Continuing to feel the tingle while examining the talisman, Maelyn carefully lifted it by it's chain and placed it in the box she had had made to hold the talismans. As she closed the box she finally replied to Anton, "It may LOOK magical and give a weird feeling when I held it, but I'm still gonna dig further with my SCIENCE and discover what type of energy that thing is putting off!" As she then turned back to the body with a needle in her hand she informed him, "Now it's time for the DNA sample and the blood sample to make sure she wasn't being poisoned or otherwise incapacitated when she got stabbed."
"I just don't understand WHY someone would want to stab our Queen!" Anton expressed in exasperation, "From what has been passed down she was an excellent Queen that took care of ALL of her people and was making sure our kingdom was building up and improving itself so that we wouldn't fall victim to the bigger countries we have around us! Or end up like the Tanyn kingdom did and get swallowed by the country that grew to become China!"
"Well I know China is on the other side of the mountains, but how did Altinyn escape getting taken over by India or Pakistan or the other nearby countries?" Maelyn curiously asked, "I would have thought they would have easily overtaken a small kingdom like Altinyn."
"Us being a small kingdom on the side of a volcano probably saved us." Anton admitted, "It also helped that India and Pakistan still to this day are fighting over where their borders lie and so it keeps them from noticing a little small neighbor on a mountain that neither one has much use for."
"Well hopefully they will continue to ignore you cause it seems like a nice country that has a unique culture that I don't see fitting into the cultures of most other countries." Maelyn told him then, looking further at the Queen's fingers, she informed Anton, "Looks like the Queen fought back when she got stabbed! I've got what looks like skin and hair under a couple of the fingernails!"
"Well I hope it shows us who tried to murder our Queen." Anton told her then added, "Because if it wasn't that shifty new prime Minister she had at the time that did it I will make sure to cast shame on the family name of the culprit!"
"Hold your horses there!" Maelyn scolded him as she further examined the Queen's body, "The people alive today had no part of what their ancestor did five hundred years ago! Besides, with us looking at this all these years after it happened, it's like one of those major cold cases cops like to talk about where nobody has any idea of the motive for the attack! Cause for all we know, they might have tripped or thought she was someone else or that SHE was attacking THEM! So we can't draw judgement until we have all of the data!"
"I still think it was that Prime Minister she had brought in just before this that did it! Everything that my ancestor who was Second minister at the time passed down made him seem like a con man that was trying to steal as much of the kingdom's valuables as he could!" Anton heatedly shared, "And I'm sure if he hadn't died while trying to escape the lava he probably would have!"
"We'll see. But like I said, we're not issuing any judgements until we have ALL of the data!" Maelyn firmly reminded him then explained to him as she examined the stab wound, "Now as for this stabbing, it looks to be done with force because there is the beginning of bruising around where the hilt would have hit. Also it looks to be from a blade that would have been about eight inches long."
After finishing her examination of the body, she then took her camera and took a better positioned picture of the Queen's face so that she could have the computer's algorithms reconstruct the face to correct what damage the previous centuries in an airless environment had done to her face and give them a more accurate picture of what she would have looked like while she was Queen. When she had completed that she turned to Anton and informed him, "This looks like all I can get from this scene right here. I'm going to return to our tents and analyze all of this stuff and, if you would like, you can accompany us when we examine the first room inside that door."
"I think I will hang around for that." Anton offered, "It will also give me the opportunity to make sure my son understands and follows how this project is to be conducted."
"I'm definitely looking forward to that show!" Maelyn excitedly shared then told him as she made to walk back to the tents, "But he usually doesn't get here until around the end of our lunch break so you're probably going to have another hour or two to wait unless you want to also observe me examining this evidence?"
As she set up to work on what she had collected in the tent, Maelyn loaded the skin sample from under the Queen's nails and part of the blood sample into the DNA machine. After she had then set the machine to working on analyzing the samples she then uploaded the photo she had took to the computer's software and had it analyze the photo and correct the decay and damage the five hundred years had subjected the Queen's body to. And, while waiting on those two to finish, she drew out the measurements she had done of the wound to create a rough drawing of the weapon that had penetrated the Queen's chest.
The first machine to complete its analysis was the DNA machine. As it started to ding Maelyn reached over and sealed the tubes the samples had been put in and filed them in the drawer she had set aside for evidence pertaining to the site. Returning to the machine she then analyzed the results and was surprised. The skin sample that had been recovered from her fingernails matched the unknown sample they had recovered from the knife at the other site. Also, the Queen's blood sample showed a fuller analysis that surprised her by showing Maelyn as a direct descendant. Confused due to her having been told she was descended from Queen Ielania's Butler and maid, she added a more recent blood sample of her own blood and had it do the analysis again for verification.
When she finished with that and was waiting for the new analysis to complete she looked at the results of the photo regeneration algorithms. When she looked at the picture she was shocked and surprised again due to the photo looking like she herself currently looked when she took the time to dress herself up. Shocked at the two pieces of evidence that suggested that the Queen's butler and maid had escaped with the Queen's daughter instead of their own daughter, Maelyn sat there for a minute numbly staring at the photo.
When the DNA machine signaled it had finished it analysis again Maelyn broke out of her daze and looked at the DNA results again. As she compared the two results and concentrated on the mitochondrial results and shook her head as she read the results and shook her head when she re-read them each time. After reading them for the fifth time she finally accepted that the results were right and decided to analyze the talisman and leave the possibility of being a direct descendant until later.
As she inspected the talisman in greater detail she was careful not to touch it due to not wanting that tingling feeling to distract her from examining the talisman. As she focused on it she tried to see if she could detect how it had been made. While trying to see how much wear and tear it had endured so she could get an idea of how old the talisman might have been. As she searched further to see how the talisman had been crafted she finally concluded that it had been formed as one piece instead of crafted from a bigger crystal. She was further surprised when she had found only slight wear and tear marks that suggested that the talisman had only been made during the Queen's lifetime.
Curious about how closely she looked to the Queen, she placed the necklace around her neck and took a picture for comparison then uploaded it to the computer and displayed it side by side with the reconstructed picture of the Queen. Surprised at how closely she resembled the Queen, she then went back and looked at the DNA results and found that when she compared all of the dominant and recessive traits that they had in common they had enough similarities that she could have been her grandmother instead of what she figured would have to be her sixth generation back grandmother.
After finally accepting that she would have to be a direct descendant of Queen Ielania, she sat back and took a deep breath and tried to process the information. Sitting back, as she processed through the information and all of the new thoughts it opened up to her, she noticed that the tingling she had felt earlier was starting to make itself known to her again. Surprised at how much stronger and how much different it felt, she unconsciously grabbed the talisman forgetting that she had taken the gloves off when she had been comparing the two photos. As she touched the talisman it's snout rubbed against a small cut that she had forgotten she had gotten while carrying the blocks Joseph had broken free that day and had scabbed over. When it touched the scratch and loosened the scab that had gotten wettened by her hands sweating while inside the plastic gloves it cause a small drop of fresh blood to seep out and, when it touched the talisman, it lit the talisman up and started causing her whole body to tingle and feel different.