Case 1: The Raven lunatic

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Somewhere in the eastern side of Seven; Conway Blackwood woke. He tasted an awful mixture of blood and vomit in his mouth, he had the top class of all sore throats and his guts felt like somebody had gone and stomped on them. Apart from that though, he felt relatively fine, most definitely one of his better days. In a broken mirror, he saw his reflection. His short, normally clean blonde hair was dishevelled and had what looked like orange peels in them, his normally ragged jacket had a few more holes than before, and for some reason his left hand was shackled to a lamp.

A desk lamp.

Conway frowned, it wasn’t even a street lamp, they could’ve at least done a street lamp.

Although that would’ve been kind of weird. This was just insulting.

Footsteps approached and a man that Conway judged to be in his late 40s walked in. Pulling up a chair he hadn’t noticed the man sat in front or rather above Conway and looked down, wiping away the long hair from his face to reveal dark purple eyes. “So, young man” he sneered “Do you have anything to say?”

Conway awkwardly blinked as he looked up. Not a hint of fear on his face, yet neither a trace of anger. Just...pure confidence, which given his position and current, bloody state was something the man thought to be quite the accomplishment. “Well, that’s a bit of an open-ended question you’ve got there...” The man punched him. “Ouch. Alrighty then. What’d you have in mind?”

“I don’t know...hmm...oh how about a good old fashioned apology?” The man sarcastically answered “You freed one of my many precious toys that I just recently paid an enormous amount for, and you blasted a hole through one of my thousand bodyguards. One was mildly entertaining to watch, the other was not.”

“You thought me ruining your collection of prisoners was entertaining?” He punched Conway again. “Ah. You meant me killing your bodyguard was funny. Well, sorry about that then, I try my best to make everyone happy but it doesn’t always work out.”

“Obviously not.” The man hunkered down, even from a distance Conway could smell the sharp scent of chlorine from his clothes. “I paid a great deal for your services. So why did you betray me Conway?”

Conway thought for a second, the chlorine really distracting him, and said “I quite liked Lucian. I saw him as a friend.” “But you helped me catch him. You even said it yourself, before any of my toys he should be the first I play with.” “To be completely honest with you, I was kind of hoping he’d find a way to get himself out of this mess and then free everyone else.” “That is quite possibly the dumbest idea I have ever heard of.” “Funny, I was just thinking the same thing.”

The man with purple eyes shook his head and stood up “Can’t say I’m surprised to be honest. When I heard a member of Moon Drop was now a mercenary, it was almost too good of an offer to refuse. I should’ve known you would try and free my toys or I guess, at least free her. After all, the two of you WERE team mates. Given your history and what I’d heard though...I was hoping something like 50 000 charms would have been enough to bring you over.”

“Maybe you should’ve paid me 100 000 instead.”

The purple eyed man smiled thinly “Maybe we should’ve discussed that when we were negotiating.”

“Why do you care though?” Conway said “Nobody has any clue of what you’re doing. It’s not like losing one person screws your plan over. Let Florence be free. Let her enjoy her last few moments of Moon Drop before becoming hated by everyone or whatever’s going to happen.”

The man with purple eyes considered Conway’s statement. “Actually, now that I have you here that’s not such a bad idea” he said “you see, prior to today’s events I was in a bit of a dire situation. I’ve been trying to get hold of someone directly related to the dark guild Fabula Nova for the longest time and it came down to two possible solutions.”

“I may or may not see what this has to do with me.”

“The first, is to obviously ask the right people and buy the information I need. But in a world where even the greatest brokers don’t know what the Light Burst War was about or who Fabula Nova is, unfortunately that option is a bit of a dead end. So then the second option, Mr. Blackwood, would be to meet someone directly involved in the war and ask them all the right questions.”

“So, you hired me to ask me stuff about the War? Well I’m all for a nice healthy conversation although I have to warn you, I was only there to fight, even I don’t know what Fabula Nova was doing.”

The man with purple eyes smiled as he hunkered down again “I was hoping more along the lines of you’d let me ask the other members of Moon Drop. They were, after all a core part of Seven’s conflict.”

“I don’t think they’d take too kindly to that. They’re not a very talkative bunch...they are a nice group of people though.”

“I’m sure they are. Which is why I’m sure they’d love to tell you all about what happened four years ago.”

“Sorry you lost me...what?”

The man reached his hand to Conway’s neck “I’m going to take your body for a bit Conway.”

Conway flinched away from the man’s hand “You really don’t want to do that. The guys from Moon Drop don’t even like to talk that much about the war. In fact, they’d probably find it weird if I just went up to them and started talking. How about I just go help you find someone from Fabula Nova and break them out? I’m me and alive, you’re you and rich and you’ll soon have someone from Fabula Nova out of prison. Everyone’s happy, right?”

