Adgito sat at the foot of his bed, face in his palms as he rubbed his temples.

“Okay, so, if I’m understanding this correctly,” he said, “you are trying to help a possible mass-murderer– who also happens to be a vrochthízo– find and capture the killer of her former owner, who indoctrinated her from childhood to be the perfect assassin.”

“Yes,” Darron confirmed.

“And afterwards you want to get her to work for us.”

“Yes, initially. Shara doesn’t think she’s capable of a healthier relationship yet.”

“And neither of you notice any problems with this???” Adgito exclaimed, tossing his hands up into the air.

“Oh, no,” Shara said, “There’s like, nothing but problems with this. It’s a horrible idea. We were just planning on doing it anyway.”

“Why?” Adgito asked. “Aren’t we on the run from Elpis? Aren’t we trying to get Darron to some fancy university? What possible reason do we have to stick around here and pick up a titans-damned vrochthízo?”

Shara allowed silence to reign a while, knowing Adgito would be more likely to take what she said with a grain of salt. Her brother’s eventual response didn’t disappoint.

“Because... she needs serious mental help. And no one else is both willing and capable of giving it to her.” Darron said.

Adgito glowered at Darron for a moment, before coming to the conclusion Shara had been hoping for.

“This... this is my fault, isn’t it? Back when I said you should have poked your nose into that prisoner’s business.”

“Oh, yeah.” Shara said cheerfully. “Big time. Now Darron’s really got his knickers in a twist.”

Adgito groaned. Having internalized his complicitness in this particular fiasco, Shara knew he was mere steps away from relenting. She just needed to clean up the final pieces.

“Look, it’ll be fine,” she said. “We’ll instruct her not to touch you, which she will follow, and you can keep up-to-date on swapping forms just in case. Those two things together and you’ll have almost no chance of going on a rampage. Even if you do, I’ll just beat the stuffing out of you until you change back. Arina is nowhere near as strong as that lord we fought.”

“Fine, fine, I get it!” Adgito said, standing up from the bed and gathering his few belongings. Shara had purchased him a backpack and some extra outfits during their stay in town. “We’re helping a misfortunate freak find a place she belongs. I got it. I see the parallels. I just don’t have to like it, okay?”

“That’s fair,” Shara said. “I don’t really like it either. Although, on the subject of things we don’t like, when was the last time you changed forms? Aren’t you on a hair trigger by now?”

Shara and Darron had rested a bit longer at the inn before speaking to Adgito, as he was still asleep when they returned and it was better to get back into a more normal sleeping schedule anyway. It was currently still dark out, but the sun would rise shortly.

“Yeah, I am,” Adgito grumbled, “but I can’t take anything from Darron when I’m already in dude-mode and I don’t want to risk taking your powers unless I have to. What else should I acquire from? Rock? Metal? Wood? Those forms all suck.”

“Do you need to urinate?” Darron suddenly asked.

“What? I mean, yes, but–”

“Metal. Be metal.”

Shara declined to ask what that was about and just offered her sword as a transformation catalyst.

“...No, I might dent the floor here if I’m not careful,” Adgito said. “I’m just gonna go take a piss and we’ll see what happens, okay? Not really interested in being an experiment subject right now.”

Darron grumbled at that, but after some quick relief in the latrine the three of them paid the innkeeper for breakfast and headed back towards Arina. The first stop in their detective quest was the sheriff’s office anyway, so they could get a general outline of the case. Being able to check up on Arina was a nice bonus.

The sun peaked up to the east as they got closer, revealing a blubbering, bawling Isabella who was rubbing a surprisingly calm Captain Cuddles all over Arina’s face. The cat was a little confused at her human’s apparent method of fulfilling petting time obligations, but deigned to allow it.

Arina, for her part, was simply annoyed.

“Stop it.”

