“Hello,” Kuri said. “Earth to Saxon.”

Saxon shook his head to break his train of thought. “I’m here, just thinking about stuff.”

“Well that’s vague and ominous,” Kuri remarked. “While you’re doing that, you wanna hear what I found?”

“Go for it,” Saxon said.

“Something was bothering me,” Kuri said, scrolling through Kenji’s report. “According to the report, Draumur managed to find and recruit several avatars to join the Chimera family. Avatars aren’t a dime a dozen, and don’t bend the knee easily.”

“That is weird,” Saxon replied. “If Draumur was some bigshot, or was extremely powerful I could see it, but for the most part he was a nobody at the start.”

“Right, so I got to thinking how he got all these new members?” Kuri responded. “Turns out, Backwater’s population has the lowest percentage of avatars by far compared to any of the other districts in Fable.”

“But avatars appear randomly,” Saxon explained. “Theoretically each district should have about the same percent of avatars making up their population.”

“Which is why I found this statistic so strange,” Kuri said. “However, I was forgetting something. Before an avatar manifests their mythos they’re indistinguishable from a normal person.”

“Meaning the data was only accounting for avatars who have manifested their mythos,” Saxon said. “So Backwater’s population percentage of avatars is probably on par with every other district in Fable, it’s just that a lot of them haven’t manifested their mythos yet.”

“Bingo!” Kuri exclaimed. “Can you think of why?”

Saxon took a second to think. “Information.”

“Bingo again!” Kuri exclaimed. “Backwater is so far removed from the rest of Fable that the flow of information and overall education is a lot worse. Since to manifest a mythos, you first need knowledge of the myth itself, many of the avatars in Fable have likely never heard of their myth before, and thus remain normal people.”

“So where does Draumur fit into this?” Saxon wondered.

“You near a computer?” Kuri asked.

Saxon sat down and pulled out his personal computer. “Battery is low, but should be good for right now.”

“Check out your newest email,” Kuri instructed Saxon.

Saxon opened his email but didn’t see anything new. “Are you sure you sent it?”

“Check your spam,” Kuri said.

Saxon clicked on his spam, and sure enough, there was a new email. Opening it immediately flooded Saxon’s screen with ads.

“What does getting 50% off at a nail salon have to do with Draumur?” Saxon questioned, confused.

“Scroll down,” Kuri replied. “The ads are to make sure the email gets sent to spam. Algorithms that comb through emails don’t check spam for efficiency, and people don’t blink twice when people delete what’s in their spam.”

“Neat trick,” Saxon remarked, scrolling past the ads, even bookmarking a few for later use.

Once Saxon finally arrived at Kuri’s email, he found several different photos. Saxon had seen them before in Kenji’s report, but in each photo, a red circle had been added around objects in the background.

“Are those books?” Saxon asked, squinting to make out what was in the circle.

“Indeed they are,” Kuri remarked. “Some of the photos were blurry, but you could make out a large number of books being kept in the Chimera family’s storage areas.”

“Lemme guess, they’re books about myths,” Saxon said.

“Exactly,” Kuri confirmed. “Finding which ones they were was a bit more difficult, but I managed to pick out a few. Across all of them, there was one through line, each had a mythological creature as a major character.”

“So that’s how Draumur built the Chimera family,” Saxon said. “He made knowledge of myths available throughout Backwater. When myths started manifesting, he took advantage of the avatars being new, weak, and confused. No doubt he offered them guidance, and a chance to increase their strength.”

“And if that failed, threats or force were likely the next step,” Kuri said.

“Still that means this may be easier than I initially thought,” Saxon replied. “Recruiting newly manifested avatars is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they are more loyal, and easier to control. On the other hand, you have to invest quite a bit into improving their skills.

With how fast the Chimera family has grown, likely few of the avatars have received much training.”

“Also, many of the members likely joined out of necessity,” Kuri remarked. “Crime pays well, and in Backwater, an opportunity is hard to come by.”

“Can you send me the full list of the books you managed to find?” Saxon asked. “I wanna see if I can compile a list of potential mythoi, and what abilities their avatars might have been granted.”

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“Sure thing,” Kuri asked. “You think it’ll come down to combat?”

“Not combat, a raid,” Saxon answered. “Last time a crime family was stationed in Backwater that’s how it was resolved. Also, with the rate they’re growing, the chief will want to nip this whole organization in the bud before their influence expands anymore.”

“Were you there?” Kuri asked.

“Yeah, I was there, though I didn’t do much,” Saxon replied. “The raid team is organized specifically to handle those kinds of operations, and their members are trained appropriately.”

“Aren’t you a detective?” Kuri questioned.

“Perhaps I should clarify,” Saxon responded. “The raid team’s training isn’t combat oriented. They are trained in planning, organizing, leading, and executing a raid. Everybody in the FMPD receives equal levels of combat and mythos training.”

“Sounds rough,” Kuri remarked.

