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Elmond arrived a little later then planned, its been 12 days since the murder and it was rarely talked about now. The Beltends had left except for the Baron himself. he would take the ashes after the body was inspected and burry his son at home. Elmond did not waste time and was in the room an hour after his arrival.
And he saw a completely different story than everyone had expected. They would have seen it too, but most people don't look.
People often assume that he solves crimes using his inherited magic, but the truth is it almost never has a use in this part of the investigation. The room was clean , except the desk and bed. the desk was half organized but still had a tray on top of it , the half eaten fruits were spilled around as if it had been drooped.
He turned his head and looked at the wall spider cracks covering . a pebble did that.
Directly opposite is the cracked wall, and the body was in between. its in the morgue now, preserved. Luke ? yeah Luke had his clothes in a corner badly folded and his underpants were near a piss pot that was stinking the room. the preservation spells were cast two days after the murder, which is stupid it should have been the first thing done without moving the body even , but he could handle it. the glass window was still shattered and had no impact site bits had fallen off . nothing else was out of place.
So someone was at the desk, and that someone was caught and used a pebble of all things to kill .. ah .. Luke who was a step behind. Usually I would guess it was espionage gone wrong, someone posing as staff and was not planning direct murder. the tray means a maid , poison was the first plan maybe but then things went wrong somehow ...
" right , I need to see the last person that was in this room beside the ...Luke ? whoever cleaned this place or was supposed to and whoever was responsible directly for the maids "
any minute now they will tell me that whoever it was disappeared, that she , most likely, didn't show for work. and we would have a discerption , and how they somehow didn't think it was relevant to share.
I looked around again, the story was still off.
The trey should have been cleaned. the murder should have been cleaner. whoever it was panicked and did a terrible job. if it was a professional , and no beginner would be hired for anything in a counts mansion.
Luke was naked top to bottom. either he didn't see who was here, if they were that good it means they could have left without fuss and shouldn't be touching the tray or dropping it, so not a pro , this whole thing Screams amateur .....
the other option is Luke wanted them to see him naked ..and that told a very different story
he bent down at the desk he was examining and found a gold coin under it .
Lura and Ray where staring at his back. as he picked the coin and a light bulb went in his head.
"Ray , do you do the thing with Friday balls ? you know for the wall mages ..ah th-"
Raymond ,The count let out a cough .. "yep"
Lura let out a sigh
"We do have the same balls , if there are enough of us , so you can stop being Coe "
the two men looked at each over and shrugged
"right , so we have a hidden mage working as a maid, didn't want to go to the wall or whatever , rare but not that interesting. I assume Luke here drank way more that night than he should , took our hidden mage for one of the ... Friday girls and she took his head off. rather extreme reaction , but it is a reaction not planned, but without asking her the circumnutates cant really make a judgement."
" what's your take on Luke , He the type to force it ? either of you know him ? his friends didn't give me anything .."
I turned to look at them and realized I said to much ...
Lura eyes had gone cold , shouldn't have said that , should've waited for the trial. That is the look she had before she flayed dever and listened to them scream.
" ah.. anyway She was a hidden mage so had to run either way , she took his storage ring, his friends confirmed he had one and took off from the window , the guard didn't see anyone in the hallway and they were pretty quick. she could be anywhere by now. the question is how you two missed a mage in hiding ... and how she got over the wall. you didn't feel anything ? "
both shook there head , ray was a terrible mage but an excellent senser.
"I felt nothing, and Lura checked the inscription on the wall and all Three gates, no signatures. not even registered. I sensed nothing at the murd,, whatever happened time too"
I could be wrong , or is it like the pebble another odd thing.
hmm
right , I have a tracker now all I need now is something of hers that would set it off.
I tracked her movements , or tried. the bush outside the window had broken sticks but had no blood anymore the gardener had already cleaned it up arranging it somewhat better, we went to her room next, her bed was clean with no hair. Maids run sometimes apparently and the head maid didn't think it was worth mentioning. she was retired , Lura was pissed. they most likely new head maid , described the girl as quite and intelligent not saying much, beside the fact she's literate. . her roommates came from the same Chapple and told a story of an airheaded girl , smart but lazy and can be stupid sometime in the most obvious things. at her early days she was thought to be "not right up there" ..
one of the girls was silent the whole time. and seemed scared and conflicted even more than the rest. none had lied so far , I'm guessing they knew about me , the new head maid was sharp. I didn't have to say anything. but when people find out , they stay quiet .... I gave her a look she still didn't say anything , Growing more terrified by the second
goddamn teenagers ... sigh
"Speak"
that was the wrong thing to say because the girl cried and cried hiccupping like she was 8 , balling her eyes out and everyone fell for it , she was becoming this mansion mascot and everyone looked at me like I have committed great Evil. even Lura fell for it.
she is 13 , Aura help me. it took a while of assurances but then she finally spoke.
