Recudor: Nightly Stroll #2

Sharpe and Lox arrive at the market, having split from the others. It's evening by now, and it's starting to get dark, but the city is fortunately well enough lit that it's easy to see down the streets, if not the dark alleyways. Sharpe decided to take a look around and try and figure out where Clarent could have gone off to. Last he heard, she split from Jian and Jack when they were in the Northern District, and Doc mentioned that her soul-trap was being repaired at some underground hideout of sorts... The more he thinks about it, the more Sharpe gets that feeling that it doesn't sit quite right with him. That something is off about that. But assuming things go as planned, the soul-trap should be returned to the house within the next few days.

Finding some sort of clue or gathering information would probably be the first choice.
From what he remembers, there is a church near the markets, and two Inn's in the southern district. He knows from RD, Doc, and Lox that there is a ferry or boat leading to the northern district, although considering that Jian and Jack had to have gotten back somehow without any money on them, it's safe to assume that either one of them walked around the city, to avoid the Central District.

Lox who has been tagging along with Sharpe is still at a bit of a loss regarding the whole situation, but tagging along is sure to be better than staying at the house, bored and with nothing to do.

Sharpe gazes up at the sky for a moment, and then to the west, dusk answers the demand of his vision. He looks back at Lox.

"Doc said he had gone to the northern district, and you took a ferry, but I guess maybe we could go out the east gate as well. Central may be open but I'm not risking it. Additionally, I have a mind to go to the local church and notify them we have a missing person and to look out for her. One of the inns is nearby, maybe someone there also knows where to go and can at the very least point us in the right direction."

He turns a bit more and poses an off-topic question.

"Do I intimidate you, Lox?"

With everyone having scattered off into different groups to complete various tasks, Lox took Sharpe up on his offer to search for the missing girl. He didn't know much about the situation or even what the girl looked like, but without this to occupy him all he would have left to do was a personal shopping errand for some supplies, and some experiments with Air's tainted bolts, and figuring out where to sleep for the night, or where to keep his supplies. Actually that didn't sound too bad, was it too late to turn around? Lox averted his gaze back to the house as he and Sharpe began to gain some distance from it with a small frown before turning back to Sharpe. "I like the idea about the church, more eyes can only get the job done faster, and if they begin spreading the word we'll have even more eyes on the job. If there's anything to be said about a man of the cloth, it's that he can certainly rally the troops." Lox chuckles lightly as he looks around the town a bit. He had yet to really memorize the layout of this new town and seeing as it was getting dark that was likely to remain unchanged, but he figured he'd still give it a shot while they strolled through the town. At least until he was taken slightly aback by Sharpe's seemingly random question.

Lox smiled nervously and shrugged a bit as he did his best to answer the question. "Well I dunno if it's intimidation as much as just general nervousness. To be honest I've never been great at meeting new people. This is kind of an all time record for me. Back when I was still in school, you and RD would probably be the kinda guys beating on me during the walk home, but I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt and see everyone as an individual instead of assuming the worst." As he walked in pace with Sharpe, Lox began to wonder if he was already rambling too much for the man and averted his eyes down towards his feet.

Sharpe laughed a small bit, the image of Sharpe and RD during their adolescent years beating the snot out of Lox, he found it funny but an incorrect assumption. Nonetheless, the man meant no harm, not that he really felt any offense either. He was a lean, taught man of the military persuasion, of course he might come across as that. He pats Lox on the back for the entertainment he provided.

"That's a good quality to have man, but sometimes you need to think on your feet, this includes assumptions as well. You won't exactly need to worry about me though. I've been around, I know what I'm doing. I am the keeper of this blade for a reason." He explains to him.

He keeps walking until he gets to an intersection, and looks around. He points in a direction.

"Church should be that way." He says. "To be honest, I don't know if there'll still be folks there now that it's no longer daylight out. The latest I think there'd be sermons or mass would be about eighteen-hundred, maybe twenty-hundred. There might be some folks who stay there all the time though, so we'll see. Reminds me actually, the city guard might be good to check in with as well. Though considering all that's been happening, I don't know if they'll exactly be of the most use to us, they might be more concerned with bigger fish." he rationalizes.

