Pride or Envy?

**Pride or Envy?** is a case featured in *Criminal Case*. It takes place in *The Hunt for Orion* chapter of Graecita.

## Plot

At the palace, Kaleb and Marionette are sitting in the private living room while Queen Leonora is questioning the guards about Madelina Alonzo’s whereabouts. When they told her that they have no idea, Leonora grew impatient and she asked how long will it take them to find her and where could she possibly hide in the city. A guard who was silent then stepped in and she revealed that the city’s dockworkers found tiny holes on the wooden deck near a ship that just departed this morning and they believe they came from the heels of a woman, meaning there’s a possibility Madelina may have board the ship and is not even in the city. Leonora sighed and allowed the guards to leave, Kaleb comforted Marionette and promised her that Madelina will be back but Leonora then interrupted them and ordered Marionette out of the room as she needs to have a word with Kaleb. Once Marionette was out of sight, Leonora demanded to know where is Yvette. Kaleb looked at her surprised and questioned what she meant, but Leonora wasn’t going to allow him to play dumb and told him that she had a feeling he never buried Yvette’s body and the events that happened last night with Madelina confirmed her suspicions. She then asked him again where he hid Yvette’s corpse and he gave in by revealing he built a room behind the bookshelves of his study and he allowed Yvette to rest there. Leonora stayed silent, which made Kaleb nervous over what insults she had in store for him, but Leonora simply remained calm and told Kaleb that they need to bury Yvette’s body. This made Kaleb freak out and he started yelling at Leonora, refusing to let her do this and when Leonora pulled out the “she’s the queen” card and he must follow her orders, Kaleb reminded her that the only reason she was accepted as the queen is because he advocated for her and he can take it all away if he wants. This threat surprised Leonora and even Kaleb himself, who immediately apologized for what he said but the damage of his words was already done and Leonora kicked him out of the living room before breaking down in tears. Once Kaleb had left the room, Norah slowly came in to comfort Leonora. Norah’s presence caught Leonora by surprise and she asked how told has she been here, in which Norah revealed she’s only been outside for a few second but it was enough to hear what Kaleb told her and asked what the two of them were talking about. Leonora wiped her tears and told her that it was nothing and to just forget about it.

Meanwhile in *Hamilton Laurent’s Revenge*, Mia was standing on the crow’s nest looking through a telescope at their destination for any signs of the huntresses, when suddenly Zachary jumped next to her and asked if she saw anything, making her startle. Mia turned to him and when she saw that he was still topless, she looked away, when Zachary asked if he was bothering her, she gave an awkward laugh and told him that it’s nothing and that just feel uncomfortable when she is around semi-nude men. Zachary laughed and decided to tease her and while the two were chatting, noise came from the main deck and when Mia checked what was going on, she caught Hasuro and Bruni running around the deck. Mia and Zachary went down from the crow’s nest and asked the two men what they were doing and they pointed on a cat that made it on deck, which Mia recognized as Mehitabel- Hamida’s cat. Mia was shocked to see that the cat even made it out of Grimsdale in the first place as no one had come to get her and she tried to approach Mehitabel, but the cat simply growled and scratched Mia’s hand to warn her into backing off. While Hasuro was tending Mia’s wound, Mary announced to the crew that they have made it into their destination.

YOU ARE MIA

When the crew got out of the ship, they were immediately taken aback by the breathtaking view of the French countryside and the taste of fresh air. However, they also questioned whether Artemis and her hunters were even here as there were no signs of another ship nearby, but Zachary reminded them that gods have different forms of transport and if Artemis’ hunters were here, they probably arrived through a flying chariot. He then told everyone that he and Mia will see if the forest dwellers know where they could find Artemis and they should stay in the ship and keep a low profile as nymphs tend to become nervous when a lot of humans are around. After being done speaking with their crewmates, Zachary and Mia entered the forest to look for any woodland creatures they could speak to and from a distance they spotted a dryad laying on the roots of a tree. The duo decided to approach her, but the poor nymph was dead and had a wound to her heart. Zachary gasped as he recognized the dryad as an old friend of his, Miranda.

