Murder Trial #3: Sova Maahes' Walk of Death

[Kai, Prince of V]

Let's get this over with. 

[Ravan]

[Deleted]

Bambi, along with many others, is teleported ((mentally?)) to the Royal Tribunal. It appears that 'court' is in session now. How very unfortunate. "I hope that John heard me..." she muttered to herself in irritation. Taking a seat, the small woman crossed her legs and cupped her head in her hands. "Let's get this over with."

[V0ltage]

"Eh? Ehhh? What's going on here?"

*Servbot looks around for a minute before recalling something*

"S-Somebody died again?!"
*Sigh*

"Things are about to get messy. . ."

[Pokedude12]

"O-oh dear... Looks like I misread a bit of info. So she didn't kill herself to be a ghost! Probably.

Hm... The knives in the Kitchen didn't seem to match the wound though... Of course, I could be wrong! I'm not good at looking at stuff, sadly...

Still, I'm sure you all know how Sova was bragging about her survival rates against assassinations, and how she wouldn't bow to anyone! I think we can assume the culprit has some level of agility that even she can't handle. Also, since she's so headstrong, I don't think she'd just be so easily convinced to off herself either! Well, I'll think more on it before saying more... Thanks for the info though, Detective!"

[Deleted]

Soft chuckling filled the room. And a pair of glazed, hollow eyes were watching John Smith curiously. This was Bambi of course, but she had suddenly adopted an odd sense of humor. "Perhaps my investigation was incorrect and the knife found on Sova's bed did not match the wound. I'm almost certain that the spear does not." she replied, brushing her hair out of her face. "As Sova identified as a 'he', and I wish to respect that... 'he' has a background of poison immunity and yes, having multiple assassination attempts attempted on them." she corrected. "Your welcome, I suppose?"

However, Bambi's gaze hardened. "As far as I have researched, you are an alchemist, correct?" she asked softly, her smile generally fading and her tone becoming more serious. "If I may ask, what does alchemy generally allow you to do?"

[Pokedude12]

"You don't know what alchemy does!? It lets you talk to ghosties!

Fun stuff, I tell ya... I remember this one time I talked to a graverobber's ghost and got a tip on high-quality skeletons to sell off to the black market! Unfortunately, it only made people chase me around with giant forks and fire sticks. I still have one left from before though! I can sell it to you for a ghostie!

... Since none seem to be here right now... Even though they keep stamping graffiti all over the castle!!"

[Deleted]

She sighed at his apparent rambling of nonsense. "Is that all it allows you to do....?" she asked, though she could relatively bring up many books that had told her the contrary. "What about dealing with metal? manipulating it?" she asked firmly.

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

-The slight clinking of gears sound as Nox leans up against his podium-

"Not to play the boring card, but could I hear some more information about the situation in general. I haven't examined the scene at all and only supposedly know that a number of people watched Sova kill themselves. I have no reason to believe this is anything but one ending their own lives, for whatever reason they may have had."

[Pokedude12]

"Metal? Maybe... But I can't say I've seen anyone do that! Of course, I'm busy rummaging around graves and livin' it up with the dead to know what advancements people made with it; but I'll say that it seems there's a technology foreign to this castle, if you would excuse my ignorance! Although... Something curious happened when I was investigating the body last night...

Detective, would you happen to know anything about disappearing metal? A foreign technology that can heat up and disappear at will..."

[Deleted]

"I'm afraid I know nothing of magic nor alchemy, aside from what I have learnt here and seen." Bambi replied, twirling a lock of her hair with a finger. Glancing at Nox, she stood up and cleared her throat to garner some better attention. "Yes. I'll clarify things from my own perspective, and I'll let anyone else who has further details correct any contradictions."

