The next morning I go to see the guards, most of them nod to me, many sympathetic, though some seem resentful. A quick scan shows that none of them are the person I’m looking for. A man walks up to me, introducing himself as the sheriff. “So what do you want?” He asks, his arms spread out. “I don’t have any real leads right now, since I know almost nothing about this criminal.” He says, a slight edge to his tone.

“I don’t know much more than you.” I say with a shrug. “Everything I know of him I can only tell from the injuries he’s made.” I stop and think about that for a moment. “He’s right handed, or at least, he seems to be… Probably around my height… And he wields a somewhat unique weapon…” I say, thinking back, my hand rising reflexively to cup my chin before I abandon the motion.

The sheriff arches an eyebrow at me. “But you’ve never seen this man before?” He asks. “Do you have any idea how many people of your stature exist who use their right hands?” He lets out an exasperated sigh.

“Why the hell do you think I’m telling you about the weapon?” I ask, my frustration boiling up for a moment, before I squash it down. “Your men should easily be able to question people about the weapon itself. A carpenter probably made it, and some leatherworker made the rest, this man is working alone, and even if he wasn’t, finding who bought it for them will lead us, or you, to him.” I hold out my own, passing it to him, I had no use for it now anyway.

He nods, turning it over in his hands and inspecting the contours. “Fine, we’ll talk to the town carpenters and the leatherworkers. In the meantime, I suggest none of you leave the city, this murderer is hunting you, so long as you remain we have a chance to catch them.” I nod, for now, with his need for spectacle, this was the only… ‘right’ place for them to be. “I’d assign you a guard or two, but I think your guild can take care of that.” He said, then muttered something underneath his breath.

“You’ll need to ask the other towns to look into it as well. Torven at least, since that’s where the first murder happened.” I paused. “And there’ll be at least one from Romus, this one, by a friend of mine while we were hunting bandits…” I felt only a twinge of regret as I said this, hiding more secrets from them, but honestly… I didn’t want them to know. It probably wasn’t important either.

“That’s a big undertaking you’re giving us…” He said, raising his hand to cup his chin. “But you’re probably right, and I don’t want this man loose in the town any more than you do. I’ll see what I can do, fair warning though… things might not come up unless we use your names.” I nod, a little absently. Politics… I suppose it speaks well of us that we can bypass it to an extent…

“Do what you have to.” I say simply. “Everyone will know before long.” I shrug. He sighs, running a hand through his hair.

“Look, I won’t say this twice, but I am sorry for your loss.” He grimaces slightly, shifting on his feet. “Frejr was a good person, and while you lot do seem to step on our toes a lot, that’s just this crappy situation we’ve all been left in.” He grumbles slightly. “Work with me here…”

“I’m telling you everything I know.” I say. “You’ll just have to live with me being… distracted.” My hand reaches up and gestures a little. “There’s little else I can do except run around trying to profile him. One last thing, I know this sounds obvious, but he is deranged, completely. There’s a purity to his emotions that isn’t normal. I don’t know if this will help you detect him in a crowd, but there you go. We’ll probably also be keeping an eye out for him together, it’s not in my nature to sit back and wait.”

“If you want to help, what’re you out here alone then?” He asked, looking somewhat annoyed. “Walking around alone is exactly something you shouldn’t be doing.” He says, brushing a hand through his hair. “If you let him bait you you’re only going to give him exactly what he wants.”

“If he comes for me, I will know.” I say simply. My voice turns cold and sharp. “So long as he’s confident about sidling up close to me he won’t be prepared for what I am capable of.” I catch myself as my fists clench and my voice nearly turns into a growl. I pause, and he just gives a wordless gesture. I give a grudging nod. “You’re right, I won’t do it again.”

“See that you don’t.” He says. “I don’t want to deal with another murder hot on the heels of the last.” He waves me off. “Rond, accompany him on the trip back.” One of the guards breaks away from the group, walking up alongside me as I leave.

“So, can you really sense evil?” He asks as we exit the building. I stare at him for a moment, pausing in my steps. He rubs the back of his neck, looking slightly uncomfortable under my gaze, a chuckle escapes my lips, and I laugh, stopping as I see others stopping to take notice. I shake my head in amusement.

“Sorry, sorry, it’s been tense.” I say. “But no, I can’t sense evil, wouldn’t it be great if we could though? If there even was a universal concept of evil.” I muse, continuing to walk. “You people are really going all out with the rumours, do they say that I can shoot flames from my eyes or something?” I chuckle slightly to myself, it sounded hollow, but it felt… right.

“Not really.” He says. “There are rumours that you can consume souls, a few others that claim that you to be some kind of living golem only disguised to look like armour.” He shrugs. I give an aside glance at him.

