Private message to Lana Sandoval

[alt_rachel]

Lana --

I'm sure you saw the news about Protectorate Affairs in the papers. Do you know Corax Mulciber at all? I'm the lucky Auror from MEU who got assigned to help him shake the trees for more traitors. (If there are any up there who haven't fled. I've been going through the list of staff people and not surprisingly they've seen a lot of turnover since Selwyn's execution. If they really expected us to find anything, perhaps they should have sent us in sooner? Well, no doubt SOMETHING will turn up. It just may not be anything very impressive.)

Anyway. I know Auror Mulciber, of course (though not particularly well) but I'd never met Director Mulciber. He strikes me as a little temperamental and thoroughly unpredictable, so if you've met him -- on the Council, or anywhere else, really -- and have advice for staying on his good side, I'm all ears. Also -- frankly, he doesn't seem to know all that much about Protectorate Affairs. Would you say that's accurate? Do you know if he's likely to be a quick study, or if he'll probably require hand-holding for a while yet? (The hand-holding isn't MY job, thank goodness. I don't envy the poor bastard they've given it to.)

How's your internship year going? Nisha Desai is utterly brilliant -- I imagine you're getting to do some rather fascinating work. Like that business with the empty houses -- I assume you haven't turned up any explanations that would involve my department, or I'd have heard about it. Any news on those?

--Rachel

Comments

[alt_lana]

Rachel,

We should go for drinks. It's been forever. Only, things here are so mad--well, you know, it seems every nutter and six of his besties have crawled out from under their rocks to take advantage since Selwyn's treachery. Desai says that whenever one person makes a mad attempt, then others jump in to try their hand at whatever they can, hoping that in the chaos of the first thing, they'll have cover for their bit of mayhem.

We're still investigating those abandoned sites--houses, campsites, a system of caves. Some evidence there, but we're still finding them and still sifting through what we've found. You're right, though: nothing in it for Malfeasance Elimination yet.

So you've got sent over to the Other Side? I suppose that's what your lot do, though. Only, I wouldn't want to embed on the civil side--too much quill sharpening and memo managing for my taste. I expect it's a brilliant moment to dig into your investigation, though, while everyone's wrong-footed and shifting to accommodate new protocols and personalities at the top.

I can only tell you what I've heard about your Mulciber--you know he worked in MLE for a while during the time when Our Lord was purging the Ministry of traitors. Started in Interrogation, though I hear he didn't have the touch for it. And then he was one of the hit wizards they sent after the muggle aristocrats and royal family, but I've heard he was more interested in hunting than investigating, so he went the 'consulting' route rather than settling down in the department the way his brother did. Lots of them did that, you know. Members of the Council, I mean.

People say he runs hot and cold and can go from one to the other at the flick of a wrist, and they say he's not... very methodical? Desai and Travers were talking about him the other day. Desai says his mind's not the most organised, but that he's intuitive and sometimes jumps ahead and knows the answer to a puzzle before a systematic thinker could work out the solution. She says he can be 'keen' to a disconcerting degree. And that sometimes when he gets hold of an idea you can't make him let go.

Except when you can, apparently. Travers says he as likely to drop a thought and can be maddening to work with because he's distractible and forgets what you've told him. Desai told Travers not to count on it because whatever it is you think he's forgotten, he's likely to remember just when you wish he wouldn't.

Not sure how much that helps. How's it been, working with him?

I admit I was surprised by the news he'd got the post. I'd heard Yaxley was likely to be the one tapped for it. Or Rowle. (You can guess which I hoped.)