This district is slightly wealthier than some of the surrounding districts and a large amount of the buildings are two to three stories tall, being made with a red brick. The victim’s house is one of three single story buildings on this street and the edge of the property is lined with a decorative iron fence.
As I walk past the corner of a surrounding house I find what I am looking for. A tree at the back of the victims yard extends over top of the next house, and it looks down into the study we were in moments ago. It's a bit too wide for me to climb without any gear, so I turn and face the three story building and it is an older one. Some of the mortar has cracked and worked itself out overtime giving plenty of holds for an experienced climber.
“What’s so special about this spot?” Melodiana asks after standing beside me for a few moments as I plan my ascent.
“Perhaps nothing,” I shake my head taking a step towards the wall. I rub my fingers on to see if my gloves will snag, luckily they don’t.
“That is ever helpful information,” She leans against the fence with a sigh.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” I tell her as I clutch the wall with my left hand, and then I place my right foot on a slightly protruding brick before pushing myself up grabbing my next hold with my right hand.
“What are you doing?” I hear from behind me in an even more exasperated tone than before.
“Checking something out,” I continue my climb and it proceeds well, heading up a few feet to the side of the third story window. When I pass the halfway point of the window, I reach the problem portion of the climb. In order to reach my next hold above me I will have to lunge from my current position.
I pause for a few moments readying myself, and as I push upwards with my legs and stretch with my arms the worst possible thing happens. The area I pushed off at crumbles underneath me and almost immediately I begin to fall.
I quickly twist myself and catch the window sill, scrapping my right side probably from hip to rib, and pull myself up into the window. I wedge myself there for a moment to catch my breath. As I sit myself in the window I notice on the other side there are perfect holds, that wouldn’t have required lunging.
“Are you okay?” I hear a panicked voice from below me, and when I look over the edge I see Melodiana has moved closer to the wall and I wave to her indicating that I am fine.
Leaning back in I rest my head on the pane of glass, but it is a bit loose so it falls inside. Lunging yet again I reach in, manage to catch it, and even manage to not break it on the wall underneath me. In the predicament of being unable to re-position the glass from my position I adjust to lie on my stomach, and lower it the rest of the way to the ground.
“No chance that that ruckus was not heard by…,” Shiva begins but stops as I pull myself back up getting a good look at the room I am hanging in.
It’s really quite a lovely bathroom, nicely decorated and the tub placed so that it would sit in the sunshine from the window, but the most striking thing in it currently is the Elfin woman standing up out of the tub… completely naked reaching for a towel… facing me with a mixture of surprise, and disbelief on her face, though honestly someone falling into a third story window is pretty surprising.
…
…
…
We stare at each other for a few moments, giving me a good view of her pale body. She has a slender build, red hair that extends past her shoulders, and it frames her pretty heart shaped face nicely. Another moment passes before her cheeks turn a bright red, and she drops back into the tub with a splash as she pulls her arms around herself in an attempt to cover her body.
“A-Ahhhhhh,” she screams quite loudly on her way down.
“What is going on up there?” I hear shouted from behind me.
“Don’t worry about it,” I shout back and turn toward the woman, “I appologi-”
“Pervert, lecherous demon,” she hisses before raising her voice again and casting an accusing glare over the edge of the tub, “How dare you spy on a maiden in the bath? I have never been seen by anyone else without clothes on.”
“Now just calm dow-”
“Did someone just say spying on a maiden?” Melodiana shouts up again, interrupting me again.
There is a slight sob from the tub, “Now I am impure, and can’t take a husband.”
“Oh that’s so sad,” Shiva teases as I rest my forehead on the wall under me, “Maybe you should take responsibility and make her your own; you yourself thought she was stunning.”
Ignoring Shiva to the best of my ability I address the woman, “Don’t be so dramatic, I wasn’t spying I slipped and fell on the way to the roof, contact the Wingless to get your window fixed, and if you will excuse me I will be on my way,” I twist back up unto the window sill and get ready to climb back out and continue up.
“Wait,” she calls out as I am getting ready to leave, and against my better judgment I look back over my shoulder, “You can’t just leave, after seeing me in this state. You have to take responsibility for your actions.”
“Really…” I sigh.
“Apparently,” Shiva responds sounding surprised.
“You know I expect that kind of thing from you, but to honestly hear someone else say that… she must read a lot of romance novels, or something.”
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“You don’t have much room to talk little princess.”
“Well are you going to take responsibility or not?” She meekly asks, with tears welling up in her blue eyes.
“I don’t know how to handle this girl,” I complain, “First I only saw you for a few moments, not something that would ruin your purity. Second, being that we are both women, just think of me like a hand maid helping you get dressed, so seeing you naked wouldn’t be a problem in that scenario. Lastly I am currently working so I have to get back to that now.” I finish and before she can respond farther I quickly step out and climb up the wall onto the roof. “Such a troublesome thing,” I sigh and Shiva just laughs.
While walking along the roof to where the branches of the tree overhang I look for signs of someone passing through. None of the tiles have been disturbed, so if the killer was here they are capable of walking with a light step. Finding nothing on the roof I look to the branches. There are also no signs of someone passing over them, not even a broken branch.
“You shouldn’t chew on your lip, and your ears are twitching again,” Shiva helpfully interjects.
“They were not here, maybe on one of the roofs across the street or another house.”
“Perhaps, just don’t make a habit of falling in on bathing maidens,” Shiva snickers.
…
…
…
After five roofs, several alleyways, two hours, and one pissed off crow I climb back down a gutter and turn to leave the street.
“Wait where are you going now?” Melodiana asks as she rushes to catch up with me.
“Why do I feel like I’ve been asked that before?” I sigh and continue to walk past the houses.
