadily as she could muster. "There were promises. He said their wealth and influence would benefit from the Windgraces ceasing to exist. So they joined his caus
"I can bind him to the flesh," Sato said, evidently coming out of whatever thoughtful and calculating reverie he'd sunken into. "He will be limited but with a some effort he'll be able to speak." Turning to Dorian and his glass of brandy he asked, "Do you have a sharp razor?"
Dinah wrinkled her nose when Sato said that the head didn't smell. Perhaps she was just more...sensitive to the smell of blood that wasn't hers. Her complaints were silenced before they came with Emily's report of the numbers and she stared at her, incredulous.
"How?!" she snapped. "The man is an idiot. A fully fledged, halfwit, sack-caped moron with less talent than fingers. The only reason he isn't a fucking grease-stain from here to Gibraltar already is because he has my boy otherwise I wouldn't have even sullied my hands dealing with him instead of just fixing this wretched mess he has brought upon us all like I planned to" she pointed at the window, out towards the fog. "You know what that IS, don't you? Or have you all been signing along with his suicide note on the same glorious promises of a post-windgrace elysium that the Deepkin were sold with absolutely zero show of proof of his capabilities to deliver it?" She turned her glare back onto Sato at his question, bristling with indignation though thankfully not aimed at him as she nodded towards her twin and looked back to the decidedly more pleasant of the windgraces
"we've blades. In the drawer beneath the bunny plate and the cocaine. There's at least one of mine in there, though it might not be sharp as any of yours"
Dorian set down his already emptied glass when Sato asked after the razor and jogged up the stairs to retrieve his straight razor. Though his stubbly face belied the fact, he indeed had a very sharp one in his kit. He was so certain of Di and Sato's abilities that he didn't even spare a look at Emily to see if she was considering rabbiting. He explained to both the Jikininki and his twin, "The hinge is going faulty on mine anyway, back in a tick."
His bounding up the stairs would give him a moment to steel himself for the matters ahead anyway, and this shift in tenors the evening had taken. While he was up there, he'd check the maid was still aloft tending to the task he'd asked her to. When it came to considering that certain of the isle's denizens had amassed to conspire against his family, he was sure he could wrangle the ire to handle any ugliness, even if it meant ending the life of the allegedly bereaved mother below. He'd be bounding back down with heavy feet on the stairs in next to no time as promised at which point he'd approach Sato to hand him the folded blade, jointed end first.
Naoki Sato frowned at Dinah as she seemed to berate him, mostly because of the timing of her turn. "I have little understanding of how people like that work," he said without any realization that the Windgraces filled the same level of high society that he was referring to. That said he went to take the straight razor from Dorian with a nod and a quiet "Thank you," then turned to the head. Luckily the burlap sack was still puddled around it, ready to catch all the hair that Sato began meticulously shaving away. He seemed to want as much skin exposed as possible.
Emily looked absolutely aghast when Dorian turned to leave, even if he was going to be back soon. Her eyes followed him from behind her arms like he was a waning light amid the rumble of stormclouds and dark skies. She couldn't bring herself to look back at Dinah. She had no answers about Max or his abilities to sway rich and selfish types. "I...I know. We were fools. But we're paying for it. So many of us - of them are dead or dying now. All of your... your plagues, they've reduced his followers to near nothing. She swalloed and slowly went to lower her arms. "What...whatever else you do, I don't care. I just want him - want Maximillian Wolfe to die."
She reached into one of her sleeves and pulled out a folded roll of parchment, shaking hands handing it over to Dinah. "He's hidden beneath the Sanatorium. There are caverns there - an entrance on the outside, and a way in from one of the cellars. I... I drew maps, when I was left in that house," she explained with a darting glance at Sato. Her eyes were arrested by the sight of what he was doing with the head, which now involved using that straight razor to carve lines and Kanji symbols in deliberate patterns in the flesh.
Dinah watched her beloved twin as he hurried away and she nodded, seething in silence. The way that the woman watched her twin made her narrow her eyes a little, but she let out a 'tch' between her teeth.