“But you have to! You haven’t eaten in days!” Isabella cried. “Just take her! It’ll be fine! We’ll get a n-new…”

That was as far as she made it before erupting into uncontrollable tears. Darron sighed, and searched around the area for a small animal. With a few quick words, he paralyzed a nearby robin, pecking for worms beside the dirt road. Retrieving its twitching body, he approached Isabella and Arina, wordlessly shoved Captain Cuddles out of the way, yanked up the lower part of Arina’s mask, and presented the bird.

“Here,” he simply said. “Not domesticated.”

Hesitantly, slowly, Arina opened her terrifying jaws. Then, in an instant, the bird was snapped up, curved teeth closing down around the bird like bars of a cage. With a few sick crunching noises, it was gone. A wave of ecstasy flooded unbidden into Shara as Arina ate her first meal in a long time.

“Do you need any more?” Darron asked.

“No,” Arina said.

Darron nodded and got up to leave, before suddenly realizing something.

“Do you… want any more?” he asked.

“...Yes,” Arina admitted.

Darron nodded, looked up, and dropped another bird from the sky. This time, however, Captain Cuddles wanted in on the action. The plump, long-haired housecat wiggled out of her human’s grip and made a leap towards the falling bird, right towards the team’s resident shapeshifter. A kitty-Adgito collision was inevitable.

A change jolted through Adgito’s body as he became… his basic, default girl form. With the trained expertise of someone who knew the world would always screw her over, Adgito had reached out and put a hand on Shara’s neck before the cat collided.

“Yeah, I figured something like that would happen,” Adgito muttered to herself. “Not doing a furry form today. Way too hot out.”

Picking up Captain Cuddles by the scruff of her neck, Adgito retrieved the bird from between the cat’s jaws and tossed it to Darron, who promptly fed it to Arina. Isabella balked at the sudden transformation, utterly stunned. Still reeling from the entire emotional whirlwind of her friend’s starvation and Darron’s arrival, she was completely unable to comprehend the current state of events and had entered a sort of mental reboot. Arina didn’t even notice, as Adgito hadn’t spoken before her voice suddenly rose a gender’s worth of octaves and she was distracted by food besides.

Noticing that Isabella was temporarily disabled, Darron then made his way into the sheriff’s office before she could become particularly annoying. Shara chuckled at the entire exchange, waved goodbye to Isabella, and followed along with Adgito.

“Sit tight,” she told Arina, “We’ll figure this out.”

Arina didn’t respond, but she seemed less inclined to doubt than before.

The sheriff’s office was a quaint little building, not anywhere near as busy as Shara would have expected for a town this size. A single man, badge on his lapel, sat snoring in a chair behind the counter. He was muscular and clean-shaven, although a little heavy-set. A pair of mutton chops extended down from his wide-brim hat, which was placed over his face to deny the rising sun. A crossbow leaned against the chair where he slept, and a knife rested, sheathed, on his waistband. All in all, he looked exactly like what Shara would expect a sheriff to look like. Something was… off... about him, however. Something Shara didn’t like.

“Um, excuse me,” Shara said, “we were hoping to ask you some questions about the prisoner out front.”

The sheriff of Oinos Springs awoke with a snort, and Shara immediately figured out what she thought was wrong with him. She couldn’t read his mind.

Just like Mrs. Garnersworth or most of the Elpis soldiers, his mind was an unintelligible buzz of static noise. Shara frowned, placing and hand on Darron’s shoulder and subtly shaking her head to let him know the situation.

“Eh? What?” the sheriff muttered as he flailed into a respectable sitting position. “Sheriff Torg, at yer service. What can I do ya fine folk for?”

“That sounds like a chondricthian name,” Adgito commented offhandedly, to which the sheriff sighed in irritation.

“I get that a lot, but there’s no relation to those finned warmongers. Anyway, ya had something ya wanted ta ask?”

Shara was annoyed that she couldn’t fact check that statement, but immediately chastised herself for it. It was pretty obvious the man wasn’t chondricthian, considering that chondricthians were giant angry shark people. She didn’t need to rely on her power for every single little thing.

