“Good to meet you all,” Estinar said bowing slightly before a room full of people, most of whom were not too happy to be there. “I come today as a liaison from the Bureau of Magical Investigations.” He smiled and briefly paused as he caught a glimpse of darkening expressions. “It is not a secret that we’ve never sought to cooperate in the past and our methods and teachings have been different from yours. But I firmly believe that today is a different age, and we must learn to adapt to it. We must learn to work together and obey the new law, for it is meant to serve us all equally. Long journeys start with the smallest steps, or so they say.”

Someone in the back cleared their throat, whether out of need or defiance, breaking the uninterrupted silence, and allowing for chatter to rise up among the rows. Estinar looked back at Ori, revealing a hint of disdain on his face, only to reshape it into a wide smile before turning back to the crowd.

“As a sign of trust and respect, we shall strive to cooperate, and make this city and this country something it has never been. The line is thin but we’ll make it unbreakable.”

“What does that mean?” someone asked raising their hand. “What are you really saying?”

“Small steps, friend,” returned Estinar. “Special Investigator Orellin Avenonilanis you’ve already met. He is now stationed here and will serve as a specialist in all cases that involve the use of magic or magical instruments. We will not interfere with your work and will depart the moment our mission is complete. You have my word.”

“Is this some sort of a test?” said a man from the crowd.

“A test?”

“Are we being subjected to a social experiment?” he added making everyone else in the room burst out laughing.

“Probably,” Estinar returned coldly, cutting the fun short. His face stood perfectly still and unbothered.

None of them had anything more to say. They just looked at one another in surprise, as if that truth was not already quite obvious.

“There’s plenty of people that would say such a thing is impossible to maintain. We have drifted so far apart that we almost live in separate worlds, but, the truth is, neither of our sides can exist without the other, and I believe such divisions are foolish. If this is the new reality we must face, so be it. Any more questions?”

A woman from the front row raised her hand shyly and despite the warning looks from her colleagues said, ”How do we know this won’t go wrong?”

“I suppose that is the whole point,” Estinar added but was quickly overshadowed by the captain.

“There’s nothing to worry about. It is in all of our interests to maintain the order in Helden. It’s best to think of this as an important training exercise and I’m sure that in the end all of us would get some respite.” He still had the uniform on and held his hands behind his back, giving weight to his words. “Now, let’s all get back to work and if you have something more to say, you come to me. Understood?”

“Understood,” the crowd murmured back.

***

Myra spread out the three boxes on the metal file cabinet and tried to open up the window to let some fresh air inside for a change. Despite her stubborn efforts the handle broke off in her hand and she ended up trying to pry it open with a letter opener. It did not budge.

“It’s a wonder this place hadn’t folded into itself by now,” she mumbled into her chin, as she prepared to use lethal force.

“Move,” she heard someone say and pretended she did not hear it until the mechanism began to move on its own. Slowly it crackled until the window flung open and hit her face.

“Damn it. Why?” she cried in agony.

“Told you to move,” Ori returned hanging his long black coat on the clothes hanger behind the door. “Weren’t you supposed to come to the meeting?”

“I had better things to do,” she said through her nose, as she tried to keep her eyes from tearing up from the pain.

“I’ll be staying for a while, it seems.”

“Huh?”

The door flung open and Ronns popped in carrying a box of pastries in his arms as if it were solid gold. Kalin followed holding the door open for the captain who was in one of his moods, with his hands still behind his back.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Tamon!” he rumbled when he caught the sight of her from the door. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing sir. Just hurt my nose a bit.”

“Why were you not at the meeting?”

“I was at the...”, she began but was instantly interrupted.

“Urgh, I don’t have time for that,” the captain waved his hand in the air and turned to Ori instead. “This is your place for the time being,” he pointed to the empty desk on the opposite side of Myra’s. ”They'll help you with the rest. I must go.”

“Bye captain,” added Ronns as he tried to pick out what he was going to eat first, with his index finger gliding over the pastries. He made silly faces at them and occasionally prevented Kalin from getting too close.

Myra watched in utter dread as Ori approached the desk. He moved slowly, looking at it and then the door as if he were an orphan who had just been dropped off into some unfamiliar place. His face began to cramp, lingering on the edges of a frown he did not want anyone to see. He’d seen it all before, but never thought he would have to see it again, much less make it his own.

He moved the chair with great caution as if it was going to fall apart at the first touch and then tilted his head like a dog, somewhat uncertain that people actually worked under such conditions.