"Anna is a good girl smart too , *sniff* but she doesn't like anyone to *sniff* know ... she's really sad , always sad. but it was *sniff* getting better. she gave me a lot of apples and candy back at the Chapple ... she was like my sister you know always made sure I'm fed"
she took a shuddering breath ... she was good , I'm starting to doubt that it was fake ... ah Empath i looked at Lura and she finally figured it out , it was up to her now.
".. I saw her .. that day, she took her things and went out of the window and she looked scared *sniff*, I hadn't seen her that scared ever , even when she has bad dreams ,but she put her finger on the lips you know like this , so I told no one nothing. she didn't do anything bad , did she ? ..and she was smart she could take care of herself I thought... she had her mind all made up so ... I'm sorry I didn't know what to do .. I just .. no one asked me so I didn't say anything... " the last bit came in a low voice tettering to silence.
one chapel two mages , both missed at examination , bah that's ray job not mine.
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And that was that , I could track a rouge mage / murderer but that was not my job either , we have a description , a name and a definite culprit. and we could wait till she is caught , and she would be , all mages eventually loke for mage supplies like and we catch them. But her magic makes no sense though. wild magic has an almost theme about it. you pick something an element , a concept and there is or was a mage around it. hers doesn't make a sense. she hides as if she was an assassin type that's one , she uses pebbles as weapons without damaging them, that alone is too themes invulnerability and kinetic manipulation . ... damn ill do it it shouldn't take long two days ?
I finally tracked her movements and found blood on a tree she climbed to go other the wall, and she had to have a self strengthening magic, or.. no she couldn't have flew or she wouldn't need to climb.so four so far , did someone train her , and why so many disciplines. its been two day already , took me that long to know which wall she used , she could have walked out of gate and i thought she did , but no climbed a wall.
I couldn't help my self even though the blood was old , it had only a weak resonance to it .I wanted to find her myself.
I flew all other the county and finally tracked her. it took six days but in the end I found her closer than I thought to looked. she hadn't gone to towns. she was living in an abandoned mine , a town was next to it but in the two days I observed her she didn't visit , she looked terrible with badly skinned and treated fur protecting her from the cold. yet she had the weirdest magic I've seen. a mix of wild and taught magic, as if she was figuring things for her self. she could use water, earth and fire. she had built a nice home . her meat, bear meat I think ? was rotting and she used the water spring for everything depending on the fact that it was a hot stream.
her living style was incomprehensible. she made things much harder then they should and yet used novel ultimately unnecessary magic to solve the issues. she had the ring but didn't use .. she never saw one before ? doesn't know what it is ? she would have been caught sooner , rather than later come spring huntsmen would be out again and her tracks where all other the place. she is lucky there are no strong beasts in this forest , or maybe she can take care of her self. would she get rid of the Huntsmen that , is that her plan ?
Right enough ... test one , is she a psychopath ?
I put my hand the minute she stepped out of her room
"Dream"
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that was a lot harder than I thought. she really didn't want to get caught. and that flip one minute she was a weird girl in the woods, the minute she knew I was looking for her though...
she has major issues , but she isn't a psycho murderer, a huntsmen finding her by mistake is ok , someone looking for her dies. so she follows something , ... now comes the hard part , judgment.
she lost a lot of mana , and whatever she was doing at the end felt like The Breaking.. and she did on purpose ,never heard of any mage who can do that to themselves. and no one at her age should be at that point.
a fourteen year old girl almost made me lose all my mana just cancelling her out. I'm losing my touch ...
he put her down and brought the mana sucking cuffs, normally one would be enough but he wasn't taking any chances he put all four pares he always carried on her. legs , hands and neck doubling on the hands. he stored all her things in his storage ring and tried the same with her sack, it didn't budge. he looked inside and found the ring. she really had no idea, she might of made it longer if she got inside the ring and headed to the furthest town. there where plenty clothes , blankets , gold , food and even a tent. standard issue for mages to sweep between walls.
right he put the ring in his pocket and swept the sack in storage. he picked up the girl and ran to the mansion, it was less than hour away at his max speed.
The girl ... Anna was already filling the cuffs faster than he thought she could , she is not running out , and he doesn't know where she pools her magic, one cuff wouldn't have cut it. but her mana was so thin it disappeared when it was out. I'm guessing that's how she stayed hidden.
nothing made sense in this case, she was to knowledgeable and too ignorant at the same time. She built a good home from nothing using only stone, wood and dirt. She hunted, pouching ,that's another crime to add to the list, badly , but she did know how, even if not well. yet she had no knowledge of storage rings, and made the weirdest mage powered wagon I could think of. she hid in the woods near the mansion not even an hour away when she should have known better. contradiction after contradiction. ah well , ill get my answers soon.