“Yeah, we were hoping to get information on Arina’s case. Why she was convicted, and so on.”

The sheriff narrowed his eyes.

“...Why?”

“Because I don’t believe that she’s guilty.”

Sheriff Torg looked very carefully at Shara, studying her. She wished she knew what he was thinking.

“I ain’t never seen ya around here before, girl, and I know tha whole town like tha back o’ my hand. What’s Greg’s pet vroch ta a traveler like yerself? It didn’t work out fer ‘im, like everyone expected. Ya in tha mood ta repeat ‘is mistake?”

“Actually, that’s one of the things I was wondering,” Shara said. “If you describe her as a ‘pet,’ why is she locked in the stocks at all? Wouldn’t a vrochthízo normally be executed on sight?”

The sheriff frowned. “It was onna Greg’s laws itself. When we all complained about ‘im housin’ tha thing, he went an’ gave tha monster rights o’ citizenship, made ‘is stance clear. Stubborn to a fault, ‘e was. Anyway, even though she killed ‘im… or, perhaps even more because of it, everyone felt it would be disrespectin’ tha dead ta treat ‘er against ‘is wishes. So to tha stocks she goes, which is fine by everyone cuz there ain’t nothin’ that says I haveta feed ‘er live meat while she’s there.”

“So you sentenced her to starve to death, basically,” Darron clarified.

“Aye, a fitting end fer someone that ate ‘er own boss, don’tcha think?” The sheriff leaned forward in his chair. “And accordin’ to tha evidence, that’s what she did. So how about ya just accept that?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Well, Shara didn’t need mind reading abilities to know that was suspicious. Still, it was a good segue into what she came here for.

“The evidence has to be wrong, then, because she didn’t do it. It’s not possible and I intend to prove it. To that end, I was hoping to know exactly why she was convicted.”

“Good luck to ya, then,” the sheriff sighed. “Ah ain’t lockin’ ‘er up fer nothing, ya know. Greg was found dead in ‘is own home from vroch bites. Autopsy confirmed it couldn’ta been nuthin’ else. So unless yer sayin’ a different vroch walked inta ‘is house, ignored all ‘is servants, expertly assassinated one man and buggered off without a trace, good luck makin’ that case.”

Interesting. The way he said that made Shara think the sheriff knew Arina was a practiced assassin, which according to Arina was supposed to be privileged information. That made sense, though: out of everyone to know about the mayor’s secret assassin, wouldn’t the person in charge of solving crimes be top on the list? Shara saw two possibilities already: the sheriff was as corrupt as Gregory, and knew about Arina the whole time. Or perhaps he recently found out, and decided to take justice into his own hands before he became a target himself? Without mind-reading abilities to back her up, however, it would be a bad idea to try and confront him without evidence. It would be best to start by confirming the information.

“Where can we find the doctor that performed the autopsy?” Shara asked.

“Dr. Nalar’s ‘is name. Clinic should open in an hour or so, ah’ll give ya directions. Can ah ask ya, though… why ya goin’ through all this work fer a vroch? It’s a man-eatin’ monster, fer titan’s sake.”

Shara thought about that.

“I think... the more I talk with her, the more I wonder if any of that is really her fault,” Shara explained slowly. “Should someone be prosecuted for just… eating when they’re told to eat? Is that really on their shoulders? I don’t know. But I think, at this point, I would regret it if we left her to starve. I guess that’s enough, whether it’s right or not.”

“Well,” the sheriff grumbled, “aren’t you just a little sweetheart?”

After that, it was just some cordial directions to Dr. Nalar’s clinic, although the sheriff studied Shara closely the whole time. The feeling of suspicion was, of course, mutual, but Shara politely got through the conversation and the team exited the sheriff’s office. A quick peek into Arina’s mind ensured that she was okay, and also revealed she had heard the entire conversation with the Sheriff from outside. A normal person wouldn’t even have heard muffled noises, let alone made out every word.

