Count Me Out

Upon riding into the street, various scents wafted thick in the area. There were orchards nearby, the road was in a reserved sector of Hargford where top caravanserai faced each other to compete squarely and literally because; there were over twenty inns that lined the road on both sides extending hectares and beyond. Most of the hospitality service businesses were family owned and any prominent family had a tradition of owning orchards as a symbolic representation.

The count took in deep breaths enjoying the tantalising scents, almost forgetting his reason for being there until the carriage came to a halt. He slowly looked around and concluded that the inn was looking a bit too out of place, newly constructed he reasoned because he could still smell the finishing touches of paint to the theatrical infrastructure. He feasted his eyes on yet unmatched ugliness and couldn't swallow his umbrage, feeling embarrassed that someone could see him walk into the place. Was it that hard to get the memo theme of the precinct?

The sombre building was built with an unsteady design, as if the architect creatively threw all his ideas into one. Creativity and nonsense were sides of the same coin, Alexus thought. The painting was dull brown and white, it would have done well if the inn was supposed to give a homely feel but the colour choice on the building seemed to be mocking. He passed through the flowered gate and saw two motors and understood why the building was still allowed to be around, hideous and obnoxious, built by the rich for the rich.

He looked around again to make sure he wasn't seen, and proceeded to knock but the door creaked open from the light breeze passing by. Cautiously, he took a step forward and spread his pneuma sensing a familiar presence, two strangers, a sleeping person in the back rooms and four people further back of the inn. With a sharp breath intake he withdrew, and walked in a bit more relaxed.

'Investigator Doran.'

The name rolled off his tongue and dropped like ice on Doran's back that it made him shiver lightly. With surface level composure he smirked and leaned back to face the younger detective from his position on the sofa, his bushy hair falling backwards and revealing his brows.

'Detective Smith.'

He hummed in reply suspiciously inspecting the investigator, then turned to face the couple with quizzical looks directed towards his person. He bowed slightly, 'I'm Detective Smith, at your service.' He didn't see the need for further introduction.

The woman frowned deeply and furiously wiped at her teary eyes with a handkerchief, her quinquagenarian years finally getting the better of her otherwise beautiful features, probably enhanced by her loss because the detective could very much see the resemblance of the corpse laying cold in the lab and the elderly lady in their facial structure, and eye colour but most of all the slightly crooked incisors which he had happened to spot on closer examination of Sarah's body.

'By bubbles and balls, who are you?!' She exclaimed, her demeanour bordering violence.

Doran rose to his feet, careful not to alarm the ageing pair in despair, placed a hand below his breast and stretched the other towards the aloof young adult making his way to sit on the couch with him. 'Don't take offence Mrs Volouch, Alexus here, Detective Alexus Smith, is my partner in these kinds of infractions which your daughter has unfortunately fallen victim to. I will very much need your cooperation with him to seize the evil that has crossed our paths. Everything needs to be taken into account.'

The investigator, with perfected machiavellian skill, shifts the attention of Alexus' identity to the matter which previously occupied their minds. He was in the middle of vital Information extraction and needed to set back the delicate atmosphere he had cajoled the two into. He sat back and gave a subtle stern look to the youngster who conveniently looked away on timing.

Doran concentrated again on the task at hand, and with structured expression whispered like a devil perched on their shoulders.

'Her fiance?'

Mr Voluch sniffled before proceeding. 'I was the one who introduced Ernold to Sarah, his father Leonard Beckham was a long associate of mine. It was a good match, a diligent young lad he is, he- he and Sarah were in love, so, so— in— love.' The elder dissolved into a puddle of grief. His wife patted his back gently, still wiping at her own flooding eyes.

Doran nodes in sympathy and encouragement, 'Has he been here?'

Within gasps the madame spoke. 'When she disappeared from the bridal shop, Ernold had immediately searched her out, he came here and checked for Sarah. When they found her—' she stifled a cry in her handkerchief.

Alexus checked his pocket with sudden curiosity and came to a realisation, he forgot his own fogle.

'—He came here again with apologies and spent some time in her room. The poor thing.' The investigator wore a pained expression. 'To feel her presence most likely. You'd want to do the same.' she blew her nose nodding in agreement then shook it. 'We can't go in, I— our little girl is gone.'

