by Ryan McCall
Snar replied, “I grew older and matured as all beings do. The circus was losing money and I wasn’t such a novelty anymore so I was bought by the man who raised me, Professor Bruce. I would be more than happy to inform you of further details but at this time I believe we have an urgent case to attend to?”
“Yes you do,” said Niko. “Help Imperial Branch clear up this suicide and then we can get you onto the real meat of what we do around here.”
“Yes sir,” said Brenna, “we’ll take care of it as fast as we can. Right then Officer Snar, we best get going to Warded Spirals.”
***
Inissa Renoch opened the door to a non-descript building. She moved past the workers who were busy packing shipping crates and over to the stairs up to the main office. She pulled the hood from her face slightly to show it to the guard and he stepped aside to let her past. She carried on up and entered the heavy stone door.
Inside were several individuals counting money and noting down figures. She turned to one of them.
“In the back room,” he said, without looking up from his counting. She nodded and headed to yet another door and knocked.
“Come in,” was the gruff response and she pushed it open.
The man who had responded to the knock had another man on the floor and a heavy boot on his face. The man on the floor was barely moving, half his teeth were knocked out and his face was covered in blood and gashes. Above him stood Barus Asulius, he was built like a side-show wrestler with closely-cropped, dirty blonde hair.
“It’s done,” said Inissa and she removed her hood and placed it on a small shelf near the door.
Barus looked up from the man he had been beating. “Glad to hear it Inissa. No problems?” he asked.
“The officer that was meeting with him may have caught a glance of me on the way out, but even if she found me, she can’t prove I did anything,” she replied. “When she saw me I wasn’t near the room and I ditched the knife away from the area before she had time to get back outside.”
“Then I think we’re clear to go for tonight then,” said Barus. The man beneath him groaned in pain and Barus looked down. “I’ll get back to you in a minute you fucking little shit.” He lifted up his foot and slammed it down on the man’s chest, Inissa could her several ribs break and the victim coughed violently.
“I’ll need you to escort the shipment to the safe house,” he told her. “After that it should be smooth sailing for another big payday. Oh, and Mikono wants you to drop by her place.”
Inissa licked her lips nervously. “Did she say why?” she asked.
“No and she doesn’t have to because she’s the boss,” replied Barus “I think she wants to make certain you’re good after today. This was the first time you had to do your own dirty work.”
Inissa bristled, “I may have lost my enforcer, but that doesn’t mean lost my stomach.”
Barus laughed, “If you say so.”
She nodded, “I’ll go and put her mind at ease.”
“Good, go do that,” said Barus. “I have a thieving scumbag to take care of.” Barus lifted the man to his feet with one arm. He pulled his other arm back and punched him hard enough to make him fly back into the stone wall behind. The man slid to the floor leaving a trail of blood on the wall; he was no longer moving at all.
Chapter 3
The sound of shattered glass echoed through the classroom. The room was on the third floor of Warded Spirals Magical Center and across the entrance in white letters was the word Pyromancy. The students had been fixated on trying to create a stable halo-fire spell when the sound made everyone turn their heads in its direction.
“What did I say not more than five minutes ago, Henry?” asked Zuri Abeliah, the class teacher and a Warded Spirals master-mage in both pyromancy and shadomancy. She was a member of the skylord race and had chocolate colored skin and yellow eyes that were common features of her people.
She swept her fingers through the dark hair above her ear, a habit of hers when she was annoyed. The eleven year old student, Henry, glumly looked at the window he had broken and shrunk under her disappointed glare.
“Well?” she asked when he didn’t respond.
“You said to only put the minimal amount of energy in,” he replied, while looking at the damage he had caused.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I said and now you know why. This is a delicate spell and you need to master the small intricacies of it before you try to increase its size.” She sighed. Henry was accident prone, she wondered if he was up to studying pyromancy.
Before she could get the class back on track, there was a knock on the door. Zuri turned to see the head of the teaching department, Rai Chek, a red-scaled drakon. “Come in,” she said and he entered the class taking a casual glance at the window.
“Zuri. I need to speak with you with you in private. Could we?” he said to her quietly and he gestured to the corridor outside the room. He waved his hand at the broken window, “Don’t worry I’ll have the janitor come by and clean that up immediately. Until we’re done Cynthia will mind your class.” Cynthia Haig, one of the substitute teachers walked in.
Zuri nodded. “It will take long enough that you need her to cover for me?” she asked.
“It could,” said Rai and then he turned to the class, “Class, I need Ms. Abeliah for a time. Mrs. Haig will be in charge until she returns.”
Zuri followed him out into the corridor and she shut the door behind her. “What’s the matter Rai?” she asked, “If it’s about my contract for the next semester-”
“No, no, nothing like that,” he replied “I’m afraid I have tragic news for you. Kyle Dunn is dead.”
The news hit her hard. “What! No!” she cried. Her shock was enough for her light brown, feathered wings to rise in reaction. Like all skylords, Zuri had a set of wings, although she usually kept them down and close to her back when she was around the Center.
