The large man was dead on the smooth patch of ground and from where he stood the crime scene was identical to the previous one. Tom moved forward and out of the corner of his eyes he saw Bob have the same reaction that he had with Everlyn. A desire to restrict access that warred with a recognition that Tom’s interest was valid and as much as Bob might not like it that civilians with the advent of magic may be better suited to assessing the task than he was despite his law enforcement background.
The need for answers won over the more negative emotions, and Bob focused on stopping others from approaching.
Tom squatted right next to the cleared area foreground and held the palm of his hand just above the dirt but not touching. In his memory, he compared the untouched earth now to that first one. Back then it had been perfectly flat, soft, but the grains were so finely ground that it had looked as smooth as glass. Now the soil was almost as fluffy but was more like rough sand paper than fine.
This time there was a texture to it.
A change, whether it was process, time of day, soil or something else was unknown.
“The dirt looks different.” He muttered.
“I agree.” Everlyn told him. “I don’t know. It might be clutching at straws, but that’s not what I remember. It’s probably a water content thing, but we should note in case it’s related to a rushed technique.”
Bob scoffed. “Yeah there’s a difference, but I’m not sure that’s what I’d call a clue. It might not even be real. Things look different at night under artificial lights than during the day.”
“Possibly,” Tom agreed and continued his examination, having already made a mental note.
It was a serial killer, he decided. Jeffery and now Tiny suggested it was not someone from outside.
This was too targeted.
The obvious answer was a political play, but Tiny had possessed little of that and Jeffrey had not struck him as a player who could maintain power long term. Yes, he had been useful glue at the start. His over the top personality, at least the non-bully side of it had got him lots of karma on that first day when he had comforted those who had been hurting. However, karma would have only pasted over the incompetence problem for so long. Anyone remotely competent would have been able to see that Jeffrey’s power was fleeting.
Was the motive to punish ineptitude? Maybe, but that was even more chilling because both of them had been flawed but not worthless. Tiny had his enemies and Jeffrey.
Tom hoped it was something else, but…
Evidence was the name of the day.
And that evidence was clear. There had been two targeted killings. Humans had done this. Or at least he prayed it was a human serial killer. If this was done by another species or monster, then they were a world of hurt. There was only a single scenario Tom could think of where such behaviour made sense. If they were being stalked by a creature killing a single person every week and targeting the strong, then things were going to deteriorate. After all, not only had it locked down a trial apparently for hours, but it also been able to knock out everyone in the camp and worse, it had been observing them undetected and had the arrogance or instinct to pick its kills carefully.
That might be what was happening. Maybe it was an alien, and it was picking off who had thought was a strongest and keeping the rest of them alive so it could come and take a nibble whenever it wanted to. Maybe they had been reduced to only migrating livestock, which an invisible lion hunted across the plains.
Human or alien? There was no way to tell. Was one better than another? Probably not. Whichever the case it was concerning. The first crime might have been one of opportunity, but this had been planned and had been deliberate in when it occurred and who it targeted.
“Shit.” He cursed softly under his. “Not good.”
He paced away, and Everlyn followed.
“No,” she agreed finally, her hand grabbing his and Tom knew what she wanted.
He manifested in her system room. He faced that wonderful view of a frozen lake sparkling in late afternoon sunlight. The shadows from the tall mountains already crossing half its surface.
Tom’s gaze jerked away from the frozen visage to Everlyn. She was dressed in armour and not the casual clothes he was used to seeing. Armour also resembled nothing he had seen on Existentia. He guessed it was probably her armour from the personal trial that she wore for comfort.
“There’s a strange energy around the body. I can’t really describe it apart from calling it icky. What about fate?”
“I haven’t checked yet?”
“You should get to it and do that. There is something there that I can’t quite see. My peripheral vision is capturing something.” She looked disturbed.
Tom hesitated. “Stay close to me.”
She smiled in response to his protectiveness.
“We’ll also have to walk the camp. I’ll check fate fluctuations and you can see if anyone else provokes the same icky feeling. We’ll compare notes at the end.”
“Definitely.”
They returned to the real world and Tom looked back. “I need to touch it.”
He hurried toward the body. Bob went to get in the way. A twist of electricity curled around his hand, threatening violence. Bob saw it, swallowed, and stepped to the side.
“I’m not going to disturb much.”
Tiny lay there. Very much dead and he seemed to have been tortured on the way to getting there just like the first one.
All that power, brutality and strength and it had not saved him. Their foe whoever was or whatever was dangerous and this was the result.
A corpse.
A dead human.
Tom felt the contents of his stomach try to force their way up and he swallowed hard down on it. That taint from Jeffrey mocking him and missing fate had mostly passed, but if he vomited on a crime scene, he could just imagine the reaction from all of his detractors. Some of them remained small minded, others were jealous. Regardless of the motivation giving them red meat to chew on was not the best of ideas.
