"All things bend to help that man," a barmaid muttered as she brought Quaraun another bottle of Faerie Wine.

"Mallac?" the Elf asked.

"Yep."

"What's with him, anyways?"

"Coward of a soldier," the barmaid said. "Got stationed to guard duty of this no account village. You know, us hicks out here in the sticks, where he can't embarrass his commanding officers. Gave him a big head though. This job is punishment duty and everyone knows it, except Mallac. Mallac and his pack of cowards. If any one ever stood up to him, he'd turn tail and run. Every last one of them would. It's why they are not out on the battlefront fighting the war. Tough bunch of bullies they are here in town, but you challenge any of them and they just turn tail and run away with their tails between their legs."

"Really?"

"Yeah. All bark and no bite. That's why they can't solve the murders. Mallac ain't got the guts to face a murderer. All he knows how to do is be a big fat bully, pushing little people around. The smaller they are the bigger of a bully it makes him feel. It's why he singled you out, you're being a little guy and al. No offence."

"None taken."

"I really think that's why he picked you. You know. Because you're well..."

"Short?"

"Yeah. He always picks on little guys, like you and your friend there. Thinks cause he's bigger, that it gives him the right to push others around."

"I grew up with people like him. I know how to deal with bullies. I'm thinking, Mallac could do with having someone stand up to him."

"Ha! That'll be the day."

"You find that thought funny?"

"No one's ever gonna stand up to Mallac. Whole towns scared of him. Most people round here are more scared of Mallac then they are those half-Elves up in the old lighthouse."

"HellBorne?"

"Yeah. Him. Ha ha! Silly old man. He thinks he's a wizard."

"Is he not?"

"No! Of course not. He's more of a Witch. You know uses potions and stuff. He used to help people in the village, before he lost his arm."

"How'd that happen?"

"Don't know. He got beat up. Never was sure if it was an Elf or a Human what did it. Either way he's hated both Elves and Humans ever since. Locked himself up in that tower, never comes down to the village any more.None of them do, except GhoulSpawn and he ain't lived with them long. He doesn't really fit in with them. I got the impression he's sort of a drifter and won't be staying long."

"You know GhoulSpawn?" Quaraun asked.

The girl giggled.

"You've slept with GhoulSpawn?"

"Who in this town hasn't?"

"Good point. He does does seem to have a way with women."

"He's soooooo fluffy. Like a teddy bear."

"Yes," Quaraun agreed. "All that long wool of his."

"Did you know him?" the bar maid asked. "I see him talking to you a lot."

"We've meet a few times. I was injured by some soldier a year ago and he was in the area, saw what happened. Took me in. Took care of me until I was able to travel again. Then we crossed paths again. Got caught in a storm, ended up seeking shelter in the same place. Then I ran into him again here. He seems to have a strange habit of showing up whenever I'm in trouble and need help."

"Mallac's been saying you gonna solve these murders. Are you?"

"Solve them? Eh. There's not much to solve."

"What do you mean?"

"It's pretty obvious what's going on."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"You know who's doing the murders then?"

"More or less."

"Are you gonna tell Mallac?"

"I've tried to already. He doesn't seem to listen to me. I'm just an Elf, after all."

"Yeah, that's Mallac for you. Soldier ain't got the guts to go to war, gets stuck with guarding a village miles from the war. He thinks it's a great honour and now he bosses the whole town around..."

"You sound like you don't like living in this town."

"I don't."

"Why do you stay?"

"Travel costs money."

"What would you do if you had the money?"

"Head West. Go to the city. Get a real job. Work in a mercantile."

Quaraun took the girl's hand and with placed 10 gold coins in her palm.

"You go do that. Leave tonight. Follow your dreams."

The girl stared at the coins dumbfounded.

"I can't take this," she finally said.

"Yes, you can."

"But..."

"I don't need it. You'll make better use of it then I will. All I'll do is drink it away in taverns."

"But..."

"I have plenty more. Go."

The girl left the table.

Elwin, who had been sitting beside Quaraun, climbed up on his lap, hugging the Elf's neck.

"What it with ya children?" Unicorn asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Kids always like ya."

"I like children."

"I hate being Human," Elwin said. "What's it's like not being a Human?"

"You're not all Human. Your mother was an Elf."

"No one likes half-Elves."

"So I've been told. Don't suppose you know why there are no children in this town, do you?"

