“So what are we looking for again?” I ask Melodiana as I pull a book from the shelf that caught my eye.

Melodiana sighs from somewhere off to my left “Information as to who or what did this.” This referring to the string murders of apparently random citizens, a Mr. Furter being the most recent victim. “Did you not pay attention when Miss Steele was telling us about it this morning?” she sounds exasperated at my question.

“Of course I paid attention,” I respond, “It’s just what are we looking for? There has not been any information gathered at any of the other scenes. The method of killing is different in every case, there are no signs of the windows or doors being jimmied, nor are there scratch marks on the locks to indicate that they were picked. The only reason that it might even be the same person or group of people is the fact that they leave the word xanDorian somewhere near or on the body.” I complain as I turn towards the entrance of the room where in bright red runny paint and block letters the word xanDorian has nearly dried.

“You say that like it isn’t possible, when you yourself are quite capable of getting in and out without leaving evidence behind,” Shiva muses in my ear.

“Yes, but I wasn’t breaking and entering with the sole goal of killing all of the time,” I tell her, “and I would never leave a calling card like that, it’s unprofessional, and everything about this just feels odd.”

“Hmm, is that so?” She asks in that knowing tone she has, “I do seem to recall that you had quite the tendency to take things from a targets house.”

“JUST WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Melodiana shouts across the room at me as I slide the book into my bag.

“Just like that,” Shiva sighs.

I look over to Melodiana with the best innocent questioning look on my face that I can muster and before I can begin speaking she cuts me off in a more acceptable tone, “Don’t give me that, you can’t just take things from other people.”

“It’s not like he will miss it,” I drop my act, and turn towards the redwood desk with Mr. Furter sitting behind it, “being that he is quite dead and all.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that you are stealing something that belongs to someone else. So put it back, put that nose of yours to good use and maybe see if there is something that is out of place.”

Seeing my opportunity I quickly change the subject, “I don’t believe that this is a professional group of people.”

Melodiana twists back to me looking surprised, “What do you mean?”

“Well it is just a feeling,” I begin tilting my head a bit to the left, surveying the room, “but nothing about this says well put together group of wet workers.”

Melodiana sighs again ever so slightly, “You are going to have to explain better than having a feeling.”

“Well that's what I am getting from what I see around us,” I tell her, and tilt my head the other way.

“Well what is it you see that makes you feel that way?” She stands in the center of the room with her hands on her hips looking around.

“Well first the writing on the wall,” I turn towards the front of the room again “this is not something that you would see from a professional group.”

“Why not? Isn’t it something that would inspire fear in the hearts of people if the group was known?” she asks sounding confused

I smile to myself, “You would think that, but in reality the imagination is far more of a powerful tool to be used when doing this kind of work. Brutality is also an option if you want to terrorize people, but very rarely do you want to be known.” I turn back around and she indeed has a questioning look on her face.

“I’m not sure I quite understand,” She continues to look around the room for something she missed.

“Well for example what is scarier a person that can get in a home kill someone and then paints a sign saying I was here and is obviously someone that could be caught if someone clever enough figures out the meaning of the message, or perhaps gets lucky. Or something that gets in a home, then appears to move through walls and doors, past guards and staff without alerting anyone, kills someone in such a way that just feels wrong or without leaving a mark on the body, and then just leaves.”

“That second one does not sound possible for a living being to do,” She shakes her head in disbelief.

“Ah and that is what makes it all the worse when it does happen,” I nod as I walk to the desk and sit down in front of it, examining the body behind it, “Or there is the other extreme of brutally killing everyone, without alerting a soul.”

I catch her pale a bit at this and asks, “What do you mean by that?”

“Well for example this is a bit of a brutal death; he was stabbed at least twenty times with a pair of scissors, but it is not on the scale of terror inducing. If you want to induce fear of monsters you first off do not leave anyone else in the house alive, and there are ten wait staff here, as well as five or six night guards?” She nods to my question as I look back over the chair and I continue, “Plus the body is still relatively intact, which is a good sign that it was a person, even a standard run of the mill killer has a problem with destroying bodies to the point of making it appear as if a monster tore through the house.”

I laugh a little as I prop my elbows on the table in front of me. Melodiana is still being quiet, and Shiva is content with listening for now so I continue, “The message that is sent here feels personal, yet oddly detached, whoever did it has practice moving without being noticed as well as breaking and entering, but they chose such an intimate method to kill him and then they moved his body and positioned it here at this table.”

“Wait they moved the body?” Melodiana interrupts me.

“Yes, this is definitely not where he died.”

“How can you tell that?” she sounds perplexed as she walks closer.

“Well first there is not enough blood on the floor,” I point at the floor beneath the desk, “A body has a far larger amount of blood in it than that. Second all of the stab wounds were inflicted to the front of his body. Which if he were attacked here someone would have to reach across this desk and attack him over it, and just look at it not a single spilled jar of ink, no crumpled papers, and no blood splatter on it at all.”