Lox smiles and chuckles lightly as Sharpe laughs and pats him on the back nodding lightly as Sharpe spoke to him, and chiming in once he was finished. "Yeah, you're not wrong. Half the time it would probably just be easier to cut out the middle man and go with my first instinct, but my brain has never been wired that way. It'll always take a million detours before reaching the point." Lox shrugged slightly, he began to wonder how much he was going to divulge about himself today to people he hardly knew. The thought made him chuckle lightly once more before turning the way Sharpe pointed out to look down the path that supposedly leads to the town's church.

"Hmmm...You're probably right, hopefully we'll luck out and run into someone there though. Whether it be a priest wrapping things up, or some poor soul looking for guidance." Lox began to walk down the path that was pointed out, letting out a soft sigh as he walked. "If we do run into a priest I just hope he's not an overzealous one. I'd rather not be lectured into praying." Lox shrugged once again before turning to look back to Sharpe. "You're probably right about the guards as well, though I don't know if we'll be completely out of luck with them. The way I see it they'll either have their top officials working on the issue to keep it as quiet and calm as possible, in which case we'll be able to go to some of the lower grunts for help and get at least some of their attention if they happen to be on a crappy post, or they'll be needing all the manpower they can get to cover ground quickly, in which case we're screwed." After a short moment of contemplation Lox's eyes shifted to the blade Sharpe had mentioned earlier, the blade opened a whole new line of thoughts for Lox, which of course raised more questions. "Keeper of the blade huh? Mind if I ask what that means? It looks pretty obviously of foreign design, does the blade have any special metals in it, or is the significance purely ceremonial?"

The two men continue their chat as they head towards the church. Having arrived at what indeed does look reminiscent of a church, with a Gothic design and big wooden doors. Sharpe takes the lead and opens one of the door, gesturing for Lox to head inside, and then moving in himself.

The small church is fairly modest, and very standard in design. There are rows of very long benches to each side of a small, carpet clad, walkway leading up to an altar. The place is well lit, with oil lamps and fire instead of protraction like most places, and there are various people sitting at the benches.
A man and a woman sit in the far back, closest to the door. And on the other side, further in the middle, is a nobleman in fine robes. Neither of these three are very noticeable, and seem occupied.
There is no Pastor behind the altar, but a small figure is kneeling before it in prayer.

The person seems very young, and is dressed in grey cargo pants and a dark blue Jacket of sorts, carrying a long object wrapped in rags and cloth strips. Sharpe's trained eye can easily define this to be a rifle, which immediately reminds him of the girl he saw days prior at the Militia tent.

As Sharpe enters the Church, and takes his hat off and touches his forehead with his index finger, then his heart, then his right shoulder, his left, and then his abdomen. He walks down the middle aisle and looks to each side, looking for an office of sorts, there should be one. He walks until he's just behind the girl with what looks to be the rifle. It's almost unmistakable.

He looks back at lox for a moment, keeping his voice low, almost to a whisper the duration of his walk.

"I said then to just mean I'm a swordsman. Nothing fancy about me, just a soldier who decided he was sick of some corruption. The sword is of a make very distinct from any around here. I don't know who forged it, but it is quite old and potent, and has been given a lot of attention over the years, to keep it from being forgotten to the perils of time. It was awarded to me for my service in Teyness. It has gotten me through almost all trouble i have found, and time again, it proves to be a loyal blade. It is my art, it is my responsibility, and if I let it sit idle for any length of time, I fear someone may find it and use it for all the wrong reasons. Such would dishonor a weapon of such excellence. Thus, it never leaves my side. of all the things I own for myself, this is indeed the most valuable thing I have, more valuable than money. And honestly, it even transcends materialism. Though that may sound arrogant, it's not. It's more than just a tool, a weapon. It is an expression of an art form that I have nigh-on perfected, it is a symbol of power and skill. It has to be a relic of a lost age, or a relic of an unknown people. This sword, I feel like it has a soul, in a way. Not some magic, or extremely out-there theory, but I feel there's a sort of spirit to it, like every good trusty weapon that has seen years of use and has never failed, and that soul is bound to me in a way. It will not leave my side, just as I will not abandon it." He explains at length, having fixated on the girl's rifle while he spoke. He shakes it off, feeling he might have divulged too much, but he's done that sort of long babble before. He looks back to Lox to say something in addition.