"Were? Are. How many of them would follow him still if it wasn't for my work? For my friends? And the newborn hasnt even arrived yet." she seemed to huff out a long exhale of anger, back to simmering rather than primed to blow.
"*my* plagues. my work. And had they not touched my boy, they would all yet live. My brothers have yet to lay a hand on him yet, except for drystan and I working together to summon the newborn" she took the map, remaining uncomfortably close to Emily as she skimmed it over.
"...beneath eumenides?" she almost laughed. "Splendid. At least I know an easy way to get one of those exits blocked off." she murmured, re-scrolling the parchment and she studied the woman up close now the heat had passed from her rage.
"How many of the others would turn on him, if given the chance to?" her voice was soft, dangerous in it's quietness, as she turned to watch Sato carving the head.
"Tell me of your son."
Dorian made himself watch Sato carve a character into the man's face before murmuring, "Blimey." Turning toward his sister who was every bit the magnificent magus she was reared to be, and the unfortunate Emily again, he found no occasion to speak further past repeating "Eumenides?" He wouldn't fool the woman by smiling at her, nor give her false hope. Rather the expression he turned on her remained one of pity, mingled with the detachment a meat-eater feels for an animal en route to the abattoir.
Naoki Sato | Emily handed over that paper and shrunk back into her corner as far as she could go - which was unfortunately not enough to get any level of away from Dinah. She was sickly pale, some lesions visible but mostly healing in her skin from bites and scratches, likely from the rats. Dirt from the forest and dust from the Seiiki house clung to her and her clothing but despite the obvious fear in her those tired eyes were determined. "They are broken and-and afraid. I wouldn't be surprised if they all did but I think they'd be too scared to do anything either to help you or hurt him. At best they'd maybe just let you pass."
Dinah was so close to her that even the laugh made the poor woman flinch. "S-Some of them work there - or er, pretend to. Orderlies, cleaning staff. Unless they were dressed for ritual or could read minds though you wouldn't... you wouldn't know."
Naoki Sato was about finished with his carving when Dinah turned to him. He raised his eyebrows at her question, curiously turning to Emily to await the answer. Both stares were much, much less pleasant than Dorian's so she turned to him, pleading eyes fixating on the only face in the room that didn't seem to harbor hidden viciousness. "He... was a sweet boy. He liked sailing, worked with the dockhands sometimes for extra coin. He was only trying to help me, to protect me... he never - he never understood why they had to be so cruel to him."
She gulped back a sob and dashed away the forming tears in her eyes. "He tried to free him, but... the poor thing was so tired, defensive. Desperate. He lashed out. And Maximillian, that WRETCH he left the body there. He wanted him to be consumed. Starved the - starved your Hunter until he needed to eat."
Dinah frowned, tapping the rolled up paper against her cheek as she stared, not at Sato and his work anymore, but at her twin. Deep in thought, she turned to study the woman intensely, studying her for any deception. Seeing none, she reached out, just a single finger, to touch against the exposed skin of her hand unless the woman flinched away, a pulse of chilly healing magic thrumming from her to take away the infection of the bites and the worst of the weariness.
"Tell me of them. How many capable? Casters? fighters? how many of them know eldritch secrets?" she rattled off one question after the other, though at the notion of whether she'd be able to tell the staff of Eumenides by reading their minds, she smiled a little too sweetly.
"Don't you worry about those, dear. I can find them perfectly well. I can See it when people lie to me. you would understand it if you could see me as I truly appear, but by half dead you look right now, you'd probably keel straight over" she returned to her thoughtful tapping, the roll of paper knocking against her cheek, but when the woman spoke more of her son, she fell still, looking thoughtful.
"...do you want him back?"
Dorian looked at Emily in turn, nodding his head as she continued cooperating, to encourage her to speak further. The information she'd brought with her was her best chance at living to breathe another day. He could at least use the connection she was trying to forge with him to familial advantage.
