Upon returning to the estate, Lavinia has Kora rush out to fetch a healer, while she settles those of you who are injured into comfortable chairs. For the moment she will hear nothing of business.
Shortly thereafter the healers come and tend to the few injuries that remain after Knarra's divine aid. Immediately after that, you are all ushered once more into the dining room, this time for a simple lunch that Kora has prepared. Again you find yourself arrayed around the table. And again you find Lavinia explaining the situation.
"If you're to find Vanthus," she says after taking a sip of wine, "I'll have to tell you a bit about him. Daerith knows some of this. But for the benefit of the rest of you, I'll start from the beginning. Vanthus and I were the only two children my parents had. I'm older by two years, but that hardly mattered. We were very close growing up, since our parents were often away for long periods. Over time, we grew to depend on each other. And I'm afraid we got into a fair amount of trouble in our time. Nothing serious, mind you, but often elaborate."
"Well, once we took things a bit too far. We managed to get our hands on several elixirs of love and emptied them into a nearby water tower. I won't go into the details, except to say that we were discovered, and our parents were none too pleased." She smiles sheepishly at Daerith. "I'm afraid that's why my Elvish lessons ended so abruptly." Looking back at the others, she continues. "I was sent to the Thenalar Academy to study, while Vanthus was shipped out to work on one of the family's plantations. My parents thought it was best if we were split up for a while and put in situations that would help us prepare ourselves for our inheritance."
"My time at Thenalar was good for me. I suppose I grew up a little while I was there. Oh, I don't mean to say that I've become a stick-in-the-mud. But I understand that there's a time and a place for jokes. And I know where the line is now. I don't think that Vanthus got quite so much out of his time managing the plantation."
"We both returned to live at the estate about a year ago. I started taking an interest in history, studying many of the books that my parents had accumulated over the years. And I began to help my parents with the business side of the family finances - though not enough, it seems. Vanthus was the opposite. He didn't have nearly as much time for me as he used to. We talked, but never for long. And we'd lost the closeness we'd had. He tended to sleep the day away and then spend the night with -well- associates of dubious character, I suppose you could say. He drank and gambled. Eventually he moved out of the house altogether." She reddens a bit. "I got the feeling he took up with a lover in the Azure District, but I never confronted him, so I don't have any details."
"After our parents died," she continues, "Vanthus stayed at the manor again for a week or so. But he'd changed even more by then. Gone was the easy sense of humor I remembered from our youth. Instead he was cynical with an almost morbid streak that sometimes sent chills up my spine. We had several arguments." She pauses. "More than several." She pauses again, this time for much longer. "During one argument, he struck me." As she speaks, Lavinia looks at no one in particular, her eyes unfocused as if she was watching the events of a month ago.
"I was shocked, as you might imagine." She shakes her head very slightly. "I think he was too. I thought he might apologize. But the moment passed and he went back to his new self, all scowls and menace. That night he gathered up his things and moved out. I haven't seen him since."
Lavinia's eyes come back into focus and she looks around at all of you. "I know something happened to change Vanthus," she says earnestly. "But I don't know what. Clearly he's fallen in with the wrong crowd - smugglers, thieves, or worse. And he's taken a great deal of money from the vault. Though really, it's as much his inheritance as mine. Still, he's my brother and I have to hope it isn't too late for him. If I could just get him back here and away from his new associates, maybe I could talk some sense into him before he passes out of my reach." Her voice trails off.
"But as you know," she says in a stronger voice, "I don't know where he's gone. It's a good bet he's still in Sasserine - or at least was a few days ago. I don't think he'd be staying in the Champion's District or the Noble District, though I wouldn't put it past him to be working some kind of angle in either place. As I said, I think he'd taken up with a woman in the Azure District, though that's based on rumor's and half-heard comments. Really, he could be anywhere in the city. It might be best to leave no stone unturned."
Then she looks around at all of you. "But then you probably have a better idea of how to go about this than I do."
