We didn't really have any concrete leads yet. We had the remains of the poison. We knew that the barkeeper had the best chances…. No. How did this work? I had seen cop shows before. There were three things to consider. I rubbed my temples. Alibi? Was that one of them?

  I shook my head. No. First one…

  “Henry?”Rebecca's voice rang through my head. I looked up.

  “Yes?”

  “You ok?”, she asked, leaning down. All eyes in the room were on me.

  “Trying to figure out where to go from here.”, I said.

  “Leave town?”, Simon said incredulously. “Why stay here any longer?”

  Now it was my turn to be incredulous. “Because this is the second time we've been attacked.”, I said. “And we should be figuring out who or why because I'm not sure I wanna keep getting attacked.”

  Simon opened his mouth, then closed it. “Can't argue with that, actually. As much as I'd like. Ok, but if we have no leads by tomorrow we′ll leave. We have a schedule to keep.”

  Slumping in on himself after spending what little energy he had left to see his daughter, Robin helped him back to his bed.

  I looked at everybody. “There are three things we need.” I half-remembered them, but now I had to remember them quickly.

  ?

  “First. Who had the opportunity?” I looked at Rebecca. “Do you think you can still….” What was the word…

  ?

  “Track their scent?”, Rebecca asked. “Should be possible, not too crazy about my chances to do it. How important would it be?”

  ?

  In that moment, the second point came to me.

  ?

  "We'll need to cross-reference who had the opportunity to do it, which could only have been someone at the inn, since we otherwise only eat what Simon cooks, with who had the means to do it. I wrapped the rocks in some cloth. Despite having been vomited up, they were remarkably dry and had no scent of their own. If anything, they seemed more like gemstones right now.

  ?

  “I'm gonna go and try to find someone to figure out what caused that.”, I said as I rose up again. “We might be lucky, and it's something not readily available, that would help us cut down between the people who could have and who would-

  ?

  The third term came back, finally.

  We could cut the numbers between those who had the opportunity and those who had the means. Then we can figure out from those people who have a reason to do so.”

  ?

  Those were the three terms! Motive, Ability, and Opportunity.

  ?

  “And then?”, Emily asked weakly.

  ?

  “Then we know who attacked us twice now.”

  ?

  “No. What THEN?”, she repeated. My mind went silent again.

  ?

  “I don't know yet. We′ll have to figure that out, depending on who is doing it.”, I said, honestly. Then, fearing for more questions I had no answer to, I clapped my hands together.

  ?

  “Ok. I'm gonna leave to look for someone to check this out.”, I looked at Rebecca. “Please take the scents, ask the owner for names if possible, anything helps, really.”

  ?

  After a few moments, Rebecca nodded. “Are you gonna take Nico with you?”, she asked.

  ?

  “We′ll need someone to keep an eye out for Emily and Simon, they can't defend themselves and might need water or something.”

  ?

  Robin raised a wing and gave a short chirp.

  ?

  “Robin′s volunteering.”, Rebecca said.

  ?

  “If you say you don't need her with you, that's fine, but I don't want you getting attacked either.”

  ?

  “So if they′re protected, are you gonna take Nico or not?”

  ?

  “If he wants, he can come, not gonna tell him what to do.”, I said. Nico didn't wait before stepping to my side.

  ?

  “I appreciate it.”, I said as I started making my way to the door. “Now let′s all get started.”

  ?

  Robin whistled as I left, causing Rebecca to give a chuckle. “Agreed, he does seem pretty Canid when he′s getting all assertive.” The tone she used made it clear she didn't exactly consider that a negative thing.

  ?

  Closing the door behind us, Rebecca parted ways with us as she took the air around the seats we had found Emily and Simon, while Nico and I stepped on the street.

  ?

  “I appreciate you joining me, Nico.”, I said. After a moment of hesitation, Nico smiled and nodded at me.

  ?

  “I feel guilty for this whole thing.”, I admitted to him. “If I weren't here, the two wouldn't have been attacked those two times. All cause-” Did Nico know that I was a Rolander?

  ?

  “Has Rebecca told you two about my…. condition?”, I asked.

  ?

  Visibly unsure, Nico gave me a half nod.

  ?