"Could you see if you could find a member of the clergy? I'm going to speak to this girl, I think I know her and I think she could help us out." He says, eying her, and walking over to her once she completes her prayer, or whatever religious business she came for. It would be of the utmost disrespect to intrude.

Lox watched Sharpe remove his hat and trace a cross over his body with his finger, soon after his eyes scanned the room for a bit. He took a mental note of the people sitting in the pews before finally observing the girl at the front with some sort of item wrapped up in a cloth. Lox tilted his head a bit and began to wonder what was under the cloth when Sharpe began to explain his sword, pulling Lox's attention to him for the duration of his explanation. "Well I'm no swordsman myself but from what I've read, a lot of the masters view the sword as an extension of themselves. Never been too sure about what that meant...until now." Lox chuckled lightly after whispering back to Sharpe, which got them a few skeptical looks from the patrons, but Lox simply cleared his throat a bit and nodded as he continued whispering. "Yeah I'll uh...I'll keep an eye out for someone and leave you to talk to her."

Lox began to wander around a bit awkwardly. He knew there were usually some offices in the back but in this case we wasn't really sure where to find them, nor did he think random intrusion were welcome. After a few moments he wandered past a couple of booths which seemed to be occupied, he could tell due to some very light whispering going on inside and while he couldn't quite make out what was being said, he noticed the other patrons giving him some rather ugly glares for hovering around them. Lox cleared his throat a bit awkwardly and continued examining the booths for a moment before slowly raising his fist to the door of the booth and giving it a sudden knock that echoed throughout the large room. Almost immediately after the knock, Lox took a series of steps away from the booth, and turned his back to it in a vain attempt to look innocent. With his back to the booth Lox could only blush with embarrassment as he faced the glares of the other patrons in what felt like the longest, and most uncomfortable silence of his life.

The whispers stop for a brief moment, and the whole room is quiet, leaving only the faint echoes of the knocking to dance around the embarrassed Lox. After a short while, the whispering continues, and the people stop paying him attention, with one of the men grumbling to himself in annoyance. Seems whoever is in the booth doesn't plan on interrupting their session. Looking about the room lox can see two archways to each side of the altar, leading into hallways. Likely one of these will lead to the prior mentioned offices, as they always do.


Sharpe approaches the girl and comes to the definite conclusion that this really is the same one he saw prior. She is down on her knees, her hands clasped together, and her eyes closed. She whispers soft unheard prayers until the knocking causes her to abruptly stop and open her eyes. She closes them briefly once more, giving thanks, and then gets up from the floor, turning to face Sharpe. "Can I help you?" she asks quietly, clearly aware that Sharpe had meant to initiate conversation with her.

Sharpe looks down at the girl, who seems to be a good foot shorter than Sharpe. He smiles, keeping his arms relaxed at his sides.

"Hey, do you remember me from earlier? I saw you at the bounty board and the guys at the militia tent gave you some bull, and I might or might not have stuck up for you in some way. In any case, I was wondering if you've seen a girl, about your height maybe but a little older, brown hair, red eyes, maybe a bit of a tomboy as well. She has this long good-material scarf and a hoodie, also she has these cuts into the thighs of her pants that are in a 'V'," He explains, and makes knife hands, placing them on the sides of his own pants to show where the pant-cuts are, "She also might have seemed really tired, or lacking in spirit. Last we knew she was in the northern district, heading somewhere around there too. If not, that's fine, I just figured you might have run into her or something."

He looks at her rifle on her back, fiddling with his hands all the while. He gestures toward the rifle.

"That's a nice rifle if I might add." He said, feeling like throwing in something less serious, maybe to soften her up for more information. He looks over to check on Lox then quickly snaps his attention back to the girl.

After his awkward fumbling around Lox attention turned back to Sharpe, who was in the middle of his conversation with the girl. Luckily the silence of the room allowed Lox to listen in on the conversation momentarily to learn the description of the girl, since it dawned on him that he had yet to see the girl, or even ask for a description of her. Once he heard what he needed he averted his gaze to the archways in the back, and pondered to himself for a moment before walking into the left archway and searching for a back office.

