Murder
“So…”
“One sec.”
Acir looks at his sister hesitantly as she fiddles around with her esteel dagger. He sees the flow of her golden essence coursing through the weapon to its tip, causing it to warp slightly. The blade begins to taper, and she carefully inserts it into the door’s lock.
Note #1: Esteel is a magnetic metal alloy that can be reshaped with essence
Acir shifts his weight uncomfortably, still unsure why his sister has brought him to this random house in a village he’s never set foot in before. He watches his sister’s ponytail swing back and forth, the black hair disappearing into the folds of her red scarf.
“Feelee, what are we doing here?” Acir asks for the hundredth time.
Feelee grunts, twisting the blade in an attempt to unlock the door.
“And more importantly,” Acir says, “are you… using the dagger I made for you… as a lockpicking tool?”
“More like a key,” Feelee replies with another grunt.
“It’s only a key if it’s meant to open the door,” Acir explains suspiciously, “if you’re forcing open a lock then it’s a lockpick.”
A satisfying click rings through the air as the door creaks ajar.
“Nobody cares about your semantics,” Feelee answers, standing up, a proud grin on her face. “A thing that opens a door is a key.”
Acir tries looking over Feelee’s shoulder, but she moves to block his view. He frowns.
“Can you please explain what’s going on?”
Feelee bites her lip. “Please don’t be mad.”
Acir raises an eyebrow. “I’ll decide that after you tell me, thank you very much.”
Feelee sighs. “The short answer is that someone died and I need you to tell me how.”
Acir narrows his eyes.
“And the long answer?” he asks.
“The long answer is that…” Feelee rubs her jaw. “I was supposed to bodyguard for someone, they died, and it’s my fault. The least I can do is catch the culprit.”
“Why ask for my help?” Acir asks. “You’re a hunter, shouldn’t you be good at tracking down the killer?”
Feelee shakes her head. “It’s not a person, it’s a ghost.”
“A… ghost killed him?”
Feelee nods.
“Ghosts aren’t real,” Acir says.
“Fine, a ghost-like Transcendant.”
“Transcendants are tangible and governed by the rules of the natural world,” Acir explains. “Ghosts are just fairytale spiritual metaphysical beings that supposedly possess the still-in-tact soul of—”
“Acir,” Feele says, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Not the point, here.”
“Ghosts aren’t real,” Acir repeats simply
“Well, that’s the only sensible explanation,” Feelee argues, “That’s why I need your help.”
“To track down a ghost.”
Feelee shrugs sheepishly while Acir thinks for a moment.
“Did you come get me right after you noticed he was dead?” Acir asks.
“Soon after,” Feelee replies quietly.
“So maybe three days ago?” he asks.
“Yeah,” she says.
Acir frowns. “Won’t all the evidence—"
“I used your hyperpotent stasis powder,” she explains. “By the way,” she adds, “you really need a new name for that stuff. It doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue, you know.”
Note #2: Stasis powder can be used effectively slow or stop the effects of time
Note #3: Hyperpotent stasis powder is a significantly more potent blend of stasis powder, crafted by Acir Solevat
“I know, I know,” Acir replies, dismissing her criticism. “You… you used hyperpotent stasis powder to preserve the scene?”
“Please don’t be mad,” Feelee says, shrinking.
“No,” Acir says, shaking his head, “no, that’s brilliant. Well done.”
Feelee chuckles. “Pretty quick thinking, huh?”
But then Acir thinks for a moment.
“Feelee?”
“Yeah?”
“How much hyperpotent stasis powder does it take to cover a crime scene?” Acir asks quietly.
Feelee looks around shiftily.
“I guess, um…. all… of it?”
Acir closes his eyes.
“What’s up?” Feelee asks.
“This is a very… trying moment,” he says, rubbing his temples.
“Isn’t stasis powder really easy to make?” Feelee asks nervously.
“Not the kind I make for you,” Acir groans.
“Oh,” she replies softly.
“Ah, Lahriin!”
They both turn to see a villager walking up to their house.
“Lahriin?” Acir mutters, shooting Feelee a dirty look.
