Questioned by The Man
Who: Ashwin, Jensen, Miniyal
Where: Records Room, HRW
When: 22:09 on day 8, month 13, turn 1 of the 7th Pass
What: The guards seem to think Niya knows anything about the corpse
6/25/2006
It is 22:09 on day 8, month 13, turn 1 of the 7th Pass.
At night, here in the records room, it's quiet. Any rustle carries and echoes in the room and the lone, moving light doesn't seem bright enough. The last of the workers left ages ago. Now there's just Miniyal left, going about her work. The basket of glows continues to move and then stops, set on a table near the back of the room where said records worker has stopped. Standing on her toes she tucks something in and then consults a hide in her hand with a frown. Not that the frown can be seen since her back is to the entrance.
"You're sorta a hard person to track down, did you know that?" Jensen is standing just inside the room, his own glowbasket in hand. And look, he's brought Ashwin with him! "But here y'are." The eerie greenish light makes his grin deceptively menacing.
Ashwin is at Jensen's shoulder, arms wrapped around something that might be a clipboard. There's something of 'attention' in his posture even now, although his expression is one of polite reserve. Pale eyes are looking past Jensen, absorbing the contents of the room in silence.
Some might spin around at the voice in the dark, but Miniyal just rests a hand on the shelf and then turns about slowly, hide she was consulting still in her hand. "I can't imagine how I could be," she says evenly, picking up her basket of glows and moving away from the back of the room to settle it on a table closer to the center. "I spend far too much time here exactly. Or so my family tells me." She rests her hand on the table and then sets the hide down by the basket. "What can I do for you?"
Jensen moves when she does, though too slowly to imply he thinks she might try to escape. He too sets his basket down on that same table, to sort of focus the light there, and glances over at Ashwin. "You've been scarce since you found that body." How handy that that just so happens to also include why he and his lieutenant are here. But he elaborates anyway. "This is Lieutenant Ashwin'n I'm Jensen. We just wanna ask some questions o'you is all, if you've the time."
Ashwin evidently does strong and silent well, for there's not much from him as he moves into the room after Jensen. His clipboard goes down, and one hand rests on the back of a chair, waiting only for permission to sit. When he does speak, there's a Tillek accent mixed in there somewhere. "We're speaking to everybody. Sometimes small details combine in a way you wouldn't expect."
Miniyal pulls out a stool out and seats herself. "I was taken away for a short while on business for the weyrleader," she says simply as she folds her hands atop the desk, but not on the hide. "If I'd been running away I wouldn't have come back, of course," she says with a brief flicker of a smile. "As for time, yes. I've several hours more work to do in here, but can take a short break." Emphasis on short. Ashwin's words get a nod of her head, but there's something in her expression that shows she somehow doubts some of what he says.
Jensen glances over, eyebrows lifting as he regards Ashwin and his hesitance in sitting. Once Miniyal has seated herself he gives a nod - permission from his end at least - and takes a chair himself. "If you could start by tellin' us what happened that night, how you found the body." His own hands clasp in his lap; his eyes slide sideways to Ashwin, a silent prompt. The time for writing has come.
Ashwin knows his part in proceedings. Sliding into a chair, he produces writing implements from the clipboard, slowly twisting the pen end over end in one hand as he eyes Miniyal, pale eyes running over her features.
"I was in the store room. I dropped something. I was trying to find it so I was feeling around." Miniyal shrugs her shoulders and looks uncomfortable, shuddering a little even. "And then I found. . .the body. So, I can't really help. I was just trying to find something I dropped." Shaking her head she sighs and looks down at her hands. "It was terrible."
Jensen, confident his second-in-command is carrying on, focuses entirely on Miniyal. "'M sure it was," he offers evenly. He allows a moment of silence, perhaps to allow her to recover from remembering, then continues. "Why were you in the store room?"
"What, specifically, had you dropped?" Turns out Ashwin can speak now and again, if not quite in complete sentences. His quiet words follow on the heels of Jensen's, even while he's jotting something at the head of the page.