Doran's eyes crossed with Alexus's meaningfully, and the detective felt he wasn't smart enough for this situation. The investigator shifted focus back to the old dyad.

'Taken from you by a villain. A lovely flower bitten by pests.' He stretched his hand to cradle the woman's hand gently and held her gaze. She temporarily paused her wallowing.

'Peace will find her soul, and I'll make sure. I'll find him. And when I find him......' His eyes lowered to his gloved appendage and stroked her fingers lightly voice grew dangerously low before stopping. 'Trust in me I'll do everything.'

The detective took note that the inside was of better taste, the interior decorator was like a miracle worker minimising the damages of the architect.

Investigator Doran needed something, and knew this was the way to get it. He had seen how the mistress' words held weight and how wrapped her husband was around her dainty finger. Her voice was sturdy, poise graceful, and attitude stiff even during her phase of woe. But it was an unbalancing emotion creating cracks in her person, it revealed want, reassurance, strength and a shoulder to lean on, no man in the room noticed enough to give her that but him.

'Everything around is sufficient for my investigation. I'll search each nook and cranny here and each step Sarah has taken. Nothing will be left unchecked, if it suits you I'd begin as soon as possible.' He retracted but she had reflexly tried to take back his warm hands, it had given her hope and revitalisation but she silently held still.

'Of course, look around Investigator. Sarah's room is adjacent to the drawing room and next to it is her sister, Nathalie, she's been..... sick since the news.' She looked up with lighter eyes at Doran who had taken to his feet, he looked down at her tenderly.

'We'll be careful not to disturb her rest.'

'Why are you here?'

The detective asked under his breath while tailing the investigator who seemed to have a particular destination in mind and moving swiftly. 'If I recall well, you've figured out her murderer while you sipped tea. Were you wrong?'

'No.' He chuckled, the suggestion that he might be wrong had a ticklish effect.

'I envisage that there might be something interesting about her death, call it a whim. And you? You didn't seem bothered when I told you about this case, yet here you are.' Doran paused to look into the drawing room, retreated and headed for a door.

Alexus bit his lip in contemplation and decided to hold his cards back. 'At the lab, she was interesting.'

It was enough that Doran had more leads on the situation than he did, but he couldn't kick him off his path because the nature of Sarah's death couldn't be identified. The law stated that investigators deal with normal cases, any crime but magic. As a realm with a 23.6 percent average of magic output, crimes that involve magic are taken into special account with specific authorities capable of handling the issue.

If Sarah's death, pre-forceful pneuma penetration, had been confirmed to be caused by magic he'd have every right to tell him to retire from his presence, but it could have also been old fashioned homicide something he doubt would have been to taste with Gary. They both had rights to be here on the basis of ambiguity.

The detective could feel his temples begin to pulse painfully. He also had questions for Sarah's parents but he had a feeling they wouldn't have welcomed any questions from him. The pulsing became insistent, a chance just slipped from him.

Doran stopped in front of a plain door thoughtfully and addressed him. 'Can you sense him?'

'Huh?' He paused his thoughts but at the question, he had flared out his pneuma like a sensus instinctively. 'Sense....?'

'Her fiance, Ernold.' Alexus eyes narrowed in warning. What did the investigator think he was? A dog? Doran sensed the water he was threading rise. 'Investigator, I know sensing pneuma is prime skill but I hope you know that not all pneuma is distinguishable from the other, especially of ppl I've never been close to.'

He smiled apologetically. 'Ah. That was rude of me, how deplorable. So there were limitations to your ability.'

Alexus ignored him and went ahead to enter the room. The room was spacious and luxuriously embellished with touches of it's guest scattered all over. Dresses and gowns had been left strewn, books disorganised, drawers opened haphazardly. Someone had quite a treasure hunt in here.

Although he was offended with the assumption, it wasn't actually hard to pinpoint the pneuma residues in the room, very few people had been inside with one in particular having moved and carried a lot of things in the room. Pneuma was easier to trace when the person's bare skin had been in contact with objects.

The investigator had stepped in and also silently analysed the room. Alexus realised both victims had been searched for something before their deaths. Alexus elongated the list of mysteries he's encountered in the case. What was so important that had been in the hand of a rich woman then a butler/assassin?