The man’s hand closed around Conway’s neck “Do you really think, after what happened today I would go and take such a risk? Why would I even harbor a criminal just for some information? I’m not a patient man Conway, I need that information and this is the fastest way to do it.”

“You could just trust me again and I can go find the information for you-” Conway said.

“Sorry young man. I’ve already made my decision.”

Conway didn’t really like going against his employers. Times were tough after the Light Burst War and when there was a billionaire paying him some people’s annual salary just for working a 12 hour day, getting on his bad side was the last thing he wanted to do. But peeling off a band-aid was best done quickly and so that’s what Conway did. Wrenching his head back Conway escaped the man’s hand and kicked him as he fell backwards onto the floor. The man moved to block the kick and Conway pulled the desk lamp from the wall onto the man’s head, watching with disappointment as it crashed into his head and did no apparent damage.

Cursing he turned around and bracing himself, jumped through a window, feeling the shards of glass cutting through his clothes and his skin. “Maybe I should get another jacket” he thought to himself. He rolled to a stop outside and grabbed the nearest rock, smashing the handcuff on his left hand, desperate to get the Magic Sealing effects off him. But when the man jumped down after him Conway leapt behind a large stone, hoping to buy himself extra seconds hiding in the grass as he tried to smash the cuff open. Noticing a slight dent in the lock from his earlier attempts, he instead grabbed the cuff with his right hand and tore it off, flinging it somewhere away from him. He leapt up and with his hands forming the familiar triangle shape he summoned a flame that quickly grew into several peacock feathers and roared “Fire Make: Sacred Peacock Tail!” releasing a wall of fire that would have pushed anyone back.

But there was no sound apart from the crackling of his own flames. No curses, no usual threats, and Conway was confused. Something moved out of the corner of his eye and suddenly the man with purple eyes was leaping at him, Conway similarly jumping backwards.

All he needed was to just touch his skin once and it was over.

Conway moulded fire and made Fire Make: Gungnir, flinging the massive spear that was promptly dodged, quickly followed by several flaming wolves that were promptly all kicked away with brute force before they could do anything. Conway jumped back once more, keeping a clear distance and cast Fire Make: Volcano, a column of fire erupting from the ground. When that one was dodged, he summoned another one, and one more that was dodged before rolling his eyes and summoning Fire Make: Sacred Flame Cloak- a sheet of fire swallowing and protecting his torso and his arms.

Just in time.

The man grabbed Conway’s shoulders ignoring his burning hands and slammed his forehead into Conway’s, following him as he fell. On top of one another the two rolled around with Conway shielding himself against every knee or punch the man delivered. Flaring his magic the cloak formed spikes of fire that jumped out in every direction like a porcupine, the man somersaulting backwards and then immediately leaping back onto Conway. Conway summoned a pole of fire and with two hands hit the man, doing no apparent damage to him. He ducked under and thrust the pole into the man’s mouth, then kicked him away as the man gagged. Conway ran over just as his opponent was dragging the pole out of his mouth and lashed out with a kick to the man’s face, leaping on him to punch him. Conway threw a second punch but the man caught the third, twisted Conway’s arm and effortlessly threw him away. Jumping back on his feet Conway threw a spear of fire that the man tanked straight on. He threw another one and when that didn’t even burn him the man charged slamming into a retreating Conway, sending him flying well away into an oak tree where he bounced off and landed on the ground.

That one really hurt.

Conway laid down on the ground with his arms spread, broken and panting. He looked at the sky and eventually the man stepped into view, stopping Conway from watching the clouds a little longer. “Is that it? That’s the best the fearsome "Ogre of Fire" can do?”

“Actually” Conway coughed out “It’s "Fire Ogre". I also...prefer the term Human...Cockroach but some people don’t really like that...you think it’s a bit too intimate to...use with someone you just met?”

“If you were half as smart as the others in Moon Drop, you would’ve just ran and hid right after freeing Florence. But you didn’t...do you even know what I’m planning on doing to you right now?”

“That’s a tad bit rude...I may not be as smart as the others but...I sure as hell am just as loyal as everyone else. If it looked like Florence could make it out on her own I would’ve just run. But turns out she hadn’t had a chance to even stand up the past few days so it took a bit longer than I had hoped.”

“What a hero. Truly the stuff Moon Drop is made of.” The man clapped his hands as he thought of something “How ironic would it be, if while using you I went and killed Florence? Wouldn’t that be pretty funny?”

“God...you’re such an fucking asshole.”

The man chuckled and with his dark purple eyes looking straight into Conway’s own eyes, sneered as he grabbed Conway’s neck and whispered “I also happen to be rich.” He poured his magic from his skin onto Conway, feeling it seep into the Moulding mage’s system. And when it was all over, the man stood up, seeing the world, quite literally, with new eyes.


 * Chapter 7: Case 1:An Hawkward series of events