“Probably because you never consult me before taking off,” she mutters under her breath before speaking up, “Are we not going to continue to look for information?”
“I’m going home,” I tell her over my shoulder, “You can come with me if you want, but for now I am done out here.”
“We can’t just abandon our duties,” She steps out in front of me blocking my path, “We were assigned the task to find out who the killer is.”
“And you just expected to go in and find them in an afternoon, especially since the guard hasn’t been able to find anything in over two weeks,” She chews on her lower lip slightly and looks off to the left, “No, you don’t get to be that naïve; I don’t care if you grew up on a mountain away from society.”
“But-”
“No, it’s cold, I’m tired, I'm hungry, I start bleeding when I stretch, I might have bruised a rib or two, and I am going home for evening.”
“Don’t you think you are being a bit harsh on the poor girl,” Shiva sighs. “Maybe, instead let some tears well up in your eyes, step in close, lean on her and then-”
“You are hurt?” Melodiana steps in with obvious concern in her voice and written on her face.
“It’s just some cuts and bruises,” I wave her off, “We are not getting anywhere here today, let’s go home, eat, rest, and go over the other incident reports and see if we can find something in them that we missed before.”
“I understand,” she mumbles slightly, while shifting her weight back and forth. This time when I begin to walk down the street she turns and follows me on my left.
After dinner I sit down in the sun room and, begin to go through the other incident reports. The first victim was a young woman. According to the Nightingales she was poisoned, and apparently died during a shopping trip. “No evidence of it being injected so it was likely ingested,” A shred of paper was found in her pocket with the word xanDorian written in red ink.
The second victim was apparently found in his home with a bolt through his throat. Pretty straight forward to track the bolt through the broken window to possible firing positions, but once again nothing was found at these sites. xanDorian was painted on the window around the hole in red paint like the most recent victim.
The third victim was another woman, much older this time though. Her cause of death is unsure as the house was burnt down around her, “Hopefully she was dead before she burnt.” xanDorian was carved into a tree nearby, that was somehow untouched by the fire. An oil residue was also found around the foundation of the house, likely to make it easier to burn.
As the sun sets lower I turn to light the lamp on the table, and glance around the room. Melodiana is asleep in the chair across the room, and she rolled over when the lamp brightened up. I can hear the light ringing of metal on metal from off in the house indicating that Leyla is working on some project or another down in the basement. “Somebody should probably take her some food,” I look over accusingly at Melodiana, who of course is completely oblivious to the world around her.
I contemplate this for a moment and try to figure out if there is a way that i wont have to do anything, but i draw a blank., I stand with a shake of my head, stretch slightly, and immediately wince as my side pulls. I sigh, walk out into the dining room, and then into the kitchen where I pick up a plate of food. I walk to the end hallway following the ringing as it increases in volume, and balancing the plate of food in one hand, I open the door on the left and begin to descend.
At the bottom Leyla is standing with her back to me, bent over an anvil, and she is steadily bringing it down on the metal in front of her.
“You need to take a break and eat,” I call out to her, but she just continues to work the metal in front of her, “Leyla…”
After a few moments I decide that she isn’t paying attention, so I sit the plate down on the table in the middle of the room, and approach her from behind.
“Just what are you up to now?” Shiva sighs as she can likely guess what my plans are.
“Stress relief,” I reply, as I continue to sneak up on Leyla. When I am directly behind her I reach my hand up to the back of her neck, and I gently drag my finger down the middle of her back.
She does not scream, but she does give a nice jolt as her shoulders snap back and her entire body flinches. She turns around after a few seconds one hand on her chest, the other still holding her hammer. She reaches up, removes earplugs, and sits her hammer down. All the while her face has gone from shocked to irritated.
“Just a thought,” Shiva begins “Maybe you shouldn’t pick on the people that are bigger than you.”
“And where would that get me in life?” I ask her, before focusing my attention on Leyla “You need to take a break and eat something.”
She starts to step towards me and shouts, “And that gives ya the right to just sneak up on me? Maybe I should put some proper respect, and manners into ya.”
“I did not sneak up on you, I declared myself multiple times in fact,” I sigh and try to look as downcast as possible, “and I was just trying to make sure you ate something and you…you,” I sob slightly, let my tails droop, and force my ears to quiver back and forth slightly.
“You are rotten,” Shiva informs me.
“Wa-wa-wait a moment,” Leyla protest, “Ya can’t make this my fault.”
“I, I ju-just wanted to ma make ss-sure that ya you di’nt go hun-hungry,” I sob after I turn my back on her, and I make big movements, wiping at the corners of the bottoms of my eyes, even though it sends pain up my side, “an’ after ta-today its ju-just”
“Completely rotten.”
“Wait don’t cry, it’s okay,” Leyla says in a slight panic, and she moves over to the table, “I didn’t mean to make ya upset, and I really, really appreciate you bringing me food, and I am sure it’s delicious, and I’m really sorry for yellin at ya. Is there anything I can do to make it up to ya? Wait I know, that little tea shop that ya like that Beatrice runs, it’s my treat okay?”
“Wow that was fast, usually I have to work longer before any type of offer is made, Ya-you mean it?” I turn towards her still wiping at my eyes, my pauses now caused by the fact that I managed to give myself the hiccups. She nods apparently holding her breath, “O-okay, it’s a promise.”
“Yes,” Leyla sighs as she uncovers her food and I walk back over to the stairs.
I stop at the bottom step and call back over my shoulder, “D-don’t stay down here all n-night, get some actual sleep.” I then head back up the stairs, and back into the sitting room. I Look around and Melodiana now has a blanket draped across her, so Iris is back home.