Hyathic Homicide - The Mage of Lost Magic

Chapter 1

"Ghorza, we're up, we caught another one."

Ghorza looked over from her desk, setting aside her pen, careful not to smear the report she had been writing. She saw her partner, Selevin, leaning against the door to the office. The lithe Elven man wore, as usual, street wear instead of the assigned uniform. A pair of hardy slacks, a silk purple shirt, and his classic red leather jacket. Selevin was given too much leeway, Ghorza thought. Still, he was a good detective, and she did value the man as a partner. Ghorza brushed aside her annoyance, readying her mind to focus on the new murder.

"Same scene as last time?" She asked.

"You got it boss. One body, dead a few days now, dumped in an alley. A splattering of blood, lots of blood, at the scene. Fresh, unlike the body. Beyond explanation if you ask me."

"Nothing is beyond explanation, Selevin. Write that down in your book. Diligence, persistence, and intelligence can solve any crime."

Selevin rolled his eyes but did pull out his notebook to jot the instruction down. A good partner, that one.

Ghorza stood up. Being a Half-Orc, she towered above Selevin. Her tusks were short and sharp, her face a rumpled mess, almost as if she'd been badly beaten. Nose bulbous, as if she were dealing with swelling, though no such damage had actually occurred. She had short black hair, cut off at her shoulders, which matched well with the dark, forest green of her skin.

Ghorza wore the actual uniform designated for her position. A slim, tailored suit with insignias on her left shoulder designating her position as Chief Detective. She pulled on her black leather coat and grabbed her cap, after the classic fashion, placing it on her hed.

She reached down and opened a drawer, pulling out her own little leatherbound notebook and a pen. It had the letters CD embossed on the cover, matching the line of notebooks placed on a shelf across the office. She never tossed a filled notebook away, even after solving crimes. She valued the stored knowledge, often going back over past assignments to hone her craft, to see where she'd erred and how to prevent that from happening again.

Ghorza followed Selevin through the precinct, nodding to her detectives as she passed them by. They all knew better than to interrupt Ghorza while on a case. She walked with the force of a boulder knocked loose, rolling down a hill. Better to get out of the way, they knew, than to let it bowl you over.

"How far to the scene, Selevin? Do we need the horses?"

"Not today. Only a few blocks East in the Merchant's Quarter." He responded, pausing for a moment. "Boss, I can't find any rhyme or reason to the locations of these killings."

"We'll find it." Ghorza said. "There's always a pattern with these serial killers. It's an obsession they're dealing with. Obsessions invite patterns."

Ghorza passed Selevin, pleased to see him writing that lesson down as well without her direction. She enjoyed the bright sun on this brisk autumn day. Winter was not far off, and winter meant a distant sun and darker skies, which Ghorza had never enjoyed. The mild autumn wind or soft spring breeze had always been her favorites.

The duo drew eyes as they passed. Ghorza could never tell if it were her uniform or her large form and green skin that invited those glances. Orcs and Half-Orcs tended to stick with their own kind in their strongholds, their main trade the famed mercenary companies hired by the many Kingdoms of Kalmet to handle bandits or to support their armies in warfare. As far as she knew, there were only a handful of people with Orcish lineage living in her city of Hyathic. Whatever the case, Ghorza had learned to ignore the stares. She had business to be about, and she'd be damned if she'd let anything intrude on her thoughts.