The search for Léonce Émilien Adrien Bonnet [Open]

Markus entered the city. It is quite lively all things considered, and as good place to start as any other. Looking for one specific person can be as hard, if not harder, than looking for a specific Dreamborn. For all Markus knows, Léonce may not even be in this city. But maybe he was here, and if he was, he left some traces and clues about where he went next. Asking strangers is also a good idea, as people see and hear a lot of things around them. His minions also widen the search area - hounds are looming in dark alleyways and striges perch on roofs, balconies or whatever high place they can sit at. That is one of the unique advantages his Karma manipulation gives him. Hopefuly he won't need to use more than this.

A voice snuck behind Markus, beloning to noone other than Shinobu Sato. The world famous scientist wore a bunch of cloth to pass off as a traveler at first glance, her face being the only way to recognize her. But hey, who'd look at a lously traveler, right? To boot, she was completely alone, no posse, no researchers turning the entire town upside down, no rumors of excavations in the area. Absolutely nothing. "Such a gloomy and overly sad getup, one could think that we have a funeral at our hands." She took a puff from her cigar. "But I know there are no funerals anytime soon, so what are you looking for?" Many people say that they go where the wind takes them, but in Shinobu's case, it was curiosity. One that in her case, was really easy to sway.

The search was not going well. No one knew much, his minions did not find anything either. As Markus was about to move on, he heard a female voice behind him. Turning around he noticed the source of it and it belonged to a someone he least expected to meet. In attempt to not bring attention he walks closer, focusing his eyes behind the woman.

"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Sato. I am looking for someone, Léonce Émilien Adrien Bonnet is his full name."

Markus had to be careful. She is a leader of third of Triumvirate after all and with that comes a lot of power. Shinobu Sato is not known for her benevolence either, but is still a valuable source of information, even if there is bigger chance of her just leaving. The other advantage to be had is that she did not seem to recognise him yet, or know about him in the first place. So far this beats nothing.

"I am surprised to see you, I do not think I heard about one of your famous caravans being nearby."

With one swift motion, she gave Markus a gentle slap on the back. "No need for a caravan, Mister Gloomy. I enjoy traveling on my own in search of adventure.", Shinobu backed off and took another puff from the cigar, stroking her chin in the process. "Too bad for you, the name doesn't ring a bell. They sound interesting, though."

Needless to say, the shine in Shinobu's eyes basically spoke for her - she was looking for an adventure, and a manhunt felt like something dangerous enough to speak to her twisted sense of joy.

This is a problem. There is no doubt that she can take care of herself, but having Sato Shinobu on his back may make things complicated. There is not much to be done at this point aside from accounting for any complications related to having her nearby. At the worst she may stop him from completing the task and take the money he wants to return while providing no additional danger and at best she may prove actually helpful.

"Very well then, if you want, you may assist me in finding that person. I need to talk to him. Normally he wears a mask and fairly expensive clothes, but he may be using a disguise like you."

Markus then walks past her, proceeding to the next point of searching while sending striges and hounds forward to lurk in the shadows and be his eyes.

"My name is Markus, by the way."

She titled her head from side to side, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. We'll see about remembering that name after our little treasure hunt."

The Sato leader followed suit after Markus, carefully weaving her way through the crowds as to not bump into anyone, eventually passing Markus and gently waving his hand at him.

"I have no buisness talking with people here, my personal space enjoys it's quiet times from time to time so I don't want a ruckus started. My only hint to you is that people who wear masks and expensive clothing do so for a reason, so abandoning that is unlikely, and masks have the unfortunate side effect of being remembered. See you at the outskirts when you find something."

As she said. With the crowd obscuring her from view as tall grass does a hunter, she was gone out of sight and probably out of the town, patiently waiting for Markus to report any findings he may have.

Léonce does not seem like the kind of person who would have given up on their looks, but the possibility of disguise still exists. Yet in this case Shinobu may be right, to an extent. It does not lessen the range of search in any case. Markus was done with scouring this city for information. It was time to move somewhere else in search of clues, with his animal companions following.

Not being able to abandon Shinobu, since she would become upset at him and find him either way, Markus goes to meet her. Getting the wrath of Sato Houshold was not part of the mission and would only cause problems in the future, especially now that he introduced himself. Seeing her, he speaks as he continues to walk forward.

"We will now look through ports. If he escaped the mainland, it had to be through one of those. If not, we will continue looking in other cities."