She was ready to fall over and Rai helped to keep her up by grabbing her arm. “I’m sorry Zuri, I know he was one of your favorite students,” said Chek. “There are watch officers waiting in my office, they’d like to talk to you.”
Zuri composed herself and nodded “Alright. Thank you Rai. How did it happen?”
“All they told me is that it looked like a drug overdose. I don’t anything else ,” he replied.
They arrived at his office and entered. Three watch officers in red uniforms were sitting while a fourth, an enormous bear agorid, was standing near the east wall. Rai introduced her to them. “Officers this is Mastermage Zuri Abeliah. She’ll be happy to answer your questions.”
“Thank you Mr. Chek. Could you give us some privacy,” said the female officer.
“Of course,” said Rai and he exited the room.
The woman held out her hand to Zuri. “Ms. Abeliah, I’m Sergeant Brenna Moreland of the Justice Branch, that is my partner Officer Snar,” she indicated the agorid, “and these two gentlemen are Inspector John Graves and Inspector Cadus Hendryks, from Imperial Branch.”
Zuri’s eyes widened in surprise and she shook the woman’s hand. The Imperial Branch she could understand given the notable political position of Kyle’s family in the city. But the Justice Branch they didn’t investigate suicides or homicides.
Zuri looked around for a chair.
“Here you are ma’am,” said the agorid and with one hand effortlessly moved a chair into position for her.
Brenna went first, “Now Ms. Abeliah, Mr. Chek tells us that Kyle was one of your top students. His family is incredibly rich, he had plenty of friends and was well on the way to becoming a master mage like yourself.”
“All of that is true,” replied Zuri.
“Well, we’re all confused. Why would a boy with everything going for him, resort to using a drug like tarcaine? To the point of shooting himself up with so much that he would kill himself?”
He shot himself up with tarcaine?
“I have no idea sergeant,” she repli
ed. “Kyle had been distracted the last few months, his school work suffered, he didn’t pay as much attention. I put it down to stress or one of those brief teenage phases.”
Brenna nodded and leaned back in her chair. Inspector Graves spoke next, “Understandable. I can imagine the pressure that the students here could be under.”
“Yes,” said Zuri, she had seen it happen more than once. “Many of them come from rich and well-connected families and there’s a lot of pressure from their parents. Kyle handled it fine. Until, like I said, he became distracted and withdrawn. I tried to get him to talk to me about it, but he refused to open up.”
“Can you think of anyone that would want to harm Kyle?” he asked.
“You don’t think it was suicide?” asked Zuri.
She seized on that thought. There’s no way he would do this to himself, someone must have made it look like a suicide.
The inspector shook his head. “No, we do. But we have to be as thorough as possible,” replied John. No doubt the man was under pressure from the Dunn family to wrap this up quickly and quietly.
“Can you think of anyone here at the school who could have given him the drugs? We wouldn’t want this to happen again.”
Zuri thought for a moment and remembered something. “I did see Kyle hanging around with someone I didn’t recognize. I know he wasn’t one of his friends because most of Kyle’s friends are in my classes and I’ve seen them hang out together enough to recognize most of them. I don’t even think he was even a student, he looked dangerous somehow.”
Brenna took over the questioning again. “What did they say?” she asked.
“I wasn’t close enough to hear anything,” replied Zuri. “I only noticed Kyle talking to him during one of the lunch hours last week. I didn’t think much of it at the time.”
“Can you describe him?” asked Brenna.
“Of course,” said Zuri and described the man’s facial features to the watch officer. As she was doing so, there was a commotion in the hallway outside
“Get out of my way this instant Rai.” Zuri recognized the voice of the Warded Spirals Archmage, William Feyton. The door burst open and there he stood, dark blue robes covering his tall and gaunt body. His grey eyes flashed with anger.
“Officers, you should have informed me you were questioning one of my mastermages. It’s essential that in a matter of this nature I am present!” he said, his voice close to shouting.
“Calm down Archmage,” said Brenna, “we’re only asking routine questions. I have this Snar.” Zuri looked up her comment and could see that the agorid had moved forward several steps and was close enough to Feyton to grab hold of him if need be. The agorid nodded and stepped back against the wall.
Feyton had also noted this and while his voice dropped in volume it lost none of its arrogant tone. “Keep a better leash on your pet sergeant. If that beast had so much as touched me, it would have lost a hand,” he said.
“Officer Snar was merely ready to react, that’s all,” said Brenna, “besides I think we’re done here anyway.” She turned to Zuri. “Thank you for your time Ms. Abeliah, you’ve been very helpful.”
“Of course sergeant,” Zuri replied. “Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with.” She walked out behind the archmage and followed him back to her class.
Feyton attempted to comfort her. “I’m sorry Zuri, I know how you close you were with the boy. It’s a tragedy, I want to be careful about this. I don’t want them to blow it into a scandal.”
Typical she thought, he’s more concerned about the Center’s reputation. But one doesn’t get to be archmage without being pragmatic.
