Crimson

Agrippan Rumors.

Once , there was a King with a terrible temper .

He was narcissistic , whiny and an overall ass .

Even , his own mother couldn't stand the sight of him .

The king had a servant that had served him since he was a child and he was even more nasty to this servant .

But , the servant would not give up .

He believed that the king could be nice .

One day , the servant met a woman at a s*x chamber .

He had been a virgin and the lady had tended to him .

He was in love .

He ran to the king and told him of this development .

Furious , that his servant had the audacity to fall in love , he ordered the servant be made an eunuch .

If the king had ordered this a day before , the servant would have accepted but now that he had fallen In love with a woman ( the s*x actually,but who cares?),he couldn't accept this grave injustice .

So , he gathered himself (with all of the pain in his nether regions) and ran to the king's court where he began to scream injustice! Injustice!!

Furious , the king asked that the servant be dragged to him .

He thought he would give the servant a lesson.

So , he asked for a sword to slice of the servants tongue .

The servant panicked knowing he would never be able to speak , he then decided to do something he had never done before ,insult someone .

As you might have guessed , the servants insult vocabulary was really lacking , so , the only insult he could come up with was,"THE KING HAS DONKEY EARS",which he screamed out .

The king laughed it off and swung his sword , as the king was not too versed in the ways of a sword , it was not the servants tongue that came off , but his head .

The king was once again whiny because he had no talent , so , he took an early dinner and went to bed .

When , he awoke the whole kingdom was talking about his donkey ears , the king had to check a mirror every few seconds to make sure it was not true .

Soon , the king began to doubt , the only one that had ever dressed him and seen his ears was the dead servant and now he was not so sure he didn't really have donkey ears .

Paranoid , he refused to leave his Chambers and would not let anyone in . Not his servants or his mother .

They all tried and begged (if we're being honest , no one tried too hard , for all of this begging only lasted about five minutes and they were begging individually).

The king's mother ordered his Chambers be barricaded , so, no one would have to see his horrendous ears .

Soon , no one remembered the king , he was not even buried .

****

Vita glared distastefully at the square .

His horse , Fabia was also restless .

Fabia did not do very well with crowds , Nero always made jokes of how the horse was an equestrian Vita .

Nero was trotting alongside him on yet another horse , smiling widely .

He changed horses as much as he changed bed partners .

" Why do you have a different horse from last night? ",Vita asked his friend.

Nero smiled one of his several smiles .

Smile number 22 ,the one he had when he was more than happy to share information with anyone .

Vita was not too sure he wanted to hear this tale now .

" Remember the man that walked into the inn last night after us ?", he asked mischievously .

Vita nodded slowly ," The man that came in with his wife ? His newly wedded wife ?"

Nero smirked," This was one of their horses , a beauty right ?"

Vita did not know much about horses , those were Nero's speciality ,Even though he had never been able to keep a horse for longer than a month .

" So , they just decided to give you one of their horses? ", Vita regretted asking immediately .

Nero's eyes widened, " Vitalis!!! I didn't know you wanted to know the details ".

Nero was definitely giddy now .

Vita hated when Nero gave him random full names , according to him , Vita was too short a name .

Even though Vita had pointed out several times that Nero was four letters too .

" Do I really want to know the details?"

He shook his head at Nero's antics.

" I'm not sure I want to know how you slept with a newly married man ".

Vita knew there was no stopping Nero now .

If he suddenly become deaf , Nero would sign him what had happened .

" I was originally talking to just the husband , mind you , he was not the least resistant .

During , his wife came in and decided to join . I asked him for the horse and he said yes " .

Nero finished in one breath .

" Did you ask for the horse during too? ",

Vita was looking at the horse now .

It was indeed fine .

Vita laughed , a low jingle.

"You caught me,I asked during".

He was laughing like a complete maniac now.

Vita smiled faintly .

Nero's antics had always amused him , not that he would ever tell him that .

They had finally passed the market and were headed towards the middle of Agrippa .

The city was worse than he had thought , half collapsed buildings from the cleansing littered the city and if the curtains were any indication., people still lived here .

The people they passed looked at their coats with disgust , he did not blame them for it .

The seventh brigade had never done anything for the Agrippans .

This was infact their first time in Agrippa .

He looked over at Nero . His usual jovial expression was gone and he only glimpsed the hardened brigadier Nero was behind his plays .

There was a reason Nero was ranked second to him even though he had been considered more "alluring" than dangerous .The thing was Nero's strength lay in his allure..

Nero also hated the Conclave and the way they treated Vermillions .

Nero was more Vermillion than the other brigadiers .

When Scarlets got together with Vermillions , which was rare since Scarlets preferred to keep their bloods "untainted",the offsprings were always either more Vermillion or more Scarlet.

This little factor determined their lives . Nero had been more Vermillion too .

But, he had fought his way up and tried to get the conclave to respect him through underhanded means , like sleeping with the children , partners and families of the members of the conclave .

Now , Nero's face was tight.

" You know , none of this is your fault ",Vita started lightly .

Nero looked at him, " Of course,it isn't my fault ", Nero smiled .

Smile number 7,the one Vita had come to hate .

Fabia stopped moving and Vita looked around ,Fabia had stopped next to a slab that was plastered with papers carrying information .

The paper that had caught his eye was a reward announcement for the one-eyed thief who was supposedly terrorizing Agrippa .

The thief's latest bout with the Royal Crimsons ring was why Vita was in Agrippa .

