translated by catren mjuna—also known as catren hannly, her grey sander name stripped from her by purism, her mjuna ancestors, and the mysteries of her family’s past and place in the aether’s intentions—shortly after her sixteenth birthday.
— catren mjuna, age 16
this translation was stored within the de la rue archives following her eldest brother’s marriage to judith de la rue. shortly before catren moved to the northern reaches of baalphoria, it was removed from the archives at her request. it is unknown if the original translation still exists. this particular translation exists solely within olivier de la rue’s censor, pulled from his memory once his censor was installed.
— olivier de la rue, age 16
“although i have not dared look upon these documents in decades, one day, i hope to return to them, if only to do them more justice with all my many years of translating now behind me.” — catren mjuna, age 42
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this one, having expounded upon the horrific sight that greeted herself and her servants in that forsaken alleyway—and this one must request the favour and forgiveness of her betters, for while the details of the exact state of this one’s servant were unpleasant in both the visceral reality and the words which this one pulled from their soul for you discomfort and analysis, it was both a retraumatizing and infinitely healing experience to let them flow from this one’s soul—must move the story of the grand incident along. unfortunately, it is only for a brief moment that we move from the gruesome details of this one’s servant’s demise.
upon discovering their body and destroying said body to release them from this realm, this one and their remaining servants were forced to accept the horror of the situation. with over three hundred people noted as missing in those last two years—and it should be noted that in the tidal cities, many a person and child is transient, no authority managing their personhoods nor monitoring their coming and goings—this one and her servants faced the reality that each of them may have suffered the same treatment at the hands of the creatures of the waters. of course, to jump to such assumptions is to allow the evils of reality and the forces from afar into our souls and the world itself. yet, as there had been no s of other such grotesque murders within the tidal cities—nor even did subsequent inquiries into murders from elsewhere yield any results of similar occurrences—we would ourselves naturally lean into this assumption, for, how much the waves of the aether would need have spilled over us for such a coincidence of timing to have inflicted such a horrific fate upon this one’s servants?
still, with dutiful, shattered hearts, this one and her remaining servants turned to investigating the city in which we had spent our turn of the day, questioning all who lived there before seeking more answers in the cities that surrounded it. while uncommon, there have been several instances over the many shifting summers where grudges against our most trusted servants and we ourselves have lent way to retribution seeking by the citizens of our great and prosperous land. despite days of searching, however, we turned over no clues to either some soul, seeking revenge against our caste, nor more information on the missing souls and the creatures of the waters.
it was on the third day of our search that the second of this one’s servants vanished. worried as we were, this one had forbidden her servants from attending to anything alone, yet, as most know, bathrooming while in the presence of others is an unfortunate affair. this one does not fault their servant for seeking a moment’s reprieve from this one and her remaining servant’s never ending presence as they sought relief. under normal circumstances, this would simply result in a small reprimand; as this one’s servant was found, some half a turn of the sun later, in a similar state to this one’s first deceased servant, such a reprimand will have to wait, or perhaps be shaken aside in favour of kindness and understanding.
this one must backtrack slightly, in order to speak of what occurred next. of the many problems that plagued us as this one and her servants sought to investigate the torture of this one’s first servant, the lack of a body was perhaps the most problematic. while no one has ever faulted this one for snuffing out the life of her first servant by destroying their body, it surely did leave us with little to work on. without evidence, even finding a place to begin in our investigation was difficult.
for the laypeople to whom this document finds itself, this one shall take a moment to enumerate the ways in which bodies can be utilized as evidence in the investigation of a crime. even without reaching our cores upon the bodies of the deceased—a dangerous practice which came to us in two forms, one from our eastern friends, the other from a nation far to the west, neither used in any but the most dire of investigations—there is much that can be gleaned from the state a body is found in.
at a physical level, the nature of the injuries can inform upon the skill of the assailant. strikes of a blade can be tentative, confident; the angle of injuries may indicate height, strength and handedness. traces of energy can also be found on bodies, left behind by assailants who utilized their core in the assault or on accident. in one impressive case from Dion some two hundred summers ago—although it is assumed that they have continued utilizing this technique our strained relations have left little news travelling between us for many summers—traces of a willbrandsmith’s aether signature were found in a murder victim’s wounds. from there, the investigators were able to track the willbrandsmith’s creations, and together with the ryohua, were able to locate the Inner Court member who had perpetrated the murder.
[
a translation note, from catren mjuna:
‘ryohua’ appears to be a word borrowed directly from dionese, as best i can tell. i consulted a friend’s elder sister, who works in the offices of the secretary general. while she asked around, searching for a translation, all she returned with was a pale, fearful face and a recommendation that i cease looking into whatever the word refers to immediately. given this particular sister is not someone known to fret and worry for no reason, i am inclined to simply include the word and pass on the recommendation to those to whom this document has found itself. do not seek an answer as to what ryohua refers.