“I panicked,” Feelee explains before turning to the villager.
“Hello again!” Feelee says cheerfully.
“I really hope you’re able to solve the mystery,” the woman says, “That old geezer was really well adored by everyone. I know he had his own grand schemes, researcher and all, but he never hesitated to take time out of his day to be our local apothecary whenever we needed him.”
“I’ll try my best,” Feelee replies with a nervous laugh.
“Must’ve been a big shot back in Aleksanne too,” the woman continues, “especially considering Pearl’s Chosen offered his help with finding the killer.”
“The Chosen?” Acir replies involuntarily. “The new one?”
The woman’s face lights up. “Right wonderful gentleman he was! Though personally I expected the Chosen of Isarine to wear less… black.”
Acir exchanges a glance with Feelee.
“Well, they do call him the Black Knight of Aleksanne,” Feelee said, scratching her head.
“Is he still here?” Acir asks.
“No,” the woman frowns, “he asked if we needed any help, but I didn’t want to bother him unnecessarily, Chosen and all, so I said we had someone who would handle it. He said he was leaving town and heading west.”
To where? Acir wonders.
“Do you know if anyone else came by?” Feelee asks.
The woman shakes her head. “Jou was on watch duty last night as you asked, and I’ve been working the fields since we left. We didn’t see anybody come in or out of that door.”
Evidence #1: Nobody was seen entering or exiting the building after Feelee discovered the body
“Thank you so much,” Feelee says. “For your troubles.”
Feelee reaches out and hands the woman some money.
“Why thank you very much Miss Lahriin,” the woman says, curtseying. She turns gracefully and walks back toward the fields.
“The Chosen of Isarine was here?” Acir asks.
“In this small, random village?” Feelee adds.
After a moment, Feelee shrugs.
“Small world,” she says.
They move back towards the door and Feelee places her hand on the door, but stops.
“Acir, just reminding you, there’s a dead person in here,” she says quietly.
He nods.
Feelee pushes on the door and it creaks open, revealing a nearly pitch black interior. She holds the door open as Acir enters, his eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness within. The air is stale and stiff from the stasis powder, dust suspended in midair, disrupted only now by the fresh flow of essence from outside the cabin door.
His eyes scan the room carefully. Slivers of light bleed in from the edges of the windows, but it looks like all the windows have been covered or boarded up. Following the trails of light into the room, Acir begins to make out the edges of a table in the center of the room.
“You brought everything I asked you to, right?” Feelee asks.
Acir nods.
“No wonder,” he says, placing his bag down. He rummages through it blindly, trying to find a lightrod. “I couldn’t make heads or tails of the inventory list you provided me.”
“It wasn’t that weird,” Feelee says dismissively.
“It was extremely strange and suspicious,” Acir says effortfully, finally pulling a thin clear rod out of the bag.
“Lightrod isn’t that weird,” Feelee argues.
“Lightrod, hyperpotent statsis powder, dream powder, venom powder—”
“Which are all used for self-defense!” Feelee interjects.
“—some sharp things, tools to open stuff—”
“You know, in case… well…”
“—something that can identify blood—”
“Erm…”
“—a bag you could use to carry a body or body parts without decomposing—”
“Uhh…”
“—something that can absorb or store blood for later—”
“Okay, listen, Ace”
“—materials that you could use to synthesize—”
“Okay!” Feelee exclaims, throwing her hands up in defeat. “It was… it was a weird list.”
Acir shakes his head.
“I was legitimately worried about you,” he sighs. “I was scared that you had gotten into some really serious trouble.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything earlier?” Feelee asks, somewhat agitated. “Instead all I got was, ‘Oh Feelee, you’re such a weirdo’,” she says in a deep mocking voice. “‘Feelee, are you losing your mind?’, ‘Feelee, did you murder someone?’”
“I was just teasing you to break the tension,” Acir replies. “Because you didn’t want to say what had actually happened, and I figured you’d tell me eventually, and that it was important.”
Feelee is silent for a moment.
“Oh,” is all that manages to come out of her mouth.
“It is important, right?”
