Chasing Shadows | Open

»A lone figure, kneeling by the tombstones. Ah, probably just someone from around here, then. She looked around for more cops or hunters, or gods forbid, an angry professor who realized where she went. But there was nothing save for the kneeling stranger, and flapping police tape around the perimeter. Well, time to get to work, then, and figure out what really happened here. A chill pierced the air, causing Diya to shudder. A wind off the southern seas was right.

She was a few plots down from the stranger, muttering prayers or something. She slung her backpack onto the ground next to her as she knelt in front of another headstone. She retrieved a pair of blue latex gloves and pulled them on with a snap. She started by running her hand over the dirt, both on the grave and next to it. Okay, the soil was more fresh over the grave than around it. When was the person buried, maybe it was recen- 2530. The ground should have settled after 63 years. Perhaps the plot had to be moved? But looking around… just visually, you could tell that soil was replaced on many graves, with loose dirt and backhoe tracks scattered around. Weird.

She snapped a few pictures, and took some soil samples and just to be safe, a swab of the headstone. She drew up a quick magnifying glass rune, combined with an Identify rune. She was looking for abnormalities, and magic was one of the key suspects here. Two birds with one stone. And yet… examining the headstone and dirt yielded nothing. Well, it wasn’t fun if it was that easy!

She turned to the stranger and raised the rune to her eyes, peering at him through it for a brief moment. She rolled it up and stuck it in her bag, with a grin. Magi. Definitely not a cop, a hunter, or someone in league with them.

“Ay, you’re no cop, yeah? Or government worker? You live here?” She asked. She stood up, walked to the next headstone, and started to repeat the same process as she went with the first; visual/tactile exam, soil samples, swab, and a once-over with the magnifying rune. “You know what happened here like a week ago?”

»She smiled and flashed him a thumbs-up before returning to her work. “Right on, man. They’re nothing but trouble. Murderers and con artists with a license to do whatever they want, yeah? Some bullshit right there. Same with fuckin’ hunters.”

This guy was alright, if unhelpful. She needed to get some accounts of people who were here, not a religious stranger who was probably here based on rumors. She rolled up her magnifying “glass,” unceremoniously shoved her gear into her backpack, and slung it over her shoulder as she stood. “So you don’t know what happened here, then, yeah? Damn, alright.”

She looked around the graveyard, expecting just to find more of the same. Fresh dirt on most graves, but nothing else out of the ordinary. No doubt the class would be migrating here shortly, too, and she didn’t want to be around for that. She’d deal with them on the bus ride home; couldn’t avoid the uni, but at least she wasn’t going to deal with any hunters this way.

“Don’t know that I’ll find answers here,” she said. “Guess I’m headin’ back into town. Saw a lot of hunters around, so be careful, yeah? They’ll probably be coming this way in a bit, with the other students I ditched. Heh.”

She pulled the pack of cigarettes from her pocket, tapped them on her palm, and took one to her lips. She lit it, and exhaled a pale cloud of smoke. “So you think they did get up and walk around then, huh? Sounds like a load of bullshit to me.” She started a lazy stroll back on the path she took to get here. Whether or not the stranger followed her to avoid the hunters or not was up to him. Company never bothered her.

»“Ha! Ya damn right on that,” she said. She waved off his apology. “No worries, no worries. I didn’t expect most people could help with whatever happened here, yeah?” She nodded. “Yeah, come on, then. Hunters may be bastards but the Uni has them by the balls as far as I can tell. Won’t give you trouble with me, at least.”

She gave a noncommittal shrug as she stepped past the iron gates back into the town proper. She kept her hands in her pockets and her back bent into a slight forward hunch. “Yeah, of course,” she said. “Thing is, all the weird shit’s got an explanation, or is documented at least. No magi could make the dead walk, and no runes exist for that either. S’weird.”

Her eyes shifted from side to side; that chill in the air wouldn’t go away. It was too quiet, too still for a town in the middle of the day. People moved hastily, and always looking over their shoulders. Hadiyya shuddered. “Ah, yeah, you can call me Diya,” she said, trying to fill the silence in the air.

The first place to really catch her eye looked like a burned-out building. They did say fires happened on that night, didn’t they? Could be worth checking out. She stopped in front of the building; it wasn’t boarded up or anything. There were smashed up windows, a broken-down door (now mostly charred), and nothing but pitch-black soot, half-burned debris, and the stagnant, heavy smell of old fire to welcome them.