Turning from her, he looked Di straight in her eyes when his sister raised her golden gaze to him and though he didn't speak to her mind directly, as if his face didn't show it, he projected pity for the woman. When his sister healed Emily, he wasn't aware of this, but when she offered the woman her son again, he cut his eyes from Emily back to Dinah once more, with a mild boggle in blue eyes. Of all the things that had transpired this eve, that put surprise on his face.
Naoki Sato | Emily listed what numbers she could remember with the caveat that she knew the Hermetic mages and Warders were still alive, as the Wards protecting the place and keeping Hunter contained were still active. The most capable fighters would be kept close to Max but were few, the majority of the following dead or dying and incapable of spellcasting even if they could. She merely nodded when Dinah mentioned being capable of seeing lies but the offer of having her son returned to her gave her pause.
"...I-I am afraid. Afraid of that magic. I know his spirit remains - he is on this island like all the other dead. I would like to find him, to speak to him... to ask him what he would prefer. And if he would like to go... to pass on. I would like help giving him peace." Dorian's surprise she took as response to her answer and she waved her hands. "It isn't that I do not want my son returned to me, please don't misunderstand. But death... dying, especially as he did. It changes a person. I would rather ask HIM."
Sato waited for the conversation to meet a pause before speaking up. "How does it work? Seeing lies?" he asked as he gestured to the head. "If I bring back his spirit to speak to us, will you be able to tell then? Even with all the information she's given, he'll be the one to tell us about Blake."
Dinah canted her head at Dorian's baffled expression, cocking an eyebrow for a moment. was she really so far gone that it would be so out of character for her to offer sympathies to a mother in the manner she knew?
She listened as Emily explained, and she smiled faintly. Nothing that could stand against the Hunting Horror, she was sure of it, and even if the creature was sent back, she and her brothers would sweep up the rest.
"Magic is reason to be afraid" she agreed, stepping away to set the rolled paper down. "Finding him will not be difficult. speaking to him will be easier still." she admitted, standing alongside Sato to peer at the head.
"What about Blake?" dinah asked, straightening up again. "I just need to look him in the eyes. Most of the time, I see it in the aura. Spikes, and colours, and..signs. it's hard to explain. I will need to open all of my eyes for the dead, I wager. Dorian darling, if you attend to miss emily? if she faints when I turn, I won't want that vase crushing her to bits. Lance will already have us flayed for messing up the table" she muttered, drawing a sign with her fingertip on her brow to slip her glamour down like paint pooling about her feet.
Dorian hadn't imagined the boy could be raised again, mundane as his thoughts were. He turned his face to the floor and smiled when his sister spoke of how easy it'd be to find the son. Now it seemed the time to do his thing, what with Di bidding him to and all. He'd move to the opposite end of the table from Sato and Dinah to pour himself another from the sideboard, and he'd pour a second glass of brandy for Emily, though only a finger deep. He'd hand it out toward her, walking her way as he figured she'd not be able to dislodge herself from the spot where she stood. "Take heart Miss Emily. And please don't drop the glass, we're short of a proper set already." Then, instead of drinking his own which he'd raised to his lips, he showed surprise at what Sato had to say.
"Blake?!" came the voice, shaken loose by Sato's deadpan delivery, burying the lead about his black haired friend. He was ready to spring into action for Emily if need be.
Naoki Sato hummed as Dinah and Emily spoke. "I can likely find his spirit but it'll have to wait. Hunter and Blake take priority." The Jikininki turned back to the head and held his mechanical hand over its carved brow. "They're still alive. "Emily looked aghast but hardly had any room to protest. Instead she accepted the brandy from Dorian with a grateful smile and an even quieter "Thank you" than Sato had given. She took a tiny sip before coughing a little then going back for more.
Sato let his blood trickle down in a thin stream, willing it to fill the carved Kanji, the lines, and circles that connected them. "When I found this woman and the man to whom this head belongs, there was blood on the floor and the alley walls. When I tasted the blood I saw glimpses of the fight - this constable among others, and Blake." Once all carved lines were filled he shut his eyes and focused on the melding of his blood and the flesh it now resided in. He said nothing but the pallor of his skin, the darkening and bulging of his veins betrayed the magic working around him.