“Yeah,” she replies. “It is.”
“Then let’s crack this mystery,” Acir says, patting her on the back reassuringly.
As crimson essence courses through his hand and into the rod, it begins to glow brightly, filling the room with a soft warm light. The light crawls through the darkness as the lightrod warms up, revealing the edge of a carpet. The light crawls up table legs, and Acir can’t help but gasp at the red liquid pooled on top of the table.
A man is revealed, slumped over the table, a knife in his hand, a gruesome wound on his neck. The wound is jagged, and looks like it might have been a stab wound.
Evidence #2: The man died from having his throat stabbed, likely with a rough blade
Evidence #3: The man is holding a knife in his hand
The scene looks frozen in time thanks to his hyperpotent stasis powder, the wet blood shining as it reflects the light. The wound looks so fresh that Acir can almost hear the man gasping his last breaths.
Acir finds himself temporarily mesmerized by the quality of his own alchemy, to so thoroughly preserve the moment right after the man’s death. However, as Acir gets a closer look at the man’s face, he feels a chill shudder through his body as he stumbles backward.
Feelee grabs his arm to steady him.
“Ace?” she asks. “Are you okay?”
He nods his head rapidly as he takes shallow, strained breaths.
“Do you… is it too much?”
“I just need some air,” he says, stumbling toward the door. Feelee helps him open it and he breathes in deeply, supporting himself against the doorframe.
“I’m sorry,” Feelee says quickly, “Ace, I’m so sorry. Is it the blood? I didn’t think it through, I just—”
Acir holds up his hand to stop her.
“I’m okay,” he reassures her. “The blood doesn’t bother me that much, it’s just that… I… I knew him.”
“You knew him?” she asks in disbelief.
He nods.
She rolls her head back. “Oh no,” she groans, “that’s so much worse.”
Acir closes his eyes and takes another deep breath to steady himself.
“His name is Wendyl,” Acir says. “We were researchers together back in Aleksaria. We both studied black essence, before Delitte went missing.”
Evidence #4: The man’s name is Wendyl, a black essence researcher from Aleksanne
“How did he end up here?” Feelee asks.
“After the whole thing with Delitte, a lot of people who studied black essence kind of fell of the map,” he explains. “A lot of us were scared, and some of us just wanted to start fresh. Wendyl was one of the first ones to leave Aleksanne. He abandoned his own children in Celise to keep them safe, away from his… legacy.”
Clue #1: The man abandoned his children in Celise to keep them safe from his past
He takes a deep breath, and sighs.
“We can leave,” she says quietly, though she can tell from the look on her brother’s face that his mind has already been made.
“Come on.”
Acir turns back around and heads back into the room. He picks up the lightrod from the ground. The rod has fully warmed up now, and glows at full capacity. He can clearly get a sense of the room now. Feelee hangs back, slightly uncertain about whether or not they should continue.
“Did you do this?” he asks, looking at the windows. It looks like the windows have been boarded up from the inside with wooden planks.
Feelee shakes her head. “No, it was like this when I arrived.”
Acir nods. He checks the other rooms. There are a few other rooms and closets, though no other entrances or exits to the home. The windows in the bedroom are boarded up similarly to the living room. The kitchen, if it could even be called that, is just what looks like a workbench and a makeshift sink in the living room.
Evidence #5: All the windows were boarded up prior to Feelee discovering the scene
“So other than dousing the whole place in stasis powder, you didn’t do anything else?”
“I didn’t want to mess anything up,” Feelee explains. “I immediately knew that it wasn’t something I’d be able to figure out.”
They both look at the scene. For all intents and purposes, it looks like a suicide, not a murder. If his sister is telling the truth and she was guarding the only entrance…
“I know he didn’t kill himself,” Feelee says, as if reading Acir’s mind.
But he’s not convinced.
“How do you know?” he asks.
She knows “instincts” isn’t a good enough answer to satisfy her brother.
“He was paranoid,” she explains, “talking about how they were coming for him, the ghosts of his past. He kept saying how he was haunted.”
