A bead of sweat dripped down Halsons face. It hit the space on the chair between his legs.

The man sitting across from him was an officer named Pierson. He opened a file and slid its contents out.

Halston gulped, and on right on cue, the man spoke;

“Halson Ford, is it?” He slid a paper to Halson. He recognized the paper. It was a schedule used to track who managed the tavern and at what time.

“That’s your name right there.” The man leaned over the table and pointed at a red circle around Halsons name. “Now you must definitely know why you are here Mr. Ford.”

Halson’s face felt like a river of warm water. “How long is this going to take?” Halson asked with false confidence.

The man didn’t look up from his notepad. “Mr. Halson, I am going to ask you a series of questions regarding the week you managed the Smokewood Tavern. Any answer you give will be taken seriously. If you are not sure. say you are not sure and do not suggest anything, that will be left to us.” Halson stared at the man's cap and his AFHA badge.

“You agree and solemnly swear that any answer you give will be nothing but the truth?”

“I-I do.” Halston stuttered.

“Good.” The man looked back down at his notepad, he dipped his pen and hovered it over the paper. “In what section of the building were you during that week?”

“Bartender.” Halston sputtered.

“The incident could have taken any place of the week, as the evidence we have collected has not suggested anything more specific about the time.” He looked up for a brief period, locking eyes with Halson.

“That being said, we know that one of the incidents took place in the table area. From behind the bar, the bartender would have a clear view of the entire restaurant. Now I will ask you a very simple question, Mr. Ford; Did you witness the crime committed?”

Halson gulped. “No sir.”

The man stopped and mumbled to himself, scribbling something down on his notepad. He stopped and seemed to think for a second, then he sat up and spoe again.

“The log indicates that the only employee present at the Smokewood Tavern was you. So, what you are saying is that, you did not bear witness to the incident any day of the week?”

Halson bit his lip. “I was probably in the closet when it happened. I go back there a lot-”

“Mr. Ford, I am here to remind you that, if what you are saying is true, then we have zero witnesses. If you saw the crime. you are not in trouble. There were other witnesses, who, while claiming that they didn’t witness the crime, they witnessed the two victims walk in on thursday. Now I want to ask you; When did you notice the scene of the crime? Was It Thursday, or sometime after?”

“N-no. It was Thursday. I noticed my table was cracked, a-and there was a pool of blood and a dead body on the table. There was a trail of blood leading outside-”

Pierson shot up, looking surprised. Halson realized that he said too much. But he couldn’t take it back.

“Did you say something about a trail of blood, Mr. Ford?”

Halson sighed. “I saw a trail of blood leading outside the tavern-”

“Did you follow it?” Pierson interrupted.

“Y-yes, I did. It led to the waterfall-”

Suddenly, the man got up. He tucked the notepad under his shoulder.

“You may go now.” Pierson stated. “Thank you for your compliance.”

Halston blinked. “Wait, I can go?”

The man waved. “Yes, you are free to go now.”

Halston grabbed his coat, which hung on the hook on the wall. He threw it on hastily, as if Pierson could change his mind at any moment and keep him longer. Thankfully, he heard no objections from the officer as he walked out of the building.

Orange leaves crunched under his sandals. Rorin was very different during fall. To travelers, adventurers, or any other person, It would just mean a change in nature's aesthetic, but for farmers and merchants, a different season meant a different business opportunity.

Sure enough, ornaments from the festival were just being taken down. Even though the festival only lasted one day, no one bothered to take it down until weeks later.

But something was very different this time.

He noticed more people than usual, and the general mood seemed to be off.

Has something changed? Halson wouldn’t have known, for he had been in jail for the last week, as said in the SCP act, which he was pretty sure stood for Summoned Crime Program.

He got distracted when he saw a crowd of people walk by. they obviously weren't from around here. Sure, Rorin had people from all over the land, but in minorities.

The group passing him wore Dapk. What country is that from again? He thought to himself.

He arrived at the Smokewood tavern. The inside was empty, all of the tables and other things had been taken by local guilds to aid in investigation.

All tables except one; the one Marina sat at.

She leaped up when she saw him, wrapping her arms around him tightly.

“Oh my god, there you are! I was getting super worried. What’s happening? Why are they questioning you?”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“I think its related to some sort of hero business. I was going to ask you the same question, Mimi. Why are there so many immigrants?”

Marina shook her head. “Oh, you haven't heard… Some horrid battle happened at Keywark-”

“Keywark… Wasn’t the war, like ten years ago?”

“Yes, but this was something different. An assassination attempt.”

“Why would anyone want to assassinate such a great guy?” Halson asked.

“Marina had a solemn look on her face. “That’s what we thought too… But truth come to light too… I think you should take a look at this.”

She pulled a folded paper out of her purse, offering it to Hal. It was a newspaper.

He flipped it open, and was met with a grim headline: Horrific Battle resulting in the death of Lord Calvin Von Boneh, drives residents out of Keywark. Plus: Death of the previously ‘beloved’ head of state, Lord Calvin Boneh, leaves some horrific claims about what life was truly like under the regime.

Halson began to read the bottom.

Last week, many heard about the ‘explosive’ battle that took place in the heart of the nation of Keywark, resulting in damages unheard of since the great war.

Initially, in our last weeks paper, we estimated that only the direct place at which the fight took was severaly damaged. However, now that the dust has settled, we are left with a more accurate guess at just how severe…

Halson skipped some of the paragraphs

…After the battle, we managed to recover the body of Lord Calvin Boneh, the king of Keywark, a story which we covered in our previous paper. But there was more untold secrets of the events leading up to the disasters that took place only just a week ago.