"Hello?" He muttered in a barely audible tone as he advanced somewhat shyly through the corridor until he reached a rather impressive looking door. Lox took a moment to examine some of the beautifully crafted designs in the door before finally lifting his fist and giving it a soft knock. A few moments of silence pass before Lox sighs and gives the door a much firmer, more audible knock and awaiting an answer.

"Hn..." the Girl replies, staring blankly at Sharpe as she rifles through her memory. "I'm unsure. I don't think I've seen anyone like that-" She then cuts off for a moment, as if remembering something. "Hn... Red eyes? I see..."

When Sharpe then adresses her rifle, she shrugs it's strap off her arm and catches the heavy rifle with both arms. "Ah... This? Thanks." She replies to him and runs one fragile hand across the wrappings. A soft and very faint smile settles on her face, before she slings it back over her shoulder.
A moment passes, and the girl looks about the vast room. "This isn't a place for business." she says and pulls out a piece of paper from her pocket to scribble some address on. She then hands Sharpe the paper. "I know the girl, but... It's been hours since I last saw her. This man..." She says, gesturing to the paper. "He might know where to find her- He's an investigator of sorts."

Once finished, she excuses herself and leaves the church.
Taking a look at the address, Sharpe can roughly tell that it's location is in the Northern District, at the Northern Gate. It would take him at least two hours to walk to the location, and it's already relatively late.




The second, more audible, knock on the door leaves Lox with just as good as a result as before. Knocking is clearly not his strong suit, as so far it has provoked no positive results. Only him waiting on nothing. Out of a curious reflex, he tries to open the door by the handle. It's locked. Likely there is no one in the office at the time.

Sharpe nods at the girl and waves as she leaves.

"Thanks." he simply says in a low tone, i keeping with the church as a place of peace of mind. He reads the address and wonders what the time must be at present. He walks around the altar into the side hallway and sees Lox there trying to get a reply.

"Nobody home?" he asks him. He walks up to the door and knocks on it three times, each with equal and sufficient power. He listens for anyone inside, but hears nothing.

"They must have retired for the night. I found a lead however, if you're willing to pursue it, but we need to get to the Northern District, which could at least two hours, so finding that ferry might not be so bad an idea, provided they are still in operation."

Lox sighed a bit as he responded to Sharpe in a low, hushed tone. "Yeah guess you were right about that. I'm glad your conversation was more fruitful than my fumbling around here." Lox took a moment to consider what Sharpe said about venturing to the northern district, and after a few moments gave him a definitive nod. "Yeah we can got check it out, I'm not sure how late it is but we might as well make as much headway as possible incase this becomes a full fledged manhunt...er...womanhunt." Lox began making his way away from the door and back into the main room, where he would continue out the front doors, continuing on as he walked. "The ferries shouldn't be of too much concern, even if they're not running I might have a quick fix." Lox thought to himself for a moment, placing his right thumb and index finger on either side of his chin before nodding to himself as if to confirm his own statement.

"Even if they are running, the quick fix might be a bit more fun." he chuckled lightly before looking back at Sharpe. "So, the girl at the alter. Is she an acquaintance from your militia days? If you don't mind my asking of course."

Sharpe raises an eyebrow.

"A quick fix, eh?" Sharpe says with a quizzical tinge. He imagines this "Quick Fix" would likely come in the form of Lox's rune magic. It would be interesting to see, but their objectives take precedence.

He begins walking toward the exit when Lox addresses his conversation with the girl at the altar.

"Ah, no, she was someone I met at the militia stand earlier, she had this big rifle and she looked real young. Some guys questioned her for how young she seemed but she looked like she could take care of herself, and she's very likely older than she looks as well. I figured someone in a similar line of work would be able to help. Threw in a smile and a compliment on her armament and that did the trick." He says.

He quietly opens the door to the church and proceeds outside, holding it open for Lox and shutting it just the same as he opened it.

"Oh, I see. Well I'm glad you were able to help her, otherwise we'd have hit a dead end back there." Lox chuckles lightly as he continues. "At least I assume we would have, I dunno how willing I'd be to question a stranger who looks like she's praying for her weapon." Lox continued walking for a bit, and as they left the churchyard, he made sure to slow down and let Sharpe take a slight lead, after all he was the one who knew where they were going.