The possibilities were; Gary was contracted to kill Sarah because she had the valuable with her, then he was killed to tie up loose ends. Or he wasn't the only one after Sarah, and someone did away with him after coming into possession of it first.

Another question begged to be asked, what kind of person was Sarah to have come into possession of something worth killing for?

He wanted to voice his thoughts to the only person next to him but held back, refusing to be the first to break the ice. The investigator had proceeded to move and inspect the details in the room. His mind began to wander again.

The pneuma was recent, left there about three hours ago, Gary's death was nine hours ago, Sarah's death ten hours ago. If the person had been aware of Sarah's valuable and intended to search for it, wouldn't it have been done earlier? The way he saw Gary die, he was sure the valuable had been on him when he was attacked. Or there was another to be added in?

He looked around carefully, skipping over the investigator and realisation dawned on him. What the old couple had said, Sarah's fiance had been in the room! Ener....? ....nol? Nold? Ernold?

While ruminating on his name, it had unconsciously slipped past his lips and Doran heard. He walked closer to the younger with a smile, Alexus opened his eyes to see the older encroaching his personal space of four feet in diameter.

'I wanted to consider if there was another angle to this case.' The detective understood why the investigator had seeked his skill, he was ready to jump one step ahead of the situation from the start. He dissipated his anger and let things be. 'What angle?'

Doran's eyes brightened, finally forgiven. 'I'm not not needed in Gary's case anymore, and we know who killed Sarah—'

A thud came from the other side of the wall and they both turned to the side, staring in silence at the east wall and then hurried pitter-patter followed. A door opened and shortly, the door to the room they were in burst open.

Although shabbily dressed and looking sickly, Alexus was looking at Sarah with waist length auburn hair. She seemed to have trouble breathing and leaned heavily on the door to stay up right, her eyes were shaky and dilated but her frown was set and determined.

'Who— who killed her? Who killed sis?!' she spoke in between gulps of air. Alexus was not impressed and walked up to her, she eyed his form slowly and suspiciously, her reflexes retarded due to her condition. He raised two fingers to her sweaty forehead and hesitated, suppressing the need to recoil and touched her humid skin. 'Somnus.' The whispered spell took effect immediately and her eyes rolled up into their lids. She fell forward and Alexus side stepped not eager to have her sweat come in contact with his clothes, although she was caught in between Doran's arms who had swiftly come to her aid.

'What did you do?' He asked tentatively, relieved that she was still breathing. 'I put her to sleep, so come on, get on with your explication. We can't be here all day.'

Doran sighed, and laid the weight in his arms gently on the parquet floor. 'I was saying, there wasn't any real reason for me to be here honestly, I work on intuition but it came to a pause in that dining room, I had solved the case there wasn't anything else to do. Yet, I felt unsettled, and this is where my instinct, a very foreign feeling, made me seek something I couldn't see. I didn't come here with anything specific in mind, up to a moment ago I was thinking I would end the day here kicking myself for wasting my time. But here in this room—'

His eyes roamed over the disorganised space. '—This seems like a good hint, no?' His eyes returned to the detective and he beamed. Something about the investigators' sincerity irritatingly rubbed on Alexus and he decided to let his thoughts flow. 'Someone was looking for something in Gary's apartment, and someone was looking for something here. They're not the same person but had the same objective.'

'Sarahs character is quite questionable because of this right?' Doran added his conception. Alexus hummed, 'She had something quite valuable that's costed lives. We still don't know what that thing is. Our next course of action is to find who are the people after it. One has slipped from our fingers, but we have another chance here.'

The detective, caught on that he had used 'we', wasn't it supposed to be just him? It didn't go unnoticed by Doran. 'Only her fiance has been in here, it's safe to say he's our lead. Now we just have to find him, but I won't want to tip off Sarah's parents by asking them.' They stayed in silence contemplating the next course of action.

Alexus looked down at the girl resting in Doran's lap and got an idea. He rummaged through the inside of his coat and brought out a small purse, inside were strapped vials each containing various materials. Carefully, he lifted one out of its pocket, it was a dull purple powder, to be double sure it was the right material, he slowly uncorked it and sniffed the cork then nod in certainty.

'Lift her.' The investigator had no idea what was about to happen but reserved his scepticism, he raised the entity in his lap to lean on his chest upright. With a tiny flat birchwood, the detective scooped a bit of the purple dust and lifted it under the girl's nose, she breathed it all at once but sneezed right after. Alexus aimed for the dustbin and threw the stick in, Doran prayed desperately that this wasn't illegal.