“S...so, did you get her freed?” Isabella asked excitedly, moving into Shara’s personal space with sparkles in her eyes.

“What?” Shara responded, “No! We’ve barely started. We’re going to meet Dr. Nalar now. Then we’ll figure out who found the body and talk with them. You know, detective stuff.”

“Oh, yes!” Isabella nodded excitedly, “I’ve read so many books about detectives! Oh! I can help! Miss Nadia found my father’s… um, you know.” She immediately deflated. “You don’t think she… did it, did you?”

“We’ve never even met her,” Darron said irritably. “How would we know that?”

“Oh, well she’s great!” Isabella said, emotionally ballooning back up so fast that Shara thought she’d explode, “She’s worked for daddy for a long time! She’s got beautiful hair and she taught me to cook and read and write and how to do math and she’s super smart and she’s very nice and I’ve known her for as long as I can remember so she’s like my mom sort of but I’d never tell her that!”

“Wow,” Adgito said sarcastically, “what more could there possibly be to know about her?”

“Umm, let’s see…” Isabella said, taking the question with perfect seriousness, “She’s… fifty-two years old, she’s taller than me but not by that much, she has curly chestnut hair that isn’t greying no matter what she says, Daddy hired her from Elpis and she likes to talk about it a lot because I think she’s very homesick but not really because this is like, also her home, you know? And–”

“Woah there, dial it back a little,” Shara interrupted. “Do you know where she is?”

“Oh, yes!” Isabella answered, “She’s at home, in the mansion. She said my father’s… passing wasn’t going to stop her from doing her job. She’s been, um, helping me cope, when I’m at home. I’d be happy to take you to meet her, if you think it will help!”

If it would help, huh? A person from Elpis, whose country slaughtered Shara’s whole family, is the one that found the body?

“Yeah, I think it would help,” Shara said.

“We should talk to the doctor first, though,” Darron pointed out. He had also picked up on the Elpis “coincidence” but had a more practical concern on his mind. “It’ll be difficult to get a moment of his time if a patient beats us there.”

The fact that Darron was looking forward to see a doctor’s office other than his grandmother’s was incidental and clearly irrelevant.

It didn’t take long to follow Sheriff Torg’s directions to the doctor’s office, with Isabella tagging long after promising to stay quiet. The office immediately seemed far cleaner than Gloria’s room, the latter of which was stuffed full of vials, jars, and beakers full of various, hard-to-identify organic bits and cadavers. It had seemed more like the lab of a mad scientist, whereas Dr. Nalar’s clinic looked clean, polished, and professional. The entry room, which functioned as a kind of reception area, had a neat-looking desk, a few chairs, and some small potted plants in the windowsill that a tall, bespeckled man was in the process of watering. He smiled at Shara and crew as they walked in, his clean-shaven, lightly wrinkled face expertly putting his guests at ease.

Placing Shara even more at ease was the fact that she seemed capable of reading his mind. He was surprised and slightly annoyed to see patients this early in the morning, but his years of professional experience quickly wiped that away as he gave them a warm greeting.

“Why hello there!” he said. “Isabella, it’s always good to see you! And I see you have new friends! I am Dr. Nalar. Are you looking for medical treatment this morning?”

“Not exactly,” Shara said. “We were actually here because we had a few questions about the autopsy you performed on Gregory Cornwall. Would you be willing to talk with us about that?”

Why? He thought. Who are these people? “Well, I have a strict policy about not sharing medical records, but if Isabella is okay with it I’d be happy to tell you everything I told the sheriff.”

Dr. Nalar was choosing his words with extreme care, as if he was afraid one of them would set off a bomb. He looked to Isabella, checking for signs that she was being coerced. Apparently, the mention of Gregory’s death was enough to put him on high alert.