"I and Zacharius were investigating the Princess's Suite, and after hearing a scream, Zacharius headed outside of it. I had a hard time following him and when I finally caught up to him in the Grand Foyer... well, the first thing that caught my eyes was the normally confident 'Prince' sauntering over to the fire place. It was unnatural." Bambi began, crossing her arms and furrowing her brows in thought. "At first I wasn't entirely interested. That is, until Sova pulled out a scalpel and created deep lacerations within their wrists. They then proceeded to let the blood drip from their arms before calmly walking into the fire place and laying down... screaming only a few moments before death." The woman stated as she detailed her account. "Many things piqued my interest. Particularly the fact that before being burned alive, Sova's chest had been stitched due to a wound. This was one of the first things I examined. Raphael, however, beat me to the punch and took the victim's scalpel to dig into his chest. He extracted several pieces of metal.... I wanted to find out who stitched Sova up, as the stitching was fairly recent- suggesting that Sova may have had a violent encounter with someone earlier that day."

Bambi paused, recounting further what she had examined on the corpse. "Based on Sova's behavior, I decided to check for poison. Mind you, this was before I did a background check and found out they were immune. I also found no traces of any poison in their body. Which also nullifies any suspicion I had of them being drugged." she continued. "There was a minor cut along Sova's waist, and a gash on one of Sova's hands. And... his face was frozen in horror. This was not someone who was resolved in life, wanting to die.... this was not someone who had given up." she finished, begining to mumble incoherently to herself.

[Pokedude12]

Well that's interesting... It makes sense though, seeing that the spear seems to match the gash on Sova's hand. Also, to correct myself, the knives in the Kitchen don't match the wound on him. Rather, the knife in his room does.

... So I guess saying another party's involved kinda beats the dead horse a bit there...

So let's focus a bit: The blood pools. There's so much in the Foyer, even though only the wrist cuts were made there. On the other hand, there are a couple of blood pools in his room, albeit smaller, by far. Furthermore, there were no splatters that I found, nor any trails. Also, if one noted the way the weapons were placed on the beds, they could see that they were set gently. I can't see Sova doing those things with those wounds. I'm even surprised that Sova managed as is, given that lung nick... Also, note that no blood exists on the handles of those weapons, and that the stitches had to be made after the wounds were. So he pretty much couldn't wield those weapons, not in his state; nor could he take care of his wounds on his own. Not going to comment on his assailant yet though, seeing that I need more info first."

[Marie]

I had hoped to sleep in a little more after my guard duties with the body this morning but it seems I couldn't really
sleep... So in the end it's best if we rip the band-aid off right off the bat.
I can see we're reviewing what happened, i.e. the fact that Sova walked into the cut his wrists with a scalpel and 
then walked into the fire, only to scream in pain later...
That puts up the question though...
Is this suicide?

[Pokedude12]

"It is not suicide. Probably.

My argument is built on the fact that Sova had received a large chest wound that had been dealt by another party. Said wound was reported by Detective to have been stitched up by the time he burned in the fireplace. Also, the gash on his hand was made by the spear in the bedroom, which suggests he was holding it by the blade. Neither weapon bore any blood on its handle, when Sova's hands should've been coated in blood. Someone else wielded them instead, especially seeing that they were laid on the bed neatly (unless someone picked it up and placed it back down during investigation).

Also, the chest wound is angled upward, suggesting that someone taller struck the victim with the knife. Otherwise, the wound would be more level, even for suicide. Even more curious is the suspicious lack of blood, despite two separate locations of blood pools: Sova's room and the Foyer. To add, Sova was only heard screaming in the Foyer, not in his room, where he was likely stabbed in the chest and also held back a spear."

[Marie]

It's good to see we're at least on the same page. Then I will recount with with some info.
First off the wounds on the wrist are paper thin, meaning they were made from the scalpel. I assume
everyone who was there saw this and most likely can verify but other than a scalpel nothing else can make
such a small, but profusely bleeding cut. The hand gash was to the bone, rough and made with the spear.
Likely the murderer was standing a distance away to strike with the spear.
Now the chest wound, a very interesting one indeed. The wound also
seemed to have be made by Sova's knife. It was made a 45 degree angle from the top of
the body downward. The stitches were put in very haphazardly, and very unskillfully.
But aside from a little bit of burning the stitches were very new.

Let's work with this to start the party.