As he walked he stopped momentarily and instinctively reached for his forehead due to the sudden feeling of pain, as if a sharp needle poked his head. It will be something to investigate later. Maybe it is just his old age trying to show him that maybe he should finally stop. Dismissing the notion, he continued forward.

"Already done? Aren't you a fast one. Depending on the notoriety, I'd say people like him used a Dreamborn to scoop off the land, I can't imagine living as a fugitive around here anyways. Who knows, maybe he even made it to Jadai to live a "peaceful life"?" Shinobu chuckled, adding a bit of a sarcastic tone at the mention of a peaceful life in the town infested with terrible rumors and monsters.

"Eitherway, I'll go secure us a vessel while you do you." Once again, Shinobu ran off from her temporary assistant, heading towards the ports ahead of Markus before he could attempt to persuade her otherwise, in search of a boat. Her personal definition of search, anyways, as she pulled out a pouch from beneath her cloak once she arrived at a relatively secluded location and started looking through it's contents.

"Mmmm.. perhaps a dangerously exciting fast ride.. or something stylish?" She pondered while waiting. With no people around her, she took off her hood giving a very clear birds eye view of her location for Markus to track her.

The suggestion that Léonce may be hiding in Jadai out of all places seems unlikely, but considering his betrayal and possible reasons to why he did it there is no knowing to what he may be thinking.

There is now one more thing to worry about, considering Shinobu's confident behavior. She already goes to secure a boat despite having no knowledge whether we will leave the mainland or not. Either she knows something he does not and uses that knowledge to manipulate him to her own ends or is just that foolishly confident in herself. Likely it could be both at the same time. The moment it becomes apparent for him that he has been dragged into household affairs is the moment he must leave.

Striges that are Markus' eyes in the sky are easily capable to track Shinobu, especially now that she lowered her hood. It could be another trick as far as he knows, meant to build trust and that he has the feeling of control over the matter at hand. At the end of the day it does not matter, unless something very unexpected happens. If so, then he will simply have to deal with it.

Markus proceeds to ask dock workers about Léonce by providing description of how he looks like and his name. In case someone would not want to cooperate he, regrettably, mentions that it is a church matter hoping that it will help loosen the tongues.

Dock workers knew who Markus was talking about. Their tongues had to be loosened by either coin and usage of authority, but results are apparent and the goal is clear - Tamanjal.

He had to admire both wits and will of his target. It is the last place Markus would look in and the plague does not make it any more appealing, making it great hiding spot if you have bounty on your head. Nonetheless, assuming he did nor ran away by this point, Markus found the location of his target.

Idea of abandoning miss Sato crossed his mind, but was quickly dismissed. At this point she could do the same as him and just ask dockworkers where he went and she would follow him anyway. And if she did not, she would hold a grudge which is the last thing Markus wants as having a head of a Triumvirate house watching and remembering him for a prolonged period of time is bad. Best that could be done is not angering her.

Finding her was easy since she made it so. "We are going to Tamanjal. I assume the boat is ready?"

An incredibly smug smile of unspeakable power formed on Shinobu's face. "Oh it's ready alright." she exclaimed before pulling out a card from her pocket, then flipped a small switch on the back of it causing a bright flash to burst out of the card's front face. Before anyone could even realize what was happening, infront of the two was a large boat of technologically advanced materials, karma visibly flowing underneath it's surface as if they were veins keeping it alive.


"Straight from the labs. Things aren't as lively in the world anymore so I have Eua work on babies like these in the spare time. Completely artifical, too." Of course, she threw around names like Eua as if expecting people to know who they were even if they had no way of doing so. She slapped the surface of the "boat" and hopped on top, standing at the helm with her arms crossed and a very clear proud expression painted on her face.

Were Markus to board along with her, the vehicle took off at an amazing speed towards Tamanjal, finding itself in the sweet calculated middle of fast, but not too fast as to make the surface unstable enough to stand on it.

A dreamborn. Artificial one, but a dreamborn nonetheless. Despite being artificial there is still Karma flowing through it - the energy of life. This "Eua" presumably being chief scientist of some sort is responsible for it. Unfortunately Markus has now way of stopping the precedent since as the world moves onward this seems to be the future. Such is way of progress.

"Let us depart before we attract unwanted attention." after saying that Markus proceeds to board it. The speed of this 'boat' seems actually impressive. It can probably go even faster, but miss Sato would fall off. Who knows, maybe they will make it in time before Léonce even thinks about leaving the island.