“Please do,” Isabella said, which seemed to satisfy him enough. Isabella Cornwall was a lot of things, but “good at hiding her emotions” wasn’t one of them. She seemed comfortable enough with these three strangers.

“Well, Mr. Cornwall’s cause of death was hemorrhagic shock due to multiple traumatic injuries, all of which appeared to be bite wounds,” Dr. Nalar explained. “The bites tore off large chunks of flesh at once using long, curved teeth. Mr. Cornwall also showed evidence of severe barrier degradation before he passed away. All of these signs point to death via vrochthízo consumption.”

All in all, it was a professional, succinct, and completely honest description of the body. Shara caught glimpses of the state of Gregory’s corpse in the doctor’s memory, and… well, it would definitely be a closed-casket funeral.

“So, this testimony lead to Arina’s conviction?” Shara clarified.

Are these people Gregory’s old thugs? Dr. Nalar wondered, or are they his enemies, coming out of the woodwork? What do they want from me? I suppose I’m not a good enough liar for it to matter. Titans save me.

“All I did was give an accurate description of what I found,” Dr. Nalar said calmly. “I wasn’t involved with the sheriff’s investigation after that.”

The doctor was telling the truth, and seemed like a nice man besides. Shara decided to throw him a bone and get him to stop shaking.

“You seem to be rather worried about something, Doctor, but please rest assured we’re not here with any ill intent. We simply don’t believe Arina killed Mr. Cornwall. If that’s the case, the evidence will point that way. The truth is all we need.”

Dr. Nalar relaxed a little.

“I admit, I found that difficult to believe myself, but there’s simply no denying Gregory was killed by one of the black maw. There wasn’t anything else that could have done it.”

“That’s still useful information to know,” Shara said. “Thank you. You said you find it ‘difficult to believe,’ though. Did you know Arina?”

“Er, I did, yes,” Dr. Nalar said. “I treated her a few times. Working with vrochthízo biology was... an interesting experience.”

Shara picked up on a number of memories as he said that, flashing through one after another. Arina arriving in the night, oozing with so much black blood it dripped from her hair like an icicle on a warm day. Large, powerful men arriving the next morning, discussing the consequences of breaching client confidentiality. The one or two daytime checkups that were arranged to create a reason for them to be acquainted. The sudden jump in business his clinic received when he was found agreeable to all these terms. The conscious effort Dr. Nalar made to stay as ignorant as possible about why a monster kept showing up under cover of darkness, bloody and ragged.

“In your opinion as her physician,” Darron suddenly asked, “would you say that the shape of the bites could have matched a human’s jaw structure?”

“Er, no,” Dr. Nalar said, “As I mentioned, the bites were very clearly from a vrochthízo. There’s no way a human could have inflicted them.”

Shara noticed a glint in Darron’s mind that indicated he was onto something, and ceded the conversation to him.

“How would you describe the vrochthízo jaw structure?” Darron asked. “Canine? Serpentine? Wide, flat?”

“I’ve actually had to treat a large number of vrochthízo bite injuries,” Dr. Nalar explained, “as the guards have been fighting a quite a few of them, lately. I would describe them as lizard-like, I suppose. The bite pattern is flat, and the angle between the upper and lower jaw indicates the bar to the quadrate bone isn’t present.”

“The vrochthízo in the area recently are probably like that because their mother feasted on a large number of salufidi,” Darron said. “However, Arina’s jaw isn’t shaped like that. She has a humanoid skull structure, except for the form and size of her teeth.”

Dr. Nalar raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“Erm, I suppose you’re right,” he said. “I’ve never had cause to measure her jawline, but now that you mention it, it might have been unable to make those specific bitemarks. It’s difficult to be certain, however, as Gregory’s body was in such poor condition.”

“Would you be willing to make that testimony to the sheriff?” Shara asked.

“Certainly,” Dr. Nalar confirmed.

