The First Age

Marisol handed the marker over and listened intently. Both detectives had differing views on the subject. That in itself made sense. They were still piecing things together. Knowing the irijaq operated in hives brought some new information to light though. Ivan was right in that it would be a good idea to dig deeper into the victim. It didn’t mean they’d have answers there, but it also wasn’t necessarily a cold trail.

Marisol chewed her bottom lip in thought, considering before speaking. ”So the females don’t feed - at least in the hunting sense. The males get food for them. If the feeding was incomplete…then it could have been ordered by the Queen to stop…” she looked at Dorian, sure that was where he was going with this. ”That seems odd…” perhaps that is what concerned Dorian. Odd didn’t mean wrong - it usually meant bad.

Marisol’s haze lingered on Dorian for a bit. There was something about him that made her think. He seemed sad. She remembered that like her, he had only sent a few texts when thy had got the message they were snowed in. Perhaps he was a lonely man. Marisol understood that. She had her parents and a few friends. Both groups were enough to count on one hand. She had dedicated herself to her career. That meant sacrificing any semblance of a social life. Mom, dad, Cade, Ricky, and his charge, Marta. That was it.

She turned to Ivan. ”Ill look into the Vic - its procedure anyways. We have several angles to cover,” that at least was normal and there was something comforting in that. Her gaze turned to Dorian. ”How sentient are these things - meaning - are they intelligent?” she wondered at that. Could the irijaq be planning something.

Sentience... He didn't really know the answer to that. "I suppose Ivan would know a little more as he's seen them actually functioning. But the fact that one took over a human host, they have some."

Dorian ran the name through the Atharim database. They had information on everyone. It was strange using their resources in such an open way -- though it was through the back door. He wasn't officially one of them anymore.

Ivan pursed his lips as Vega gave what he could about the ijiraq. He went to the board again and in a clear spot, wrote "ijiraq"- hesitating because he had no idea how it was actually spelled- and underlined it. Then he wrote "Female- queen: fed by males?" Under that, he wrote "Males- workers (drones?)" Indented and under that, he finally he wrote "getting food for queen? ordered to stop by queen? directed to kill?"

He turned to Vega, shrugging. "Not much there." He paused, thinking on Dorian's last words. "I did see them. The ijiraq had turned the ball into a nightmare." He had focused on keeping people safe, so his attention was divided. But he did remember the woman who had been possessed. "The woman- Oriena you said her name was?- had been possessed. And she spoke. I don't remember much of what she said. Really, none of it, excep that she seemed angry and was seeking some sort of retribution."

Tapping the pen on the word "queen" he said, "Other than Nox, the person we need to speak to is this Oriena."[/color] He looked over at Vega. "I can track down her name. She was a guest at the ball. Which means she had to be listed. He wouldn't contact Ascendancy. It's not like he had the man in his wallet for casual texting. But he had some friends he could reach out to.

"Maybe Oriena could tell us more about these queens. We need to know about these things. If they breed or something, then their number can grow. And we will see more of these types of cases." He turned to Guerra. "And we need to know everything about the victim. Maybe they chose him for a reason. Maybe he tasted good. Or was dangerous in some way. We just don't know." Until they knew more, they were just spinning their wheels and guessing.

Dorian chuckled. "You don't need to track her down, Nox knows where she is." Given his location he was likely with her right now, but he wouldn't mention that to her. "She is Nox's boss and part of his found family. But I don't think she'll talk to us. She's not exactly the cooperating type. But when Nox gets back to me we'll see what he knows and what he can learn from her. But I imagine he'll have the same problem as we would -- she's not very cooperative." And she probably wouldn't take kindly to threats either even if they could back it up.