The Murder

"Do I know you?" The RPF's voice barked out from his yellow hooded raincoat. The storm was making a mess of the light, so the question may not have been as sarcastic and hostile as it sounded. I smiled politely.

"Just the guy who found the body," I said, jerking my thumb over my shoulder. The Cop nodded, shaking free a small spray of water from his head, and looked at his clipboard. A small attractor burned blue, and water that would have fallen on the board collected there instead. It was an expensive trick, but useful on days like this.

He scanned down the page with his finger, then said, "Greyson?"

"That's me," I said. "Thomas Greyson, man of no real importance."

The cop grunted at that. He made a mark on his clipboard, flipped to a new page, then said, "Alright, so what happened?"

"My," I paused and looked over at Rynna, who was leaning against the lamppost looking board. She was dressed in tailored elven explorers garb, which consisted a customized leather jumpsuit and black shoes. She had more pockets on that then a peacock has tail-feathers. Most of them had knives. Words continued to fail me, and when I finally grasped at something, I knew it was a poor choice. "My date and I were walking home from the movies, when we came upon two individuals fighting in the street. I had her wait while I rushed forward to stop them. As I approached, the first gentlemen ran, and the second," I said pointing to the corpse, "Collapsed. I tried to administer first aid, and Rynna called you guys."

The cop wrote this down with quick strokes, then said, "What's your full name?"

"Thomas Greyson," I said.

"And your occupation?"

I stopped, cleared my throat. "I'm unemployed."

"Really?" The cop said quietly. "Unemployed." I shrugged. There was an uncomfortable pause, then he said. "So what did you do?"

"I was mostly recently working for the Harbo Guard Service," I said. "But that was a few years ago. Before I came into money."

"Money?" He perked up.

"Do you want me to describe the individual?" I asked.

"Maybe in a moment," The cop said. "Let's talk about the money. Where did it come from?"

"My uncle," I said. "He worked some plantations up in Arana, and split them among my cousins and I. I sold mine off."

He looked at me. I looked back. I was lying and we both knew it, however there was a chance he'd let it go.

It was a small chance, apparently. "Good land up in Arana," He said, making a mark with his notebook. "Lots of grain."

I shrugged. "I'm not much of a farmer," I said.

"So what are you?"

I opened my mouth, then closed it. I could see Rynna getting inpatient. "I'm the guy who saw someone commit murder," I said. "You remember the murder, don't you?"

The cop glanced at the body, then grinned at me. "Doesn't look like he's going anywhere."

Rynna pushed herself off the lamppost and began to walk over.

"Look, officer," I said, making one last ditch effort before Rynna arrived. Things had a tendency to get worse when she got involved. "I think the man who ran was a member of the Rothi Crime Syndicate. I'm reasonably confident that this was a hit."

"Oh are you?" He said, crossing his arms. Rynna moved to stand behind him, but his attention was focused squarely on me. "And how would you know anything about the Rothi Crime Syndicate?"

It was too late. "Look, just be gentle," I said, looking right at the cop.

He laughed. "I'm just asking you some-"

There was a thump, audible over the sound of the rain falling. And the cop collapsed. Rynna looked at me, holding the knife backwards so that its weighted hilt made contact with the back of his skull. "Gentle enough?" She said.

I shook my head, then bent down and ripped the cop's sheet from the clipboard. Then for added measure, I took his wallet and and gems, including the attractor. Freed from it's focus, the gem darkened and water started dotting the remaining pages on the clip-board. I tucked it all away and stood. "Shall we go?" I asked.

"About time," Rynna said. "Why did you bother calling them in anyways?"

I shook my head as we began to walk off. It was difficult to explain to Rynna, a child born and raised in the Etherrealm, knowing everything of the Distant City and little beyond. "I'll tell you about it later."

We walked into the rain, the silence between us heavy.

Writing Prompt: That was when I invented it

Cassius Carson leaned back in his chair, and flicked a copper strand into the air. It sailed with a practiced ease into a pile of similar junk. He grinned and templed his fingers. "So what exactly are you looking for?" He said, rolling his head to face me.

"The White Guard are seeking someone named Daniel Craigsen. They seem to think he was involved in Zelena's death."

"Danny boy?" Cassius scoffed. "Danny's a simpleton, a coward, and a gentlemen besides. If he had anything to do with Zelena, it was likely a setup."

I shrugged. There was too much evidence pointing both ways for me to feel comfortable committing to a side. I said as much to Cassius.

"Greyson, you're a sap. Look, if you accept the official story that Danny did it, you have to explain who's working so hard to make him look good. On the other hand, if Danny's innocent, and someone's trying to make a chump out of him, then you only have to explain who'd benefit by putting the guilt onto his shoulders."

He had a point. I didn't know Daniel well enough to assume he was innocent, but I knew Cassius. Cassius had a good sense for people, even if no one ever got along with him.

"I'll keep that in mind," I said. "But I'd still like your help finding him."

"I don't know where he is." Cassius said with a shrug.

"He's fled to the Northern Wastes, actually." I said quietly. "Humphry thinks he knows the tribe, but we need help locating them. They move around a lot."

"So, if I might skip ahead a little, you need some artifact that could track Danny, or more likely, you want something that will speed up the searching."

"Yeah, and-"

"And," Cassius continued, holding up a hand, "You need something that will be immune to the Chaos Storms, even though nothing is immune to them."

I smiled. "Cassius, you're the best."

"No, well, yeah." He leaned forward. "You're lucky, I happen to have something almost exactly like that."

"Really?" I sputtered. "I expected this might take you some time."

"It did. About six months ago. I was studying the storms, and discovered a few things of note."

"Why were you studying the chaos storms?"

He stopped, then grinned. "No reason." And whistled as he led me down to his lab.