“When you’re dealing with avatars it typically is,” Saxon replied. “That’s why we always have to be ready to fight.”

“At least it’s not boring,” Kuri said.

“That is an upside,” Saxon replied.

“Hey, while writing this book list, mind telling me why you called me in the first place,” Kuri requested.

Saxon breathed a heavy sigh. “You want the long version or the short version.”

“Short version, my time is valuable, but don’t leave anything important out,” Kuri said, matter-of-factly.

Saxon took a deep breath in. “Recent events have led me to believe that somebody in Fable has been changing people’s mythoi. From what I’ve found they seem to be able to do it very quickly, but lack control over how the mythos is remainfested as that appears to be entirely up to the avatar’s interpretation. Likely they are an avatar using their mythos to accomplish this.”

“Any idea why they’re doing that?” Kuri inquired.

“Unclear for the time being, but I suspect they’re working alone,” Saxon replied. “So far I’ve met only 2 avatars that I know have had their mythos changed. The first I arrested, and due to reasons, I likely won’t be able to talk to them again.”

“What reasons?” Kuri asked.

“Unimportant,” Saxon said, dismissively. “The second one, how I met them is more complicated, but what’s relevant is that I couldn’t get much information out of them. The person is likely male, and of average height. Crucially they had an FMPD badge.”

“I thought FMPD badges were unmistakable because of how they were made, and only given to members of the FMPD or very close associates,” Kuri replied.

“That’s right,” Saxon said. “And that unmistakable factor disappears upon retirement, meaning our mastermind works for or at least very closely with the FMPD, hence why I’m hesitant to present my findings.”

“Well you seem rather forthcoming with the information,” Kuri remarked.

“Friend of mine told me the value of relying on people, and I’ve decided to give it a shot,” Saxon replied.

“That’s nice, but still doesn’t explain why you asked me about Draumur,” Kuri said.

“I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who works at the Underworld, and they recognized the name Draumur,” Saxon said. “Did some digging in our archives, and it turns out he was arrested. His mythos was tested, and documented before his incarnation, but it was different from what was on the files.”

“So you think his mythos was changed after he got out?” Kuri asked.

“Seems like it,” Saxon replied. “The Chimera family started soon after he got out. My guess is the new manifestation gave him the strength to get his name out there.”

“Would explain how he went from no name to this so quickly,” Kuri remarked. “Still what makes you think this isn’t just a few cases?”

“Through means I’m not at liberty to say, I acquired a list of several avatars who were suspected of having their mythos altered that worked for Midas,” Saxon said. “Let’s just say the list wasn’t short.”

“You try to find anybody?” Kuri asked.

Saxon chuckled. “So funny story, I did. Turns out however, they were an undercover agent for the Killian family, and Midas put him on the list as an excuse to get rid of him while they gathered evidence. The meeting didn’t go too well, but from it, I got the files on the Chimera family you have before you.”

“You gave me Killian family files?” Kuri exclaimed.

“Ignorance is bliss, but you said not to spare a single detail,” Saxon protested.

“Well my mistake,” Kuri said. “So, why didn’t you send me that list?”

“Would’ve if I still had it,” Saxon answered. “The data had a failsafe on it to delete itself once it was accessed outside Midas headquarters.”

“Couldn’t you have copied it down on paper?” Kuri questioned.

“Didn’t wanna risk it,” Saxon responded. “The data may have had some sort of tracker. Once I plugged it in, it put me on the clock.”

“So what you’re saying is Draumur, a crime family leader, is your only lead left to catching this mythos changing mastermind,” Kuri said.

“Seems so,” Saxon confirmed.

“Still, if you can’t spill your plan, since the mastermind is likely in the FMPD, then how are you gonna get information out of him?” Kuri asked.

“You’ve given me an idea, but how good it is we’ll have to see,” Saxon admitted. “I’m gonna run it by Herman.”

“Well good luck with that,” Kuri said.

“Hopefully I won’t need it,” Saxon replied. “I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

“Bye,” Kuri replied.

Saxon stood up from the floor, put Draumur’s file back where he had found it, and started making his way out of the Library of Alexandria.

“Is it me you’re looking for?” Saxon sang jokingly, cracking open the door to Herman’s office.

“No, now please leave,” Herman commanded.

Saxon closed the door behind him and sat down in a chair. “Now hold on a second, I bring gifts, well a gift. More specifically, a plan on how we can shut down the Chimera family, and extract information on our mythos altering mastermind from Draumur in one fell swoop.”

“Well this oughta be good,” Herman said, his eyes shifting from his computer to Saxon.

Saxon leaned forward. “I know it’s been a while, but whaddya think about leading a raid team again?”

“What’s the team?” Herman asked, regretfully entertaining the idea.

“You, me, and new recruits only,” Saxon replied.

Herman’s eyes narrowed in confusion and disagreement.

Saxon expected that kind of reaction, but for once, he had a good reason. “Let me explain.”