“Yes sir. It was only routine questions,” she replied. “I’m certain they’ll be discrete, it is Imperial Branch after all.”
Feyton nodded, “Yes, they’ll be answering to the Dunn family on this. No, it’s not them that concern me, it’s the Justice Branch. That lot behaves as if the city’s their own personal battlefield.”
“Most likely Imperial Branch called them in to consult. I should get back to my class,” she said.
“I would understand if you needed time off,” said Feyton, “and I’m happy to get Haig to take over while you grieve.”
She didn’t want to do that. “No sir, I’d prefer get back to my students,” she replied.
“Always the teacher,” said Feyton and smiled, “well if you need to talk, my door is always open. I’m always available for all of the mages here, master or student.”
“Yes sir, thank you,” and she went back into her class. She had no intention of moving past this yet though. Kyle wouldn’t kill himself without a reason and she intended to find out what it was.
***
“So what did you think Snar?” asked Brenna after leaving Warded Spirals and the Imperial Branch investigators.
“About which aspect ma’am?” he responded.
“I would much prefer you call me sergeant,” said Brenna. “The way you say ma’am, it’s as if you’re my butler or something. Any aspect or thoughts on the case.”
“As you wish sergeant,” said Snar. “It appears to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play, no forced entry, no trace of magic and he appears to have died of tarcaine. Though the medical examiner will confirm that.”
“No need for that,” said Brenna, “I’ve seen enough of overdoses to recognize the signs. The red spots surrounding the iris on both eyes are a clear sign. Anything else?” She wanted to see how Snar’s investigative skills worked.
“The skylord teacher, Zuri Abeliah, she is far more upset than she let on.”
“And how could you tell that?” asked Brenna.
He explained his reasoning, “Her general body language, her left hand was clawed up the whole time and her wings.”
That sounded odd to Brenna, “Her wings?”
“Yes sergeant,” he replied. “When skylords get emotionally distressed the top row of their feathers tend to tremble, it’s only slight and barely noticeable unless you are looking for it.”
Brenna was impressed, Snar definitely went against all the preconceptions she had of agorids.
“I see,” she said. “Regardless, how upset his teacher is over his death won’t help Imperial Branch or us. We do have one task which would wrap it all up.”
Snar asked “The dealer?”
She nodded. “Yes. That description she gave us sounded familiar, we need to get back to the station to confirm my suspicions and if I’m right then we’ll track down this dealer.”
***
There was no way Zuri would be able to get near Kyle’s room right now. The watch officers had finished in there but campus security still had it locked down. This meant she had to resort to a more indirect method. She gathered all the supplies she needed from the potion and herb storage when she was getting materials for her class with no one the wiser.
Astral projection wasn’t her area of expertise but she was well-versed enough that she should be able to get a glimpse into Kyle’s room. There were rules against astral projection spells being used on the Center grounds of course, but the students were the ones who were monitored not the teachers. Besides she had good cause to do this.
She laid out all the materials around her in the correct order, then swilled the green potion she had mixed. She sat cross legged and closed her eyes and spoke the word to the spell, “Asarari.”
The potion began to take effect immediately and she felt her head spinning. Once the feeling had stopped the blackness slowly began to fade until she could see her room again. But now it was through the spectral eyes of her invisible mental projection. Next came the hard part, she concentrated and with willpower moved herself forward, It was slow but she soon became accustomed to it. She practiced moving for several minutes then decided to get down to her purpose.
She focused on Kyle’s room as strongly as she could, pictured it in her head. In astral projection one could travel instantaneously to a place as long you had a
clear picture of it in your mind. For a split second her vision blinked black, then she was in Kyle’s room.
His body was no longer here of course, but everything else had been left untouched, except for the package of tarcaine the watch had found in his drawer. She searched long and hard as much as she could but she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
Then she remembered something. When he had been younger Kyle had kept a diary, she did not know if he still did, but it was all she could think of. She had only seen the outside cover of it once but could still picture it well enough. As she did so, she was suddenly drawn to the small book shelf against the wall.
Her astral projection could see a glowing light, which indicated the object she was thinking about. It was coming from one book but it didn’t look like the diary. Then she realized, he must have hidden it inside the much larger book. She would have to get inside that room somehow.
Chapter 4
Cassandra sighed, she was stuck on another question. This latest round of tutorial work was difficult. She glanced up briefly and saw many of the other students struggling with the questions while Professor Xerin wandered around the room giving small tips without giving away the answers. Cassandra was resolved to finish this one on her own, which she would be able to do thanks to her new study friend. She looked over to see Reese, who was focused on the questions but more with determination than stress.
He had finally decided to approach her last week during the afternoon taxonomy class. The professor had them go out to the university gardens with folders of birds that they were likely to spot and had them pair off and wander around, noting down the different avian species they spotted.
Reese happened to pair off with her and they had walked around in the hot afternoon sun admiring the exotic flowers while trying to spot birds. After walking for quarter of an hour they had progressed through half of the gardens and were near the small stream that ran down the middle.
“Cassandra,” Reese said, slightly nervously.
