Murderous Mystery

“Alright…” she said unsure. “Let's go then.” she said, whispering a word of magic and a small mote of light appeared in her hand, making it so they weren’t in total darkness as they walked, looking for the nearest road.

“So what’s the job?” Parvil asked as they wadded through tall grass towards a dry dirt road.

“Murder.” Aspen said having more trouble than Parvil was, having to hold an arm out in front of her to keep the grass from just hitting her neck and chin.

Before she could complain Parvil took her by the wrist and with a fluid shift of his body and a bit of leverage he pulled her onto his back into a piggyback ride. “I figured that, but…” thought for a moment. “What’s so weird about it they called you in to look at it?”

Aspen wanted to huff and maybe complain about being carried like a child. Mostly because she hated acts of chivalry only done in an attempt to impress women. Parvil wasn’t like that, sure she knew some part of it was him doing it to show off, that’s just a thing a lot of men do even if they don’t mean to, but she knew he was helping genuinely because he didn’t want to see her struggle and keep getting hit with sharp tall grass, and she thank him at least mentally for helping her avoid cuts on the neck and face because of the grass and the itch of grass mites.

“A fifth of the town was destroyed.” Aspen said, lacing his arms around and gripping them in front of Parvil’s chest to keep her steady.

“So multiple murders?” he asked, Aspen could already tell he was taking mental notes.

“Sort of. It was only a couple, all other casualties were a result of the damages done but even then it was only two more people.” she said, “So four in total but only two are part of the case.”

“Are we positive about that?” he asked as they broke free of the sea of tall grass, stepping onto the crunchy dirt road that stretched out seemingly forever beyond the dim halo of Aspen’s light magic. Parvil crouched down to let Aspen walk on her own two feet. He’d gladly carry her if she’d wanted but he knew she was independent and was probably stewing enough over him carrying her in the first place.

“We are.” Aspen said, “The two civilians died of smoke inhalation.” The matter of fact nature of what she said didn’t suggest she didn’t care about those people but they weren’t something she was being asked to look into, and that other people were dealing with it.

“So two people, not considered civilians.” Parvil stated the situation to himself but not her. “Meaning they were important? Well obviously to necessitate your involvement but was it wizards? Clerics? Witches?” he asked.

“The town’s leader and his wife.” Aspen said.

Parvil let out this ‘damn’ whistle. “So…do we know the order of operation?”

Aspen looked puzzled for a moment. “Do you mean how they were killed?” she asked. “That wasn’t in the report, they will tell us when we get there.” she said.

“No. Do we know if they were killed and the town was destroyed or was the town destroyed then they were killed in the chaos?”

“Former.” Aspen said.

“That complicates things.” Parvil said, “Adds a needed motive for the latter events.”

“Yeah.” Aspen said, already looking like she knew this was going to be complicated even without the details she was leaving out. “Normally they would cause chaos on the other side of the city to divert guards and resources, slip in, do the deed and be gone before the wave of disruption settled. But attacking after is more risky, and…” she paused just long enough for Parvil to notice, and sighed. “There were more bodies.” she said, “Suspects, at least that is the notion of Enanth, based on what we know.”

“Identities?” Parvil asked, seemingly unbothered by being left in the dark on information of the case.

“Sellswords. Quite a few actually all died in the same place.” she shrugged. “Part of some company since they all wore the same insignia somewhere on their person but we don’t know much otherwise.”

Parvil stopped a moment before walking again. “How would they have died?”

“No guards have come forward to take credit, we might have a suspect in that matter but we don’t know who it is and the story is so far-fetched we think they were seeing things in the smoke.” Aspen said.

“Really? How so?” Parvil asked.

Aspen put her arms up her elbows touching her ears and sticking straight up. “A near eight foot tall bunny man.” Aspen let out a chuckle and blew a raspberry in the air. “They probably saw some weird knight with a plume on his helmet. Like that folk hero ‘Render’.”