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"she was really that good huh , you look rung out Eric "
"gee thanks Lura ... but no , nowhere near good actually , she wasted mana like it was nothing, went all out from the beginning , didn't plan anything didn't test anything I bet everything she never fought before. she had speed and novel magic going for her though, that's all. I couldn't break a single spell I had to cancel everything she threw out while she was under. even though she had no defence. her whole style is infuriating. So complex and she does is so easily, yet she has ignored the basics. you saw what she had on. a mage needs no clothes really yet .. ahhhh"
"ha-ha she really got to you huh"
"you try fighting her see how that, goes for you "
"hey I'm not some two bit brute mage, I'm an inscriptionist"
"aha and you could kill a dozen brute mages like they were nothing .. I still have nightmares about you."
"now that's not a very nice thing to say is it , I'm fragile lady .... yeah ill cut it out don't look at me like that"
"did ray talk to the Beltends ?"
"he is doing that now, you haven't said anything beside going for a pretrial , you don't do that often. you usually the one to insist on a full court "
" and I would have too if this another political thing , but its not and it has sensitive issue's that would help neither the girl or victim. I really want to hear what she has to say. A confession enforced with magic should only be used in court , except for extenuating circumstances , none apply here. and I would like to keep my job so I'm not pretending she is a witness only. so a full court would bring to many eyes and hurt everyone involved , we may end up going there anyway if we do not reach a consensus "
"well you can guess my vote already , if nothing changes than you know my vote and no matter what anyone says shell have my protection, if she wasn't a mage , and he .. all of that under my roof.. I've been stupid it shouldn't have come to this "
you cant talk to Lura about this , I should ask her to be accused really , but I can already guess how that would go , she is the only women qualified to judge in a nearby distance , without her we are missing a judge ... will see what happens.
" I think .. look I know how must feel , I don't know it the way you do ,but we have talked about it before ,just don't go with a blind eye or you will see what you think it is , just listen and I mean really listen , yeah "
" I know , and that is why I said if nothing changed... and not saying more "
soon ray came back he had talked to lord Beltend , he would represent the victim and agreed to a pretrial. it would be held tomorrow with nothing but witness , victims and the accused. Ray, Eric and Lura were to judge. Ray being the main sentencer, Lura to approve or veto the trial. and Eric will be asking and enforcing the Truth.
Lord Beltend has to accept the sentence so to has the defendant for it to be recognized sentence. If no consensus is reached it will go to Auras main Chapel for summary judgment, either to enforce the sentence or null the trail and arrange another with new judges and it would be open to all.
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When I woke up , I was to groggy to realize what had happened. all I knew was pain , my chest , right at my heart was killing me. I felt like I couldn't breath even after I took a breath after breath. I was sweating my head was killing me. and I fell down a bed a hard floor. my left hand was cuffed to a wall and all my mana was going through it. I closed my gate and the pain in my chest let out . I could breathe again.
I just sat there my head empty.
It took a while for me to notice my situation. it didn't look good , I remember Eric, I remember the fight and the stupid ending. what was that , how was that magic. I wasn't wearing my scavenged clothes anymore , I had a white robe on and nothing else. The last I remember is a weird word that had Meaning , like it was pure ... it meant sleep but not just sleep , sleep feels shallow compared to it. I knew I was ignorant but that was out of my expectations, words don't have power , shouldn't have power, it should have only been a saying but mana can do anything it likes I guess ... and that word was more no just a word ... even remembering it made want to Sleep. every Name I have for anything felt shallow compared to it it wasnt a name a verb .. it was everything packed into one .
......enough deflecting I should get to it , I was caught. Plan Z failed. The end.
it was a good 19 days though, almost twenty. the ribs are burnt now, why he couldn't let me finish them , like a last meal. I only got one good bite before he came. Ill curse him with my dying breath for that.
Damn he was Strong. so strong. his mana was suffocating and dominating as if he ruled that world, everything I did was an open book to him , I was playing in the palm of his hand.
I can still see his stupid smiling face.
I should've run farther away, if I can reach a place in six hours so can other mages. I didn't think they would figure me out. I was careless and stupid and .... . why did I think I was safe .. I thought I was gonna befriend wolfy , get weird tattoos and be adopted by mama wolf .... doesn't matter now , it was a stupid Dream ..
I have no mana everything rushes to the cuffs before I can ask it to do anything. I'm exhausted, and soon will be dead. if I'm lucky , actually if I'm very very lucky. there area worse things than death .. . please let there be no slave collars in this world , or sex dungeon's somewhere ... or.. there are a billon things worse than death. do they do torture , all the murders I saw in the town square where just hung. but none there did a Nobel in. will I be burned at the stake like a witch, do they have witches . I almost did that to my self and it wasn't that bad... I didn't feel any pain the whole fight.
I'm spiralling I should just rest, whatever will be will be. it sounded nice coming from her , I'm sullying the song to use it here, I know but I'm done.
They can do what they want. ill find a way to die as soon as I can .. for now though I should just Sleep
she passed out mid step to the bed.
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