"There used to be."

"And now they're gone?"

The boy nodded.

"And you're the last one."

The boy nodded again.

"So you've lost your family and your friends."

"I didn't have no friends."

"No?"

The boy shook his head.

"Why not?"

"I'm a half-Elf. I'm not allowed to have friends."

"So yang," Unicorn said. "Already him know prejudice."

"He grew up in a Human village, with white Americans, no less. What else would you expect? I've never meet a white American Human yet who had a kind or decent bone in their body. All they know how to do is bully every one who is not them and kill those that don't fall into submission. Getting Elwin out of Humans hands may well be the best thing for him."

"We is taking the boy wid us?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"His family was murdered. He doesn't have anyone. If we leave him here, these damn half-Elf hating Humans will kill him with a week's time."

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

"hat does we know of raising children?"

"I had four children of my own."

"And we know how well that went."

"I think there is a bigger problem in this town. One that no one is willing to talk about. There children have all gone missing and not one of the parents is consirned enough to make a fuss."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, they know what happened to their children and refusing to talk about it. And you heard ZooLock. He said that cult he joined up with was sacrificing babies. Well what do cultists sacrifice when they run out of babies?"

"What?"

"Children. I think the Thullid cult has a bigger hold on this village then we realize. And I think these murders are nothing but a diversion to get us looking the wrong way. It is a coincidence the murders started right when we arrived? I don't think so."

Mallac returned with a giant map. Shoved everything off the table and slammed the map down in front of Quaraun. Elwin hugged the Elf tighter, clearly afraid of the Human towering over them.

"Now if you look over here," Mallac said, pointing to the map.

Quaraun didn't hear the rest, as he found the embroidery on the soldier's uniform to be utterly fascinating and started counting the thread stitches wondering how difficult it would be to recreate the same pattern on one of his dresses.

As Mallac continued talking, Quaraun's mind wandered back to his youth, when the Moon Elves were still alive and he had a tailor's shop. Back when he was nothing but a simple wizard for hire as a pastime and a tailor as a career.

That was 400 years ago. Things had changed quite a lot. Now he barely had time to sew his own clothes, let alone sew clothes for others. Being a wizard had become far more complicated than he had anticipated. People like Mallac came to him for help all the time now. He barely had time to sleep. As of this moment, he hadn't slept in days. He was so tired.

"Are you listening to me?" Mallac yelled, snapping Quaraun out of his thoughts.

Quaraun had no idea how much time had passed. It could have been minutes. It could have been hours. As it was now nearing sunset, it must have been hours. The sunset was causing a reflective light on the soldier's uniform. Quaraun quickly sunk back into his thoughts of embroidery, his brain drifting sleepily into dreamtime.

"You're doing it again!"

"What?" Quaraun asked, blinking and he sat up wondering why the man was yelling at him.

"Stay awake!"

"That is easier said then done. I've not slept in days."

"Have you heard anything I said?"

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"Why the hell not?"

"Your embroidery..."

"My what? What the hell are you talking about? This is important! What the hell were you doing instead of listening to me?"

"Your embroidery..."

"Where is your brain?"

"A jelly fish ate it."

"What?"

"A jelly fish ate my brain."

"What is wrong with you? Can you stop acting crazy long enough to listen to me?" The soldier tossed the map in front of the Elf and repeated everything he had already said. "I said..."

Quaraun didn't hear a word of it. He went back to memorizing the detail of the embroidery stitches on Mallac's coat so he could sew them on his next dress and slowly drifting off to sleep again.

Quaraun was suddenly jolted awake by a loud noise. He looked around wondering where he was, then remembered Mallac and the map.

Mallac had slammed his fist on the table and was now yelling angrily at Quaraun.

Elwin now had a stranglehold on Quaraun's neck and was crying frantically, terrified of the screaming soldier.

"Shhhhhh," Quaraun hushed the toddler, stroking his hair and rocking back and forth. "It's alright. Ignore the crazy Human." To Mallac he said: "You're scaring the child."

"You refuse to stay awake!"

"I've been awake for the past 7 days. I need some sleep."

"You have a job to do."

"No, Mallac. You do! You have a job to do and you're too damned lazy to do it yourself so you're trying to pass it off on me instead."

"It is your responsibility..."