He held out his hand to Dinah. "I'll show you. So you're informed when we ask him questions. Dorian... if the head becomes unruly, crush it." Once any exchange of vision was completed Sato opened his eyes, now pitch black to match his clothing which was quickly becoming saturated with blood. His mouth split, the air chilling as the scent of death and rot seeped in stronger and more pungent than the head itself could account for. The carvings in the head turned black, congealing into a thicker substance as the head itself rose up, appearing to drip blood that formed into an airway and a set of lungs, its mouth opening and a tongue reforming in its maw. Emily, faced with Dinah and Sato's transformations and the grisly sight of the reanimated constable, passed out and unfortunately dropped her glass.
Dinah would have laughed at Dorian preparing their 'guest' in true windgrace fashion with the offering of booze. It was often the safest way, after all, though she was already trying to compose herself for staring into the eyes of the dead.
She listened when Sato spoke, a scowl touching her now-many eyed face. She lifted her head to ask Emily why Blake would be taken too, if it were for a purpose or if it were simply for spite, when she dropped to the floor.
"oh for gods sake.." she muttered "a member of an eldritch cult that faints at the sight of necromancy.." she complained quietly, lifting her chin. She reached a finger forward as the head lifted, her own finger daubing a circle around the spot it was contained.
"This will at least stop it from attempting to possess anybody else. heaven knows we don't need any more of that" she said softly, glancing aside to Sato.
"Will you question it, or should i? as long as I can concentrate on it's aura."
Dorian had turned to set his emptied glass back upon the sideboard when Emily went out. He didn't upset his own as he dashed toward her, reaching to grab the glass out of the air, though it was surely too late. The passed out woman seemed not to be in immediate danger of cracking her head so he made the quick triage decision to try to grab the glass out of the air. He tapped it before his fingers closed inside the body of it and it splashed out brandy on his robe to his muttered, "Bloody hell."
He'd set the glass on the windowsill before moving to pick Emily up to princess carry her to the couch where he'd lay her down before returning to the proceedings.
Naoki Sato didn't answer verbally. He was far too focused on the effort of summoning the spirit to reoccupy his head. He did nod over to Dinah however and if she peeked into his thoughts at all he certainly preferred she do the talking. He had specific things to say and didn't want to disrupt his own proceedings lest they go awry.
"You are Lieutenant of the Callisto Isle Constabulary, Timothy Wilkes," he stated clearly. The head and bloodform airway sucked in a haggard breath. "Yes," it rasped, hardly very intelligible but it was better than nothing. "You will answer any questions posed to you by a Windgrace and you will answer those questions truthfully or I will consume you flesh and soul and you will spend your afterlife being digested." There was a slight pause and a puffing of gaunt, desiccated cheeks. "...yes," it finally agreed.
Dinah looked up sharply as dorian dived for..predictably, the glass. Save the glass, let the woman drop. appropriate, all things considered, the glass would be harder to repair than flesh and blood. she nodded to her twin, before turning her attention onto the lieutenant.
She canted her head, watching the face for any sort of sign of deception at the first few questions.
"splendid" she murmured, lifting her palms up beside her head for the eyes to open and focus, each of the little greenish eyes in her face-plates blinking awake.
"Why was blake taken?" she asked coldly, her focus entirely on the head.
Dorian had been looking at unfathomable things for so many years that though he couldn't really conceive of most magics, he could at least withstand seeing them come to life and wreak the users will upon the world. When the animated head began to speak he'd murmur again, under his breath, "Blimey." He wouldn't interrupt further, but did spare a glance toward Sato to see what he looked like when embroiled in such an undertaking. After a moment he'd catch sight of Di beyond and stare at her ethereal, if fearsome true form and gaze that way instead. She was always the most pleasant of distractions fro the gruesomeness of reality.
Naoki Sato listened to the first question, eyes never moving from the undead Lieutenant. Most of his energy was devoted to moving his blood constructs to properly facilitate the dead constable's speech. Wilkes sucked in another breath and stretched his jaw before answering, "Pain inflicted... pain gained. The first key can't be used. Need the second key. Need the boy."