Miniyal's eyes blink rapidly a few times and she peers at Jensen as if he's asked something weird. "I was looking for something. Didn't I say that? I mean, it smelled terrible, but I needed to find some new laces for my boots. And I knocked over a box on a shelf. It just had, assorted things in it. One of those sort of catch all things. But I dropped it and had to clean it up. So, I was feeling around trying to find it."
"You didn't say anythin' about lookin' for somethin' other'n what you dropped." Jen again glances at Ashwin. "So you were lookin' for laces, you knocked over a box, and while you were lookin' for it you came across the body." Just to recap, you know. "There were some others there with you?"
Ashwin interjects quietly, raising his eyes to Jensen as though seeking permission for his continued interruptions. "Forgive me for asking, is it normal practice to go and find such things yourself? Would one usually ask one of the women who work there to retrieve things?"
Miniyal sighs and waves one of her hands, eyes rolling. "It feels like it was ages ago. I mean, the details are a little fuzzy. I've had a lot on my mind. I forgot. I went in to get laces. No one else was in there, no. Essdara and that rider, whatever his name was. They were outside in the hall." Looking at Ashwin she says, "Yes. I get things for myself. I'm not in the habit of getting others to do things for me I can do myself. Besides, it's the only way to be sure I like the ones I get. I'm particular."
Jensen doesn't mind interruptions. In fact he encourages them, if the way he pauses for Ashwin's questions is any indication. "So particular you'd go down to the store rooms yourself, brave the stink. Just for bootlaces." He smiles. "I admit I'm the same way with some things." Leaning forward slightly, he says in a softer tone, "'M awfully sorry for troublin' you with this, Miss Miniyal, but I do very much want t'figure out how this poor fella wound up the way he did." Pause. "His name was Sully. Does that... ring a familiar bell at all?"
"Things must end up all over the place if everybody does it," Ashwin observes absently, dropping his gaze to jot something down. A pause, and he draws an arrow.
Miniyal looks down and pulls her hands into her lap to fold them there. "I just. . .there's some things I like a certain way. Besides, I breathed through my mouth and it wasn't as terrible as that. Not until I found. . ." Biting down on her lip her skin gets a faint green sort of tinge to it. And that's not just a holdover from the bath fiasco. "Sully? No. I don't know most of the names of the drudges to be honest. Not since the aborted attempt of my mother to get me to work in the kitchens. We don't really use them here." Head tilting to one side she eyes Ashwin with a frown. "I /always/ put things back where I got them."
"I'm sure he meant no disrespect," Jen says quickly, to hopefully banish any feelings towards the contrary from Miniyal's mind. "Ashwin here's just tryin' t'get some information, same as me. Um. You say they're not really used here? D'you mean drudges? Can you tell me what they /do/ in a Weyr?" Hold experience vs. Weyr experience.
"I did not, please forgive me," Ashwin murmurs promptly, pen pausing for a moment. "Did you wonder what the smell was?" Ashwin's words are quiet, pen pausing for a moment. "I don't mean to ask a silly question, but I haven't really been into the storerooms at Tillek before."
Head tilting over, Miniyal looks from one man to the other. "They assist in general things. The things most others don't want to do usually. I could get you some records on it. There's some informative ones on various roles about the weyr." Nodding her head she makes to rise. "It would only take a moment. I know right where it is?" she offers with a tight smile. "And, yes, I wondered. It's really the first dead body I've smelled. But, after the mess with the baths. . .well, High Reaches seems inclined to fill with weird smells."
Jensen doesn't protest to her going to search for the reference material. He simply settles his elbows on the table in front of him and clasps his hands. Not for the first time since he and Ashwin arrived, he looks around the room, perhaps checking for eavesdroppers, perhaps just getting a feel for the place. One never knows what might come in handy later. Something strikes him suddenly. "Uh, Miniyal? D'you think there'd be anythin' in the records mentionin' a Sully?"
Ashwin waits until Miniyal rises to shoot his Captain a quick glance, brows raised. The internationally recognised signal for what-do-you-reckon,-then? "You must have records on everything," he offers, perhaps trying to reclaim a bit of good will. "You wouldn't have information on where Sully came from, whether he was born here?"