"I am not one of your soldiers," Quaraun said as he set Elwin on the seat and stood up to yell back at the soldier who was yelling at him. "I don't take orders from you. I didn't mind helping, because you were in trouble, but you are taking advantage of that. You have no right to boss me around. I'm not one of your men!"

Elwin was crying frantically now. Seeing Quaraun arguing with the solider, scared the little boy who clambered to Unicorn and was now hugging the Phooka's neck. Poor Elwin was traumatized more then any of them realized. He had just witnessed his mother murdered by an angry yelling man, and did not want to see yet another murder.

Mallac continued yelling at Quaraun.

"You're scaring the boy," Quaraun yelled back at the soldier.

"I don't know why you bother fussing over that child. He ain't nothing but an ingrate half-Elf."

"I am fed up with the way you arrogant, piss ant Humans treat the half-Elves around here!"

Mallac opened his mouth to respond, but before he could get a word out Quaraun punched him in the face, throwing every bit of his tiny five foot six inch body into the punch. Mallac, not expecting the Elf to attack him, was easily knocked off balance. The soldier went tumbling to the floor. Unicorn stood up, carrying the child and looking back and forth from Quaraun to each of the soldiers. He knew that punch was about all the fight Quaraun had in him. Should the rest of the Humans decide to defend their leader and attack Quaraun, he didn't stand a chance.

But none of the Humans did anything. In fact, they looked like they were about to drop their weapons and run.

"That barmaid were right," Unicorn said to Quaraun.

"Gi'me, Elwin," Quaraun said as took the child from Unicorn.

Mallac was sprawled on the floor holding his nose and looking like he was about to start crying.

"I don't like bullies," Quaraun said to Mallac. "And I especially don't like grown men who pick on innocent children. You people in this town ought to be ashamed of yourselves. If the half-Elves are rising up to kill you all, well, then it's because you damned well deserve it. What is wrong with you people? I didn't come here to be pushed around by you. I came here to rest. I'm wounded and need to heal. It's terrible what is happening to your people, but it's not my responsibility to fix it, and from what I've seen it's your own damned fault. You treat the half-Elves like shit. They aren't being allowed to buy, sell, or trade. They are not being allowed to have jobs. When they go off by themselves, not bothering a damn one of you, what do you do? You murder their families and raze their farms. I've seen the half-Elf camps for myself. They are starving to death. They have no shelter. And winter is coming. You kill their livestock, destroy their crops, burn down their houses, simply because you don't like the colour of their blood. Then you complain because they are forced to steal food to survive. You brought this uprising on yourselves, and now you want me to clean up your damned mess? I'm not here to do your job for you. Had I not gotten wounded, I wouldn't even be here at all and you'd be stuck doing this all on your own."

With the orphan half-Elf toddler still in one arm, Quaraun took a map of the town and laid it out on the table. He began marking where each murder had occurred. After a few minutes, he said:

“If you connect the dots, it makes a seven painted star, with one ray missing. That means here will be one more murder in order to connect the dots. It'll be in the same place as the first, to seal the line.”

Mallac climbed up off the floor to look at the map.

''Are you sure?"

"'Yes."

''How can you be sure?"

"Because it's the same star that was drawn in blood on this boy's head. The killer murder this child's mother then drew that star of his head with her blood, to taunt you, for your foolish stupidity."

"It means something, yes?" Unicorn asked as he examined the map.

''Yes. It a symbol used to call up Demons. I'm not sure which Demon the killer is attempting to call up on, but if he kills the final person, it will bring a Demon up among us and that can be nothing but bad. We have to stop him before he kills again."

''How do we stop him?'' Mallac asked.

"Well, we know where the next murder will take place.”

“We do?”

“You're a very stupid Human,” Quaraun stated. “In the same place as the first in order to close the circle. And there may be another murder at the centre of the circle. I'm not sure the exact spell he is using. If I knew that I'd know if there was just one more murder or two more. "

''Is that important?"

''Yes. It means The Demon will rise up in either one more murder or two. "

"It is not a Lich making spell is it?" Unicorn asked.

''No. I don't think so. It doesn't appear to be Necromancy, it looks like Demonology."

'What's the difference?" Mallac asked.