Clue #2: The man was deeply paranoid and haunted
Acir frowns. “Maybe the paranoia finally got to him and he couldn’t take it anymore,” he suggests. “And he probably didn’t mean haunted by a ghost, he just meant he was haunted by his memories, or something to that effect.”
She shakes her head. “You don’t hire a bodyguard to protect you if you’re just going to kill yourself, anyway.”
Clue #3: The man hired a bodyguard to keep him safe (from what?)
“That’s true,” Acir admits, “but people don’t always do what’s logical. Perhaps he—”
“Ace,” Feelee says definitively. “He didn’t do it.”
Acir bites his lip, but nods.
“Okay,” he says.
Though the evidence all points to a suicide, he believes deeply in his sister. Perhaps, he wonders, he’s missing something. Something in the clues, rather than the evidence. He changes his objective from a) solve the mystery to b) prove the death was not a suicide.
He walks back to Wendyl’s body, hunched over the table, blood pouring out from his neck. The wound is ghastly, though upon further inspection…
Acir looks at the knife in Wendyl’s hand curiously, using his lightrod to illuminate the scene from various angles.
“You got something?” Feelee asks hopefully.
“Not sure yet,” Acir replies.
The knife is a smooth, single-bladed weapon, facing away from Wendyl. It’s held in a reverse grip. There’s blood on the blade, but it’s on the side facing him. His grip on the blade is loose, it’s barely dangling from his fingertips.
Clue #4: The man is holding the smooth, single-bladed knife in a reverse grip, the blood is on the side facing away from him
He takes a closer look at the blood pooling on the table, and notices something strange: there seems to be a streak through the blood where the blood has dried. It’s subtle, but noticeable, illuminated by the lightrod.
Clue #5: A streak of blood has been dried, and not preserved by the stasis powder
“Is this how the scene looked when you first found it?” Acir asks.
Feelee bites her lip. “I’m.. I’m not sure,” she admits. “It was really dark. I just heard a strange sound from within, and when I came into the house, I found him like this. I kind of panicked, and the only thing I could think to do was to get your help.”
Something occurs to Acir then.
“Did you check the rest of the house?” Acir asks.
“What do you mean?” Feelee replies.
“Before you left to come get me,” Acir elaborates. “After you saw Wendyl like this, did you check the rest of the house?”
“For what?”
“For the killer,” Acir says, almost incredulously.
Feelee’s silent for a moment.
“Feelee, please—”
“I don’t know!” she admits, “I don’t remember! I just… I couldn’t imagine how it could’ve happened, I just… threw the hyperpotent stasis powder over the scene and locked the door and told the villagers and… came to get you immediately.”
Clue #6: The house was not searched after the body was discovered
Acir takes a deep breath. His disappointment cuts deep into Feelee’s pride.
“If they got in here like this, they could’ve gotten out the same way, right?” she asks, desperate for affirmation. “I mean they wouldn’t just stay here after killing him, right?”
“I’m not sure,” Acir admits. “It just… leaves the situation open to a lot more possibilities.”
Acir begins to look around the room again, and Feelee’s shoulders slump.
“I’m sorry,” Feelee says, but Acir doesn’t reply.
He turns his attention back to the streak of dried blood.
Why would some blood be dried and not the rest? He imagines the line from the edge of the table, extending out… toward one of the windows? He goes to inspect the boarded up window again. There’s certainly not enough space for a person to fit through the gaps in the wood, but there’s enough space to fit a hand through. But… what did that mean?
Clue #7: The trail of dried blood leads to the window
Clue #8: There’s enough space in the cracks between the windows for a hand to fit through
Acir hands the lightrod over to Feelee to hold. He reaches into his bag and rummages around for a while before pulling out a small wooden box, one that Feelee immediately recognizes.
“You didn’t,” Feelee laughs.
He turns to her. “I had no idea what we were preparing for,” he defends himself, “I figured I might as well prepare for anything.”
He goes through his alchemy kit, collecting what he needs: mothbat venom, solar dust, a snip of arcanae root.
“Stasis powder?” Feelee asks.
“You’re learning,” Acir grins.