Miniyal stops a few paces from the table. "There's records of everyone in the weyr. We keep careful track of residents. And riders. Caucus records might not be entirely up to date as we rely on the caucus to keep us up to date and they might now." Off she goes and returns with a couple of bound hides. "It's all in the census. Done once a year so the weyr knows who all is here and it helps with tithes." She lays the first down. "This was done awhile ago. By one of the junior weyrwoman. It explains the roll of everywhere here. Was probably some assignment. And, here's the latest census. Sully should be in it. There will be a notation if he was born here and one listing when he first appeared in the census rolls."
Jensen responds to that look with one of his own that clearly says 'we'll see'. When Miniyal returns he lifts his eyebrows, somewhat surprised by her promptness. "Census, huh. Well this is definitely a good start. May I?" He reaches for the hides, hands one to Ashwin. "Do we, uh, have any more questions?" That's to Ashwin, a very blatant 'go ahead and ask away if you want'.
Ashwin doesn't seem to expect Jensen to look over the census himself, for he sets aside his pen and reaches for one, flipping it open to run a finger down the lines of script. "If he wasn't born here, will there be a way to tell where he came from?" A pause, and he lifts his head to eye Miniyal. Perhaps he's heard rumours, for the question is particularly polite. "Would you object if we took these with us to read at our leisure?"
Miniyal reseats herself and allows the records to be examined. Hands once more get folded in her lap after she's pushed hair behind her ears. Her glance slides to the hide she was working with before being interrupted. Reaching out she touches it and then straightens it a little and then her hands go back to her lap. "There would be a note in his original entry, that is correct." Frowning a moment she looks at the records and then at Ashwin. "I can have the relevant data copied out for you tomorrow. The census records cannot leave the records room. It would be unwise. I'm sure you understand."
Jensen hasn't made to read either of those hides himself, so doesn't look surprised when Ashwin takes one of them. He focuses on Miniyal again. "Would it be alright then if we stayed here a moment t'look these over? 'M sure it won't take long for Ashwin t'jot some details down. I dislike not havin' somethin' t'think on, and I can't afford wasted time just now. Ashwin, would you mind?"
"Course, sir," Ashwin murmurs. So obliging. The fact that he's taking notes doesn't stop him from speaking, however, and his pen scratches away as he continues with the questions. "If you wanted to find out more about him, who would you ask, Miss? It's harder for us, coming from outside."
"That would be fine," Miniyal says with poor grace. It's not fine! At all! But she's not going to say that. They've already been weird enough as it is so she just adds a clipped nod to her statement. Sitting up straighter she pushes hair behind her ears more more with an exasperated sigh and then shakes her head. "I wouldn't know. You might ask someone who knew him where he worked. Or, kept track of them. The Headwoman probably could point you in the right direction."
"Headwoman it is then." Jen again looks at Ashwin, that silent request for another note to get added. Back to Miniyal again; he smiles. Pleasantly. "You've been very helpful."
Ashwin's pen is very busy, and jumps from the list he's taking down from the census to the previous page, where the headwoman is presumably added to the mix. "Thank you so much," he adds on the heels of Jensen's words. "I can come by tomorrow for full copies, or I'll send someone."
Miniyal's shoulders shrug and she plucks at the sleeves of her dress. "Yes, well, I'm happy I could help," she says in a neutral tone. Because it'd be rude to say something like 'you interrupted me with dumb questions about a dumb drudge and can't you see I am busy?' So, she settles for the spoken neutral phrase. Directed to them both without looking at both. "That's fine. I can have them ready by tomorrow evening. Unless something pressing comes up that requires my attention."
Jensen stands, on that note. "Tomorrow evening'd be good." Which means that's what I'm expecting. He turns then, glowbasket in hand, and makes for the exit at a slowish pace.
And what else did you expect? With a polite nod of his head for Miniyal, he's right out on Jensen's heels.
Um, Ashwin, that is.
Miniyal wouldn't give a time she couldn't follow through on. So, she just nods her head and takes up the records on the table to carry them to a nearby table to add to those she must copy. Then she takes up her own hide and returns to her work after taking up her own glow basket. Like nothing happened to interrupt her at all.