Lox let out a soft sigh as he began to think to himself. Conversation was never his strongpoint, and with the long walk ahead of them he was beginning to wonder what to say that would keep awkward silences at bay without getting too personal. After a few moments of silence the only thing Lox could seem to come up with was blurted out of him without much thought. "So uh...you been with the group for a while?"

He frowned a bit almost immediately after, he knew it was a pretty lame icebreaker but he was pretty worried about falling into silence for the rest of the walk, if the silence set in they he would just retreat into his own brain and start trying to think about some book he read in the past, or new rune combinations to try out or whatever else jumped in there.

Sharpe keeps his pace toward the ferry. His mind is rarely absent, always thinking even if it looks like he's being absent-minded. He looks at Lox who seemed to be trying to break the monotony. Anything helps, he knew that from experience.

"I have been here since the start, which is to say, not very long ago. We came together about a week ago to get this girl back who was kidnapped. Seemed entirely random but Air insisted. So we went with it, and eventually ended up in a castle in another realm. long story short, Vampire clan inhabited the place a while back, last of the line made a pact with a demon, came back merged with it, and tried to obtain test subjects for gruesome experiments. Lots of fun, real party, should have gotten a cake to go with it. Not the most horrendous thing or unnerving of places, but definitely sends shivers down your spine thinking about it. We got back, Jian's girlfriend got kidnapped and taken to central, went to central, got her back. Doc goes off, you meet up with him. Clarent, the whole who was kidnapped and why we're all together in the first place goes missing, *again*." He says, filling the story with a little more snark while cutting off the fat.

"Me, I trust Air, she means a lot to me - not in that way, she's a childhood friend - and the others gained my respect. It might be a little rocky in places but it's not like we'd go and kill each other. I'm probably going to be here for a while, at least until some stuff in Teyness crops up and I'm needed."

Lox silently keeps in stride as he listens to Sharpe's side of the group's history, his natural curiosity kicking in at the mention of an extra dimensional castle inhabited by vampires. He began to wonder if the experiments that were mentioned had lead to the shadow creatures he and Air encountered in their earlier escapades. If that were the case then maybe he wasn't as prepared to find their base of operations as he thought...he still wanted to find it, but nonetheless it was something to keep in the back of his head. After a moment he quickly snapped himself out of his thoughts so he wouldn't miss any of Sharpe's story, Lox couldn't help but chuckle towards the end, throwing in a quick comment at the hint of a lull in the story. "So this isn't the first time you've had to find her huh? Sounds like a bit of a handful, if you don't mind my saying so. Maybe on the way back we can buy a bell to put on her."

Once again Lox let Sharpe continue before chiming in a second time. "Yeah I kinda got the feeling there was something between you and Air when the group met up, not necessarily romantic, but I didn't really rule it out. I can see why you trust her though she's a very loyal and easily trusting person from what I gathered, and that's just from spending a day with her, let alone years." Lox let out a soft sigh as he continued. "Well with any luck it won't be too hard to gain the respect and trust of the others, though skepticism is to be expected in situations much more subdued than ours, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised if it takes a while."

Sharpe and Lox's conversation lasts for a good while, making the walk past the church to the docks seem rather short. Having arrived there, Sharpe indeed spots a medium sized boat with a few people on it. By the looks of it they are preparing to leave.

The two of them pick up the pace and hurry down to the docks where one of the crew's member explains to Sharpe that this will be their last ride to the Northern District before closing for the night. Without any sort of debate, they let the man and his companion aboard and head out to the other district. On the way there, they come across a small empty boat, seemingly moving by itself, past them, and to the Southern Docks. Upon a man onboard asking, the crew member explains that the tiny boat is the only alternative past walking, when the ferry isn't available. It's cramped and small and wet and uncomfortable, but it would get the job done, and is fully automatic. The very same boat Lox had met Mitsuki and Dr. Atrium on before.


Having arrived at the Northern district and made their way over to the specified adress, Sharpe and Lox finally stand infront of the building. It's a small apartment building, with a door leading to a staircase, and another leading to some office of sorts, judging by the description. 'Investigations Office - Nathan Tisperry' the sign reads. The lights are on, and a person can be seen moving about behind the closed shutters of the place. Seems like Mr. Tisperry is still in for the night, fortunate for the two of them.

