I left the Denison place behind me as I exited that part of the city. The rain was falling in a thick sheet now. The once crowded street that I had seen this morning was now vacant, the patrons now occupying the indoor shops and other establishments that lined the street. Vendors now had to sit huddled in their stands as rain patted against the tiny poorly made roofs that covered them and their wares. I walked on the left side of the street as I pulled my coat tighter around me, hoping to block out most of the rain by walking under the awnings and balconies hanging over the sidewalk. The wind had begun to pick up and was cutting through my thick coat, I had to find someplace warm to go and collect my thoughts. I still saw the image of the slaughtered woman laid out in a black waxy circle, carved up and sacrificed for whatever horrible barbaric reason. Scholars said magic was a gift from a divine being and given to the people of the world to use for good and to help those in need. But from what I saw there was nothing good about what was performed in that house. Maybe I was too closed minded to understand the powers of the arcane. That’s why I wasn’t gifted enough to use it. Regardless of how I felt about it though, there was something strange going on here. Something like this never happens just once, it repeats itself until whoever is committing the savage acts was caught or they got what they wanted. If Makar and his merry band of Magi were brought in to take a look at the situation, it meant that the royal court needed to have it supervised. The court only took concern to crimes in the city when it either benefited them or to stop mass hysteria. The ladder would have happened if word of the murder got out into the general populace. But the court covered their own asses when they sent Magi to take a look. Citizens didn’t care for the Magi just like everyone else, but they felt safer and calmed down when they took care of business because they almost always got results. If only they had seen what I had though, not even the Holy Mother church and their exorcists and magic scholars would put me at ease.
I had a plan though, something that might produce answers before Cameron brought his hammer down on my own little investigation. I also needed to get out of the rain. A large wooden sign hung above an entrance to a shop a few yard in front of me it read “Ludo’s Alchemical Emporium” I hurried my pace towards the front door and made my way inside. The store wasn’t empty as usual but it wasn’t anywhere near packed. Alchemy was an expensive hobby and most rich people never bothered with it since healers did all the work for them if they needed to remedy a cure for a sickness or disease. Ludo was an eccentric fellow. I had known him since I joined the guard due to his knowledge of Magic, Alchemy, and just about any strange artifact you could bring to him. He was a tall lanky dark skinned man whose ears stuck out like carriage doors. He wore a black robe and thick leather gloves that seemed to never leave his hands. When I came in and approached the counter there were a few people who had escaped the rain roaming slowly through the store curiously staring at ingredients and premade potions sitting uniformly on their shelves who turned their gaze to me momentarily as I moved past them. Ludo was standing at the far left end of the counter staring absentmindedly outside a window at the rain pouring from the sky and hitting the glass.
“Ludo,” I said, my voice breaking the silence that filled the store. “What are you staring at?”
“Yessss…” he said, holding out the word as if he had forgotten he was going to say next. “How can I help you?” he kept his gaze at the window ignoring my question, not even bothering to look at who was talking to him.
“Man, it’s me, Harland.”
“Huh?” he turned his head toward me and stared vacantly for a moment before snapping the rest of his body in my direction. “Well hello my friend!” he came over and shook my hand and bowed to me. “What brings you to my humble shop today? More whitening paste perhaps? Maybe you’re taking up alchemy as a hobby, hmmm?” his lofty careless demeanor had changed in a split second to a manic overly animated one, which I had seen him do countless times before.
