Marcio

It was four days after we had left the ruins that we finally arrived at our destination, the port town of Cescende. Upon arrival our first destination was the house of the Vercellendes family, a wealthy family who managed to gain power by, as our leader Marcio explained to me "convincing people that they should let them hold onto their money."
"They wouldn't happen to offer 'protection' as well, would they?" I inquired.
"They did last I came here," he replied, "Then again, last I was here most of the men in this garrison were children."
"Were you not a child as well at that time?" I further inquired.
"No." he replied simply. This answer perplexed me, for Marcio looked not much older than most of our men, who were mostly aged from their early to mid twenties. I decided to leave this question unanswered for the time being.

Upon arriving at the front door of the Vercellendes, our first order of business was explaining our business to the guards
Our leader first attempted to do so, but it quickly became clear to him that the guard could not understand what he was saying. It was then that one of the two priests traveling with us, stepped forward. He then proceeded to speak to the guard in a language that sounded much like the dead language of Italian.
The guard then turned toward the door and hollered "Lord Vercellende! The fools who you were expected to meet with three days ago have finally arrived!" Marcio scowled at the guard for not speaking in the more common continental tongue (the name of this language remains a mystery to me) earlier.
Within a few moments the large double-doors opened and out walked a plump, extravagantly dressed man wearing a black hat laced with gems to hide his male-pattern baldness (which was different from most of the other politicians and businessmen who we were fated to meet upon journey, who would wear messy white wigs to hide their naked scalps).
The man took at the scowl on Marcio's face, smiled, turned to the guard and said "Fernando! Have you been playing games with our guests again?" he then took another look at Marcio, this time something about him shocked the rich man. "Next time, you might want to take a closer look at who the guest is. Though your wit is good…" I was unable to understand what he said for the rest was said in a language not programmed into my translator.
He then turned toward our party saying in an apologetic manner "But of course I seem to be forgetting my company. Please, do step inside; though not all of your men will be able to come in I am afraid."
As we stepped inside ("we" including Marcio; the two priests, Dorino and Lao-Neen; the two captains of the mercenaries, Oskar and Chandra; five other mercenaries and myself), the rich man began explaining the history of his family. I did not hear much of it for his speech was boring and the interior of his house was grand and distracting. I did, however, manage to hear that his name was Miliardo Vercellende V and that he was born the seventh heir in line of the Vercellende family fortune.
We eventually came to a large room at the center of which was a large table made of wood and lined with gold and supported by marble legs, a clash of looks which showed that while Miliardo loved showing off his riches, he apparently did not have very good taste in tables. As we were seated, Miliardo made an announcement:
"If anyone here has any questions about my family or its business, you may ask them of me now."
I then proceeded to ask my question "Sir, I would like to know if your business charges protec…" I was suddenly cut off as Oskar put his and on my shoulder and said to me, out of the side of his mouth:
"Unless you wish for an early grave, I do not suggest that you ask him that question." Defeated I began to sit back down when I heard Miliardo saying "Wait. Wait. The man sounds genuinely curious, and I doubt he could do much harm. He seems quite foreign to the business of this area."
"Very well then sir," I continued, "Does your business require that certain people in this town pay you protection money?"
"My dearest guest, we do not charge protection money in this town so much as we offer protection. Of course, it is not suggested that one turn down an offer of protection lest they pay the price."
Now that the questions were over, Marcio began to explain our business in this town. The reply we received was a mixed one, "This warlockry that you speak of, are you truly serious about it? Why does your king send you to hunt down demon-summoners, who more than likely don't exist? And why does he extend this hunt throughout the continent? Unless…" he paused in a way that made him appear to be searching for the next thing to say. Finally he admitted "Never mind, it was just some person who I saw wandering the streets one day. However, having a creepy appearance does not reveal one's character, so I shall not go on about him. What I can tell you is that there have been quite a few gruesome and mysterious murders in this town in the past few days, perhaps you could investigate that."
I looked over at Marcio and saw his face wrinkle in anger.
"But I have not been much of a generous host so far, no? I have not even offered any of my guests wine." Miliardo then clapped his hands and two servants appeared, each carrying a bucket of ice, which held a bottle of wine. "I hope you do not mind drinking blush wine, for we are out of red."
The servants poured a clear, pink wine into the goblets, which sat in front of each of us. I hadn't had anything good to drink in the past few days, so I decided to taste it almost immediately after the servant was done pouring. It hit the tongue with a sweet sensation that became sour, and eventually pleasantly bitter.
It was at this point that Marcio's disgust decided to extravert itself. "Do you think that we have been given to you as some kind of gift for you to use? We have orders from the king of Guaspan, and we are to carry THEM out, not yours."
I began to tremble at this point. Such an outburst could very well have brought the wrath of Miliardo and his guards down upon us. However, to my surprise Miliardo was quite calm in his response.
"Come now, I offer you food and lodging for the next five days and you yell at me. Also, how could mysterious murders not have to do with what you're looking for?"
This only heightened Marcio's rage as he raised his voice at Miliardo, "Do not try to bribe me, you fat pile of shit!" He then turned to us, announcing; "We are leaving. Come, there are no leads for us…"
"Wait!" Oskar cut in just as Marcio was giving his order; he then turned to Miliardo, saying, "Tell us of the nature of these murders, is there anything special about them?" He said this as though he were anticipating a very specific response.
"Well, the crime scenes were all discovered in the same manner, with symbols and all sorts of blasphemies written on the wall." Miliardo stated, "But that is not all. There is also the condition in which the bodies were found. It is something that I think you would have to see for yourself."
Then Marcio finally began to calm down, and, as though compromising, said, "Very well then. We shall have a look at the bodies and the crime scenes immediately. Now, show us the sight of the most recent murder."
"Nonsense," replied Miliardo, "You should have food and rest before you start your investigation. Come now, let us eat."
The meal we had that night was extravagant and our sleeping chambers were quite comfortable, even though the people of this world had yet to master the technology behind a proper cooling system. It had been days since I had last slept in a bed so I didn't much mind.

