Case 1: A Toadally bad situation

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“Lucian was a hero to everybody in the War” Soren said, his voice filling the empty space between the two of them. “His dream of a peaceful country inspired a great deal of people who were sick of fighting between guilds. A lot of people wanted the fighting to stop, between Dark and Light guilds, people on both sides were sick of it.”

Soren picked his way through the crime scene, stepping over a charred corpse and making his way through the piles of blackened wood, the still smoking remains of what had once been somebody’s home. “Someone once said, when Moon Drop raided QuadDracoras, he had seen what he was truly capable of. What we all were capable of, and that scared him. So, he became a pacifist and a uniter, working to abolish the laws the council had set up to define a Dark Mage, even when everybody called him a fool.”

“He believed even those who had slaughtered hundreds of people still had a chance at redemption. Funnily enough” Soren pushed at the air and a fallen block of granite gently flew off the ground and out of their way “he was one of the people who were instrumental for your release. After me of course, I was the most important one.“

Araseph rolled her eyes as she followed her mentor through the now burnt port, careful not to needlessly disturb anything, to avoid breaking anything that could be used as evidence. She remembered how Lucian had once come to her cell years ago, the first of many to talk to her as if she wasn’t a deranged psychopath.

“Always had a chance with redemption…” she repeated. Even though the slaughter had occurred several hours ago, the port around Araseph was still smoking. Several metres away from where the attack had occurred, she stepped over what had once been a block of stone, now a pool of molten rock- a testament to the Crimea’s mastery over fire.

Soren stopped his trek when he came across several corpses blocking his path and held out his hand, which Araseph grabbed onto. Closing his eyes he grabbed the wind around the pair from the depths of the smoke and moulded them into a sphere, lifting them into the sky to gently float over the city. “Of course, having a sister in the higher ranks of the Council helped him out a lot”

“Elincia” Araseph whispered. The scene underfoot made her uneasy, like a hook had found its way inside of her guts and was freely tugging her around. Below her waves of people were all collapsed over each other, scattered like fallen dry leaves with their backs to the source of the flame. In the distance, from her point in the sky, there was a circle clear of any blackness or smoke, with just a single person laying down in it. Remnants of his magic burned softly around him, flickering from his skin into the atmosphere.

Araseph’s brows furrowed at the scene, a red transparent flame as bright as he was powerful surrounded the man in the middle “Is that him?”

“It certainly is”

Even from the distance the intensity of the magic blaze could be felt. Knowing Lucian was one of the greatest fire mages in existence, there was no mistaking the symptom “I thought "Magus Mortis" set in a week after death? It hasn’t even been a full day since he died, right?”

This time Soren frowned and increased the speed of the wind orb. They landed in the middle of the scene and without any caution Araseph ran to the body, bracing herself against the heat that even without contact was burning her skin. She circled Lucian on the ground, the heat of his magic was too hot for her to touch him, and besides that wasn’t her job anyway. She looked over his clothes, how despite his apparently well off life they were dirty and torn. Old boots clung to his feet, not at all what she expected and the place where QuadDracoras’ emblem had once been sewn on was savagely ripped off, a collection of frayed fabric was all that was left. On his left temple was a hole, presumably where the bullet had entered his skull. What once had been blood trickling down was now dried up by the heat of his magic when he had been alive. Yet apart from all that, Lucian looked exactly the same as he did several years ago.

“I don’t understand…” Araseph said slowly “Why are his clothes so…strange? What happened to his emblem, did he leave his guild?”

Soren paced the edges of the clear circle, peering into the distance and occasionally glancing back at Lucian’s flaming corpse. He swiped both of his arms in a circular, counter-clockwise motion until the edges of his palms met. Channeling his magic, he flung his arms outwards while whispering “Gale”, summoning a soft breeze that fluttered through the Port and it’s fallen residents. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath in and when he exhaled, turned to Araseph who was inspecting a plant caught on Lucian’s boot.

“Good to go?” he asked.

After a long pause Araseph sighed “Yeah I’ve got all I can get. Let’s head off then.”

“You don’t sound too happy about it. We can stay longer if you want”

“No…that’s not it” she grabbed Soren’s hand and flew up “it’s just so many things don’t make sense right now...ah I need to go through my bag and grab the encyclopedia” “What’d you find?” “There was a plant on Lucian’s boot uh...think it might be the ‘Blue Whistle’? I might be wrong so I want to check on that...” “What else” Soren said almost lazily. His hand drifted and with it the wind orb steered to the left as opposed to their origin. “His clothes are...just weird. Unwashed, damaged and for some reason they were burnt” “He’s a fire mage though?” “Elementals of his level set up a null zone perimeter where their magic can’t affect them. So, there’s no reason his clothes would have been on fire” “Very good” Soren smiled, satisfied Araseph was actually learning properly. “Well...that’s all I’ve got. Did I miss anything?”

Soren drifted the pair down to the eastern wall of the Port and with a click of his fingers the orb scattered. He thought about it for a second and answered “The bullet wound was on his left side, yet Lucian was supposed to be a right-handed person. The watch they gave him, I think it was the ‘Hero’s Colossus?” he frequently wore it on his left arm” “Maybe he liked to wear his watch on his dominant hand?” “Or maybe he actually is right handed but for some reason he shot with his Left”

“Oh!” Araseph suddenly remembered “The gun! You said he shot himself, right? But I couldn’t see it anywhere” Soren nodded. “What does that suggest then” Araseph held up three fingers and counted down “One. Crime Scene was tampered with...but nothing looked out of place and if Magus Mortis for Lucian set in so early, then nobody could reach him, right? So, that’s one ruled out.” “Two. The gun is still there just that he fell on top of it, hiding the gun” “But the way the human body moves when hit by trauma in the temple wouldn’t allow the gun to be directly underneath him would it?” Soren answered. “Exactly...so that means option number three” Soren smiled as Araseph revealed her deduction “Three.The gun was a flammable, destructible equipment that was burnt to ashes when Lucian died” Soren frowned. Not quite what he expected to hear.