Sharpe looks down at the piece of paper he was given, and sees the name, Nathan Tisperry. He glances again at it, and takes out the bounty paper regarding the escort job, which says it was put out by a certain Nathan and Amanda Tisperry. A feeling of heaviness makes it's presence known in his chest, and he looks into the apartment, then at Lox.

"This might get weird, my previous job was an escort job, and it was put out by this guy. We found a dead easterner in the inn room where we were supposed to meet up. Stay on your toes, Lox." He says and walks over to the door with the inscription for Mister Tisperry's office, and knocks without saying anything. He locks his hands behind his back as he waits, maintaining a more professional-looking posture so he doesn't come across as some brogue or something once the door is answered.

Once they finally reach their destination, Lox follows Sharpe to the written address before given a quick warning about a past job. He raises an eyebrow quizzically as Sharpe approaches the office door. Lox hangs back for a moment as Sharpe knocks on the door, and removes his backpack, kneeling down to rummage through it before removing his brush and inkwell. Trying to be as quick as he can Lox begins to draw onto the palms of his hands once again, two wavy lines ending in spirals at one end, the spirals twirling in opposite directions to as to mirror one another. Once he had drawn the design in his left hand, he began to draw in his right palm, this time first drawing a large diamond shape, the bottom point forming into a tear drop before drawing the previous pattern in the middle of the diamond.

Once he was finished making a mess of his hands once again, Lox put his brush and inkwell away, and threw the backpack back on before standing up and running to rejoin Sharpe. "Sorry about that, just preparing for the worst."

Upon Sharpe's knocking, a sudden crash of glass can be heard as whoever is inside is startled, followed by the slamming on of a drawer and some fast paced clashing of metal pieces of sorts. Sharpe tries the handle but the office is locked. The lights turn off and immediately Sharpe realizes there is an intruder inside, and not in fact Mr. Tisperry, as he pulls out his pistol and prepares to breach.

Wasting no time, Sharpe turns and breaks shoulder first through the door, knocking it out of the lock with ease and aiming his gun. The last he can see is someone disappearing through a vent in the ceiling, as some papers fall out of said vent, alongside some metal object.
Making a quick scan of the dark room, Sharpe takes note that no one else is present and then moves below the ventilation shaft, aiming his gun up at it. Nothing. Though he can hear the clunky warping of the ventilation shaft, its too high to reach without any object to stand on. Sharpe knows whoever was there will be long gone, and he has no idea where else the shaft can lead. Sharpe begrudgingly leaves the intruder.

The lights flicker and turn back on by their own accord- Protraction lamps, of course. Cheap, Efficient, and work under most conditions, unless magic is directly used on them. Anyone knows that.

The office itself is rather modest. There is a small, clean, desk with a broken drawer hanging out of it and a small, turned off, lamp on top of it. There are some metal filing cabinets to one side, and a withered plant in the corner next to it. On the other side is a small kitchen area with a bunch of unopened cans standing on it.

Sharpe looks at the floor, to where the random stuff had fallen when the intruder made their getaway.
Some papers and the handle of a gun are on the ground.
Sharpe holsters his gun and moves the papers aside with one hand, and picks up the gun beneath them with another. Taking a moment to inspect it, the gun reveals to be a six-shooter revolver. It has a decently long barrel, but nothing too fancy. The design is similar to old world revolvers he'd seen in the past, but there doesn't seem to be a hammer on the revolver...
When snapping out the revolving part of the gun, small flat red rods of some material are embedded inside it. He slides one of them out and looks at it a bit closer. With no idea what it could be he sticks it back into the gun and snaps the revolving part closed once more.
This is definitely a Protraction gun of sorts, but how or why it works is unknown to Sharpe at that time.

He then takes a look at the Documents, reading through them.

Sharpe looks at the pistol, turning it over, looking it over, of course never down the barrel, but he was puzzled as to why something does not need a hammer. Protraction was never something he really invested time in, so he'll have to take it to a local gunsmith or protraction worker in town to see if it needs adjusting or calibration. He checks the safety before sliding it into his belt and covering it with his coat. He'll have to buy another holster or have one made, perhaps the next day. He reads over the documents, the first and then the second, consecutively. He notes the man was of eastern descent, which confirms he is the same man they found dead in the inn. It was likely they found him, or his wife betrayed him, but in any case someone got wise and silenced him. He notes the mention of a Traders Guild investigator, which might follow into RD's suspicions regarding them, though he'll have to find who this might be later. Of course, she could potentially have been the intruder however. He reads back a bit about the man who seems to be Marcus, under the name "Mark". He could always be a sibling but it's very likely it's the same man. He gets to the third document, this one about a mutagen strain and test subjects, likely an extension of what was going on at Vikuur and Central. A great many questions he'll have to go over and cross-examine with what they have so far.

