When they left the strange area beneath the brothel, they barred the door to prevent anyone from entering. Riley feared that it was not enough, whatever was down there felt like it could grab them and place them into the hallway again. Brandy on the other hand was relatively calm, she said other than the monsters it seemed relatively harmless. Brandy then took them to the site of the murders.

The slums surrounding the walled city were split into six regions, each of them were ruled by a gang lord. The slums in the north were too dangerous to go look at the murder sites, so Brandy took them to the others. Each of the regions had what was known as a prostitute street. This is where the majority of prostitutes would ply their trade. It was lined with buildings that had rooms where they could take their clients. The more powerful pimps took up the majority of the street, while the weaker ones had to rely on the edges and the alleys.

The prostitutes who were murdered in the slums took place in these alleys off of the prostitute street. They were called alley's but to be honest they were as big as the prostitute street and as open as any place in the slums. There were several packed buildings nearby where people would almost sleep on top of each other. Strangely no one seemed to have heard anything, and they spent several fruitless hours searching for a witness.

They did manage to find an old man who had found one of the bodies. According to him, in the dark he had tripped over her body. He claimed the body was still warm when he touched it, and the blood was still wet. He also swore that he had seen a figure disappearing behind one of the shacks in the slum. Having him lead them to the spot, it leads to a dead end. If someone went through here, they would have to have jumped the wall.

As they were getting nowhere with this train of investigation, they began to look for any information on the pusher Evage. This eventually proved to bear more fruit as they managed to come across a dealer who was friends with Evage. While he was tight-lipped at first, Riley managed to persuade him to talk. With hesitation he told them about the last time he had seen Evage.

One night Evage had come knocking at his door in a frantic mood. When the dealer had opened the door, Evage had collapsed down in front of him. He was shocked to see that his friend's arm was torn clean off leaving a bleeding stump. Evage had apparently tied a belt across the stump to stop the bleeding and had taken some of his drugs to dull the pain. Unfortunately it made him almost completely out of it, the dealer had him lay on a bed.

While the dealer cared for his friend, Evage began to say he needed to get out of the city before the demon came to kill him. He then began to speak about how the walls were impossible angles and the thing was wrong so wrong. Eventually Evage passed out, and the Dealer went to bed planning to take his friend to a healer first thing tomorrow. However when he had gotten up that morning, he found Evage missing.

The dealer had not taken anything that Evage had said seriously as Evage had taken a massive dose of a hallucinogenic drug. While it confirmed the story that Jack had heard from the addict, it did not provide much more information. Reaching what they could look into in the slums for the day, they took Brandy back to the brothel and headed into the inner city where they decided to split up.

Veronica and Falaen would head to the mission guild and see if any more clues about the killer had surfaced. They would also gather information about the Queen subtly. As part of that, Falaen wanted to take a look at the Empire's delegation. If she knew who they were, she might also be able to find the Empire spy that carol was looking for. Finally they also wanted to take a look at Alacanar's temple.

Riley and Telvin decided to go to the guard station where her sister Natasha worked. They hoped to get a look at the notes of the crime scene and the evidence collected. Pushing open the thick oak door, Riley made her way into the station. Spotting a sign pointing to a desk for help, she walked up to the desk with Telvin following her. Sitting behind it, with a rather puffy hairdo, was an elf guard that was currently filing her nails and chewing on something.

She looked up as Riley approached and said "Yeah, whatcha' need honey?"

"I would like to speak with Detective Natasha Scarlet."

The Elf nodded and looked at a chart and said "She is in. What's your name?"

"Riley Scarlet."

"Take a seat, I'll have someone get her."

Riley nodded and sat down with Telvin and looked around the guard station. As she watched, guards came and went, some of them looked to be questioning people and filling out paperwork. Some were leading people in shackles to a far corner of the office. Along the wall ahead of her, were various notices. Some were wanted posters containing sketches. Some were offering rewards for help in solving various crimes.

While she was looking a guardsman came along and posted a new notice on the wall. Riley took notice of it immediately because unlike the other notices it had a vibrant color to it. It depicted a woman wearing a mask and had blue hair. It looked vaguely like Falaen, though it was more of an artist's impression of the princess. Looking closer at it, she realized that it was not a wanted poster, but rather someone wanted to meet with Falaen in order to thank her.