He grabs a mortar and pestle, grinding the arcanae root while mixing in a few drops of mothbat venom. He adds the solar dust in the end and mixes it well. Before Feelee can ask any more questions, he sprinkles the newly made stasis powder on the ground haphazardly, almost randomly, before rummaging through his bag again.
Note #4: Stasis powder dissolves quickly in the presence of essence
“Now what are you looking for?” Feelee asks.
“Skymoss,” Acir says, pulling a small pouch of his bag.
“Skymoss?” Feelee asks, confused. “Why?”
Acir pulses crimson essence into his hand and the skymoss begins radiating with a gentle crimson glow. Without answering her question, he grinds the skymoss into a fine glowing powder and sprinkles it across the ground as well.
Note #5: Skymoss can be activated with essence and will glow briefly
Note #6: Activated skymoss will stop glowing if it comes into contact with active stasis powder
Feelee watches quietly as the glowing skymoss reveals faint red trail between the table and a boarded up window. She suddenly realizes what her brother was doing.
“You used the stasis powder to find a residual trail of essence,” she says excitedly, “and then used skymoss to illuminate that trail!”
Acir nods proudly. “Precisely.”
After a moment, however, Feelee cocks her head.
“Couldn’t you have just applied the skymoss directly?” she asks. “And then we’d be able to see the color of their essence, too.”
Acir thinks about it. “I’m not sure,” he admits. “A residual trail of essence like that might not be enough to activate the skymoss. Skymoss is also a fair bit more valuable than normal stasis powder.”
Feelee frowns. “Can’t you just admit it’s a good idea?”
Feelee’s Note #1: Acir doesn’t like admitting when he does something dumb
Acir laughs as he puts his tools away.
“So what did you find?” Feelee asks as Acir stands back up.
“Did you notice anything, bodyguarding for him?” Acir asks. “Did you two talk at all? Did he do anything strange?”
Feelee shakes her head. “I met him at the Hunter’s Guild, and they explained that he felt like his life was in danger and needed a bodyguard for a few nights. First night went by fine, and on the second night…”
“Did you speak with him?”
“Not much,” Feelee replies, “he would tell me during the day that he was going out, and that he didn’t need to be followed in the village. Said it was safe during the day, but not at night. He kept talking about the Shadow, whatever that means.”
Clue #3a: The man hired a bodyguard to keep him safe (from what?) from “the Shadow”
“The Shadow?” Acir asks, interrupting her.
“Yeah,” she says, “the ghost. I asked him about it, but he was so cryptic about it. I couldn’t tell if it was a person or a memory or a Transcendant.”
Acir laughs. “You think a Transcendant came here and stabbed his throat with a knife?”
Feelee shrugs. “Why not?”
It would be a convenient answer, though not a satisfying one.
“Did he say anything else? Or do anything else?”
Feelee shakes her head. “He was just really paranoid,” she says, “honestly, I get guys like him all the time, so I didn’t pay it much mind. Jittery folks who just want to feel safe for a few nights. They’re usually fine, nobody’s actually after them, they’re just haunted by things they’ve done, guilt or grief or both.”
She bites her lip as she tries to remember anything else.
“He read a lot?” she says. “I don’t know if that’s helpful.”
Acir looks thoughtful for a moment.
“Well, I think you’re right,” he says, “I don’t think it’s a suicide.”
Clue #4: The man is holding the smooth, single-bladed knife in a reverse grip, the blood is on the side facing away from him
He walks over to the table, where Wendyl rests. “First off, imagine how he would’ve had to slit his throat. If he was really holding the blade in a reverse grip, the blood should be on the other side of the blade. And even holding the blade like that to commit suicide is pretty awkward.” Acir holds his own hand to his neck to demonstrate.
“With just this information, it seems clear to me that suicide was unlikely. And just throwing that assumption away makes a few peculiar details even more obvious.”
“Peculiar details?” Feelee asks.
Evidence #2: The man died from having his throat stabbed, likely with a rough blade
Acir nods. “The wound itself is… horrific. Like his skin was torn open. But if you look at the blade in his hand, it’s quite sharp and smooth. I would expect this kind of damage from a serrated hunter’s knife like your own, but not from the knife he’s holding. It also appears to be a stab wound, while the blood on the knife he’s holding looks more like it was from a slash.”
