Detective Morse entered the Cannon Fodder 4Hire barroom as everyone else did, with Emelia dumping herself down on a chair at a table. It was still early morning of Thrudemun-deireair, so almost everyone in the company had wandered in with sleep still in their eyes. The exception were the bird brothers and 669.

Reddy rolled in some tall gas heater lamps to the room and lit them to take the chill out of the air. Days and nights were beginning to feel the chill of a frosty wintide season to come, which would last for a few months.

“I’m surprised you’re looking fresh as a daisy. I heard you got drunk after saving my partner. And I thank you for doing something I couldn’t do that night.” Detective Morse said as he eased down on a stool next to the blond man.

“I recover quickly, and it was after I saved her. And besides, like I would get more than a bit tipsy on sample bottles.” 669 huffed with lofty airs.

Morse nodded. When he saw that 777 was present he got down to his business.

“As I said, thank you for assisting Emelia last night. I feel it’s fair to remind you of what this rescue might mean for your company.”

“It’s wrong by the way. 669 only came to help me, nothing else.” Emelia piped up.

“What are you saying?”

“My captain found out. He’s working with our superiors to enforce an embargo on dealing with your company.”

“What? So if we have some information to share, we can’t take it to your office without attracting a penalty? That’s absurd!” 789 blurted her outrage on the matter.

“Not directly. It would have to be delivered by proxy, like someone of the news crier services.”

“Your captain hates us that much?” 777 nonchalantly commented. Oddly, he wasn’t shocked to hear it. Considering the man was adamant to ensure they stayed out of their way.

“So that’s why they told me to get lost!” Indigo scoffed with puffed cheeks and a deep frown. She huffed and turned her head as she folded her arms across her chest, so she looked like a pouting child.

“I’m sorry for that. If I had received the message as you had intended, Emelia wouldn’t have been in danger. I’ll be sure to add this to the embargo’s counterpoints.”

“There’s another fact we found out about the Poirot’s. The Finch family working on their mansion estate as groundsman and maid service are related to Alder Finch,” Emelia said.

669 frowned. “So this Bronte Finch at the Poirot mansion, who was first to discover Marcus’s body is related to Miki, how?”

Emelia stepped back to the time she was called out by an elder man. They had entered the forest when a purple cloud had concealed their presence. The man had said this was to hide their view from the mansion balconies. So, they used the cloud cover to make haste along an unkept path that led to a small cottage within the belt of trees near a section of the estate boundary walls. The elderly man had introduced himself as Sandler Finch. The senior gardener and sanitation worker for the estate.

He hadn’t come out to talk to the Royal Guard before, because he had been concerned about his duty to his boss.

“But he had seen Lord Marcus arrive home that night. It was well into late night going early morning.”

From Emelia’s notes she had captured of her conversation with Sandler, it seemed Marcus was approached by an unidentifiable person (concealed by a magic hood and cloak to distort their image) who seemed to had been waiting for him by the side gate of the hedge garden paths that led to a back entrance into the mansion. Their argument got heated, but Sandler couldn’t hear what was being heard. As he had been a distance away, returning from packing away and preparing work tools for the next morning. He had been on his way back to his cottage. Before he could get closer to what was being exchanged between the men, the conversation ended. Marcus ended up going in side after two guards had chased him off the grounds.

“Hmm, so was this Harper Tank? Do you think he had been arguing with Marcus and Ashton for pay orders?”

Detective Morse shook his head. “No, the statement we captured from Harper is that he had confronted Ashton Sommerville due to a sexual assault on his sister. There was no mention of any conversations he had with Marcus. It’s true that he had been in the area two days before Marcus’s death, but our cross interviews with Morton and some of the staff proved he had no interaction with Marcus. It seemed he completed his pay order and left.”

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“What did this Sandler have to say about Alder Finch?”

“Sandler said that Alder was his nephew, but the man had been estranged from the family for some years. He wouldn’t elaborate on why. But he did say that Alder lived somewhere else with Miki, so he hadn’t seen the girl in years.”

“Emelia that’s enough. Today’s visit was to thank you for all your aid to date, and a reminder of the Royal Guard’s stance on the relationship with your company. ” Detective Morse stopped his junior from revealing more.