As soon as they found Miranda’s body, another dryad Rubarae, who had been looking for her, suddenly appeared and shocked by seeing the state her friend was in, she immediately pointed fingers at Zachary and Mia, accusing them of committing the murder. Zachary calmed her down and asked her if she remembers who he is, making Rubarae go into deep thoughts and her memory clicked and she recognized Zachary from 7 years ago. The duo spoke to Rubarae and they learned from her that Miranda still kept her habits on spending time around lakes but this time, she wasn’t alone as a lot of other nymphs gathered around the area to admire the beauty of the Boeotian hunter, Narkissus who was resurrected after millennia of his original death. The duo decided to look around the lake and they suspected Narkissus himself but also the nymph Natalie, who was previously a suspect back in Vicky Lopez’s murder investigation. While they were recapping the case, Mia noticed a woman who looked very similar to Galinda Singh beyond the shadows and being filled with anger and disgust, she went following her to a hut and Zachary went after her to see what was up with her.

“Galinda” was surprised when see saw Mia and Zachary barge through her door and sternly, she asked who do they think they are to approach her in that manner. Zachary looked at the woman and for some reason he thought she looked a lot like Gisele Najm and asked her how did she end up in the same place as they are and how her face recovered so fast from the burns Kaleb had given her. The woman laughed at them and it turned out she was neither Galinda nor Gisele but the goddess Nemesis whose image varies from each person, depending on the person (a female) they despise the most. After the encounter with Nemesis, the duo returned to their investigation, suspecting an oread famously known in greek stories, Ekho but were unable to get anything from her as she was cursed with the ability of only being able to repeat the things she heard. They also discovered that Natalie had a feud with Miranda over the victim publicly mocking her father Poseidon with the other nymphs and that the sword used to kill Miranda belonged to Narkissus, which had given to Ameinus to kill himself with after Narkissus rejected him. Mid-investigation, Zachary and Mia were realizing all the nymphs and satyrs were gathering around one area and when they checked to see what the fuss about, they witnessed a dryad trying to walk with an arrow piercing her left ankle and the back of her right chest, fainting.

The other nymphs immediately rushed to her aid and Rubarae directed them on what to do to save that poor nymph’s life. While the woodland creatures were busy, Mia and Zachary put their focus back on their investigation, learning that Miranda stood up for Ekho against the other nymphs and befriended her, leading her to trash the goddess Hera (who cursed Ekho), getting on Nemesis’ bad side who disapproved of mortal beings bashing the gods and Miranda has publicly insulted two. Furthermore, they found out that Miranda murdered Rubarae’s mother, Simonetta back when they were looked up at Duchess Ursule’s castle over her betrayal of their tribe, something that Zachary was not aware of as he and the humans were imprisoned in a separate area while Kaleb and Alex Stamos were doing the murder investigation. After more sweeping, Zachary and Mia discovered that Narkissus was Miranda’s killer.

