The flame of the lantern burned pure. Faintly wavering in the center of the room. Slowly the flame would consume the oil. Burning every ounce of the fuel away…

Burning away…

Burning…

Screaming…

Pain…

Rage…

“Teco?”

Tecovis snapped up straight out of his trance and looked around. A whistle came from Slide, who was standing in the corner of the armory

“Over here. You good?”

“Yeah Slide, I'm fine. Just..." he pulled his hand away from the years old scar under his gambeson, "...sore from yesterday’s workout.”

“It's going around,” Pan said, smiling from his bench and holding the shaft of his new walking stick, leg propped up for comfort.

“I'm still willing to take you home again, Sandalwood can hold our combined weight just fine,” Tecovis said as he was putting on a fresh pair of boots.

“Nah, as much as it hurts I can stand again. Thank you though.”

Rox stopped organizing his armor for storage before speaking, “Are you sure they'll let you take the spear I broke yesterday as a walking stick?”

“Corporal Heik is the one who handed it to me if they don't, so I'm blaming him.”

Slide threw his bag into his back, “Welp, I'm off. Got myself a date tonight.”

“Who with,” Pan asked with sarcasm in his voice, “Your cousin? No, wait, your sister!”

Rox and Tecovis snickered. Slide rolled his eyes and walked out the armory door. “Goodbye to you too Pan.”

Rox then asked, “What about you two? Any plans for the afternoon?”

“You mean other than letting my foot recover?”

“Hey, I never know with you Pan, you're full of surprises.”

Tecovis finished tying off his boots, “I'm heading to the refugee camps. Zeb said they needed help with some missing person cases.”

“Ol’ Zebulon. How is he?”

Rox had known Zeb much longer than Tecovis. Being friends with his nephew Uriah, he would visit regularly, though training had kept him from stopping by recently. 

“Seemed alright when I spoke to him yesterday.”

“I still can't believe they let recruits help with that sort of thing.” 

“Neither can I,” Pan agreed.

“You would if you saw what the camps are like. It's pretty bad out there. The full times are barely keeping up with the humans in the city, and the ukitu camp has been almost completely abandoned by patrols. Zeb and I are pretty much the only ones who care.”

Rox got noticeably offended, “Hey, I care! I just don't have the means to do as much as you two. I wasn't born into wealth like Zeb or adopted by it like you Tecovis.”

“Yeah, I did get lucky. I can freely admit that.”

“Maker, I hope I get assigned to the camp... I'd hate to have all that training go to waste at some boring city post. The touched need some structure. Some real security."

Pan seemed to get uncomfortable at the mention of the touched.

Rox placed his armor into its spot on the rack. “I'm heading to the mess hall. You two look like you could use something to eat, care to join me?”

Pan immediately said “I absolutely would, it's mutton day isn't it?”

“Sure is.”

Tecovis stood up and tested his armor straps as he spoke, “I'll only go if Tibbs is on chef duty. He makes the best mutton soup, chops, roasts, and…. Actually just the best mutton.”

“Preach it brother”

All three of the men left the armory and made their way to the mess hall. Tibbs was indeed on chef duty that day, as such they happily shared a meal as they continued to rib each other. Once the meal was finished, Tecovis retrieved his horse from the stables. He knew Zeb's patrol route pretty well and intended to join up with him at the river checkpoint on the north side of Thruf.

I wonder what's taking Commander Phurin so long? Tecovis thought to himself, I think I'll go check on the way to Zeb.

Commander Phurin had reportedly pulled an all-nighter looking for the missing guards. He was mean enough on a good day. Tired? Tecovis shuddered at the thought of what he’d do to them.

He made his way to the town square, as he approached he saw a crowd had formed. Being in full uniform now, the people shuffled out of the way for him much more quickly than they had yesterday. Looking over their heads he noticed that the crowd stopped some ways away from the fountain, two spears also poked over the crowd from the edge. He could hear them shouting “Ten paces, keep ten paces back! Go around if you have someplace to be, this area is under investigation by Buruzagi Jormund Skov.”

Tecovis rode past the line of people that the guards were keeping. Once he was in range to hold conversation, one of the two tired looking guards holding the line said to Tecovis, “Move on patrolman, this area is under investigation.”