“Thank you,” Shara said, “That helps a lot.” She turned to Darron and Adgito. “Somehow, I doubt ‘she probably couldn’t have done it but it’s difficult to be certain’ is enough to reverse the ruling, though. Which means we’re looking for a different vrochthízo, some way for it to have gotten into the Cornwall mansion, and some motive or method by which it only attacked Gregory while it was there.”

“Sounds about right, I guess,” Adgito confirmed. Darron nodded.

“Then we’re off to the mansion,” Shara decided. “Thank you again, Dr. Nalar.”

Dr. Nalar nodded his goodbyes and returned to watering his plants as the group exited, heading towards the Cornwall mansion. The enormous, four-story structure towered over the edge of town, with spires and flags that made it look like the castle of some idyllic fantasy princess. A spiked metal fence, at least 15 feet tall, surrounded the massive grounds over a hundred and fifty yards away from the building proper, containing an impressively colorful garden, a marble statue-lined walkway, and wide fields of beautiful green grass. Dozens of workers moved around the area, setting up public seating for Gregory Cornwall’s funeral, which would be held here.

“Titan’s testicles, I feel like I’m dropping the property value just by looking at it,” Adgito gawked. “I’ve never seen anything this fancy in my life.”

Isabella simply giggled and unlocked the front gate, disabling some alarm spells with gestures that Darron immediately memorized.

“Yep, this is where I live!” Isabella humble-bragged. “It can be pretty easy to get lost, so stick with me, okay?”

Of course, that being said, one of the first things Isabella did after leading the jaw-dropped group through the mansion gardens was flag down a servant and ask directions to where Nadia was.

“Oh, Miss Nadia is in the second-floor parlor,” the servant explained. “I believe she is currently entertaining a guest. They have requested to see you at your convenience, ma’am.”

“A guest?” Isabella asked, surprised. “Well, we mustn't keep them waiting. Thank you, Donny, we shall see them immediately.”

The servant apparently named Donny bowed and returned to his work, as Isabella escorted Shara’s ragtag crew through the obscenely, almost impossibly wealthy-looking building. The hallways were decorated with an endless array of perfectly-maintained paintings, vases, statues, and other works of art. The carpeting was intricately detailed and spotlessly cleaned. Each wall, each door, each corner was somehow its own distinct sign of wealth.

Eventually, Isabella opened a door to reveal a beautiful parlor room, adorned with an expertly-crafted table. The far wall was mostly window, offering an exquisite view of the mountain range Oinos Springs was named after. Beside the table stood an older woman, with curly chestnut hair that was graying a little. She was dressed in a particularly fancy maid’s uniform, a cut above the other servants in terms of style and extravagance. Its frilly countenance marked her as head retainer of the Cornwall manor, although her professional demeanor did nothing to dampen the warm, loving glow Shara felt when Isabella entered the room. It was a mutual affection, like mother and child, that both Isabella and the retainer (who was almost certainly Nadia) reciprocated. Nadia’s mind was a busy one, sharp and professional, yet full of worry for her little girl.

Another, much younger woman sat at the table, gracefully sipping the tea she had been offered while she waited. She had dark skin similar to the maid’s, cropped black hair and piercing brown eyes. Her black uniform was practical and militaristic, almost making her look like a man. It was adorned with a few stripes and insignias that meant nothing to Shara, although on the left side of her chest was the symbol of a clenched fist grasping at light, and the words “We Can Always Be Better.” The symbol of Elpis.

And Shara couldn’t read her mind.

“Welcome home, Miss Cornwall,” the servant woman said with a bow. “It is good to see you are well.”

“Thank you very much, Nadia,” Isabella responded, before turning to her guest. “I am Isabella Cornwall. I understand that you wished to see me, miss…?”

“You may call me Marisol,” came the woman’s deadpan response. “My condolences on your father’s passing. It is a pleasure to meet you...”

Marisol smiled as she took a sip of tea, staring directly into Shara’s eyes.

“...And your interesting friends.”