“So if he wasn’t killed here, then where did it happen?” she sighs as she walks back around the room.

I look over my shoulder about to make a quip when I realize she isn’t actually asking me that so I turn back towards the body in front of me and look around the room behind it. There is a large bay window behind it, and a small stone fireplace off to my right. There is also a surprising lack of decoration in the room. “What did you do to get yourself killed?” I silently ask the dead man.

“Perhaps he cheated the killer in a business deal in the past,” Shiva offhandedly suggests.

“That might be the case if he was a businessman,” I sigh propping my chin in my hand, “But he was a cartographer.”

“Perhaps it was just a case of wrong place, worse time.”

“I feel the same, and that concerns me.”

I feel finger tips lightly tug at the tips of my ears and I roll my head back to face Melodiana. “I didn’t realize that they were able to move like that,” she mutters very quietly before adding in an even quieter voice, “Or that soft…”

“What?” I feign irritation.

“You wouldn’t have this problem if you controlled you ears better,” Shiva laughs.

“What did you mean when you said that it was an intimate method?” Melodiana quickly asks, suddenly becoming extremely interested in the wall of to the left.

I sigh again, and turn in the chair towards her, “They are escalating. This was a very close up, personal, and messy death. The other killings, all but the last, were done at a range and or through indirect means. Whoever did this finally developed a taste for killing, and they are just grabbing people from the street now.”

“What do you mean finally? It seems to me that they had a taste for killing already.”

“Well like I said this is very up close, whoever did this didn’t just want him dead they wanted to feel him die, by their hand.”

“You seem to know a lot about killing,” she looks towards me suspiciously, “Where did you learn so much about it?”

“You could say that I am familiar with the work,” I shrug the question off as best as I can. She sighs apparently catching on that I don’t want to talk about it.

“Hmm… I am confused about on other thing,” She states looking to me for permission, and I tilt my head to indicate that I am paying attention, “If this were just a random killing on the street, how would the killer know that this was his home?”

Having slumped over slightly in the chair I straighten up and quickly jump up as what she said occurs to me. “Melodiana, sometimes you are a genius,” I praise her as I head to the door and out into the hallway, which is also as decorated as the previous room.

“Hmm you might be losing your touch after all,” Shiva teases.

“Of course I’m not,” I counter “I have just never been on this side of a killing so it didn’t occur to me that the killer would have stalked the victim from his home, and that was never my style anyway.”

“Wait where are you going now?” Melodiana asks as she walks quickly down the hall to catch up to me, “You can’t just run out without saying anything.”

“Outside,” I tell her, and then ask over my shoulder, “and I said you were a genius didn’t I?”

“That’s not what I mean and you know it,” She grumbles behind me as we enter the main hall. Sitting over in by the door is a city guard restricting access to the house, he nods to us as I grab my cloak from the hook and wrap it around my shoulders. I pull my hood up over my ears, adjust the seams so it sits properly, and turn to head to the door where Melodiana is waiting in the same clothes she was in minutes ago.

“Stupid Dargoth’s and their stupid naturally warm bodies,” I mutter under my breath

“Just a bit jealous aren’t you little princess,” Shiva whispers in my ear.

“It’s not fair that this weather doesn’t even bother her at all,” I complain as I wrap a scarf around my neck and trudge towards the door. I pull gloves out of the inside of my cloak and put them on and as I reach for the door a warm hand is placed on my forehead.

“Hmm… Are you feeling alright?” Melodiana asks as she pulls her hand away from my head.

“Of course I am why wouldn’t I be?” I hiss from behind my scarf.

“That’s just a large amount of things for a little chilly weather,” she continues from above me. Her face is out of view from a combination of the edge of my hood and from standing so close. She is definitely making fun of me though.

“It is not a large amount of clothes, and it is more than just chilly weather, you are the abnormal one for going out without anything.”

“Hmm I think I agree with the big one,” A deep voice chuckles from off to my right, “That is quite a bit of things, and it’s not even Soltheim yet.”

“Nobody asked you,” I turn on him and glare and he just chuckles more before going back to the book in his lap.

“You don’t like being on the receiving end very much do you?” Shiva laughs at me.

“Let’s go,” I ignore her and turn and push the door open, only to be greeted by a cold blast of air around my legs, “muuuu.”

“With as old as that cloak looks I am surprised it even helps keep the cold out,” Melodiana points out as she follows me outside and closes the door behind us.

“It’s supposed to look old,” I grumble heading around to the left of the house while watching the roofs of the surrounding buildings.

“More likely you have avoided cold areas for so long and don’t own a proper cloak anymore,” Shiva snickers.

“Quiet you.”