“Why do all of these sound like villainous abilities anyway?” I ask, frowning under the faceplate. “I understand that I look often like something out of dark folk tales, but you’d think with all people seem to place me on some goddamn pedestal I’d have more flattering rumours.”

“I’d say they’re pretty flattering if you take into account they usually have you punishing evil.” He says. “Rooting out bandits, corrupt officials, the Edratchi story is the one that will stick forever though.” He says. “All the stories I’ve heard of that one are crazy, maybe you ought to dictate it to a scribe someday.” He chuckles. “Even if we can’t read it’ll at least make the bards give performances that aren’t entirely fanciful.”

I shrug, shaking my head. “If you actually think that, you have no idea how bards work.” I say with a slight smile, that soon disappears. “I honestly find it odd.” I say, knitting my eyebrows. “This person seems to be watching, always pouncing with the slightest lapse, but somehow… he never attacks me. He’s had all these chances, all these openings, why the hell does he never come after me?” I murmur.

“Maybe he sees these openings for what they are, traps.” The guard murmurs back. “Or perhaps he fears you. How did he get close enough to kill the others? From the sounds of it he didn’t overpower them.” That’s what I’d like to know as well. “Maybe he wouldn’t be able to use the same tactic against you.”

“That would require him to know my capabilities… Which I’ve kept vague and mostly quiet for a reason.” I frown, shaking my head. “I can’t shake the feeling that he’s got something more in mind. I wish he were just more direct, but if that were the case this would be over quickly, with either us or him dead.” I dryly noted. “Funny how I always end up in situations where killing people is the most straightforward path.”

As I entered the guild the receptionist waved me over urgently. “They had a fight.” He said quickly. “Numen and Rince. They’re outside somewhere.” Bad to worse. I thought to myself. “It was so sudden, I don’t really know where they might have gone.” … Then what the hell should I do? I thought to myself, folding my arms as I thought.

“I’ll let the guards know about this. Can you stay here?” The guard by my side asked. I shake my head, nodding to the door. “Uh… Alright, let’s go.”

“If they come back tell them to stay here.” I say to the man at the desk. “If you hear anything pass it along to the guards.” I begin sprinting out the door as the guard followed on my heels, cursing.

At the guardhouse they tell me they’ll make sure to pass along the message to the other posts. I fidget as I wait, restlessly fiddling with one of my throwing daggers. “Ugh, just when we were done talking about everyone staying put as well.” The sheriff noted. “Do you people have some kind of attention deficit?” He asks. I give him a flat look.

Word comes in of Numen at the Eastern quarter, I’m out the door as they finish the report, the same guard hot on my heels. We find her standing around at the guard post, she looks to me with a worried, frustrated look. “I lost him.” She says, biting her lip. “He was talking about…” She pauses, shaking her head.

“Come on, show me where you lost him.” I say, looking to the guard. “You coming or staying?” I ask, he clicks his tongue then shakes his head.

“They can use more feet on the ground, and if anything manages to kill you it’ll probably kill me as well.” He gives a wan smile. I nod, following in Numen’s footsteps. His face turns thoughtful as I leave, and he himself turns to the others.

“Slow down.” I call out to Numen, as she tears through the streets. The crowds part as we pass, but even so I nearly crash headlong into the masses. She slows to a jog. “What happened?” I ask, keeping my voice level as I look around. At our current speed trying to Delve would probably end with me tripping injuring myself, so I had to refrain. “What made you two leave the guild like that?

Numen doesn’t answer, instead she looks around and then stops in place. “We’re here.” She says. “I last saw him when we came in from this side.” She points, her voice thick with worry. “Then I lost him, one of the guards pointed me to his post.” I Delve, it’s a long shot, but maybe he stuck around. Nothing. I think, grimacing.

[If they came in from this side…] Page ventures. [He may have gone towards the temple…] It brought up a map in my mind. Jeff… I thought. Right right, that makes some sense…

“The temple.” I say. “We can see if Jeff has seen him.” She blinks, nods, and wordlessly begins walking in that direction. I follow in step behind her, letting the world burst into kaleidoscopic vision every few steps. Something odd caught the edge of my vision, a spark of a soul in an otherwise empty section of the city. I reach out to Numen. “Wait. Follow.” I say tersely. Page. Try to find me a path.

Bright red lines overlay into my vision as Page draws up a rough estimate of where that point is. The alleys turn us around a few times, their placements obviously unplanned and haphazard, but Page keeps me on track. I can see the same broken soul in my vision, and I draw my sword.

It bolts as I near, billowing cloak disappearing behind the corner. I give chase, sparing only the briefest of glances to what it left behind. Blood splatters as my boots step into them. I don’t waver.