“Have you found the missing men who were stationed here, Highguards?”

“That information is not being released to the public at this time, patrolman. How are you aware of this?”

“I'm the one who filed the report that got you stationed here sir.”

The other guard elbowed the first. “Told you so.”

The first rolled his eyes.

“As I said, that information is not being released to the public.” The guard gestured to him to come close, and Tecovis obliged by leaning in.

“But, it isn't good news. They found all four of the men stationed here murdered in one of the buildings, along with one of the patrollmen.”

Tecovis was shocked, “Five trained men dead? Maker's breath… How?”

“We have no idea, but what little we have heard doesn't sound natural. Phurin thinks one of the Stricken got into the city.”

The second guard commented, “We're trying to keep this under the blanket, we don't want to cause a panic.”

“Understood. I'm on the way to investigate reports of other missing persons. I wanted to see what Riff was still doing out here while I was on the route.

The second guard chuffed sarcastically, “He's as cheery as ever about this, I’m sure you can imagine”

All three men simultaneously shuddered.

The first guard spoke up, “We've been sending the patrols around via the Miser's road.”

“Thank you sirs. I'll be on my way.”

“Watch out for the stricken, this one's clearly very dangerous.”

Tecovis nudged his horse along, “I'll keep my peepers peeled.”

Tecovis took to a broken down road off to one side. The people referred to it as the Misers road because the entire section of the city was in complete disrepair.

They really need to get around to fixing this. It looks bad on the Jaunari to have it in this condition after all these years.

Tecovis made his way to the north central gate, it was the closest one to the river checkpoint where Zeb was going to be.

I can’t believe it. Five men, dead. If I’d showed up earlier I could have been a sixth.

But if I’d showed up earlier, I never would've been able to save that kid.

Was that kid responsible for this?

No... no, he would have been able to beat that brute if he was. It had to be someone else.

Was that kid working with the suspect?

No. If they were, then they would have defended him from that overgrown bozo.

Tecovis would spend his traversal time thinking about whether or not to regret letting the boy go now that he knew about the dead guardsmen. It didn’t take Tecovis too long to get through the city. The lack of regular civilians on the Miser's road allowed Tecovis and Sandalwood to ride at a gallop up to the city gate with ease.

Once outside the gate, Tecovis looked over to the distant smoke fires. Something about the wispy trails on the horizon made him suspect that it was going to be a long week. He galloped down the winding road until he got to the river, then he made his way up to the river checkpoint to see Zeb sitting on his horse. A smile was on his face, as per usual.

“Sorry I’m late Zeb”

“Nonsense, you’re right on time.”

“Then why do I feel so rushed?”

“You ask me like I know? I can’t read your mind. Just your face, which has some meat stuck to it.

Tecovis felt around his face to find a cold piece of mutton grissle lodged in his beard.
“Yuck, has this been there since lunch? Why didn’t anyone tell me? Gross.” He flicked it off to the side and wiped his hand on his leg.

“So, where to first, Zeb?”

“I’m going to continue along my route to start. I told the ukitu to meet me along it and we would take statements from those affected by the disappearances.”

“Lead on. I’m right behind you.”

Zebulon and Tecovis began to ride at a steady pace down the road which went along the river bank. Fishermen lined the water, each hoping to catch something to feed their families. As they passed through the camp, some of the refugees were talking with smiles on their faces to each other.

Tecovis asked Zebulon, “What’s got them so happy today?”

“They say a magician came through yesterday. And if you believe it, they say he turned a rock into sand.”

“Ha, so can I. Give me a rock and I’ll have Sandalwood crush it. Instant sand.”

“Well whatever he did, he put on a good show, and it put a lot of people in a good mood.”

“Happy refugees are always a good thing.”

“Indeed, indeed.”

The two continued to ride in step with each other for a ways before Tecovis asked,

“Did that kid make it back safe?”

“Yes, he did. I had him take me to his tent to make doubly sure. His mother gave him quite the scolding when I was leaving.”

“As any good mother would do. He could have been killed.”

“Oh you should have heard it, even Abby never scared me as much as that woman did.”