  I bit my lip. “Then, for now, let`s keep it at, I'm worried I might be at least part of the reason that they got attacked.”

  ?

  Nico pats me on the shoulder with his feathered hand, the movement blowing a small gust of air into my face. “I appreciate it.”, I said. “Now. Next step.”

  ?

  “Activate [Emperors Gaze]. Target Alchemist.” The world dulled around me, its colors washing away. Nico raised his eyebrows when he noticed that my eyes had become purple.

  ?

  “Vide Family bloodline ability.”, I explained as we walked through the streets, seeking out an alchemist. On the way, I tried different search terms, eventually rotating between a handful of them. Soon after, I had to stop, as my eyes began to feel like they were burning.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  ?

  Warning, [Emperors Gaze] has been strained. Further use of your eyes may cause damage to your ability to see.

  ?

  I sat on a bench, rubbing my eyes. “This isn't good. We need to figure out what was used. Otherwise, we won't know-”

  ?

  I felt a feathered finger on my face. I stopped rubbing my eyes and opened them slightly to look at Nico. He pointed at his own eye. “You can see something?”, I asked. Nico shook his head.

  ?

  He stood up, facing me. He pointed at his eye, then at me. “You can see me?”

  ?

  He shook his head again.

  ?

  He pointed at me, then his own eye, before miming grabbing the bag I kept the remains of the poison in.

  ?

  I closed my eyes again. “You think I could try using [Emperors Gaze] to figure out what the poison is? I need to know what I'm looking for.”, I said.

  ?

  After a few moments of silence, I felt Nico′s feathers wrap around my wrist. I didn't hesitate for more than a few moments before getting up and letting myself be dragged behind him. With my eyes closed, the texture of his feathery fingers was quite interesting. Before, I'd have said it was akin to a feather dust when it was more akin to a sort of claw made of feathered pipe cleaners. Nico's grip was firm, yet at the same time, his fingers were so thin, I wondered if he'd break his own fingers if he clenched a fist too hard or tried striking someone with it. I was pretty sure that I could break from his grip if I needed to.

  ?

  I didn't even notice how he dragged me along, left then right, then left again, jerking me behind him like I was keeping an overly energetic dog on a leash.

  ?

  The Harpies in full seemed quite fragile in build. I wondered if they could fly. That would've been the tradeoff, right? Birds had thin bones, and in return, they could fly. But I remembered some post about how if a human were to try and fly with wings, their wings would need to be so big that the weight of the wings would need bigger muscles, which would mean more weight, which meant more wing size, and so on and so forth.

  ?

  A piece of wood suddenly materialised in my way and knocked me down.

  ?

  “By the gods.”, an elderly voice said. “Is everything ok?”

  ?

  Had I lost Nico somewhere?

  ?

  As the new pair of hands helped me up, I could hear an apologetic chittering from Nico. “Its fine.”, I said.

  ?

  Something warm trickled down my face. “Oh my.”, the voice said. “Lacerted your whole forehead there.”

  ?

  I heard them rummage through something a few steps away as Nico twittered at me at speeds that Rebecca had called too fast to understand earlier.

  ?

  “Nico, I don't speak Corvid, you know that.”, I said as a pair of quiet footsteps closed in on me.

  ?

  “Oh, who do we have here?”, a soft male voice said. It didn't belong to Nico or the feminine voice. A pair of fingers found a spot between my eyes and moved upwards before I could stop them.

  “Hey, you can't jus-”

  ?

  Before I could finish speaking, my forehead began to itch like crazy, while the burning sensation in my eyes lessened.

  ?

  “You′re welcome.”, the voice said and before I could turn to look at them, their source vanished out the door, just when the lady who had helped me up came in. I recognized her; she was the owner of the bookstore, Rebecca, and I had spent our hard-earned wages. It felt like a week had passed since I had last been there, even though it had been just yesterday.

  ?

  “Oh, you were the customer who came with their wife.”, she said. She ran a thumb over my forehead. “That is strange.”, she said. “You were bleeding quite a lot. Where did it go?”

  ?

  “A… man, I think?”, I said. “he wiped his fingers on my forehead.”

  ?

  The woman blinked twice before groaning in frustration.

  ?

