The Three Ouellets
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Fact
All locations in this quest exist, including Ankhas, Ettermire, and the Fields of Khu'fein. All historical events and lore are canonically confirmed by Alerar - The Basics The Timeline of Althanas and The Codex of Thayne Lore. This quest is simply an expansion of some of those events.
All bunnying has been planned and approved.
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“We are not interrogating you!”
“Yes you are!”
“No! We just want to know more about you. We're tired of this. We're tired of the same vague story of your past. We want to know more!” Maelle said to her mother in a raised voice. “Do we have aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents? When are we going to get to know?”
“You won't get to know anything at all at the rate you're going!” Alix's emerald eyes grew wide and she retreated across the main deck of The International to finish her share of the ship work. Even in her roused emotional state, she was able to float across the hardwood floor with uncanny grace. “Your father and I have told you everything we can within safe boundaries.”
“But which part of it is a lie?” A quiet but piercing voice emerged beside Alix. She looked up to see her middle child's sinister smirk. Ludivine continued as she tied a rope along the bowsprit of the ship. “It's one thing to withhold information, but to lie to your own children... Tisk tisk. So which part is it?”
Alix remained silent as she scrubbed down the chrome railing of the ship. “The original name of this ship couldn't have been The International.” Ludivine said. Alix continued to ignore. “This ship in all its might is too solid to be as old as you say it is.” Ludivine went on and Alix continued to scrub. “Is it your age you're lying about?” Alix froze.
“Now that was a low blow, Lu.” Esme finally intervened as he and Vespasian sat at the edge of the ship's helm overlooking the action. “You didn't say that because it may have been a lie. You said that to insult your mother, which I will not tolerate. A healthy curiosity about your heritage is understandable and acceptable, but save the verbal attacks for your enemies.”
“I'm glad you could finally step in, dearest husband of mine.” Alix said as she threw the used cloth overboard. She decided not to turn around. Instead she decided to distract herself with the beautiful view of Etheria Port. Hopefully the earthen hues, the golden sunset, and the less than savory smells of the busy harbor would calm her down. And perhaps keeping her back turned towards her eldest daughter Maelle would keep the truth hidden.
Maelle was an especially talented interrogator because she didn't have to pressure her targets into telling her the truth. With her background in applied psychology she could spot if anyone was lying to her, she could find the emotion behind the words, and from there she could simply use deductive reasoning. However, a good spy, like every single member of the Villeneuve family was able to throw her off with proper acting and inserting a bit of truth into their lies if they ever saw it fit to lie to each other, which was a rare occurrence. Maelle couldn't get past her mother's wall unless she could get an emotional rise out of her, which she had already done by double teaming her alongside Ludivine, the black sheep of the family. It didn't help Alix that her husband and son simply watched from above in apparent amusement. With all of this around her, the Villeneuve Matriarch was too angry to meticulously watch her body language, eye contact, and voice tonality the way she needed to.
“By the way, honey, I am helping. I'm distracting the boy. If he was involved it would be Hell for you, so you're welcome.” Vespasian handed him a paper bag from which he extracted potato chips of blue hue. He stuffed a handful in his mouth and spoke with a muffled enunciation. “These are some good chips. A little bit sweeter than the conventional kind. Only in Alerar, eh?”
“What nations did the the two of you hail from, mother? Just give us something, please.” Maelle said in a calm voice. It was almost as if she was allowing some sort of catharsis to enter the arena of emotion. “Was it Corone, Alerar, Raiaera? We just know that given the lives we lead, we could loose the two of you tomorrow. I believe I even speak for Vespasian when I say we don't want to have to wonder for the rest of our lives. We love you. Put some thought into it. We've got a mission to go to.”
Maelle made her exit and her other siblings followed behind. Esme joined his wife at the edge of the ship as she ran her fingers through her auburn hair. He rested his hand on Alix's back as the two of them watched their three children disappear into the sea chaos that was Etheria Port. “You knew that was going to happen sooner or later, right.”
“Yea.” Alix said as she sighed in relief. She lay her head on Esme's shoulder. “I suspect this little mission of theirs is a front. They're going to find out about us. My worry is how much are they going to find out?”
“To find out every detail of our lives before we met would lead them into some dangerous territory that even they wouldn't dare cross into.” Esme said as he comforted his wife. “They're smart. They could just as easily wait for the right moment, and that moment certainly isn't right now.”
“I just can't believe Maelle.” Alix said with a sigh. “I would have expected some kind of antagonism like this from Ludivine, but Maelle? That surprised me. It was an unconventional tactic.”
“And which one of our children is good with the unconventional tactics?” Esme said with a laugh.
Alix straightened up as she folded her arms. “Vespasian! Do you think he's behind it this time?”
“Yes. I do.” Esme turned and paced towards the middle of the ship. “This will be the first time, as far as we know, that Vespasian has been involved in the investigation. You and I have done a very good job of raising three very capable children. I have a feeling that together they're going to make some real headway.”
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With his eyes closed and his ears more or less deafened, Vespasian was able to take in the full pleasure of his drink. As he tilted his head back his nose was able to fit conveniently within the rim of a large wine glass. His nostrils became filled with Khu’fein blackberries, Kachuck minerals, and Ettermire tar. His tongue followed suit as it explored a wealth of complexity with layers of velvety soft fruit and cedar flavors. Vespasian enjoyed his first sip and returned back to the real world. He opened his eyes to the smiling bartender as he peeked above the black liquid glass, and opened his ears to the symphony of organized chaos around him though his immediate company was silent.
“Bwael. Bwael.” Vespasian said with a sultry smile as he raised his glass to the ashen bartender. His pointy ears flickered in excitement. “I’ll pay you extra to take the glasses along with us. We’re due for the next rail car.”