“Really? Aunt Abby could spook the blood out of a stone, I didn’t think it was possible to outscare her.”

“This woman did.”

“Then I hope I never cross her bad side.”

They continued to talk about recent events for some time, including what Tecovis learned about Commander Phurin's investigation. Eventually they were stopped by a frazzly haired, baggy eyed ukitu with translucent skin, glowing veins, and cheeks red with dried tears.

She said, shouting with panic, “Guardsman! Guardsman, you have to help me! My daughter, I can't find my daughter!”

Zeb stepped down off the horse as he reassured the woman “Everything will be okay. My friend and I are here to help.” Zeb placed his hands on the woman's shoulders. “But we can't help you if we don't know what's going on. I need you to breathe. Take a breath. Breathe with me. Breathe in.” Zeb inhaled and the woman tried to in between sniffles.

“Now breathe out”

The woman let out a quick, shaky breath.

“Again, breathe in. Now breathe out.” This went on a few times while Zeb continued to reassure the woman.

Tecovis sat amazed at how easily Zebulon was able to calm this woman down. He knew he would have been slapped if he'd tried.

Zebulon looked to Tecovis. “Did you bring your notebook? We're starting with her.”

“Got it right here Zeb.”

“And you have something to write with this time?”

Tecovis rolled his eyes as he stepped off of his horse. “Yes Zeb, I do.”

Zebulon looked back at the woman, all hints of his smile disappeared into complete seriousness. “As I said miss, both my friend and I are here to help. What is your daughter's name?”

“Her name is T-Tylee. Her hair is b-blonde and shiny, like mine. Sh-she has yellow eyes, a-and freckles. She has freckles too.”

“We are going to get Tylee back to you, and we're going to do it as fast as we can. I know it's hard to think about without getting upset, but for us to find her, we need to have as much information as possible.”

Zeb gestured for Tecovis to come close. He approached with a sharpened charcoal and a leather bound parchment notebook.

“My name is Zebulon, and this is my partner Tecovis. I want you to start from the last time you remember seeing your daughter. What was she doing, where was she going? Tell us everything and leave out no detail.”

“My d-daughter was last seen two days ago. She left around noon to fish at the river so we could eat. She wasn't acting strange about it, it was just another normal day. When she didn't come home I got worried, b-but she's been late fishing before because of how hard it is to catch anything with everyone else around.”

The woman sniffled and wiped her eyes as she continued to speak

“I waited up for her all night, and when the sun rose I went to our favorite fishing spot by one of the bends.”

Tears began to well up in the woman's emerald eyes and she started to get choked up

“When I got there I-I saw her fishing spear, and p-part of her dress j-just laying there on the b-bank, and- and-” the woman broke down into sobbing and almost dropped to her knees before Zebulon stepped in and caught her. Tecovis grabbed one of his many spare handkerchiefs, and brought it over. After a moment spent comforting the woman, she stood back up on her own weight and wiped her eyes with the handkerchief.

“Could you describe the dress for me?”

“She was wearing a patchwork dress I made for her from extra scraps I was given by some of the other refugees. It was mostly b-blue, like this.” with a shaky hand, she produced a small piece of blue cotton fabric, clearly torn from some larger work.

Tecovis took a hold of the fabric and examined it. “Was this the piece you found?” He asked. The woman nodded and continued to wipe her eyes.

Zeb also asked, “Is the fishing spot popular?”

“Maybe two or three others go that way. It's a long walk on foot.”

Zeb scrunched his face and looked at Tecovis with frustration in his eyes. “I need to get there to isolate it. Maybe we can still get some evidence of what happened. You stay here and continue to take statements.” He looked back at the ukitu woman. “Please, take me to the fishing spot. We'll take my horse.”

The woman nodded with understanding. “It's downstream p-past the camp.”

Both Zebulon and the woman mounted up on Zeb's strawberry roan. Zeb shouted to the crowd “All of you listen up, if you are here to leave your statement for the investigation, please see my partner. I have an urgent matter to attend to.” He then rode off as fast as the crowds would allow.

“You heard the man, now form a line! I want this done in an orderly fashion!"