  “I told Kit to stop doing that.”, she said. “We′ll get into trouble with the healers' guild at some point.” Pinching the bridge of her nose, she muttered: “I am very sorry, sir. He doesn't listen when I tell him these things. Always out for what he wants, what he finds interesting. Like his father.”, She sighed. “But you′re not here to hear me ramble. Are you here without your wife today?”, she asked. Then she looked at Nico.

  ?

  “Yeah, the young man was here with his wife the other day.”, she repeated. “She seemed like a very nice woman.”, she said pointedly. “Have you met her? You should.” Nico raised his wings in confusion.

  ?

  “Oh, it's just so rare that someone comes in with their wife and then their… side piece just a day later.”

  ?

  Nico raised his eyebrows before laughing, which confused the lady.

  ?

  “Nico′s a friend of my wife.”, I said. Nico pointed at me. “And of mine. Nothing romantic going on.”

  ?

  The lady furrowed her brow before getting up. “Fine by me, I guess. What brings you tw-”

  ?

  Nico did not give her the time to finish her question, already stepping away.

  ?

  “I don't know, I said, he kinda just brought me here.” Silence claimed the room, only interrupted by Nico checking and looking through the shelves, looking for something.

  ?

  “I can tell you what book-”

  ?

  “Nico doesn't speak.”, I interrupted.

  ?

  “Oh.”

  ?

  More awkward silence. “So you thought I was cheating on my wife with Nico?”

  ?

  Her tail rose stiffly. “I didn't say that.”

  ?

  “Of course not.”

  ?

  Even more awkward silence.

  ?

  Nico returned with a big tome that he slammed onto the counter. The thing looked big enough to weigh half as much as he at the very least. A handful of coins changed owners. Where did he get the money from?

  ?

  Nico grabbed my sleeve and pulled me alongside him towards the other end of the counter. Opening the book, he began flipping through the pages.

  ?

  “This isn't a library-”, the felid woman said before Nico pointed at the counter where she hadn't finished yet picking up the money. The message was clear: “I paid for this, I'm reading it.”

  ?

  A few moments later, Nico stopped flipping through the pages, nodded to himself, and got up, shoving the book into my arms. As he led me out of the bookstore, he gave the lady some side eye as the door closed behind us.

  ?

  While the streets had almost been empty before, or at least I thought they had been, walking around blind and all, they were full of people now, all facing towards a wooden podium that looked like it had quickly been put together.

  ?

  Up from a podium, a voice sounded over the crowd. “Again, people.”, a man said. He wore a polished steel chestplate with copper, no, gold accents and a sword by his side.

  ?

  “As of today, nobody is allowed to enter or leave town, in order to ensure the safety of its populace against the threat of a five-headed goblin matron.”

  ?

  No matter who had tried to kill us, if they were still in town, we were now trapped with them, waiting to be attacked by someone we knew nothing about who could strike at any moment. We had survived twice, but who said the third time wouldn't do us in, or the third? The fourth? We had to find out who wanted to see us dead and fast.

  ?

  “You can't do that!”, a voice yelled out of the crowd.

  ?

  “We have rights!”, another sounded over the crowd.

  ?

  Insults and threats were raised, and people started throwing things at the man, who, in response, simply raised a hand, upon which the guards stationed at the foot of the podium drew their weapons.

  _________________________________________________________________________

  Current Status:

  ?

  Stats:

  ?

  Power: 2

  Agility: 1

  Toughness: 3

  Mental: 2

  Perception: 3

  Mana: N/A

  ?

  Effects:

  ?

  Night Vision Lvl. 1

  Overlapping Protection Lvl. 1

  ?

  Skills:

  ?

  [Basic Core Technique] Lvl. 1

  [Behind every great person, there's their spouse] Lvl. 2

  [Emperors Gaze] Lvl. 2

  [New World Mental Block] Lvl. N/A

  ?

  Known Ritual Spells:

  [Basic Healing Magic]

  [Determine Value]

  [Filth to Food]

  [Ignite]

  [Liquid Equilibrium]

  [Rite of True Death]

  [Simple Transportation Magic]

  [Trigger]

  ?

  Ratings, Comments, Follows, and Favorites would be appreciated! Thank you in advance.

  Have a wonderful day.