Making sure she noted the information on the notice, she sent it to Falaen. She got a message thanking her for the information, and as she closed the reply message she saw Natasha emerging from the back of the station. Standing up she met her sister who looked seriously at her "What do you want Riley?"

"I was hoping we could speak privately, if that would be possible."

Natasha looked at her for a second then nodded "Fine, but your boyfriend has to stay here while we talk. Follow me." Natasha turned around and headed to the back of the station. 

Following her sister through the maze of desks and guards, they arrived in a short hallway and entered an office. It had several cabinets that seemed to be filled with paperwork. On her desk was even more paperwork. On one of the walls was a map of the city, where Riley noticed that the locations of the recent murders had been marked. Several strings between them were tied in various colors.

Riley took a seat as Natasha sat down behind her desk. "So what brings you here Riley? Get into trouble? Perhaps something to do with the massive amount of Abyssal Poison tipped crossbow bolts in the south?"

Ignoring the probe, Riley said "Actually, I've taken a job from the mission guild. We are currently looking into the murders of the women that have been happening around the city. I was actually hoping we might be able to take a look at the notes of the murders. If possible I would also like to take a look at the evidence the guards were able to collect."

"You are asking a lot from me." Natasha looked at Riley for a long time seemingly weighing her response. Finally she said "Alright, I can let you take a look at the notes. You can't copy them, or take them from this office, will that be okay?"

Riley nodded, and said "That is fine with me."

Natasha stood and went to a nearby stack of papers and pulled a thick folder from the top of it, and went back to the desk and slid the folder to Riley. Taking it, Riley opened it and saw it started with the first murder that had happened.

"Despite what the public may think about the guards, we were actually investigating this series of crimes from the first murder that had taken place. Unfortunately crimes in the slums are notoriously hard to investigate. We didn't learn of the first murder until a few day's had already passed. By then the crime scene was already contaminated so we weren't able to get much information from that one."

Indeed the notes for the first murder were incredibly bare. While she was going through the notes, she asked "Why did the guards turn to the Mission Guild for help? From what I've heard that is pretty unusual."

"That help wasn't our first choice. While we appreciate the public helping us, we don't particularly like the mission guild. Too often we have to clean up the messes it's members make. The last woman that was killed was actually a mistress to a noble. The noblewoman is pressing us to find the killer as soon as possible and forcing our captain to issue the mission. In fact it is her putting up the gold for the mission."

"You don't think the Mission Guild can help you?"

Natasha shook her head and said "No, a greedy bunch of people looking for a killer who know nothing about how to conduct an investigation are only going to make it harder for us to find the killer."

"Despite your dislike, you are still letting me look at the notes?"

Her sister shrugged and said "I can trust you more than that riffraff because I know how well mother trained you. You are better than most of those incompatant bastards." Natasha was silent for a bit and then said "How is mother doing?"

"She is doing great, Last I saw of her, she was taking the Scarlets to look for work in the Empire."

Natasha nodded and said "I see."

Continuing reading through the notes, the ones on the early murders were bare though they got more information as they went on. They did manage to get more information from the autopsy of the bodies. The healers noted that the cuts on the early bodies were sloppy as if the killer was getting used to the razor sharp blade they wielded. The cuts began to get more confident as the murders continued.

Each woman was killed in the same manor, their necks were slashed letting them bleed out. Though the healers also noted bruising around the necks indicating that they were also shocked as well. The bodies were then mutilated after death, in addition to the killer taking the big toe off the right foot, they also cut into the abdomen and removed the uterus of the woman.

"We keep as much information about the murders as private as we can. For several reasons, first we worry about copycat killers who might try to hide their crime under this killer. You also won't believe how many people like to confess to a crime that they haven't done."

Reading more of the autopsy, Riley noted that each of the women had been sexually assaulted before and after they were dead. With the lack of semen, the healer believed the killer to be wearing a condom. "Most of these crimes are taking place in fairly open places where anybody could walk in at any time. Yet the killer takes the time to rape these poor woman?"