The sooner they caught the thief ,the earlier they could leave and get on to better duties .

Vita pulled off the paper and gave it to Nero .

He scanned the paper and looked up, eyes bright . Vita knew that look too.

"Vitalon,do we really have to catch this thief".

Vita had long stopped telling Nero his real name ." Why don't you want to catch the thief? ",he asked even though he knew the reply.

" Nero,a criminal is a criminal.Regardless of how you feel about the conclave and the royal family, you're still a brigadier",Vita knew Nero would never listen to this.

He looked over at Nero who was making all sorts of tormented faces .

When he was done , he looked at Vita and smiled like nothing had happened .

" Race you to the governor's building" Nero screamed before riding off.

Vita was also accustomed to Nero's varying moods .

" Run Fabia ".

And he did .

*****

The governor's building was a large grey building with an overall ghastly look , Nero's words .

Vita had beaten him .

A stable hand had materialized and was dragging Fabia and Nero's horse away. The stableboy gave Vita an assuring smile before disappearing behind the building .

They began the climb up the stairs leading into the building .

At the top of the stairs , a woman stood .

Vita was pretty sure this building was too glum to be a whorehouse .

The lady had her breasts hanging almost completely out of her blouse , her skirts wider than usual .

Her makeup was also really for the wrong profession and Nero's coughing definitely meant he thought the same .

The lady was smiling , one Nero had once told him was a "come hither" smile.

"Masters Cicero and Moralis,welcome to Agrippa.I am Larona,the governor's aide".

She was holding her hand out .

Vita moved ahead ignoring it while Nero took off one of his gloves and shook her.

" Pleasure ", Vita heard Nero say.

" Gentlemen , the governor is still shocked from the events of last night and won't be able to welcome you ", she did not sound as though she was displeased by what had happened with the handshake .

Vita turned to her, " There's no need for the governor.You will tell us everything we need to know,right ?"

She laughed , a deep raspy sound.

" I'll do my best,sirs,this is it ".

She was gesturing down a hallway .

Vita followed the woman and Nero down the hallway .

It was lined with paintings , expensive , rare ones .

The governor either had a gold mine or was using the Agrippan funds for interior decoration .

At the end of the hallway , Larona stood with Nero holding papers .

She looked up and handed Vita some of the papers .

They were statements . It seemed their thief was not just a small City thief, almost all parties or gatherings had been a front for the thief .

" Could the thief be one of this councillors ?" .

Nero asked pointing at the stack of statements .

Larona sighed, " For a while , we assumed that. There was no way the thief could know the structure of the houses , if they were not regular visitors . But , every councillor has lost a thing of two to this thief and they are all most furious with the thief ".

" And their servants? ",Vita asked.

"Another possibility but most of the councillors live far apart , even if the servant managed to travel to another councillors estate , it would be an hard feat to pull since most of the stolen items were usually showcased during the parties and servants are not allowed anywhere near the parties ".

" So , it is an outsider targeting rich , greedy councillors ?" ,Nero asked smiling .

Larona smiled," I'm afraid so ".

Larona passed another sheet, " After the first couple of heists , we began to screen the guests at the parties . All notable men , except the thief had a way of shapeshifting into these men , the only other way...

" Companions " ,Nero interfered.

He continued ," You can screen the guests but not their companions , most of them don't come to such gatherings with their wives, so ,they would hate for you to ask to screen their companions ".

Larona nodded, " You're right , a companion is most likely ".

Vita had enough experience to realize that you could never rely totally on the first synopsis but it was always a great start .

" Does this in anyway narrow the search ? "

He hoped it would be an affirmative answer.

Larona shook her head ," Agrippa is a liberal City . The guests come with various companions . Genderwise , blood hues , family and whatever you can think of . There is no way to narrow it down. Except , it is definitely not a full Vermillion , they are never near enough ".

Vita cleared his throat loudly to get Nero's attention . Nero turned and was surprisingly grinning .

Larona looked between them trying to figure out what had happened .

Vita looked at her ," There are always establishments in every city where the supposed upperclass and the vermillions interact . Does Agrippa have those ?".

Larona nodded, " I'll write an address .There are two more popular ones .The haze,a guesthouse of sorts and Queens , a gambling den ".

She gave the paper to Nero.

I turned ready to leave , Nero would sort out the necessary goodbyes .

A painting was placed by a corner to hide and also flaunt it .

One of the famous Van kohns' paintings .

There were only three of them and one of them belonged to the governor of Agrippa .

Wait a damn second .

" Does the thief also take paintings ?"

I turned back to ask Larona.

She replied in a beat , " Most times, asides the original stolen items , there's usually a stolen painting . All the stolen paintings were always the best or the most expensive owned by the victims .And sometimes,the paintings were the only items stole.

The governor brought that painting here to prevent an incident , this building is more guarded than his home ".

Vita looked at the strokes again , this painting was definitely a fake .

The thief had swapped a painting worth over 100 gold bars with something that wasn't worth anything .

The thief had not just stolen the painting , the thief wanted the governor to continue to live in his bubble of security .

He walked down the hallway and out of the building . Nero on his heels.

" Is the painting fake? "Nero asked.

He nodded in reply.

"Well damn".

Vita could hear the smile in Nero's voice .

" I guess we are going to Queens . No better place to catch a thief than in a den ".

Vita frowned , a thief that had broken into the governors building was not scared.

Fear was important for him to catch whoever this was .

" Queens it is ".