Murder, He Wrote

Another two weeks passed in the blink of an eye. Training ramped up after the memorial for the guild members who had fallen in the goblin battle. Everyone seemed to put their entire being into making sure they were better than they were before. Team leaders were using their skills or professions to learn new abilities that helped in breakthroughs throughout the guild. Farms were growing faster than anyone could have imagined, livestock began to reproduce at an unnatural pace, and the engineering team was making progress on new weapons as well as what Harold called "Quality of Life" inventions that made living in the new world more bearable.

Tom had spent time getting to know the new members of the group he was calling "Mastodon," after a band he used to listen to. The team consisted of Bron, who Tom found out was a fighter, Inari the Ranger, Huthu the Barbarian, Onslo the Fighter, Belik the Wizard, Amath the Cleric, and Kuthir the Rogue. Seeing the benefit of each being able to train different classes, Tom put them to work wherever he could. Some were resistant to helping at first, but after a chat with Bron, they agreed to help teach them what they could.

"Is there a way to have you all stay permanently instead of having to summon you each once an hour? It's a little taxing on my mana." Tom asked Bron.

"I wouldn't know. I'm not a Warlock. You would need to speak with your patron to answer that question." Bron replied. "I wish I could tell you, but I've never heard of it."

"That's not a terrible idea. Azroc did say I could call on him if I needed help." Tom mused. "Alright, I'll be back. I need to go do something."

Leaving Team Mastodon to their work, Tom went to his room. He had been working on making a permanent circle to summon Azroc with on his floor. Putting the final touches on it, he activated the circle by chanting the summoning phrase, and the circle lit up as it normally did. Instead of rising from the floor as Azroc normally did, a mist appeared and swirled in the air above the summoning circle. The mist roiled around until it began to light up and coalesce into an image of Azroc's eye.

"Hello? Is this thing on? Fucking magic mists. They never did get this right. Can you hear me?" Azroc said as he moved back, and his full face came into view.

"Azroc! It's good to see you. But why didn't you come in person like you normally do?" Tom asked.

"Sorry, shithead, I'm totally swamped. But I would never leave my favorite Warlock hanging. You don't appear to have completed quests. What can I do for you?" Azroc asked.

"I'm wondering if you know of a way to make summons permanent. Continuing to summon them once an hour for what I need is really inconvenient and takes a lot of mana." Tom began. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Found some familiars you like, did you? Well, you're in luck! It is possible, though not always something Warlocks want to do because of the cost," Azroc replied with an amused tone in his voice.

"What's the cost?" Tom asked, trepidation making him cautious of what this might entail.

"A blood sacrifice and five percent of your mana to sustain them," Azroc replied, seeming unphased.

"I have to kill something and sacrifice it?!"

"No, your blood, you pea-brained dolt. That's not even the part most Warlocks balk at. You really are something else." Azroc mused.

"So, I cut myself and then spend thirty-five percent of my mana, and they stay here?" Tom asked.

"Not spend it, sacrifice it. It'll hold it until you dismiss them, so you won't be able to use it." Azroc corrected him.

"That's the catch," Tom suddenly realized this was a bigger purchase than it seemed.

"Yes. That's the part most Warlocks aren't willing to pay for. Or if they do, it's for one familiar, not seven," Azroc said.

"I'm going to have to think about it. Do I need to do anything else special?" Tom asked.

"Tell you what. I'll get you the info on how, and then you can decide if you want to do it or not. This is part of the spell anyway, so I'm not cheating by giving it to you." Azroc said as he stepped back, and Tom saw him make a hand gesture.

Suddenly, he was hit by a pain in his head that lasted about five excruciating seconds before fading away. The knowledge of how to perform the ritual flowed through his brain before it was filed away with the other information.

"I'm never going to get used to learning something instantly like that," Tom said after he recovered, still rubbing his head from the pain.

"Sucks, don't it? But there's always a price to pay for everything worth having." Azroc chuckled.

"Tom to the security office immediately, I repeat, guild leader Tom to the security office immediately," TJ's voice sounded over the PA system.

"Thanks, Azroc, I gotta take this. But we should chat again soon." Tom said to the mist image.

"It's always good to see you shithead. Call anytime." Azroc replied before the mist swirled again and dissipated.

Soon after, Tom entered the security office. Looking around the room, he saw that Brian, Derek, Jay, Sean, TJ, Chris, and Isaac were all present. Most had their arms crossed, and everyone had a dismal look on their face.

"Who died?" Maria asked in Tom's head.

"That's not funny; it could have happened," Tom replied out loud.

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"What?" Derek asked.

"Maria. She asked who died. Probably from all your dour expressions." Tom chuckled.