After hearing of the events of the situation we asked many questions. We were met with suspiciously inconsistent answers. Our team was determined to to uncover what really happened. And it seemed the more we pushed, the more we discovered. Eventually, we pieced our answers together to unveil a horrifying truth; The King was a Manevolent leader, who, at the nations weakest point, took power.

Lord Calvin Boneh, was a wealthy businessman prior to his seat on the throne. He remained wealthy in the most unstable decades of the nation. A socialist movement formed over the years and overthrew the corrupt Keywark government, a story that's been heard a million times, and rose to make a peaceful nation.

But behind the scenes, there was something much more sinister happening. The Socialist party was having its own turmoil; lack of funding. Fighting a government is expensive. Calvin knew that governmental collapse was immenent, and decided that if the elites were going down, he wouldn't be one of them.

Our team managed to find one of the original- CONTINUED

Halson flipped to the next side, his eyes darting over the printed lines.

Founding members of the PPK, also known as the Peoples Party of Keywark, he gave a vivid description of the day he and Calvin shook hands. We chose to keep his identity a secret, as gratitude for providing us with his story.

“We were getting desperate… We had the men, but we lack the firepower and funding to keep our group alive. As soon as me and Mr. Boneh struck a deal, the arrests seemed to halt immediately. We made a deal that I was initially proud of, but in hindsight, I slowly regretted the terms of.”

“It started when he began to make changes to our party, influencing laws, etc. But then he began firing members who disagreed with his ideas for reconstruction, an act which I discovered too late. We argued many times, and eventually, he fired me too… But no one seemed to care, they supported him too much. then eventually, they ‘disappeared’ but, we all know what happened to them didn’t we?”

“And of what he did after… I do not know specifically, since I was no longer considered a member, It was much harder to get information. I had some comrades in his circle… All of them told me what they knew, but did nothing to protest or disagree with the actions of Mr. Boneh.”

“I eventually became horrified by what my movement had become; a power trip for an individual who, for lack of better words, ‘owned’ our movement, our organization. One made with people in mind, and he twisted it into the thing we tried to destroy… I think that's all. Anything else you want to know, you are probably better off asking the people who were hurt the most; The people who supported our cause.”

So we did exactly that. We knocked on any door we could find, until one opened. The story we heard next was the most disturbing.

Many factory workers knew of a specific law, one designed to keep the population under control. Rumors of the program were pieced together, once a document was discovered.

The document was recovered from a safehouse, tipped by a scholar named Professor Pajey. He claims to have revised the document after its draft was printed by Princess Zalina Boneh.

The document was titled ‘Natural Selection’ and reveals the true meaning of the ‘N.S Act’.

The act allowed the mixing of toxic local produce with imported healthy counterparts. Meaning there would be one poisoned apple in every ten apples. This brutal plan had been in effect for years, and is responsible for mass starvation.

We will continue collecting more information. Thank you for reading. Keep your chip up, and follow the Whistling Bird.

Halson dropped the paper. It fluttered to the ground, soaking up a mysterious brown liquid that had yet to be mopped up.

“All of this… Happened last week?” He quivered.

Marina nodded her head. You missed the last issue, but they found the body of the king, and the princess is still missing, presumed dead.

“So… The world’s falling apart, huh?”

Marina gave him a weak smile. “The world is bigger than just the west.”

Halson scratched the back of his head. “That's a tough spider to swallow. Have you found any sign of Jack?”

Marina went pale. A memory from just a few days ago resurfaced. She shoved it back into her mind, the cold, unnerving, dark, and disturbing figure she saw only with her naked eye. The moment she realized that Jack wasn't dead, only the part of him she recognized.

He’s a b-bucher. Yes! He’s a butcher who didn’t clean hims-

“Hey.” Hal waved his hand, snapping her back to attention. “You alright?”

She didn’t respond. “I- I don’t want to think about him…”

“It’s alright. How’s your flower business coming along? Surely there’s been a boom in customers due to the migration?”

She locked eye with him, tears welled up. “They cleared the shelves… Every flower I had, gone.”

Hal leaned in, attempting to cheer her up. “Hey! Things are going well then-”

“I asked them why.” Marina interrupted. “None answered, they just looked away. Except for one old man… I asked him why all the K-keywark migrants were buying up all the flowers… And he told m-me, "they're for the dead.”

Hal looked down, biting his lip.

“Then…” She quivered. “I-I asked him why bury them here, if the poison in flowers is only harmful if swallowed? And he told me. People don't eat flowers, but maggots and insects eat them. And if insects cant eat our plants… Well, they go after the bodies…’”

Marina began weeping. Hal comforted her. He gritted his teeth. “People die, Mimi. All the time. But this isn’t your fault. We need to stay focused. At least we have money, right? First thing tomorrow, we take that money and go to the court-”

“Then what?” Marina whimpered. “What will happen?”

“Better than nothing.” Hal seethed. “Better than sitting around and just… letting it go.”

“Hal…”

Halson got to his feet. “Wipe your tears, Mimi. If we don't go to court, the least we can do is take this fight to the AFHA. Something tells me they’ve got a bone to pick with independent guilds.” He marched out the door.

She stayed, hands and knees on the floor, tears dripping down her face.

Pigs blood… Pig’s blood… Right?