"This killer is absurdly bold, like they are confident that no one will stumble on them committing the crimes. Frustratingly despite their boldness, they leave behind little evidence that has proven useful. It's incredibly frustrating because several times, we have found people who were mere feet away from the area where the murder was happening. Yet they never noticed anything amiss." 

Riley considered this and said "Do you believe that they are using some sort of magic to block the noise or keep people away?"

"It is a possibility, except we haven't found any magical residue from that type of spell. In fact there is no residue of any spell. While it is possible to clean up such residue, it's incredibly hard to do. But even if they did use a silence spell, are you aware of the Shadow of the silence bubble effect?"

"No, can't say that I am."

"Basically when a silent spell is engaged, sound from the opposite side of the spell is blocked as well. It is like you are standing in it's shadow. Of course loud enough noises can reflect back to you, but it would sound different. Has something to do with how sound propagates. When a sound wave hits the silent zone it is cancelled out."

"I see and this is relevant how?"

"During one of the murders there was a couple fighting nearby. A person nearby where the murder was taking place clearly heard the couple fighting despite being in the area where he should have been in the shadow of any silence spell."

"Could that man have been lying? Or perhaps the murder took place at a differnt time then you think?"

Natasha shook her head. "We scryed him to be safe, and he was not lying. In addition we were able to verify her time of death fairly closely as one of her friends saw her twenty minutes before she died."

Continuing on through the notes, the guards were struggling to look for some sort of connection between the woman besides being a woman. Some were prostitutes, but not all. Some lived in the slums but not all. A few did know each other, but not all. Even the prostitutes' clients were scryed looking for similar persons, but came up empty."

"Could one of the prostitutes' clients have been wearing that scrying prevention amulet?"

"No, the amulet leaves a noticeable gap in information. You can't actually look for the gap, but when you encounter it, it's pretty obvious what it is. According to the scryers, it's like running into a wall with your head."

Getting to the murders that had taken place in the city, Riley noticed that they had a whole lot more notes attached to them. Riley saw that there was a sheet of paper attached which stated that Natasha was confident that there was a pattern to how each victim seemed to be chosen.

"What is this pattern that you believe the killer is choosing their victims."

Natasha said "It's a gut feeling, but I believe that this killer is actually targeting lesbians, or bisexuals. But I can't prove that, because three of the women never had a relationship, and a few only had relationships with men. Scrying can only go back so far, and it can't tell what a person is attracted to."

"Why do you think that the killer is targeting these women on their sexuality?"

"Out of the fifteen murders so far, nine of the women were currently in a relationship with a woman."

Riley nodded and then said "Are you aware that the victim Eliza was having an affair with the wife of the household she worked for?"

Her sister frowned and shook her head. "No, unfortunately I was busy that week. So Ted and Dale went to investigate that crime scene. They are not the best detectives we have, so it doesn't surprise me that this slipped past them. If that is the case, then that makes ten of them having same sex relationships confirmed."

"While this is a big pattern, a lot of them were prostitutes. Why not focus on that pattern as well?"

"That was the feeling at first, but several of the women never acted as prostitutes. I could not fit them together, however if they are all lesbians or at least had same sex relationships at one point, that fits nicely."

"If that is the case, how is the killer finding these women? Most of the murders seemed to happen to these women when they were alone."

"I think the killer must be watching the victims for some time looking for an opportunity. They were often attacked in areas they frequented. Though as the rate of the killings have gone up, I'm not sure how the killer is finding them that fast. The last woman frequently visited a lesbian bar, so I have a few guards in disguise keeping an eye out for anyone suspiscious."

"Maybe we will check it out later to see what we can find." Riley said. "In the spirit of sharing information, we happened to find some information that might be about the killer."

"You did? What is it?"

"At the site of Eliza's murder we recovered a piece of wood belonging to the fences around the slums. We tracked its location to an empty shack that was likely used by the killer. It had unfortunately been cleaned out by the time we looked at it. A nearby addict described the owner of the shack as wearing all black. If that is the killer they also ripped off a man's arm."

"Where exactly is this building?" 

Riley took an empty piece of paper and made a short map of where it was. "We currently have it under our surveillance, so if the killer comes back we will find them."

"So nothing was in the building?"