Clue #5: A streak of blood has been dried, and not preserved by the stasis powder
“The second detail is the trail of essence,” Acir explains. “I noticed that there was a line of dried blood on the table. It took me a while to realize that it was because the residual essence had interacted with the stasis powder, nullifying it. Therefore, the blood there had dried, while the rest had stayed fresh.”
“So Wendyl had used essence against his attacker?”
Acir shakes his head. “If you follow the line of essence, it goes to the window. My guess is that the attacker never even entered the room.”
Feelee cocks her head.
“They used essence to guide the knife with enough precision to hit Wendyl in the throat? From what you’re saying, they staged it like a suicide, right? But if they never even entered the room to commit the murder…”
Her eyes widen.
“They came in after I left?”
Acir nods slowly. “I think so. They likely came in sometime after you left and rearranged the evidence to resemble a suicide.”
Feelee looks away.
“There’s another thing,” Acir says. “Wendyl’s hand.”
“The knife again?” Feelee asks.
Acir shakes his head. “The other hand.”
Feelee takes a look. The hand is curled into a fist, his knuckles white, wet blood pooled around his fingertips.
“It looks like he was holding onto something tightly. If he died like this and you applied hyperpotent stasis powder right after, it’s likely that the killer wasn’t able to pry open his palm without making it obvious.”
Feelee looks at Acir hesitantly.
“Go ahead,” he says.
She carefully tucks the ends of her crimson scarf behind her back and walks over to Wendyl, whispering a silent apology as she places her hand on his. Like Acir suggested, his fist is closed tightly, and between rigor mortis and the stasis powder, it feels nearly impossible to pry open.
Feelee takes a deep breath and a golden aura surrounds her hand. The flow of essence disrupts the stasis powder, and she manages to open up his fist. Inside Wendyl’s fist, like a pearl hidden away within the shell of a clam, is a crumpled piece of paper.
She turns back to his brother, handing him the slip of paper, but he’s deep in thought.
“What’s on your mind?” she asks.
He shakes his head. “No, it’s nothing,” he says, “it’s just… there’s another possibility, perhaps.”
He re-examines the evidence and clues from the scene.
Note #1: Esteel is a magnetic metal alloy that can be reshaped with essence
Note #4: Stasis powder dissolves quickly in the presence of essence
Evidence #1: Nobody was seen entering or exiting the building after Feelee discovered the body
Evidence #2: The man died from having his throat stabbed, likely with a rough blade
Evidence #4: The man’s name is Wendyl, a black essence researcher from Aleksanne
Evidence #5: All the windows were boarded up prior to Feelee discovering the scene
Clue #3: The man hired a bodyguard to keep him safe (from what?)
Clue #7: The trail of dried blood leads to the window
If the man’s life truly was in threat, by an assassin no less, then two possibilities arose. Two othersolutions for how this murder could’ve taken place.
One, was the Moonlight Daggers, a legendary godslaying set of daggers, possessed by a young hunter out in the Wilds, on the other side of the Belt of Isarine. She was rumored to be an assassin, though the claims had largely been unsubstantiated.
And the other…
If an assassin were after him, but he didn’t know their identity, the easiest way to carry out the assassination, to get close to the target, to learn their fears, and set up a perfect kill with no evidence…
He looks toward his sister, as she holds the piece of paper in her hands, her eyes lit up with an excitement he hadn’t seen in years.
“What is it?” she asks, her voicing brimming with enthusiasm. “Think of something new?”
He shakes his head, tucking the piece of paper in his shirt.
“We can’t solve this mystery,” he says. “I’m sorry, there’s not enough evidence. The killer escaped, there’s nothing we can do now.”
Feelee cocks her head, but she smiles.
“Oh well, thanks for trying, Ace.”
As Feelee leaves the room, he takes a glance at the piece of paper.
Clue #9: The man was gripping a piece of paper that contains the details of his request to the Hunter’s Guild