Father of Despair [HIATUS]

Arc 1 Interlude 1 - " A fool's investigation."

Part 1 - Elayer Inid

Elayer Inid was a special investigator that worked directly under the crown of Eldemar. Royal detective was the more common term used to refer to someone of his status. Though age began to heavily weight on his face, mainly one too many wrinkles and the tip of his hair turning gray, the fifty-six years old man was as sharp as he ever was during his younger days.

In the past, he worked for the secret services of the Eldemar government, more specifically as an agent of the Intelligence Bureau. His range of work experience was vast ; he started as a support where he would coordinate with the operatives on the ground and manage a network of informants. Then, he himself became an operative, a fancy title for spy and, sometime, assassin. There, he had navigated the complicated political landscapes of both Eldemar and the neighboring countries. Elayer was a veteran that dabbled since young in the dark side of society, and was one who held seniority over almost anyone else inside the secret services. As such, his allegiance had been tested and proven time and time again during all these years, but he nonetheless chose to retire early. Though he had never achieved to become an elite operative —nor did he truly ever tried to since most were prone to prematurely disappear, not always due to the actions of neighboring countries... office politics was harsh inside the secret services— he had judged that he had enough. He wished to build his own family, something that couldn't be done by living in the shadow of civilization.

As such, he had been granted his current occupation : royal detective. He became a high official, a position rarely bestowed upon someone of common heritage such as him. But his years of dedication and efficiency had been noted and he had been rewarded accordingly. Of course, he knew that this generosity was a double edged sword. Being kept close to power meant that if his loyalty to the crown was ever put into question, they could easily dispose of him. After all, Elayer was someone who had both the network and the knowledge —confidential information— that could hurt the whole country were he to turn his back to it. Of course, he would never. The mere mention of treason was enough to make his stomach turn in revulsion. His lips were forever sealed shut, and not even torture would loosen them up.

Nowadays, though less, he still often interacted with the gruesome reality that the masses weren't privy to. He never really acknowledged it since he was so accustomed to it. It was rare for him to stumbled onto a case that caused his nerves to spike. Today, however, such an event had happened. It had left him both exhausted and unsure of what he should do. He could feel that something was afoot, something was brewing in the background, and he had absolutely no idea on how to handle it.

Elayer Inid sighed heavily, tapping nervously his finger on the wooden table in front of him where an annotated map and a cluster of scribbled reports were scattered seemingly without clear order. Trying to exhale his exhaustion and frustration away, he caught a nervous glance from one a his subordinates.

The woman, Fiya Nollis, was a young promising star of their field that had joined his team two years ago. She had a slender figure, long auburn hair and generally possessed a gentle aura around herself. Now, however, clear sign of uneasiness and discomfort could be gleaned from her body language. She consciously tried to hide it, force of habit, but it wasn't something a veteran of their profession like Elayer wouldn't notice.

Their team was composed of eight operatives in total, aside from Elayer himself. Beside Fiya, four of those individuals were present inside the room as well, all equally silent and bearing grim faces. Of the last three that were absent, two were on their way —minutes from returning— and one was...

"Vatol, still nothing on your part?" inquired Elayer, turning slightly his head toward the eldest in the room, a master of divination magic and one of the two support operatives of the team in charge of processing, organizing and coordinating information. In front of him, a number of magical circles were active.