"No, it looked like it had been cleaned out. In addition the piece of wood was out of a hole that seemed to be looking at the entrance of the city.

Natasha nodded and said "Thank you." "You've been helpful." She stood and went to the map and marked the location of the shack on it. 

While her sister was staring at the board, Riley asked "So how did you become a Detective?"

"Well honestly, after I left the Scarlets, I was a bit of a shithead so I got into trouble here and there. I began to wander aimlessly, eventually coming to Keston. I got into some serious trouble and a Detective helped me straighten myself out. I decided to become one myself. Due to our mother's training I excelled in the guard and eventually rose to the rank of detective through hard work."

"I'm happy that you are doing so well Natasha. I know things did not go well between us at times. But I always thought of you as my sister."

Natasha nodded and sat back down and said "I was jealous of you, you know?"

"I did not. Why were you Jealous?"

"Unfortunately I never seemed to click with mother, and when you came you got on so well with her. It felt at times that she chose you over me and that hurt. I grew a temper and attitude, which I know only pushed her further away. Now that I look back, I realized where my folly lay. She treated me differently, because I was different from her. I would not like the path she set for herself, and she was only trying to help me find something for me."

"You know Mother was hurt when you left? She loves you." Riley said.

Natasha sighed and said "Thank you Riley."

Done with the notes, she handed them back to Riley. "There is something I need to talk to you about."

"What is it?"

Riley hesitated for a moment and then said "What do you know about the queen?"

Natasha looked around and said "I know a little bit, but what I know I don't like. In fact she is one of the reasons why the slums have gotten so bad here. Why do you ask?"

"A messenger from the queen, told me she is claiming to be my birth mother. I'm supposed to be receiving an invitation to go to the castle to meet her sometime soon. I want your opinion on what I should do?"

"If I was you, I would find a way to leave. Bad things happen to the people who associate with the queen. She is very temperamental, very quick to take insults and very hard to get anything from. She is also incredibly vain. So if you must see her, play to her vanity and you should hopefully come out of it in one piece."

While Riley was about to respond to her there was a massive explosion shaking the room. The walls cracked sending dust falling down on them, and Natasha swore. A sudden fear gripped Riley and she dashed out of the room to the front of the guard station.

It was chaos outside, people were crying out in pain and distress. There was smoke and dust in the air that made it hard to breath. As she made her way to the front, the damage could be seen. The entire front of the guard station was blasted off leaving a crater. Passing the remains of the front desk, Riley was startled to see the body of the elf receptionist with a piece of metal pierced through her.

"Telvin" She cried out in fear for him.

There was a coughing nearby under some rubble, and she shifted it and found Telvin underneath. He was bashed up, but was still alive. She helped him up, and got him outside. The guards from neighboring stations came and began to help. Healers began to check everyone out. 

Riley stayed with Telvin while a healer looked him over. Once the healer said he was fine. Natasha came and found them. She looked at Telvin and said "I hear I have to thank you?"

"What?" Riley asked confused.

"Apparently the explosion was caused by a man wearing explosives. He had run into the guard station, but Telvin apparently used some sort of power to blast the man back out. It still caused an enormous amount of damage, but had that mad man set off the explosion in the station a lot more people would have been killed."

Riley said "Does this sort of thing happen often?"

"No, this is the first time I have ever heard of it."

Telvin coughed up some dust and said "Don't thank me too soon. I think that man was aiming to kill me actually."

"What?" Natasha said.

"He was wearing the same sort of outfit that the assassins that have been targeting me with."

Natasha frowned and said "And you didn't think to come to the guards for help?" She sighed and looked at Riley "Whoever did this has now killed guards. I want to hear everything about these assassins. Before that we need to get your boyfriend to a safe house. If they are targeting him, he needs to be kept in a safe location."

"Don't I get a say in what I do?" Telvin said.

"No. If they were just targeting you, that would be okay. But now they are involving others. What if they blew up that bomb in the middle of a crowd to get you? No. For the safety of others and you, you need to go into hiding."

"Do you have a location where we can take him for the moment?" Riley asked.

Natasha nodded and said "I know the perfect place."

ElKriJa

Thank you for reading my story. I hope you like this chapter. If you haven't voted in the poll yet, be sure too.