Where: Records Room, HRW
When: 22:09 on day 8, month 13, turn 1 of the 7th Pass
What: The guards seem to think Niya knows anything about the corpse
6/25/2006
It is 22:09 on day 8, month 13, turn 1 of the 7th Pass.
At night, here in the records room, it's quiet. Any rustle carries and echoes in the room and the lone, moving light doesn't seem bright enough. The last of the workers left ages ago. Now there's just Miniyal left, going about her work. The basket of glows continues to move and then stops, set on a table near the back of the room where said records worker has stopped. Standing on her toes she tucks something in and then consults a hide in her hand with a frown. Not that the frown can be seen since her back is to the entrance.
"You're sorta a hard person to track down, did you know that?" Jensen is standing just inside the room, his own glowbasket in hand. And look, he's brought Ashwin with him! "But here y'are." The eerie greenish light makes his grin deceptively menacing.
Ashwin is at Jensen's shoulder, arms wrapped around something that might be a clipboard. There's something of 'attention' in his posture even now, although his expression is one of polite reserve. Pale eyes are looking past Jensen, absorbing the contents of the room in silence.
Some might spin around at the voice in the dark, but Miniyal just rests a hand on the shelf and then turns about slowly, hide she was consulting still in her hand. "I can't imagine how I could be," she says evenly, picking up her basket of glows and moving away from the back of the room to settle it on a table closer to the center. "I spend far too much time here exactly. Or so my family tells me." She rests her hand on the table and then sets the hide down by the basket. "What can I do for you?"
Jensen moves when she does, though too slowly to imply he thinks she might try to escape. He too sets his basket down on that same table, to sort of focus the light there, and glances over at Ashwin. "You've been scarce since you found that body." How handy that that just so happens to also include why he and his lieutenant are here. But he elaborates anyway. "This is Lieutenant Ashwin'n I'm Jensen. We just wanna ask some questions o'you is all, if you've the time."
Ashwin evidently does strong and silent well, for there's not much from him as he moves into the room after Jensen. His clipboard goes down, and one hand rests on the back of a chair, waiting only for permission to sit. When he does speak, there's a Tillek accent mixed in there somewhere. "We're speaking to everybody. Sometimes small details combine in a way you wouldn't expect."
Miniyal pulls out a stool out and seats herself. "I was taken away for a short while on business for the weyrleader," she says simply as she folds her hands atop the desk, but not on the hide. "If I'd been running away I wouldn't have come back, of course," she says with a brief flicker of a smile. "As for time, yes. I've several hours more work to do in here, but can take a short break." Emphasis on short. Ashwin's words get a nod of her head, but there's something in her expression that shows she somehow doubts some of what he says.
Jensen glances over, eyebrows lifting as he regards Ashwin and his hesitance in sitting. Once Miniyal has seated herself he gives a nod - permission from his end at least - and takes a chair himself. "If you could start by tellin' us what happened that night, how you found the body." His own hands clasp in his lap; his eyes slide sideways to Ashwin, a silent prompt. The time for writing has come.
Ashwin knows his part in proceedings. Sliding into a chair, he produces writing implements from the clipboard, slowly twisting the pen end over end in one hand as he eyes Miniyal, pale eyes running over her features.
"I was in the store room. I dropped something. I was trying to find it so I was feeling around." Miniyal shrugs her shoulders and looks uncomfortable, shuddering a little even. "And then I found. . .the body. So, I can't really help. I was just trying to find something I dropped." Shaking her head she sighs and looks down at her hands. "It was terrible."
Jensen, confident his second-in-command is carrying on, focuses entirely on Miniyal. "'M sure it was," he offers evenly. He allows a moment of silence, perhaps to allow her to recover from remembering, then continues. "Why were you in the store room?"
"What, specifically, had you dropped?" Turns out Ashwin can speak now and again, if not quite in complete sentences. His quiet words follow on the heels of Jensen's, even while he's jotting something at the head of the page.