Dinah kept her focus on the head, letting out a 'tch' between her teeth at his words.
"Key to what? what is maximilian planning? Why did he take Hunter and blake?" she asked, asking each question in turn as she watched the corpse head. She tilted her head towards sato again. "The blood in the alley was blakes, you said?... shame i dont think i'd be able to use it with alley-filth in it too, I could have stopped him working too..."
Dorian continued not to interrupt but turned his gaze from his sister to the table when the grisly voice issued once more. He nkew the stakes were too high to speak his surprise or questions. Between the dead cop and Sato's appearance blue eyes woudl be busy taking in new sights that would keep sleep far away and his sandwich from seeming appetizing for some time.
Naoki Sato nodded to her question once before tilting his head again. The vision he'd shared with her had been from Blake's perspective as his blood was spilled but flashes of injured cultists, of that constable being injured would tell her other blood was spilled too. Sato seemed confident he could separate one from the other as well as from the alley filth.
"The key," answered the constable. "To the Mist. Blood of Yog. Blood child of the Mist. Conduit. To call, to gain power," he answered with a shudder to his voice. "Seeks to destroy. Destroy Windgraces. Destroy all."
Dinah made a soft noise of assent when Sato was confident he could separate out the blood. it'd still be a risky venture, but she resisted thinking of it for now.
"Because of course, the halfwit needs a key" she said sourly. "When is he planning this?" she leaned in closer, watching raptly. unblinking, focused.
"How many of the deep kin remain in his service?"
Dorian leaned down to look closer at the face that was speaking, animated by Sato. His face wrinkled at the smell of blood and the meat the head so recently was. He could at least try to memorize what the constable was saying in case Dinah had questions later, though he doubted her recall would be poor enough for that. After a moment he'd glance back to make sure Emily wasn't stirring and that an errant sound he'd heard was the house settling rather than the maid returning to also faint on her way down the stairs.
Naoki Sato let out a little growl. The spirit inhabiting that head was beginning to fight his control and the increased effort showed. His limbs tensed as the disembodied head snapped and gnashed at Sato and Dinah before being bodily slammed into the table, the ceiling, then settling into a lazy drift in the air again. From Sato's mind came a little nudge of urgency.
"Soon," rattled the lieutenant with another gnash of his teeth. Some of his own attitude began bleeding through, those cracked lips splitting into a sneer. "SOON. DEEP KIN. STILL, DEEP KIN. WILL EAT. WILL DESTROY."
Dinah huffed a soft laugh and she shook her head with a curt "I think not" and her fingers flexed again.
"When is 'soon'? give me a date. Or a moon phase." she asked sharply, standing up straight. "Dorian, be ready. it's beginning to get restless." she lifted her own tail above her head, poised to strike like a scorpion in case something more amiss occurred.
Dorian looked to Sato and Dinah when it seemed the head was getting unruly. He had a job to do in that case and in preparation for that he was already pushing up the sleeve of his robe. He liked this robe a great deal, and Lance at least would have a lot of black to work with while getting blood stains out.. As the sneering persisted and the voice remained raised, he'd move his fist over the head, ready to smash it like an oversized egg. He only needed the merest of signs from Sato or Di to let that hammer drop. On Di's urging he'd swiftly bring the bottom of his fist down just enough to get more gore onto the table where the head's skull and brain would be split and spilt tout de suite.
Naoki Sato offered no further information. It opened its mouth and clacked its teeth obnoxiously as the blood coagulated in its carvings. Sato's constructed lungs and airway dropped to the table with a sickly spatter and the head lunged itself at the pair. Dorian caught it just in time, crunching bone and flesh against the wood.
Without the structural soundness of an intact skull the mass of flesh and bone still quivered and twitched but seemed unable to do much else. Sato exhaled a long breath and sat himself cross-legged on the ground. "I'm going to eat it if you don't have any more use for it," he said eventually.