It was the sun shining down, the triumph of them having a trial followed by this, the fact he was looking down at someone who had been full of vigorous life just before now. It created a reaction that he had not been expecting. Tom had seen blood, wounds and pestilence. In fact, he had waded through it, however this cold cadaver with all its liquid drained out of it grossed him out.
That could be him, Sven, Michael, Everlyn.
Forcefully, Tom yanked his mind away and concentrated on fate. He was completely empty, which actually made him more sensitive than usual. There was something wrong with the body.
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Fate.
He focused more. It had literally taken him decades to develop this sense, and now it tingled. A gap where the corpse was. A distortion.
Something.
Beyond that, he could not tell what was happening.
He tapped her hands twice and then entered the system room.
Everlyn Louis Campbell has invited you to her personal system room.
Do you wish to accept the invitation?
He was not at all surprised by how quickly she had responded. After he accepted the offer. He reappeared in her room. She was dressed in Jeans and a jumper once more having clearly recovered some of her composure since last time.
“You were right. What ever happened involved fate.”
She nodded.
Him proving that fact surprised neither of them. After Jeffrey, it was what they expected and showed there was probably more to the murders than straight revenge.
“What now?” Everlyn asked.
“Keep to the plan. Let’s walk around the camp. I’ll heal as we go, and we’ll keep our senses strained and make sure no one is faking sleep.”
Bob, hands on hips saw them and marched to intercept them. “Well.”
“Same as last time.” Everlyn told him. “Tom want’s to chase down any fate change leads.”
“Well, I guess—”
Silently the two of them split and went past the policeman on either side, ignoring him completely. They didn’t have time to pretend that Bob was in charge. Wasps were stinging him, but there was not much he could do about it as he lacked the power to summon an elemental and Spark was useless versus this version of the wasps.
Everlyn had her little net out and was spinning violently past his face. Every pass removed one of the annoying bugs. He battered them away with his hands and was partially successful, but they just ducked back into attack again.
“Damn things.”
She laughed and kept twirling the net. Luckily, the shelter was set well away from any hives, so the numbers assaulting him were not immense and Everlyn was making progress.
Together, they walked around the shelter to assess fate levels and when the last wasp was killed; he slunk into the shelter.
The fate levels were disturbingly random.
Like last time, more than one person had elevated fate levels. This time Sven and Harry were on the high side. Clare, if anything felt weakened and Michael was unchanged.
They must have looked ridiculous. They stalked through everyone, pausing in front of random people with Everlyn telling them to be still while Tom completed his measurements. He didn’t care. If there was a clue, then he needed to find it.
Tom’s mana increased to forty, so he knelt down next to Rahmat and checked the council members’ fate. He was completely unaffected and then Healing Tranquility activated. With practiced efficiency, the foreign energy was driven out, and the man woke with a start.
Tom leapt back his own spear moving to block Rahmat’s blow.
There was a stinging pain in his arm, and Tom rapidly retreated further. Electricity coiled ready to strike but sanity quickly returned to the other man’s eyes. He must have registered Tom’s rapid retreat and recognised that he was not a threat. Rahmat responded by spinning around while he searched for an actual enemy.
“You’re safe.” Everlyn called out softly. “It was some sort of mass sleep spell.”
Rahmat finished his spin and seemed to be convinced about the truth of Everlyn’s words because he shifted sightly from his aggressive spear posture, grounding the end of his spear.
Tom did not reciprocate. Instead, he actively maintained his defensive stance and the crackle of electricity filled the air, his force primed and ready to react in an instant. Given their difference in rank he couldn’t afford to be lulled into a false sense of security. His arm ached and Rahmat had been flat on his stomach and had still landed a blow.
“Tom, I’m not going to attack you.”
He did not lower his spear.
Rahmat laughed. “I’m not being insulting but I’m not sure you could stop me if I tried.” He completely lowered the spear, tucking it under his arm, and extended both hands out in apology. “Sorry for stabbing you. I was startled, and I tried to pull the blow but…” Rahmat shrugged. “Sorry. Sleep spell?” His eyes went hard once more, and both hands clutched his spears once more. “What’s happening?”
“Tiny’s dead.” Everlyn answered flatly.
Almost imperceptibly, the spear point rose slightly and Rahmat’s eyes searched the inside of the shelter. “Tell me everything.”
“Um…”
“I’m sure Bob can debrief you,” Everlyn responded. “We’re looking for clues and undoing the sleeping spell.”
Rahmat considered this for a moment. “Don’t let me keep you. But we’re sure the threats are gone?”
“For now,” Everlyn confirmed and then grabbed his hand. Tom let the electricity go and, with a flash of energy closed the wound on his arm. The gash had been superficial. A single line of red ran down to his elbow and a few heavy drops had hit the ground, staining the yellow grass they had built upon.