“Quite a bit of difference. Necromancy manipulates soul of the dead. Magic involving manipulation of souls and spirits of the dead. Can be used to communicate with the Realm of the Dead, such as ghosts; can be used to reanimate dead bodies briefly. For example, mindless zombies, ghouls, etc. Can be used to resurrect dead loved ones - people and pets - as vampires or liches, which is something I specialize in and it can be used to restore life to dead plants, such as crops destroyed by frost, flood, etc. Which is what I do mostly. While most wizards use it for greed, power, and selfish reasons (evil Necromancers) a few of us use it for good to help people (good Necromancers).”

“And this Demon whatever you called it?”

“Demonology. It's magic using Demons. There are several types of Demonology schools, depending on the type of Demon a sorcerer has assisting him or type of Demon he is trying to call up. This appears to be Chaos Magic. The Guide has declared it illegal and any non-Demon caught practicing it to be executed on sight. Magic that was invented by Chaos Demons and harnesses energies from Hell Dimensions. Considered dangerous because of it's hit or miss chaotic results, but used because it has bigger results, not attainable through other less dangerous magic forms.”

“Bigger results?”

“Such as allowing the sorcerer to harness lightning bolts out of the sky and shoot them at enemy villages.”

“Can wizards do that?”

“Some can, yes.”

“Can you?”

“Yes.”

“Are you are Demonologist then?”

“No. Thullid. Thullids are a type of...” Quaraun stopped himself before saying Chaos Demon. It was hard for him to admit that he wasn't an Elf any more. Admitting to a Demon hunter that he was a Demon possessed Elf seemed to be a bad idea. He drew a 7 pointed star on the edge of the map.

“A star like this is used in Chaos Magic. Chaos Magic is difficult to use. Demons and Half Demons can usually wield is safely, but most other races suffer seriously mental side effects, to the point that the Faeries in the future will have to build an insane asylum just to contain all the criminally insane wizards who went mad after attempting to practise Chaos Magic.”

“Are you criminally insane?”

Quaraun stared at Mallac, but didn't answer. He did not like it when people called him insane. Seeing Quaraun was not going to answer him, Mallac continued.

“Magic is magic, far as I can see.”

“There are lots of types of magic groups and sub groups, Chaos Magic, Blood Magic, Demonology, Sex Magic, Green Magic, Sea Magic, Necromancy, etc. Each has it's own guilds, cults, rules, laws, politics, religious followings, etc. Within each are groups, cults, bands, churches, clubs, so on and so forth, some very strict, some admitting only members of certain races, etc.”

“Isn't all dark magic, just dark magic?”

“Necromancy is only dark magic when used for evil intent. It can be used for good. Demonology could be used for good as well, but it rarely is and if they are killing people, it certainly isn't. Since whoever is doing this is clearly killing people as part of their practicing Chaos Magic, then the type of Chaos Magic they are doing is clearly evil.”

"What about that GhoulSpawn?" Mallac asked.

"What about him?"

"He goes around calling himself a Chaos Wizard and he's always talking about Demons."

"You think GhoulSpawn capable of murder?"

"He's a criminal isn't he?"

"He's a thief. Practically a pirate. But that doesn't make him a murderer."

"Who else would it be then?"

"What about HellBorne?"

"Pfft! HellBorne. That old hack! Ha ha! Clearly you've never met the old coot."

"No, actually I have."

"What? How'd you meet him? He never comes down out of that tower of his."

"Actually, he's been at every murder."

"How do you know that?"

"Do you recall, I mentioned there was a red glowing powder at each crime scene?"

"Yes."

"And foot prints with drag marks, as though some one was draging something very heavy, yet, nothing was dragged?"

"Yes."

"Last night. When you and your men and Unicorn went looking for the boy, and left me alone with the body. An old one armed half-Elf, wearing long black robes with gold skulls embroidered on it, came out of the bushes. He'd been hiding there. He went up to the body, didn't realize I was still there, then had to come up with some lame excuse about why he was there. He was lying through his teeth."

"What does that have to do with the red powder or drag marks?"

"He was sprinkling the red powder around the body, chantting."

"And the drag marks?"

"He walks with a limp. Drags his leg. I checked his foot prints after he left. They're the same ones. HellBorne's your murderer."

“What at centre of star?” Unicorn asked.

“We are."

"We is?"

''Yes. The tavern is at the centre of the star. '

''Do dat mean tavern have some kind of meaning to someone?"

''I don't know. I'm not getting a sense of any magic or presence or anything here at all... I don't think this is the place he will call up the Demon,”