“Something wrong?” Kalin asked sliding closer to him. “He turned on the computer screen and dusted it off a little bit until the wallpaper came on.

Ori blinked at the sight of a flock of penguins wobbling down a snowy trail, falling off and tripping as they went. He sat down, almost hypnotized, and began to look through the drawers. There was nothing special inside, old notes and takeout orders, but when he got down to the last one he noticed a humbly framed photograph in the corner. The moment he tried to turn it over, Myra grabbed it and slammed the drawer, almost chopping off his hand with it.

As if nothing had happened, she rolled back to her place and got back to work.

“Don’t mind her. You want one?” asked Ronns presenting Ori with the open box of chocolate delights. Several of them were already missing and his face bore all the evidence.

Ori briefly inspected the box and after taking a deep breath he grabbed a doughnut closest to him. A strange feeling returned to his mind as he took the first bite, a small inkling he hadn’t felt in ages. It tasted a lot like defeat. He did not know whether he missed it or whether he’d once gotten so used to it that it became something he could not live without. A tiny part of him felt as if he’d once again ran into his worst enemy.

“Can I ask you something Detective Tamon?” his voice had gotten still, as if he was preparing to cast a spell.

“I don’t think a “no” is going to stop you,” she said coldly.

“Has there ever been magic in your family?”

Slowly, she prompted her head over the monitor as if for a brief moment she expected to see someone else on the other side.

“What sort of question is that?” Her eyes changed colour to a darker black. The question was not something she wanted to hear.

“Interesting. Forget I said anything,” Ori returned and focused on finishing up his doughnut.

A long silence took the room, with both sides of the table equally unwilling to make peace. As the minutes dragged on, it became so quiet that they could hear all the unsettling noises from the outside, most of which they had no idea could be heard from afar. It was only when Ronns scraped the bottom of the box, that the things began to return to normal.

“Where are we with the case? Is there anything on the surveillance outside the clinic?” he said, wiping the sugar off his cheeks.

“There were dozens of cameras in the close range of the crime scene,” Kalin began enthusiastically. “Most are from the grocery stores and restaurants, so the White Cat is covered from every angle. It is literally the worst place you can try and hide. Now, I’ve labelled all the frames the victim was seen crossing the street before her death, but I still haven’t managed to find anything useful.”

“Do we have her address?” Myra asked and pulled on her eyelids until her eyes felt a bit better.

“Florr Avenue, number 63,” said Kalin. “She’d been living there alone and had no known relatives in the city. Also, she’d been working at Miralan Corp for the past seven years. It’s just beyond the intersection so we should check it out as well.”

“I’ll go,” Myra said. “We need to retrace her steps and see what route she took this morning. Ronns, would you run these plates and check their customer records? It’s from a taxi she took to get to the White Cat,” She handed him a post-it note with numbers and letters scribbled on it. “See if she’s a regular, and where they drove her before.”

“You are probably wasting your time,” Ori said. “You should be looking for a motive.”

“This case is officially still a suicide, and you sound like you’ve already solved a homicide,” Myra upstarted. “And this is the second time you fail to mention what exactly has happened before. I do not remember any cases of people dying in such a way in broad daylight.”

“That’s because you’re… not familiar with the old cases.” He said, slowing down until the words dragged out.

“How old are we talking?” Kalin’s voice rang with fascination as he fixed his glasses and rolled closer to Ori.

“Seven hundred years give or take.”

“You’re joking, right? Right?” Kalin’s eyes widened out like a cat’s.

“Most cases have never even been recorded, because they always looked like suicides. Back then, almost every investigation into such things was conducted by the church and naturally atoned to nothing. The bureau, however, had different ideas, but since there were no obvious traces of magic and our two sides were never at the best of terms, the whole thing was swiped under the carpet, over and over again.”

“So what you’re telling us,” Ronns insisted. “Is that people were being eaten from the inside out, for literal centuries and no one suspected anything?”

“It’s a first-category curse of an unknown origin. You wouldn’t see it coming until it killed you, and all anyone would say is that you must have gone mad.”

“So how exactly do you put a curse on trial?” Ronns laughed at the thought.

“You find the one that set it free, and I put it back to where it belongs.”

“And that happens to be a reason why they put you here with us again?” Myra leaned back into the chair gathering her notes.

“This is not a trivial case Tamon, no matter how distrustful you are.”

“Oh, no, I would not dare underestimate the danger behind it. You are too powerful a wizard to deal with trivialities.”