“How would he know the gun would burn up though? You said it yourself, Magus Mortis sets in a week after death so this is an abnormal case. He wouldn’t have known his body would burn up immediately after death” “Oh...you’re right” When Araseph stayed silent Soren continued “What if, the reason the gun isn’t there is because of magic?” Araseph raised an eyebrow “What kind?” “What kind of magic can move objects. Don’t you know somebody that can move around a lot?”

She thought for a moment and instantly a face came to mind- clear blue eyes, brown hair and her trademark red flower in her hair “Oh! Liza? She’s a teleporter but...she can only move with things she’s directly touching. She can’t move things if they’re in the distance” “So that rules out teleport for now. What else can move or...’remove’ equipment?” “...are you suggesting Lucian could Re-Quip?” “Or maybe somebody went and re-quipped for him?” “Well...it wouldn’t be the ‘craziest’ thing if that were true...So what, we’re looking for somebody that can re-quip objects from a distance?”

“Who knows” Soren pulled out a map and began drawing on it, using his Wind Magic to keep it steady and afloat “You always have to be able to change your initial hypothesis Araseph. But at last we know where to start, right? Here.” He gave her the map. “We’re here, at Port Tara on the western coast of Seven. QuadDracoras or otherwise Lucian’s home is” His hand slid all the way to the other side of the map “Way over here. On the Eastern border of Seven. Additionally, you said he had the ‘Blue Whistle’ plant on him, commonly found where...?”

Araseph thought for a second “Mostly in areas with lots of other plants since it’s a parasitic organism. So...a forest I guess? Oh! There’s a village in the middle of a forest just north of Port Tara that sells Blue Whistle extract. We could start there?” she hopefully suggested. “Or, you could check that out on your own.” “What?” “What?” “You want me to go to the village, in the middle of nowhere on my own?” “You say it like it’s a bad thing” “Soren I’m hungry” Araseph whined “I’m bored, my legs hurt, I’m thirsty and I haven’t got any sleep since we left for this mission right after the last one. I don’t want to go on my own.” she pouted.

Soren stared quizzically “But...you’re a captain. You’ll be fine. Here, call me if you need me for an emergency” He unbuttoned her vest pocket and slipped in a Tarot Calling Card. “Just tap it and speak, I’ll be able to hear your voice”

“I know how it works...Liza already gave me one. Look, see?” She pulled out a bright pink card emblazoned with a flower pattern.

“Well alright. Rent out two rooms, I’ll come over once I’ve gone and talked to whoever’s still alive at QuadDracoras.” He pet her on the head “Oh by the way” He grinned at her frown “It’s almost midnight. Don’t most villages close all shops at midnight? Something about security, right?”

Araseph’s eyes widened and she bolted off into the distance, quickly casting ‘Take Over: Mountain Guardian’ to speed up her journey. White and blue fur grew on her skin, her hands morphed into powerful claws and in due time the rest of her body changed from a human into the terrifying beast known as the Mountain Guardian, pouncing away in the night towards the nearest forest. Her clothes just barely managed to fly into her bag, the poor straps stretched to their full with Araseh’s new form. As she galloped over a hill she called out behind her in a ferocious roar “I hate you so much Soren!”

Drenched in sweat and wheezing, Araseph crawled on all fours, in human form and all to the doorstep of the Town inn. Dragging herself just a millimetre forward she smacked her head against the door three times, too tired to stand up and knock like a normal person would have done.

The chatter quickly died off as the door swung open, revealing a very exhausted Araseph on the ground. The barkeep quickly ran to her and, listening to her whispers ran off and came back with a jug of water, one she downed in half a second. Spluttering and gulping in mouthfuls of air, she grabbed the barkeep by the collar and with a very serious expression, staring him straight in the eye she said “Food.”

“Oh, sorry Ma’am. It’s 1am, we close shop and all our storages at 12. The only way anybody’ll have access to those stores is if they wait for 6 hours”

Araseph began to sniffle and tear up as her stomach grumbled.

“...sorry. I can get you a room though? If you have enough money that is...” When she shoved a bag of Charms into his face and mumbled “Two rooms” he nodded and scurried off to grab the keys. Leaving Araseph in the doorway.

At once the conversation began to start again and the patrons began to jeer and laugh at each other, all the patrons but for a shadowy group set off in the corner. The leader of the group, a particularly large man glowered at her as another whispered “That’s her right? The Arch-Sage’s pet Captain.”

No one said anything and they all watched as she slowly ‘flopped’ her way up the wooden stairs, moving like a fish that had given up hope on breathing and instead welcomed the slow embrace of death.

“You know what, we could probably take her on right now. She looks pretty tired to me”

The large man turned to the one on his left “Use your magic, search the windows and find which room she’s in.” to which the rest of his companions laughed darkly.

Throwing off her vest and tossing her beret aside, Araseph ran her fingers through her wet hair, wishing the room came with a shower. Stretching her neck, she emptied her vest pocket to look at Soren’s calling card- a peculiarly plain white card that was different in that there was no pattern on it. She tossed the card aside and searched through her backpack, reaching her whole arm in to try and find the encyclopedia.

Swatting her hand past neat piles of shirts and jumpers she almost grabbed the book when the door knocked.

“Coming!” Araseph ran her hand through her hair one more time and with a tired groan pulled herself up to lumber over to the door. Opening it she expected the barkeep, or for some reason even Soren but instead, she got somebody else.


 * Chapter 4: Case 1: Croak-A-Cola