“Go. The glass is on me.” The bartender said with a thick Aleraran accent. The land’s language was a beautiful one, but these people could make Trade sound abstract. “I dare not hold my favorite three Humans back, eh.”
“Thanks, Jhinrae.” The three said in unison as they left the local inn and reentered the wave of activity outside. They made their way towards the rising pillars of smoke in the distance. That’s where their ride to Ettermire would be.
“So, Maelle,” Vespasian said as he led the trio through the crowd while amazingly holding the glass of red wine still. “What’d you get?”
“You’re not going to believe this. Our two Human parents were born into noble families of two very not Human countries.” Maelle said before she took a sip of the platinum liquid that was her sweet plum wine.
“So we’ve been looking in the wrong places all these years?” Ludivine said as she grasped her bronze glass of whiskey. “Salvar and Corone would be the only Althanas countries with an established lineage of Human nobility. Were Mother and Father even nobility?”
“That part was the truth. When I asked about Salvar and Corone earlier in the confrontation, the corner of Mother’s mouth twitched. It was like a half second smile, which meant I was going in the wrong direction and she enjoyed sending me on a wild goose chase. It’s when I mentioned Alerar and Raiaera that her body language became reclusive. Did you two notice that?”
“No. We don’t notice half the things you do.” Ludivine said with a roll of her jade eyes. “But if you’re right that begs a question. Are the two people we know today occupying the original form they were born in?”
“The answer to that is no.” Maelle said as a mischievous smile more worthy of her younger siblings emerged. “Lu, you were on to something when you hounded Mother about the age of the ship and her age. So much so that Father saw it fit to intervene. They’ve been lying about their age and the ship’s age. It’s safe to assume that they acquired a new ship before I was born at the latest.”
“Alright. This changes our approach.” Vespasian could imagine that. Each member of the family had in their possession a small sketchbook containing drawings of different Althanas peoples. When they looked upon these drawings and lay to rest they would wake up as said person. This was not illusionary magic, this was complete and utter biological transformation, which was confirmed on a recent mission when Vespasian used a secret Aleraran invention to examine his own cells. If a Villeneuve’s biology was changed then their age was changed as well, and their parents could have cheated natural death for thousands of years. “Does everything else in the story check out?”
“As far as I can tell. They met each other, fell in love, faked their death by way of house fire but were too hasty to leave any kind of body behind. But now we have a potential of thousands of years to look into.” Maelle paused and her face suddenly grew somber and her amber eyes seemed to gloss over. “I feel bad about the way I did that to her. I knew I would have been able to do that for years now, but I didn’t do it. She’s our Mother, not our target.”
“I know.” Vespasian placed a hand on Maelle’s shoulder and looked at Ludivine with a face of gratitude. “If I could have done it I wouldn’t have put the two of you up to it. We’ve made some real progress already. I promise your actions won’t be in vain.”
“Where are we going?” Ludivine said as the three passed under a wrought steel archway. Before them stood a colossal chain of wooden boxes that stretched further than the eye could see. They had windows, roofs, and giant steel wheels. There was a strange smell, a smell of something burning, but it was a mystery as to exactly what it was.
“We’re still going to Ankhas.” Vespasian said as he flashed a piece of paper to a guard clad in the colors of his nation. “This revelation won’t change our plans too much.”
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Two days later the Villeneuves entered the South entrance of the Library of Ettermire. The great azure lit dome of the library hung far above them almost mimicking the sky itself. They could tell they were in a library for as soon as they stepped in Maelle’s sensitive nose took in the dust of a thousand years and reacted in a sneeze more befitting an Orc. Her younger siblings nearly leaped out of their grey cloaks, just as she almost exploded out of her own.
“So what’s the plan?” Ludivine said as she floated silently into a valley of bookcases. She became satiated in the shadow caused by the tall structure. “What are we looking for?”
“We’re looking for the cold cases, preferably the ones dealing with arson.” Vespasian said as he took in his surroundings and handed Maelle a handkerchief.
“Fire is very common in an industrial nation.” Maelle took the cloth and wiped her nose. “There must be thousands of reported cases, and that’s not counting the ones that may not have been reported.”
“Well then let me help you out. We’re looking for a case of unsolved arson regarding a noble residence where a body was never found between fifty years ago and seventy five hundred years ago. Be lenient with your Aleraran vocabulary. I don’t think the word arson goes back too far.”
“What!?” The two women said in unison.
“I know that sounds like a lot.” Vespasian said with his hands in the air. “But it’s not when you look at the numbers. The nobility of Alerar has always occupied half a percentage point of the population. That’s at most eighty thousand Dark Elves with a life expectancy of five to six thousand years, a notoriously high socioeconomic status, and a birthrate of approximately two surviving children per mother. Add that with suspicious arson with a body missing and we’ll have narrowed it down quite a bit.”
“This was your plan?” Ludivine said from the shadows. Vespasian could see her cloaked silhouette and could tell she had her hands on her hips. He simply nodded. “In that case we’re going to need some assistance. Does this library have any staff?”
“I think so.” Maelle made her way across the center of the building near an immense desk, where alongside a mountain of books was a young woman of pale complexion and flat black hair. “Sjaad'ur uns'aa, lle'warin. Udos inbal natha ves dubo ilindith pholor udossta rahi, lu' udos zhahen nictus dos gumash tlu d' xxizz... Qualla. Udos orn'la tlu mal'rak wun dosst n'belaern.”
Translation
Maelle, prior reply: “Excuse me, miss. We have a very hard task on our hands, and we were hopping you could be of help. Please. We would forever be in your debt.”
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