Zachary and Mia went to confront Narkissus, who was still admiring himself on the lake’s reflection and after Zachary pulled him away from it, he revealed that they know he killed Miranda. Narkissus, of course, tried to deny the murder but after the duo pressed him with evidence, he snapped and admitted to the murder, saying that he was saving himself from Miranda’s allure. Narkissus explained that he never felt any love for any entity other than himself but that was until he met Miranda. He was busy admiring his reflection, as usual and then he noticed Miranda sitting next to Ekho, dipping her feet on the lake and it was love in first site. Miranda was everything he dreamed of a woman: her green eyes, her raven hair and she looked like the spitting image of himself. For the first time since Nemesis cursed him, he took his eyes away from his reflection and they were all on Miranda and he knew that she was meant to be his, she’s the one who will save him from the curse Ameinus had Nemesis put on him. He tried to talk to her, but wherever he went, all the dryads would follow him and try to gain his attention and when he got the opportunity to be alone with her, he confessed his feelings to her but Miranda laughed on his face and told him that she will never be with a narcissistic man like himself and she would rather sleep with one of the fat satyrs at council than give him a kiss. This broke his heart and as he was walking back to the lake, he spotted a sword underneath a shadow which he recognized as the one he gave Ameinus to kill himself. Narkissus looked at his reflection on the blade, hoping to fall in love with himself again but failed, Miranda had put him on a spell and he could not break free. This is when he realized what he must do and went to confront Miranda, demanded that she fall in love with him, forcing her into a kiss. But Miranda fought back and seeing that he can’t win Miranda’s heart, he stabbed her there to free himself from her “sorcery”. Narkissus was brought before the woodland entities for judgement, where the satyrs demanded his death but the nymphs, who were still hypnotized by his beauty begged Rubarae to let him live. Rubarae didn’t know what to do since the votes seem to be 50/50, so she turned to Ekho, had not given her vote yet and asked her if she believes Narkissus should be punished or not. Ekho, although being in love with Narkissus, did not approve on what he did to her friend, so she gave a nod as approval for his death. Taking Ekho’s vote as the decider, Rubarae came face to face with Narkissus and exhales fire on him, burning him to his death.

Once they were done dealing with the murder, Zachary and Mia remembered the injured nymph they saw mid their investigation and wondered who attacked her. Ophelia then approached the duo and told Mia that Mary Read would like to speak with them over urgent matters.

Curious on what was bothering Mary, Mia followed Ophelia to her cabin to look for answers. Mary was waiting for them there, patiently, and when asked whether there’s a problem in the ship, Mary revealed that they have an intruder inside the ship. Mia and Ophelia exchanged looks and then asked Mary who are they, in which Mary shrugged her arms and told them that she has no idea who they are, but then pulled out a box of viagra she found in the lower deck, revealing that she doesn’t know what they are for but she asked everyone in the crew if it belongs to them and they all denied it. When the two girls saw what Mary was holding, they started laughing and they asked if she asked the men in the ship if it was theirs and when Mary told them that she did and as she said before, they denied it, Ophelia revealed that those pills are supposed to give men “extra help” in the bedroom and no guy in his right mind will admit in taking them. Mary responded to this by crossing her arms and telling the girls that being a pirate for years, she can tell when someone is lying or not and none of the men came off as lying, so just to be sure, Mia and Ophelia agreed to investigate and went to the bay to see if the intruder have dropped anything around. There, they were surprised to see a gold PearPhone 11 laying there and doubting that one of the woodland creatures dropped it, they unlocked the phone and sent it to Bruno, hoping that he’d find something that would help them. Bruno hacked through the phone and in the camera roll he found an interesting footage and displayed it. The footage was of Madelina Alonzo trying to find a proper angle to record a message for help while two boys, a skinny lad with under-developed boyish features and a short fat guy were standing on the background and she was having an argument with the chubby guy before realizing there was no phone service around and there’s no point in filming her message. After watching that footage, Mia and Ophelia wondered if Madelina and her friends were in the ship this whole while and what her in here anyway, however, whatever her motives, they couldn’t just leave her and the two guys alone and they must find them and take them back home.