Miniyal's eyes blink rapidly a few times and she peers at Jensen as if he's asked something weird. "I was looking for something. Didn't I say that? I mean, it smelled terrible, but I needed to find some new laces for my boots. And I knocked over a box on a shelf. It just had, assorted things in it. One of those sort of catch all things. But I dropped it and had to clean it up. So, I was feeling around trying to find it."
"You didn't say anythin' about lookin' for somethin' other'n what you dropped." Jen again glances at Ashwin. "So you were lookin' for laces, you knocked over a box, and while you were lookin' for it you came across the body." Just to recap, you know. "There were some others there with you?"
Ashwin interjects quietly, raising his eyes to Jensen as though seeking permission for his continued interruptions. "Forgive me for asking, is it normal practice to go and find such things yourself? Would one usually ask one of the women who work there to retrieve things?"
Miniyal sighs and waves one of her hands, eyes rolling. "It feels like it was ages ago. I mean, the details are a little fuzzy. I've had a lot on my mind. I forgot. I went in to get laces. No one else was in there, no. Essdara and that rider, whatever his name was. They were outside in the hall." Looking at Ashwin she says, "Yes. I get things for myself. I'm not in the habit of getting others to do things for me I can do myself. Besides, it's the only way to be sure I like the ones I get. I'm particular."
Jensen doesn't mind interruptions. In fact he encourages them, if the way he pauses for Ashwin's questions is any indication. "So particular you'd go down to the store rooms yourself, brave the stink. Just for bootlaces." He smiles. "I admit I'm the same way with some things." Leaning forward slightly, he says in a softer tone, "'M awfully sorry for troublin' you with this, Miss Miniyal, but I do very much want t'figure out how this poor fella wound up the way he did." Pause. "His name was Sully. Does that... ring a familiar bell at all?"
"Things must end up all over the place if everybody does it," Ashwin observes absently, dropping his gaze to jot something down. A pause, and he draws an arrow.
Miniyal looks down and pulls her hands into her lap to fold them there. "I just. . .there's some things I like a certain way. Besides, I breathed through my mouth and it wasn't as terrible as that. Not until I found. . ." Biting down on her lip her skin gets a faint green sort of tinge to it. And that's not just a holdover from the bath fiasco. "Sully? No. I don't know most of the names of the drudges to be honest. Not since the aborted attempt of my mother to get me to work in the kitchens. We don't really use them here." Head tilting to one side she eyes Ashwin with a frown. "I /always/ put things back where I got them."
"I'm sure he meant no disrespect," Jen says quickly, to hopefully banish any feelings towards the contrary from Miniyal's mind. "Ashwin here's just tryin' t'get some information, same as me. Um. You say they're not really used here? D'you mean drudges? Can you tell me what they /do/ in a Weyr?" Hold experience vs. Weyr experience.
"I did not, please forgive me," Ashwin murmurs promptly, pen pausing for a moment. "Did you wonder what the smell was?" Ashwin's words are quiet, pen pausing for a moment. "I don't mean to ask a silly question, but I haven't really been into the storerooms at Tillek before."
Head tilting over, Miniyal looks from one man to the other. "They assist in general things. The things most others don't want to do usually. I could get you some records on it. There's some informative ones on various roles about the weyr." Nodding her head she makes to rise. "It would only take a moment. I know right where it is?" she offers with a tight smile. "And, yes, I wondered. It's really the first dead body I've smelled. But, after the mess with the baths. . .well, High Reaches seems inclined to fill with weird smells."
Jensen doesn't protest to her going to search for the reference material. He simply settles his elbows on the table in front of him and clasps his hands. Not for the first time since he and Ashwin arrived, he looks around the room, perhaps checking for eavesdroppers, perhaps just getting a feel for the place. One never knows what might come in handy later. Something strikes him suddenly. "Uh, Miniyal? D'you think there'd be anythin' in the records mentionin' a Sully?"
Ashwin waits until Miniyal rises to shoot his Captain a quick glance, brows raised. The internationally recognised signal for what-do-you-reckon,-then? "You must have records on everything," he offers, perhaps trying to reclaim a bit of good will. "You wouldn't have information on where Sully came from, whether he was born here?"