The Royal Guards rose and took their leave.

“I know we shouldn’t stay involved, but this whole mess of a murder case just makes me what to explode something.” 789 tugged at her hair with frustration, and if she pulled at her short tufts any harder the floor would be littered with black hairs.

“It’s not worth tearing your hair out.” 777 groaned and gave her a shove as he rose to get a drink from behind the bar.

Shortly afterward, they heard Reddy talking animatedly about the place to someone else. He entered the barroom, escorting Bosgar inside.

Reddy showed him to the bar where Fat Monk served him brandy from a 200-year-old decanter, glazing with fine jewels set within the glass. In Bosgar’s mind it was no doubt a gift from one of 669’s many list of other suitors. He made a mental note to send the company a gift of a 500-year-old decanter imported from Zerua Empire later on.

“Bosgar?” 669 said as he slipped onto the barstool next to the man. Doing his best not to appreciate the man’s lean form in a suave gray business suit with an open white collar shirt beneath a maroon paisley waistcoat and sporting a shiny pair of red demon skin shoes. A tease of the man’s smooth chest was visible between the parted collar that was two button’s undone.

Bosgar laughed. It was obvious the man’s eyes were lusting over his body. But he was visiting 669 with a matter of business. Sex indulgence could wait.

“I won’t be long. I was asked to deliver this to you.”

669 received a sealed envelope that was uncanny to the one he had found next to Emelia the night before. He bolted upright. “Where did you get this?”

“My butler. For some reason, he had it in his stuffy old head that I was intending to see you today.” Bosgar loftily sloshed the brandy about the glass then sipped it, not betraying his delight at the strong hit of a sweet yet bitter taste that was to his liking.

“669. The Royal Guard may soon piece together enough clues to find my brother’s murderer. But you and I can sense there is something more than one killer. A Secret Society has been watching this game being played with absolute anticipation for what comes next.”

“Secret Society? Is this something to do with the Silver Lotus.”

Bosgar nodded and sipped more of the brandy. “Well, it wouldn’t take much of a genius to connect some organization link. Yet, one would have needed to be involved in merchant antiquities and commodity trades with the desert demonkind to recognize certain ancient symbols. They are a far more mystical groups of spirit beats and humanoids.”

“And you’ve seen this symbol before?” 777 asked.

“Once in passing on an artifact my family had obtained from the Dry Well Sands region near Skeleton Palace.”

669, 777 and 789 shared cautiously glances with each other. The Dry Well Sands were a spirit beast stronghold not to be reckoned with. It was where the entrance to the Pits of Hell was found. They had suffered a few tours in the area as a squad.

“You trade that far out?”

“No, silly. Our hired adventurers bring back items to trade.” Bosgar tapped 669’s head. “From one of the adventures I learned of this vague society and not in a good way.”

The adventurer had been cautious with his story of what he had found out in the Dry Well Sands. A party had attacked his unit as they were excavating at a set of ruins. The magic used was invisible and too fast even for the spirit eye, the adventurer felt certain the power used was cosmic. As everyone in the party was an adept mage in their field of expertise, and veterans of the region.

“Cosmic? Like a High Magistrate?” 669 shook his head with disbelief. Ye was it truly unbelievable for cosmic power to used by mortals as they had the ability to preset fate with Blood Gems.

“How did he escape?”

“He fell into a sinkhole and was buried alive, but had the skills to cast a barrier around him to keep him alive. Luck has it, a sandstorm arrived to blow his cover away, and he could be freed.”

Bosgar rose and placed the brandy glass down. “Thank you for the drink. I must take my leave.” He leaned close to 669’s ear as he whispered, “Heed my words, drop your interest with my brother’s case. The Royal Guard knows who killed him. Someone we know.”

669 shuddered with desire when the man kissed his cheek and left him with a feather stroke to his nape.

“Secret Society?” 789 wrung her fingers feeling her nerves. Someone this fact was a scary thought.

“Not a good sign. If somehow a mysterious order is behind the murders, all the more reason we should stay out of the guard’s business.” 777 left the room on this note.

But 669 stayed at the bar, having his glass topped up. “Someone we both know.”

He closed his eyes as he gulped down ale in an uncouth manner. Of course, there was only one person they both knew.