Looking for answers, Zachary and Mia went to visit the wounded dryad, Twiggy and asked her how she got attacked. Twiggy explained that she was taking a walk in the forest and she found a beautiful silver stag. Admiring its beauty, Twiggy decided to have fun and started chasing the stag, wanting to ride its back, but when she jumped at him, she felt something sharp on her angle and realized she was shot. Terrified Twiggy looked behind her and saw a beautiful man, however he stood really tall and intimidating. Twiggy managed to find strength to run away from him and he shot her again on the back and she kept running until she lost him and managed to come to the rest of the dryads, alive. Zachary and Mia came to the conclusion the man in Twiggy’s story was Orion, which sent fear to the other nymphs who were not happy to here that they too are potential targets of the giant and must stick together if they want to be safe. Knowing that the nymphs are not as able to defend themselves as either the Xerdans or Artemis’ huntresses, Zachary and Mia became more determined in finding Artemis before anyone else is harmed. Rubarae then stepped in and told the duo that the silver stag may lead them to Artemis as it could be one of those that pull Artemis’ chariot. Zachary and Mia agreed with this and they went into the forest looking for something that would lead them to the stag and stuck between the tree branches they found a golden deer horn. The duo assumed it must be the stag’s and Zachary felt bad for it, knowing how disgraceful it is for male deers to lose its horns, but as soon as he freed the horn from the branches, he felt a magnetic force trying to lead him toward the lake. Neither Zachary and Mia knew what was was happening but they decided to follow the horn and it led them to the stag who was looking at himself, sad at the water while Natalie was comforting him. The stag then noticed the duo and when he saw Zachary holding his missing horn, he got mad and charged at him. Zachary managed to miss the stag’s attack but did not know what to do, Natalie then called at him and told him to give the stag back his horn. Zachary did what she said and let go of the horn, which then levitated and stuck back at the stag’s head. After the stag calmed down, Zachary tried approaching the stag to ask him into leading them to Artemis but the stag did not trust either him or Mia. Natalie then whistled for the stag to come and assured him that the humans aren’t here to hurt him and they just want help and while the stag found Natalie trustworthy, he didn’t have the same trust for the duo, especially Zachary as he was taught to not trust human males. Zachary and Mia were about to give up trying to tame the stag, but then Natalie offered to come with them in their quest since maybe she can get the stag to lead them to Artemis. Zachary appreciated Natalie’s offer but he was also curious on how she’ll help them when she is stuck on the water but before he could question her, Natalie whistled for her three off her friends, one brought out the traditional dryad dress and the other two were holding a large blanket made of leaves which they used to cover up Zachary and Mia’s view. Natalie then jumped into the dress and she transformed from a naiad to a dryad, which made Zachary’s jaw drop. After getting out of the shock, Zachary thanked Natalie for agreeing to help them and asked her to wait for them as they are going to call the rest of their group to come with them.

YOU ARE NOT MIA

After speaking with their friends, Zachary and Mia brought in Natalie and the stag to the ship in order to introduce her to them. The crew welcomed Natalie with open arms and thanked her for offering to assist them. They were then ready to go and search for Artemis, but Ophelia reminded the others that Artemis isn’t the only one they should look for and they must also find Madelina before she gets in any trouble. Suddenly, they heard a scream coming from the forest belonging to a girl and concerned, Ophelia and Mia rushed there where they saw Madelina Alonzo standing on top of her suitcase, trying to reach for a young  satyr that stole her laurel crown and the two boys with her on the video trying to fight back against satyrs, unsuccessfully. After coming to their rescue, the duo took the three back to the ship into a lunch table with the rest of their crew, where they were questioned on why they went on their ship to begin with. While stuffing her mouth with food, Madelina started blabbering and talk shit about Kaleb Willoughby and how he is a homicidal freak, explaining that he murdered the late Princess Yvette and have been locking her up in his palace for years and visited her occasionally to sleep with her. Zachary was lost in words over what he heard and tried protecting Kaleb by revealing that it was Duchess Ursule that murdered Yvette and Kaleb killed her out of revenge, but he couldn’t think of a way to excuse his necrophilia since even he was disgusted by it. While Ophelia and Yoyo were sympathetic with Madelina and understood why she’d try to escape, Mia rolled her eyes and told Madelina that if she was hoping to escape Graecita, luck isn’t by her side as they’re only here for a quest and will be returning to the city immediately, frightening the girl who hid behind Chet and Chase as her shields. However she then became interested in knowing what their quest with and asked if she could join them, which Mia immediately refused as she didn’t want anyone to drag them behind. But Madelina kept begging which eventually made Mia give in and she agreed to let Madelina join in, who got really excited. The crew then left the ship with the stag, Natalie, Madelina and her two friends, leaving Mary Read to guard the ship while they’re all gone.

## Killer’s Profile

* The killer goes fishing

* The killer uses eggs

* The killer knows gardening

* The killer wears seashells

* The killer wears a narcissus flower