Outside of dabbing with antiseptic, it wouldn’t have required medical treatment pre-DEUS. Rahmat had not been lying when he said he had pulled the blow. It was part of the reason Tom enjoyed spending so much time destroying hives. Being around people fast and powerful enough to end him without trying was disconcerting.
Together, they moved to the next person. This time when he knelt he made sure his feet were positioned to leap back and his spear ready to block any attack that came his way.
The next guy was a not so harmless crafter. Given that he was strong enough to crush Tom, he figured he was a blacksmith. Luckily, he woke without violence and Tom moved on before he got caught explaining issues. Once more, they tracked the strange patterns of fate. It was like a complicated rune had been imprinted on the area, or something like that. In places, the air was thin with fate and in other’s spots so filled with it that the effect was almost oppressive.
No one else, of course, noticed. His sensitivity was far more than anyone else. As his mana ticked up, he would drive out the foreign energy out of his friends to wake them. Sven had so much energy in him it took almost thirty mana to clear it. Clare had so little that she must have been minutes away from awaking naturally. It was a confusing mess of inconsistency.
Everlyn looked as frustrated as he felt.
Tom was not the only person healing. Andros and Cherry were also waking people, and Andros was by far the most efficient of them. He seemed to burn out the energy easily. He had built himself to use healing as a weapon and to burn away scar tissue, so the fact that the foreign energy fell to him so easily shouldn’t have been a surprise.
It was slow going and while they worked Bob organised people into groups. Those who like him had been trapped in the trial and then those woken up and confirmed to be impacted by the foreign energy. The intent was clear: if someone was faking the unconscious state, then they would be discovered.
Tom gave that exactly zero chance of working. If a human was responsible, then the level of organisation shown to trap the trial and knock everyone out meant they would have worked out how to dose themselves in order to hide their trail.
If he had been reviving everyone, then he might have been able to find the murderer by discovering someone with extra dosage or less but because the other two had been waking people as well Tom only had a group of twenty to draw from and there were no obvious suspects amongst them.
Everyone had been awoken and the mood of the camp that had been so excited after discovering the trial had plummeted to worse than what it had been after Jeffrey’s death. Someone was now hunting them.
He listened curiously to the surrounding conversations.
“Definitely human. They went after the pricks.”
“Who’s next?”
“I wouldn’t want to be on the council.”
“I don’t like to talk badly about the dead, but we’re probably better off now.”
“How did they knock everyone out?”
Everlyn nudged him. “People are already blaming the communal pot.” He followed her gaze to where the four crafters were huddling around the large wooden bowl they were using to make soup in.
“They won’t find anything.” Tom stated authoritatively.
Everlyn studied the body language of the group, arguing amongst themselves. “We’ll see.”
“Hey Useless!”
Tom spun, and it was only Keikain hailing him. Next to him he felt Everlyn tense, and he squeezed her hand to try to communicate that she didn’t need to respond. The man had a huge grin. “Not my name.”
Keikain looked uncomfortable. “We’ve fought together.”
“Not his name.” Everlyn repeated angrily.
“I just thought it was a nickname, a joke… I won’t.”
“What do you want?” Tom interrupted more to put him out of his misery than for any other reason.
“Did you two check your status after coming out of the trial?”
“No,” Everlyn said, managing to both sound polite and frosty at the same time. “Monster trials at your rank usually give you one or two to a random attribute. I really couldn’t care?”.
Keikain was almost dancing on the spot. “Is that all you think you got?”
“Well, I guess it might be more if we upgraded the run.” She shrugged. “But even then, it’s probably only five or six to an attribute of your choice.”
“It’s more a lot more,” the earth mage promised.
Tom stopped at that in surprise. “Did we get the fastest clear in the end?”
Despite Tiny’s death having just occurred Keikain was grinning like all of his Christmas’s came at once. “I can’t believe you don’t know.”
“I try to ignore system notifications.” Tom said.
“Same,” Everlyn admitted. “But I have lots of specific carve outs.”
Keikain laughed at that. “Me too. I tried lots of different settings during the personal trial. Had it totally off for a couple of months, but one time, I missed a spell evolution for six weeks. That was a massive loss, so I changed it to alert me of things once I leave battle, never during. But once I relax it triggers. I use visual alerts with six colours to indicate importance.”
“And what did we get?” Everlyn asked.
“When we left the trial, I got aqua. That’s my top level of reward.”
Everlyn’s face widened in surprise. “Mythic?”
Keikain laughed hard. “No, of course not. But still good.”
They looked at each other.
“Together?” he asked Everlyn. She nodded and her face went slack. Tom made eye contact with Keikain. “Can you watch us?”
“Sure man.”
Tom closed his eyes.