Then he positioned his left thumb upside down and rested it in the middle of her forehead and pressed firmly. With pinpoint concentration, he began to chant, his body tensing and sharpened eyes. From beneath his clothes his chest glowed and his pneuma began to flow like the trickle of a stream towards his thumb, the point of contact between the pad of his finger and her humid skin had a small illuminated pattern forming.

'.............sensum excita et magnifacit effectum.......' Doran couldn't make heads or tails of the spell but he was sure that at some point the spell changed and it was shorter than anything he had been hearing before.

Then Alexus came to an abrupt stop, the spell was completed, the patterned ring had formed a full circle. The girl's eyes opened slightly with the balls rolling in their sockets. Doran broke in cold sweat, feeling uneasy but genuinely curious of what will happen next.

'What does Ernold do?' Without breaking contact of his thumb and her forehead, the detective began his questioning. Mumbling at first, he patiently waits for the girl to become clearer.

'—or, he just goes on, and on, and on—' She paused, her eyes were now fervently rolling, Doran swallowed dryly coming to realise what was happening. A detective of the law just drugged a person in front of his very eyes, and he was going to turn a blind eye because he had everything to gain from this. He felt increasingly guilty, was this what it meant to turn morally grey?

'Ernold, he.......?' Alexus continued to incite her. 'He won't even give her— so stingy....' she mumbled off again but the detective had done this enough times and knew patience was key when prying into people's minds.

'He should give her the.....' '.....the brooch, sister liked the brooch, yet......give it back....' The investigator and detective stared at each other knowingly, but he couldn't be too sure. 'And he also gave her.....?' '...... it's a cute little pony.....eats so many apples.....'

Alexus doubted the pony was the cause of all this trouble so he doubled back for Ernolds whereabouts. 'Lets go to the pony, where's the carriage going?'

Both of them leaned closely not to miss anything she was about to say. '.... see......street, straight for Hedgins hill...... stupid house....' in between the inaudible maundering, their ears perked at the mention of a location they were aware of.

'Finally.' Doran whispered, feeling thrilled to be able to get a move on the situation. Alexus nod in agreement then motioned with his hand towards the investigator, He couldn't speak casually while he was still linked to her, anything he said was to stimulate a reply from her. Was there anything Doran would like to hear from the girl?

Doran thought it over, and nodded. 'Diary.' He whispered.

Alexus took a breath and felt his stomach rumble, his breakfast was gone.

'Sarah's diary. Let's find it and prank her.' The girl muttered between giggles. '... pillow case...'

The detective looked towards the bed and without breaking concentration of his current spell, lifted the pillows on it and turned them over till he found one which had the outline of a book hidden inside the cloth. Satisfied with the outcome, Alexus ended the spell with a short chant, and the circle pattern faded out of existence. The girl's eyes fell closed again.

He stood up and stretched, his stomach rumbled loudly in protest much to his chagrin. The clock on the wall struck 2:00pm. Lunch was long overdue.

'I'll return Nathalie to her room.' Alexus turned, wondering who he was referring to, and his eyes slid down towards the girl in his arms. Doran casually cradled Nathalie and proceeded to return her to the next room where she had come from.

He sat on the bed and took the book from the pillow while ignoring the tempting embrace of slumber kindled by the softness of the bed beneath him. A passing thought came to him, and wondered if Nero also kept a diary, does she write about him? A faint blush crept up his nape.

After reassuring the Voluch, the only thing left for them was to get going. The only mode of transport available for both of them was the Silths carriage, built to comfortably accommodate four, but to Alexus any number greater than one was a crowd. They sat across from each other and he couldn't help feeling awkward, so he leaned on his fist and lightly drifted off to sleep.

What aroused him next was Doran's voice, telling the coach to stop. The investigator opened the carriage door and hopped out, then addressed the detective. 'Give me a few minutes, I have to give a report.'

He looked up through the window and saw that they had stopped in front of the station. The guards outside stood rigid and statue-like, but Alexus took a second look in confusion, then remembered why the uniform colour and pattern had changed. After the bureau had come together, with some reasonable force and oppression of opposition, they made subtle changes to shift the society conformation to the Queen's rule and make it 'humanitarian'. Slowly but effectively, regions across the human realm succumbed to the Bureau.