He turns to Lox, who must be stumped as to why Sharpe is taking so long with the documents.

"This goes a lot deeper than I thought it would. Mister Tisperry is indeed the man I found dead in the inn... but wait, nothing has cropped up about his wife..." He says, adding another revelation to the pile. He hands Lox the science-related document.

"This was in relation to what we found earlier in Castle Vikuur, like I told you. Additionally of interest to you because of your time in Central. We're going to have to figure out where to go next, but I want to see if there's anything left in that safe here. Look around, maybe it's not in plain sight."

Lox watched Sharpe break open the door, and immediately followed him into the room just in time for the both of them to watch the culprit escape. He let out a soft sigh as he looked around the now mess of a room, giving Sharpe time to read through the notes he had found. It was pretty hard to find any real clues without sifting through every mess in the room. Just as Lox was considering it, Sharpe handed him one of the documents he found. At first Lox just took the document nonchalantly, but as he began to read it his face began to glow with excitement. After reading the document in silence he finally began to speak.

"Wow...this is some pretty intense stuff. From what I can gather your Mr. Tisperry was getting into some pretty serious stuff. Obviously whoever was in here was trying to steal these from him, so we can guess he was either pretty close to this 'Dr. Wayfarrow' lady, or was her boss if he was keeping her documents for himself. Looks like they were forcing some genetically altered blood into their subjects. If I had to guess I would say this blood feeds off their magical energies, thus the stronger the person's link to the arcane the more compatible the blood. Obviously this leads to quite a few 'failed subjects' from the sounds of it, it wasn't an easy death, it seems like the pain could last until the next stage of testing." Lox neatly folded the document and slipped it into one of the side pockets on his backpack as he continued. "Once again if I had to guess, I'd say Sylvia Wayfarrow is our next stop, either she was the person in here, attempting to recover her own notes and remove evidence linking her to the murder of your Mr. Tisperry, or the person who was stealing the notes from here has a link to her in some way, in which case we can question her and find out one way or the other. Though that might be an undertaking for another day, I doubt we're gonna have much time to find her tonight." After he was done ranting, Lox gave Sharpe a confirming nod as he stated his want to search the room a bit more. It made sense to him, and Lox was more than happy to help sift through the mess. His first interest though was in finding more documents, which were more than likely gone after the recent events, but he still had some hopes, maybe they missed something.

As Sharpe began to search the room, Lox crouched down and began to help sift through the mess, speaking up once again as he looked through the random items scattered around. "So...uh...I don't suppose you'd be willing to part with that gun once we have no more use for it? I'd love to tinker with the frame, and maybe replace that chamber." Lox's head was immediately flooded with ideas on how to alter the gun, he knew they needed to keep it as evidence for the moment, but once it's usefulness had run it's course he was ready to gut it like a fish given half the chance.

Lox searches through some random items scattered on the ground. There's not actually that much to find, some broken glass... some desk utensils... and a picture frame. It seems like most of the items that are laying around are paintings ripped off the walls and things thrown off the desk. Lox gives a quick look at the photo containing a, to him unknown, couple. He hands the frame to Sharpe before continuing his search and moving to the desk.

Sharpe takes a look at the photo. The man on it was clearly the man they saw at the Inn. So Nathan Tisperry was indeed dead. Though, the woman on the frame looked significantly different from the woman he saw at the door to the couples room at the Inn, raising yet more questions.

Lox heads to the desk in search of more documents. The top of it has mostly been cleared off, but immediately the broken drawer catches his attention. A shallow little metal safe is laid inside the drawer. It's open, and perfectly sized for papers- which was likely what this was for. Very much to Lox's dismay there are no more papers to be found. However there is a rather odd looking key. A gold key with a big light blue stone embedded in the handle. There is, surprisingly, also still money left in the safe.