Miniyal stops a few paces from the table. "There's records of everyone in the weyr. We keep careful track of residents. And riders. Caucus records might not be entirely up to date as we rely on the caucus to keep us up to date and they might now." Off she goes and returns with a couple of bound hides. "It's all in the census. Done once a year so the weyr knows who all is here and it helps with tithes." She lays the first down. "This was done awhile ago. By one of the junior weyrwoman. It explains the roll of everywhere here. Was probably some assignment. And, here's the latest census. Sully should be in it. There will be a notation if he was born here and one listing when he first appeared in the census rolls."
Jensen responds to that look with one of his own that clearly says 'we'll see'. When Miniyal returns he lifts his eyebrows, somewhat surprised by her promptness. "Census, huh. Well this is definitely a good start. May I?" He reaches for the hides, hands one to Ashwin. "Do we, uh, have any more questions?" That's to Ashwin, a very blatant 'go ahead and ask away if you want'.
Ashwin doesn't seem to expect Jensen to look over the census himself, for he sets aside his pen and reaches for one, flipping it open to run a finger down the lines of script. "If he wasn't born here, will there be a way to tell where he came from?" A pause, and he lifts his head to eye Miniyal. Perhaps he's heard rumours, for the question is particularly polite. "Would you object if we took these with us to read at our leisure?"
Miniyal reseats herself and allows the records to be examined. Hands once more get folded in her lap after she's pushed hair behind her ears. Her glance slides to the hide she was working with before being interrupted. Reaching out she touches it and then straightens it a little and then her hands go back to her lap. "There would be a note in his original entry, that is correct." Frowning a moment she looks at the records and then at Ashwin. "I can have the relevant data copied out for you tomorrow. The census records cannot leave the records room. It would be unwise. I'm sure you understand."
Jensen hasn't made to read either of those hides himself, so doesn't look surprised when Ashwin takes one of them. He focuses on Miniyal again. "Would it be alright then if we stayed here a moment t'look these over? 'M sure it won't take long for Ashwin t'jot some details down. I dislike not havin' somethin' t'think on, and I can't afford wasted time just now. Ashwin, would you mind?"
"Course, sir," Ashwin murmurs. So obliging. The fact that he's taking notes doesn't stop him from speaking, however, and his pen scratches away as he continues with the questions. "If you wanted to find out more about him, who would you ask, Miss? It's harder for us, coming from outside."
"That would be fine," Miniyal says with poor grace. It's not fine! At all! But she's not going to say that. They've already been weird enough as it is so she just adds a clipped nod to her statement. Sitting up straighter she pushes hair behind her ears more more with an exasperated sigh and then shakes her head. "I wouldn't know. You might ask someone who knew him where he worked. Or, kept track of them. The Headwoman probably could point you in the right direction."
"Headwoman it is then." Jen again looks at Ashwin, that silent request for another note to get added. Back to Miniyal again; he smiles. Pleasantly. "You've been very helpful."
Ashwin's pen is very busy, and jumps from the list he's taking down from the census to the previous page, where the headwoman is presumably added to the mix. "Thank you so much," he adds on the heels of Jensen's words. "I can come by tomorrow for full copies, or I'll send someone."
Miniyal's shoulders shrug and she plucks at the sleeves of her dress. "Yes, well, I'm happy I could help," she says in a neutral tone. Because it'd be rude to say something like 'you interrupted me with dumb questions about a dumb drudge and can't you see I am busy?' So, she settles for the spoken neutral phrase. Directed to them both without looking at both. "That's fine. I can have them ready by tomorrow evening. Unless something pressing comes up that requires my attention."
Jensen stands, on that note. "Tomorrow evening'd be good." Which means that's what I'm expecting. He turns then, glowbasket in hand, and makes for the exit at a slowish pace.
And what else did you expect? With a polite nod of his head for Miniyal, he's right out on Jensen's heels.
Um, Ashwin, that is.
Miniyal wouldn't give a time she couldn't follow through on. So, she just nods her head and takes up the records on the table to carry them to a nearby table to add to those she must copy. Then she takes up her own hide and returns to her work after taking up her own glow basket. Like nothing happened to interrupt her at all.