Hargford bent to the bureau when it came into power but sealed tight its contents from their autonomous rule, reminding the organisation that even during the Queen's rule it was independently structured. Seeing the uniform change, Alexus can guess the bureau had made another move on the state.

Inside, Doran smiled politely to all the greetings and headed directly to the chief's office, he knocked twice politely and entered without a reply. A rugged man sat behind the desk, his scribbling coming to a resounding halt. He smiled wide when he noticed who had entered his abode.

'Doran, my boy!' Doran returned the sentiment. 'Jolly good to see you sir. I see you've been quite busy even though you've only been back for a day.' He pointedly looked at the stack of papers cluttered on the desk, in gold, his name was engraved on the plaque on the table: Lucian J. Gordia. Chief Gordia bellowed heartily, his rich baritone laugh reverberating in the office.

'Well, work never stopped while I was away! So do tell, is there something wrong?' His voice was laced with concern. Doran rocked on his heel, thinking of the best way to put things forward. 'No, no, not yet. I wanted to inform you of a digression I'm about to indulge in.'

The sitting authoritarian frowned lightly. 'This is surprising, why do you ask? If you think it's something you need to do, you should go right ahead, but if you need cover, you should tell me now.' Doran thought about himself being an accomplice to drug assault but mused that might be the least of his problems in the long run.

'Thank you sir, for now, I'll need some passes in place of search warrants.' The chief nodded at the reasonable request. 'Alright. Be careful, nothing overboard.' He stared meaningfully at Doran who smiled back brightly.

He closed the door behind him and exhaled, then noticed a box at the foot of the door. He bent down and opened it, only to reveal a stack of doughnuts his eyes widened in surprise, he knew the chief had a sweet tooth but he also had diabetes. He picked up the box without guilt and took it along, if he did this today, the chief might have one more day added to his rapidly shortening life. He contemplated dropping it off in the cafeteria, an unnamed defenceless box of doughnuts dropped in the nest of vultures called the cafeteria wouldn't last the hour. Then he remembered the poor detective that dozed off in the carriage, and how loudly his hunger was made known. So he headed outside to give it to the person he thinks really deserves it.

The carriage swiftly made for their destination, Hedgins hill was quite a distance, and they were leaving the bustling parts and heading to a freeway, the horses were eager to pick up speed. From the corner of his eyes Doran examined Alexus whose mood seemed to have improved after having something to fill his mouth. Alexus was slender and healthy on face value but if Doran's knowledge of sorcerers was correct, for someone who is powerful the detective was not in the best condition.

Sorcerers were beings that could utilise their body's pneuma to do the extraordinary because of that, they require strong physic to perform powerful spells that'll otherwise kill an average person if they tried to do so, and if their physic didn't meet the standards, their food consumption is high just to avoid using damaging levels of pneuma.

Alexus was alright if he only did low level spells, but part of his reputation was being a genius sorcerer, he neither had a muscular frame or ate as frequently as would be required of any sorcerer. Along with his confusing soft features, Doran chucked it up to luck, Alexus was a lucky exception whose mother's genes displayed tremendous superiority but he wondered which of his parents he had inherited his gifts from. He had tried to find information on him since the first time he laid eyes on him but everything came up null, the Silths family had covered up his tracks and the background of his adoption. Alexus was the first person he had close interactions with that was mysterious and it was so mostly because he was difficult to communicate with on a personal level.

They made it to Hedgins hill, the town was old and had a traditional feel to it. With a population of 342, written in bold letters on the board proclaiming the presence of the town, the place looked to be thriving. The coach went down a dirt path that led to an architecture fit for higher class people, the obvious lords of the town, but the coach turned the carriage to the side and stopped so that its passengers could see what was happening.

There were motors parked in front of the gate with masked men standing alert, they looked straight at the stopped carriage that had come to their attention.

Alexus licked his thumb free of syrup and scowled in distaste, he had just had his energy restored and now he was going to have to use it again. He looked over at Doran who had drawn out his gun and took a magazine from the side of his hood.

'I thought you would be a pacifist.' Doran laughed in good merit, he made to open the door and turned to the detective.

'I like to think I am.'