]
this one is sure even those who are not familiar with the even more specialized aspects of investigative uses of a body can understand how the loss of this one’s servant’s body could hamper our investigation so drastically. as such, it was with shattering, desperate hearts that this one and her remaining servants agree that, should the worst befall any one of us, and we find ourself the next victim, we should like to remain breathing so that our body may be used to glean more information about the one who would torture so.
as one can imagine, this was a difficult discussion and decision, for this one and her servants were agreeing to extend our suffering in hopes of our body holding evidence that may lead to the being—creatures of the waters or human or something else entirely—who would dare transgress against the sanctity of the body so.
despite such agreements, it was with nausea and pain lacing through this one and her remaining servant that we moved the spasming body of this one’s second servant. as this one has already given many the detail of their first servant’s state upon their location, this one will spare repeating such terrors. this one wishes she could inform whoever has found their eyes upon this document that it was with ease that we located evidence that led us to the three evils who were finally charged with so many murders, yet this one cannot.
after moving this one’s second servant to the local doctor’s clinic, the woman having stepped out lest the misfortune of our group fall upon her as well, this one and her remaining servant set to work. while neither this one nor her remaining servant claim any mastery in investigating the bodies of the released—usually, this was left to the second of this one’s servants—together, we possessed knowledge enough to assess the finer details of what was done to this one’s second servant.
it is not uncommon in the studies of medicine and other biological sciences for bodies to be peeled apart—such is simply the nature of inquiry into the bodies gifted to this world by the aether. how is a doctor to know how to treat many a disease if they have not held a healthy and diseased organ side by side, comparing their form and mood, the way energy runs through their meridians, the way they feel and respond to various attempts at treatment. finding cures for our most dangerous and unfortunate ailments is often a long road, filled with corpses that have been torn apart by the hands of loving doctors.
as a student of inquiry, this one and her servants have attended such classes and more. perhaps the most horrific of the many classes our education brought upon us was one in which numerous small animals were cut into while they still lived, their tiny limbs pinned to tables while we cut and analyzed. to those outside our science, this may seen cruel; this one is inclined to agree, if only because, were our nation less obstinate in our refusal to engage with our northern neighbours, their technology may allow such things to be shifted into their virtual worlds. nevertheless, while we remain so devoid of technology here, such vivisections remain an integral tool in learning how bodies work, horrific as it is.
this one tells of this only because the state of this one’s second servant’s body was so like those of the small animals she and her servants and so many investigators, doctors, and biologists the continent over have seen in these courses. it is a delicate, finicky thing to repair or extract blood vessels in a living body, and many doctors this one is familiar with have lamented how many torturous hours of practice the art required; how many animals they were forced to slice into in hopes of one day being capable of performing such endeavours on their human patients. it is only after mastery of this technique that students shift into the repair, removal, and replacement of meridians, yet more delicacy required such that it is only specialists within the medical field who are capable of such feats.
it was upon our closer inspection of this one’s second servant’s body that this one and her remaining servant discovered that their meridians had been mangled. while it is impossible to determine whether this one’s first servant suffered a similar fate, this one’s second servant’s meridians had been removed in sections, those same portions transplanted into other areas that had been scarred from some variety of core attack reminiscent of the sort used by teachers on the animals used in those teaching vivisections, for such scarring is one of the primary reasons so few are capable of healing the profound damage some humans are capable of inflicting upon their enemies and victims.
those to whom this document finds itself will be unsurprised to learn that such things are extremely painful, and this one and her remaining servants could find no evidence that this one’s second servant had been administered any substances to ease their pain or bring the empty sleep often gifted by doctors. perhaps it was that such a thing would be unhelpful: this one’s second servant's blood vessels had been similarly mangled—something that has led us to believe the first of this one’s servants suffered a similar fate, as there was far too little blood at the scene at which they were found—which would have made medicating them difficult, if not impossible. while there exists those in our world who are capable of reaching their core and awareness within other people, latching onto their cores and pressing intentions and feeling into them, neither this one nor her remaining servants can count themselves among such people.
it is for this reason that the second of this one’s servants also haunts her dreams and waking hours. where this one’s first servant’s mangled, still breathing body remains burned into her brain for being the first of such horrors that she ever witnessed, it is the pain this one and her remaining servant were forced to inflict upon her second servant in search of answers that has reached into the depths of her soul, crushing so much in its cruel grip.
this one still remembers the thrashing and gasping—for this one’s second servant had also suffered their voice being stolen from them—as we turned over muscle and tendon, searching for answers as we shifted aside their mutilated flesh, so much of it already torn from bone, every shift of air over their exposed nerves sending a ripple of pain through them, every breath we dared breath too close leaving them to feebly flinch away from us on muscles that spasmed near uselessly.
for all the love this one has had for each of the many servants who have served her over her many summers, this one remains unsure how to reconcile that love with the torture she inflicted upon her second servant. while their suffering may have led us to the person to whom they truly owe their suffering, this one is sure she will never forgive herself for such a defilement, regardless of the good that came from it.
some things, regardless of the final result, are simply unforgivable.
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Arc 9 | Chapter 347: the honourable hyren za curren cannot forgive herself
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