"His name was Jared Hawthorn. He was one of the scavengers. Found him out back in the garbage that was about to be incinerated." Brian said, staring at Tom with the most serious expression Tom had ever seen from him.

"What the fuck? How can we be sure he wasn't killed by a monster or someone else?" Tom asked, thoughts racing through his head as he tried to understand what he was being told.

"He was in pieces. Cut up after being killed. Rebecca already looked over the body." Derek said, not able to bring himself to look at Tom.

"Can we hear what she has to say?" Tom asked.

"She should be on her way. Won't have to wait long. James went to get her." TJ said.

Moments later, Rebeca entered the room along with James and Squirrel.

"The body was definitely cut up post-mortem. There isn't much bleeding from the pieces meaning the heart wasn't pumping. I found knife wounds on the torso, showing he was stabbed thirty-eight times with a knife. Both sides of the blade were sharp. The wound showed a narrowing at both tips rather than just one as we'd see with a hunting knife." Rebecca began without prompting.

"So, you want us to look at everyone's daggers to find the double-sided ones in a time when monsters and people alike are out for our blood and can buy weapons from vending machines?" Tom asked.

"This is going to be the best murder mystery party ever," James commented.

"That guy seems like the guy to have at a party," Maria commented.

"Someone is dead, possibly killed by a guild member, and you think this is a party?" Tom asked James.

"Always trying to look on the bright side," James shrugged as he sank into one of the chairs. "I watched a lot of Law and Order. I'm ready to help whenever you need me."

"I've been scanning Earth's old files, including old shows, and if he watched Law and Order, he's woefully unprepared for this," Maria said, her tone indicating she was as unamused as the rest of them.

"I still don't see how we can prove who did this," Tom replied.

"If you can find the weapon, I can find how it happened. There's always evidence left. Even if you think you erased it, something remains." Rebecca said.

"I think it was Colonel Mustard in the billiard room with the knife!" James suddenly and loudly declared.

"And you put up with this crap? I'm sorry, you're more of a saint than I realized." Maria said.

"He's my friend," Tom replied.

"What?" James asked.

"You don't want to know," Tom said, holding up a hand to stop further questions.

"How do we handle this?" TJ asked.

"We play it close to the vest. We can't have panic spreading that there is some kind of murderer running around. They could have had a good reason. We might want to let it go." Derek said.

"No, we need to figure out what happened. It won't stay quiet forever, so we need to show we are not going to tolerate this kind of behavior. Not without an explanation." Tom said.

"Do we know anything else?" Brian asked, trying to ignore the other conversations.

"Whoever did this is a novice. They had no experience in dismembering a body as they just chopped it up at the joints, and they butchered it at that. I would guess you can rule out the kitchen staff, at least. Whoever did this has never even cut a steak properly." Rebecca said. "I've never seen someone cut something so poorly."

"Is there anything on their tox screens?" James asked.

Rebecca stared at him with incredulity, "What? I don't have any of the equipment to test for that here. In case you missed it, the world almost ended, and we are still rebuilding. Not to mention the fact that it could be some new form of poisoning or debuff from magic that we never even had equipment to test for. I'm lucky to have a microscope right now."

"What do we know about the man who was killed?" Tom asked.

"Again, his name is Jared Hawthorn. He was single, with no family ties to speak of. Since he worked with the scavenging team, he was out in the field looking for useful items most days. He is part of a team, as we don't typically let anyone go out alone. We can speak with them to see what they know about him," Brian replied.

"I think that's the path we need to take. We need to know what might have happened and see if we can find out what's going on before we go accusing anyone of anything. I do think we should play this as close to the vest as we can, but bear in mind that people will talk, so this will spread through the guild eventually. We need to try not to let panic rise and let them know we are handling it." Tom said after a long pause, contemplating the best way to proceed.

"I have another idea as well," Derek added.

"What is it? We'll take anything at this point to help." Brian said.

"Have Bohdan come here. I need to ask him something. I bet he can help with this." Derek replied.

"I'll call him now," TJ said, moving to the PA system.

"Does Bohdan know something we don't about this?" Tom asked.

"He does. Magic. I bet we can use something to help figure this out using this new tool we have. I recall when playing D&D that there were plenty of murder mysteries or, at the very least, someone was killed, and there was at least one way to figure out who did it." Derek smiled at the rest of them.

"Speak with dead. Why didn't I think of that?" Tom replied, slapping his forehead with his palm.

After remaining quiet for most of the gathering, Chris added, "There's no guarantee anything like that exists."

"True, but if there's a chance, we need to explore it at least. And there may be other options we aren't aware of. Leave no stone unturned." Derek shrugged.