White Sand: 8 Hours Past

669 and 777 flew toward the Miller’s estate with haste and arrived to the tall iron gates and brick wall. There were Royal Guards patrolling the other area; they doubt they would let them in. 777 glanced up at the sky to see the moon phase and saw it was nearly a new moon phase when his power was at least 98.2% potential magic. He shared a look with 669 who had also noticed their luck.

“Let’s see if we can find more leads.”

“Wait. Let’s recap on the Miller murder and connections.” 669 suggested.

777 and began a short sum up. The Miller Family treated water for the west side of the Desert Barren Lands and east of the Borrowman Hills regions. They sold their treated water through their licensed sellers. For Crossroad Village and Greendale Village districts the sellers were Alder Finch and Harper Tank.

“Alder Finch had completed a pay order on Artusdeireair-Desa, which was two days after Marcus Poirot was found. This was around the time Tristan Miller wound up dead.”

“Do you think his order was for the Poirot’s?”

669 thought on some more and recalled that Harper Tank was completing an order for the Poirot’s on the day of the murder, so it wasn’t likely they needed to have to run two orders so quickly.

“No. I think Alder’s order might have been for another house and completed here on the same day.”

“So it might have been Alder that killed Tristan Miller.”

669 frowned. A dot wasn’t connecting. Miki had clearly escaped the mansion with blind terror, but how he couldn’t understand. Unless, Alder had arrived in the night to take his daughter away and encountered Miki. There was a chase and pursuit that saw Alder no choice but to send Miki on her way with instructions to reach the village, and she bumped into Reddy.

“If Alder knew Miki was being held at the Miller mansion then he came there to take her away, and they were pursed. Where was he going to send Miki?”

“Fairy Blossom?”

“No, because likely knew she had exchanged Miki to Tristan. And maybe found it was for necromancy.” 669 paced the dirt path with his thoughts. “Maybe, he was going to send Miki to Lucy Tank. We assume she’s Harper’s sister, and she was Fairy Blossom’s friend. But maybe she was also Alder’s friend. Just as Harper and Alder were maybe close friends. So she would likely be his solid option. And she probably wouldn’t have realized what Fairy Blossom had done at that point.”

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“Okay, so Miki escapes for Lucy Tank. Alder is still at the mansion. Maybe he had a fight with Tristan.”

669 eyes light up with an epiphany. “He finds out where Tristan was performing his necromancy, activates the Corpse Puppet Resin over the household and there’s a confrontation that leads to Tristan’s death. And maybe Alder took vials of the resin with him. It would explain the traces of it at that cottage we investigated.”

“But why would he do that? He’s no necromancer.”

They though hard for some more before 777 piped up with the answer. “He was infected by the Corpse Puppet Resin during the fight, and slowly being made into one of the puppets.”

“So he has to find someone to cure it. Maybe the one who has this artifact the Miller’s brought out of the Dry Well Sands.”

“Simon Miller?”

669 nodded. “Let’s find out. I have a feeling we can learn of who in this mansion.”

They snuck over the back wall to enter into the grounds through the cover of unkempt hedge bushes.

“Ugh.” 669 screwed up his nose at the stringy twigs and brunches tugging at his overcoat. He wriggled free to stand in a small clearing surrounded by withered bushes.

“Parasite Magia: Vast Eye Level.” He activated his magic so they could view the area as inverted outlines and see virya patterns that indicated lifeforms.

A strange dark purple cluster ran a trail toward the barely concealed path that lead toward the far side of the stable yard and water storage sheds. They followed the trail to one of the smaller water sheds of rusted tin walls and roof, which stank of mold, iron and musk. Especially, around the stacked water pots that were festering with algae that was glowing dark purple.

“These must be untreated water.” 777 noted.

The men searched the shed but nothing seemed untoward. From the corner of his eye, 669 saw a small book on the corner of a dirty desk. It was heavily caked in layers of grime and dust that it could easily be overlooked even with parasite vision. But his Vast Eye was able to spot it like a sore thumb. He picked up the book that had the word ‘Pay Order Log’ on the front.

“I swear I heard someone headed this way.” A man stated to someone from outside the shed.

669 hastily stored the book in his pouch and gestured for 777 to make their exit. But there wasn’t a clear way out without running into the oncoming people.

Making a snap decision, 669 used some of his magic to conceal their footsteps with refortified dust particles and had them hiding behind the stack of pots. They held their breaths and kept as still as they could be when they saw a pair of Royal Guards enter.

“In here.” A guard said as he slowly stepped about the room, waving a torch around the room to illuminate the area.

Torchlight strayed into the gaps between the pots that 669 and 777 behind and was increasing intensity as the torch moved closer to inspect the pot stack.

The men went stiff when the guard’s solid leather boots stopped before their hiding spot. There was a shuffle near the side of the stack where 669 was being concealed. Through the thin gaps he saw the tip of the other guard’s boots.

The pot near his head began to grind and shower dust over him, as it was being pulled away to reveal his hiding spot.