Velvet went to the bathroom. Since it was closed before she couldn’t see the insides. Some remains of blood dyed the sink, and she could smell some puke on the toilet.

“Seems they realized what they had done.” Going out and closing the bathroom, she stood in front of the bedroom door.

“Do you know the Time Tracer spell?” Siberina asked her, in a tone that implied she already knew the answer. “Is from your paradigm. Great for solving murders.”

“I do not.” Velvet said in a low voice between her teeth.

“I don’t hear you~”

Velvet made a sad face. “Does bullying a poor baby magician bring you joy? Is that what older mag- Don’t pull my cheeks!” She slapped the woman’s hands away from her face.

“But they look so soft…”

Velvet wanted to be angry, but, to tell the truth, she didn’t even notice Siberina’s hands until she touched her.

She was so fast… Something tightened on Velvet’s chest. It was fear.

“Just tell me the spell already!”

…

“I think I got it.” She warned her two forced temporal companions, after a long teaching session. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, letting all the information she had absorbed fill her brain.

Every single speck of dust, all the noises, every one of the blood stains, bone pieces, every single stab, the dust that had moved at being stepped on. Everything she had smelled, heard, seen and touched.

At that moment, she remembered everything.

…

Siberina watched how Velvet closed her eyes in a trance. When she opened them, the blue had disappeared, replaced by vertical lines that moved left to right and vice versa at amazing speed.

She looked away. Her paradigm couldn’t take a stream of information without her mind collapsing, and looking directly at her eyes at that moment would share Velvet’s thoughts with her. Cornelius did the same, choosing to look outside the window.

After two long minutes, Velvet blinked slowly a few times.

“Three twenty one, someone knocked on the door. Iren opens it, they talk for half a minute. He lets them inside.” Velvet took a few steps as in a trance. “The person moved too much. It’s a man. Nervous.” She blinks again. “Iren goes out. Brings tea. The other person sits on the bed. Waiting. Iren sits next to him with the tea. Right side. First stab happens at Three forty six. It goes between the fifth and the sixth ribs, under the left armpit. The weapon doesn’t stop. Goes through sternum, fourth and third right ribs, exits on right shoulder. Clean cut.”

Something like that would be impossible, unless some magic was at play.

“Depth of initial stab, eighteen centimeters. Iren was holding tea, left hand. Stab done with right hand. Weapon in reverse grip. Time until death due to blood loss, two minutes. No chance of recovering.”

Getting your heart cut in half won’t kill you instantly. The brain will go as long as there’s oxygenated blood.

“Iren grabbed the murderer's hand. With gloves. Both rolled on the floor. Iren got overpowered. Second stab on right eye. Death. Third stab on chest. Fourth stab on chest. Fifth stab on chest…”

Waiting for Velvet to stop counting the stabs, Siberina closed her eyes.

“Twenty third stab on chest. He gets up. Goes to the bathroom. Cleans his hands. Nervous. The weapon falls to the floor. He falls on his knees. He pukes on the toilet. He cleans his hands again. He cleans his face. Again”

“It is four o’clock. He leaves” Getting out of the trance, Velvet starts hyperventilating, sweating and gagging. She goes to the toilet and pukes.

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Feeling hands on her scalp, she winced, noticing it’s Siberina moving her hair away from her face and the toilet, holding it in a ponytail.

Shaking a bit, Velvet gets up, going to the sink to clean her face and mouth, uncaring of the previous blood there.

Grabbing onto the sink sides, she lifted her face to look at her reflection on the mirror.

“You look fine. Very cute.” Siberina said next to her, making Velvet glare annoyed at her, before taking a deep breath and leaving the bathroom.

Massaging her temples. Velvet started talking again “The murderer is a man in his twenties, one meter, seventy nine centimeters, sixty eight kilograms”

Only one person in the train fitted all these boxes.

“Nathaniel…” Velvet groaned, saying the murderer’s name.

Cornelius nodded, arriving at the same conclusion. Then, he went towards the door, followed by Siberina.

“Are you going to confront him?”

“Of course not, you silly!” Siberina laughed politely “We don’t know his strengths or desires. Fighting an unknown mage can be a disaster. He is from Mirel, right? Maybe he is an Inquisitor, hunting stray magicians. Now that we know his identity, we can protect ourselves better.” It sounded like cheap excuses, all three of them knew it.

“What about the rest of the passengers?”

“That’s for them to worry about.” That said, they left, leaving Velvet in the room alone.

She stood there for a few seconds, waiting for them to leave.

“Are most mages like this?”

“Are you really surprised?” Hyde answered her, “they are waiting for you to ask for protection.”

“They can wait.” Going back to Iren’s suitcase, she picked the revolver and the bullets. Then, she picked the notebook, applying magic to it.

Having the same paradigm, Velvet found some parts of the notebook strange, but, since she didn’t really trust those two, she didn’t do anything before.

Soon, a paper bird bloomed. Staring at Velvet, it flew towards the corpse, pecking on Iren’s brain.

A tiny hand grew from it, the skin made of tightly braided roots. Followed by an arm, longer than a human and thinner.

Iren’s Doyle familiar, a little, long armed and long legged, old man made of roots and with a beard made of branches, looked at Velvet, not before looking at the corpse, his dark eyes emotionless.

“A lust demon,” Hyde said.

“That is a lust demon? It’s so ugly…” Before realizing, Velvet said that in a low voice, then, she panicked, realizing she just insulted a demon. “Apologies! Wait, the desire to tell my thoughts, is that the lust you mean? I guess that’s good for a detective, even when that didn’t serve him much.”

“You figured it out yourself. Good, not so useless.” The demon said, picking his nose. “Green but has potential, good.”

“Oh, you want to become my familiar?” It wasn’t impossible for mages to have more than one familiar. Velvet wasn’t picky.

“I don't like young women. Don't summon me until your hair is gray. No, I’m just offering a little deal, since you didn’t sell me to those two.”

“And I don’t like rooty old geezers. Is the deal killing someone?” If it was, Velvet already had one murder in order. She didn’t want another.

“No, stop guessing.” He shut her up, before picking his nose. “First, answer me a few things. I remain unconvinced.”

Aren’t you a bit too carefree? Pull that finger out your nose!

“Okay, but for any question I answer correctly, I can ask you one.” Velvet knew how those games worked, so at least she wanted to win something.

“Deal. Why do you think Cornelius called you here?”

“To test me and set me as bait,” Velvet admitted. “If Nathaniel is an Inquisitor, he’ll keep killing mages. Those two are together, so I’m the weakest one. Either I fold and submit to them, or I risk getting attacked.”

Velvet was sure now that they already knew who the murderer was before calling her, so the only reason they did it was to see her abilities, and see if she was worth keeping.

It was normal for big mage families to bring outsider magicians under their name. But the treatment they received was that of servants, and almost every wandering magician Velvet had talked to warned her against them. Especially if they were young and inexperienced, since they risked getting sexually assaulted by the true family members.

That was also the reason why they didn’t go to bring down Nathaniel. To them, he now worked as Velvet’s enemy, not theirs.

“Good. Ask.”

“What is one spell that I don’t know and I can use based on my paradigm to protect myself from Cornelius' orders?”

The lust demon lifted his finger, which lighted, then, the ball of light went to Velvet’s head, showing her a new spell.

That was easier than what Siberina did…

“How big is the chance of you chickening out and going to them for help?”

The corner’s of Velvet lips curled “Zero” Then, she added “What is one offensive spell that I don’t know and I can use based on my paradigm?”

The demon laughed “Do you want your paper figurines to explode?”