“Ech, I heard there were a lot of fires in town,” she said, shaking her head. She took a breath of fresh air and stepped over the remains of the charred door, her boots crunching on brittle debris and ash. At least the bar seemed to be mostly standing. She dropped her bag off onto it and retrieved her rune-made magnifying glass (and magic detector). If her new acquaintance followed her in, fine; if he’d rather not traipse around in a dirty, arguably unstable building, well, they could always talk through the holes in the wall where the door and tall windows once stood.

»“Been there awhile, yeah,” she said. “It’s not as good as you think. Bunch of tight-asses run the place and you hear too much ignorant shit for a college. Couldn’t afford it either; I’m just a girl from a Surajan shanty-town, but I got in on a scholarship grant. Trust me, Aurelio, you don’t want to be there; Felici’s full of magi-hating clowns and hunter-humping propaganda.”

Looking through her runic glass, she saw traces of magic scattered all over the place. It was hard to tell where it came from, really; maybe a fire magi had burnt the place down? But if it were magi, the authorities would have been quick to blame them, instead of being weirdly quiet about it.

“Ay, I hear you,” she agreed. “Things get weirder the closer you look at it.” She kicked around some ash and debris, hoping to find more answers. Magic on burnt bones… ah, if only the rune could specify what type of magic it was! Fire was the most likely culprit, but something didn’t seem right. She flinched and whipped her head at Aurelio’s quiet exclamation. Before she could ask what it was, she saw the figures. Ah, fucking hell. She stood up and brushed some ash off her coat.

“Hey, you can’t be rutting around in there,” the female voice called from just outside the building. Diya put her hands on her hips and laughed.

“You stupid? I’m with the Uni group that got here today. I absolutely can be rutting around in here; s’why we took the trip here in the first place.”

She went about her investigations, ignoring the two in all but conversation. They didn’t appear too pleased.

“Where’s your escort?” The man demanded. Diya shrugged.

“Hell if I know; I’m doing my investigation, not my fault some jagoff hunter can’t keep up, ay?”

“Alright brat,” he said, putting one foot into the building. “We’re taking you back to your professor.”

They didn’t get one step further before Diya was in their faces. “The University doesn’t take orders from the guild, alkalb¹” she said, scowling and punctuating each word with a finger jab. “You want me out of here, you get a professor. And you so much as touch me? You’ll have to explain why you’re interrupting my investigation to the University, and let me tell you, it’s gonna hurt to talk with a broken jaw, yeah?”

The tension in the air was stifling. She kept her eyes locked on the male hunter, who appeared to be the more aggressive of the two. Diya did not back down; there was no fear to show. She wanted them gone, and if threats wouldn’t work, she was ready to toss a punch. The staring contest was broken by the hunter’s companion, who put her hand on his shoulder.

“Not worth the report, Edmont; you're already on probation. Let’s check in with the coordinating professor.” She glared down to Hadiyya. “Threatening hunters is an offense, remember; if we find out you’re playing us, you’ll regret it.”

Hadiyya made a rude masturbatory gesture at her. “So’s killing innocents, but the guild does that as long as they got horns or fur, yeah? Piss off.”

Both hunters paused, wondering if putting this girl in her place was worth the trouble they’d get in, but with a small tug on the man’s shoulder, the woman indicated they were leaving. Edmont didn’t say a word, but stormed off like a child throwing a fit. They threw another glance back, only to see two middle fingers waiting for them. Hadiyya laughed.

“Aha, fuckin’ hell. Ay, they’re gone, Aur. Dumbasses.” She shook her head with a grin and packed her bag up again. “They’ll come back though, and I don’t plan on being here. I’ll get hell with the Uni but it’s worth it to humble those pricks. Anywhere else in town worth looking at? You seem to have been here longer than me.”

^1. Dog

»She tilted her head at Aurelio and leaned in closer to him. Damn, he really thought he was about to die right there, didn’t he? Shit, she knew it was scary being a magi, but seeing it so close was something else. He tried to put on a tough face but she knew unsteady limbs and reddened eyes when she saw them. She slowed down putting stuff in her bag, now thinking for once about what she would say. To her, hunters were an evil, but not a danger. To Aurelio, they were a death sentence. Damn.

“Anytime, my friend,” she said with a grin. “None of those glorified murderers will touch you so long as you stick with me, yeah? I got a few pages of runes drafted up for any of them that want to try their luck; it’d be my pleasure to give ‘em what they deserve.” She slung her pack over her shoulder and pat her new pal on the upper arm. “Ay, you sure you’re okay to walk, Aur? We can take a sit-down if you need a rest.”