The murder we were to investigate was that of one of Milliardo's accountants. We were never given the name of the man, though I doubt it would have mattered, for what was left of the man hardly left him human. The body was preserved at the mortician's, and it was there that we were presented with it.
Only three of us were present; Oskar, Marcio, and myself. Miliardo had asked Lao-Neen to hold a special mass that morning, one done in the tradition of the church far to the east. Dorino, of course, was caught up in helping that mass, making him busy as well. Milliardo also decided that Chandra not go, all though she wouldn't care whether or not she got to go in the first place, saying that it was not a sight for a woman to see.
What we saw was not a body; it was nothing more than the man's skin. His body had been completely hollowed out; no organs, no bones, not anything was inside of him. The skin had not been cut open (well, not before bringing the man in) so it was obvious that he had not been flayed, what we did find, after eviscerating the corpse, was that the inside of his body were traces of some hideous green slime. The sight caused me to vomit upon seeing it.
"I see now why Milliardo said we might be interested," commented Marcio, "I've seen all varieties of madness in my years in commanding groups of sorcerers. Such things could match, or even exceed the gruesomeness of this sight, but none were exactly like this."
"Marcio, if you do not know what it is then I shall analyze it," said Oskar, "Mortician, would you please kindly direct me to the nearest alchemy lab, I wish to put this green slime to a few tests."
"That won't be necessary," I assured him. I then proceeded to pull out a pocket material analyzer. As an archaeologist (and as more recently, astronaut), it is only practical that I carry one around with me. Oskar and Marcio stared at the device in wonder, as though I had just shown them that I was wearing women's underwear. Even the mortician, a man who I knew had probably seen all manner of sights, was somewhat shocked at what I pulled out.
"By God! What unearthly device is that?" inquired Oskar.
"You will see," I assured him.

After running a small series of tests I was able to come to a few conclusions. For one I found that the slime was actually some sort of caked over mixture of hydrochloric acid and various bone, muscle, and organ tissue. Secondly I found that the DNA of the tissue matched the DNA of the victim, while the acid did not.
After explaining this to Marcio and Oskar they gave me a puzzled look.
"I understand the part about the acid and the tissue you found in, a feat that I will admit is amazing," said Oskar, "But the rest of which you speak makes no sense."
I saw that I had to explain this in laymen's terms:
"On my planet we've found that DNA is something found in living things that distinguishes them from other living things. It is a physical essence if you will." This explanation caused Oskar to stare wide eyed at me. Marcio had lost interest in the subject long ago, his thoughts turning to other things, things that he probably found more important than this investigation, which he had little interest in to begin with.
"It means that the tissue found in the cakes of acid are the victim's."
Oskar's shrugged his shoulders in a fashion that seemed to say " Very well then, let's move on."

The rest of the investigation revealed little else. After investigating the scene of the murder we found that the blood splattered on the wall belonged to the victim and that the way it dried indicated that he was still alive when it was spilled. They were of sacrilegious nature, as Milliardo had informed us (though Oskar had to read the messages for me), containing standard blasphemy denouncing a certain popular deity. The only message on the wall that struck me as peculiar was an anti-humanistic one saying, "may mankind know the wrath of we, the true children of God." Either way, we figured that the messages were irrelevant and moved on in our investigation.
In fact, the rest of the day was somewhat dull in and of itself. Marcio had run off before we even got to the scene of the murder, saying that he saw somebody that he noticed. When I asked Oskar what Marcio meant, he just said, "Many things have happened before you arrived, not all of them worth mentioning." This answer did not quite leave me satisfied.