“Sunder.” Parvil corrected. “But not the point. You said, "One guy took out a whole mercenary company?”

Aspen shook her head. “Not a whole company, but a lot of them. Should the stories be true, which again seem like fairy tales, he was doing all sorts of acrobatics and kicking men so hard they went flying.” Aspen said clearly not believing it.

“That does seem crazy, but…” he motioned to himself. “I’m proof that weird things can happen.”

“Your patron might be weird…” Aspen said. “But you aren’t the first to make a pact and become a warlock.” Aspen tilted her head side to side once each. “It's not that I don’t believe in something like that, but nobody has reported one of those folk in over a century. So it’s silly to think you’ve seen one. They don’t live any longer than a human and unless he’s a powerful wizard, he’d be dead by now if he was from one hundred years ago.”

“Fair.” Parvil said. “But maybe humor the folks that claim to have seen the same thing. Might be something that could bear fruit if we don’t call people on it.”

“I know.” Aspen said. “But we shouldn’t waste time looking for a ten foot tall, counting the ears, man.”

“Also fair.” Parvil said.

The city’s walls made it hard to tell in the dark but they were close, the first sign was the smell of recently burned and extinguished wood in the air. Like charcoal and textiles.

It was quite the walk through the city, but eventually they arrived at a block roped off and guarded, at the far end sat a humble manor. Large for any normal person and even still felt off where it sat it was still far smaller than other manors the pair had seen and worked in.

A guard waited at the front door, lifting a rope to let them in, and escorting them through a long hallway, a few portraits lined the walls that Parvil took note of, to a large main room, two forms covered in sheets. Aspen started talking to the officer that led them in asking him questions Parvil wasn’t paying attention to, stepping over to the sheet and lifting the one over the larger form. But dropped it just as suddenly, standing up straight quickly, head tilted back he swallowed hard and shivered, having to choke back vomit. Before lifting the sheet he’d thought it was a simple decapitation but the head, or what was left of it was still there, just…everywhere else too. He shook it off and checked the other sheet. The women seemed to have gotten off easier if it could be called that, but not death like either was ‘easy’ or ‘lucky’ stabbings were always messy. Interrupting Aspen’s conversation with the officer. “Where is the third body?”

“Third body?” Aspen and the officer asked in unison.

Parvil tilted, bending his back a bit and pointing to the hall. “Portrait of a little girl. Where is her body?” Parvil asked.

Aspen looked where Parvil pointed, noting the paintings now. “Dang he’s good.” she thought.

“We believe she was kidnapped.” The officer said.

“Was that in the report?” Parvil asked Aspen.

“It wasn’t.” Aspen responded.

“Pretty important.” Parvil said, “Why wasn’t it?”

“We didn’t know about it til after we sent the report.” The officer answered.

Aspen sighed in annoyance and wrote the new facts in her notes. “Anything else we should know that isn’t in the report?” Aspen asked.

“Well…” the officer cleared his throat. “Some of the boys think the killer is a giant rabbit.”

“Of course they do.” Aspen thought not knowing Parvil was thinking the same thing. “Let’s get what we can here and start the search.” Aspen told Parvil. She walked up to Parvil. “How bad?” she asked him obviously having seen him lift the sheet.

“Flat.” Parvil said.

“Ah…right…” Aspen said, and pulled something from her pocket and handed it to Parvil, a small white oblong sphere.

“Mint?” Parvil asked.

“Yeah.” Aspen said.

“Thanks.” Parvil said, popping in his mouth.

“Do you think they really believe a rabbit stole the girl? Maybe she followed him willingly? Imaginary friend came to life?” Parvil asked.

“At this point I don’t know.” Aspen said, “But we start with the sellswords.” she said, as the two collected that evidence was useful and could be moved. Parvil sneakily stealing a small sample of blood from each body. Once the two finished they made their way back out.

“After you.” Parvil said letting Aspen lead the way.