Regardless of whether he wanted to sit or walk, Hadiyya would be the one to break any silence. Her normally boisterous voice was noticeably softer.

“You know, I sort of understand what you’re going through,” she began. “Not entirely, yeah? Not on the same level, but I have an idea. Back where I come from, in Suraja, I grew up pretty poor, yeah? Got lucky enough to be fostered in by my moms. But we lived in a little shanty town on the northern coast, buildings made mostly of scrap, barely enough to eat. You know why? Local cops, man, or whatever passed for authority in our region. Corrupt as hunters and just as brutal. You stand up to them? You got shot, or disappeared a few days later. Took what they wanted, killed who they wanted, you know? Just because they could, and the rest of the country? Couldn’t care less about some undeveloped shitstain of a town in their perfect little country.”

She barked a small “heh” and shook her head. “Most people I knew left or died, either from them or from starving because they took what they wanted. Kids. Foster siblings I took care of, Aur. They shot kids.” She punched the nearest wall for emphasis and huffed a few heavy breaths. “And they were untouchable, yeah? Politics and bullshit protected the bastards.” She leaned back to stretch and shook her now aching hand. “It’s the same for you, yeah? Hunters do what they want, and you live with that fear while the public sucks their wrinkly limp dick because of words like ‘terrorism’ and ‘protection.’ Shit, Aur, I wish I could do something other than empathize. You ever find yourself in Felici, you look me up, yeah? First hunter that looks at you wrong’ll get sent back to the guild in a box.”

With her own musings done, they’d eventually end up at the gas station… or what was left of it. Tape and caution signs kept the public away from the charred skeleton of a building and moderate-sized crater in the ground. She whistled long and low. “Damn, man. Blown to hell isn’t the half of it, yeah?”

»She shook her head. “Nah, Aur, not like the camps. Least I don’t think so, yeah? Like the people who owned our little slice of paradise were power-hungry pricks, heartless, greedy bastards.” There was fire in her voice as she spit the words. She grunted before continuing. “But they weren’t tryin’ to keep us prisoner or wipe us all out, yeah? Take what you want, kill anyone who tries to play hero; not exactly the same as treatin’ a whole race like criminals and then hunting them for sport after, yeah?”

She hummed for a moment. “I mean, magi aren’t treated like that in Suraja, yeah? Ay, they still get a ton of shit from the people and the government; it’s no paradise. No surprise the same fat cat bastards who kicked me and my people down didn’t do anything about the camps. Rest of us, the ones who knew and lived with the magi? We thought it was horrifying, yeah? Even some of the bad parts of Suraja sent magi to Ethea after they opened.” She spit, literally this time. “Fuck ‘em all.”

She gave a noncommittal shrug to his thought. Yeah, it was better than nothing, but it was still such bullshit. Good people shouldn’t have to cower at the sight of authority, cry, not know if they were going to die because some asshole with a gun was in a bad mood; she knew what that was like, and she wasn’t going to cry anymore. Her fists curled tight just thinking about it. But her tense body loosened at Aurelio’s little quip about flowers.

“Hah, it’s a deal then,” she said with a pat on his shoulder. “I miss the sand, but the flowers in Ethea are nice, yeah? Don’t see colors like that unless you get towards the jungle.”

She huffed another laugh. “The kind of idiot who likes to see shit go to hell, if I had to guess.”

She walked around, retrieving gear from her back and making notes, taking samples, scanning with her glass, and doing her forensic analysis. During all this, while she was crouched down and picking up a charred piece of what might have been flesh (with tweezers, of course), she tilted her head.

“You know, speakin’ of idiots and assholes, the weirdest part of all this-“ She stretched her arms wide to indicate the whole of Camlorn. “-is that you’d think they’d go right to blaming magi for it, yeah? Explosions, fire, unexplainable shit; exactly the kind of goldmine the fucking authority pricks are looking for so they can sacrifice the magi as some scapegoat.”

She placed the sample in a baggie, and then picked up what might have been a bone (with gloves on, of course), and did the same. “But they haven’t. And that’s good, yeah. But it’s odd. And then they send us in here all quiet-like. It’s like they don’t want to admit anything happened here, yeah? No way this is all a criminal or a bunch of different accidents. Damn.”

She paused, and shivered. There was no way it was the dead walking, but something happened here, and it left her uneasy. Spirits, maybe? They could certainly do some damage.