85 The Griffin Inquiry
Two people are walking in the deserted streets of the poor district of Cintra. One of the people is a man, and the other a woman. The man is wearing a black outfit with golden embroidery and long red and white clothes that stick out. A hood hides his face, but his jade eyes give the impression that they penetrate your soul.
The woman is wearing a unique and rare leather outfit. On her back, two swords are stored in their scabbards. She has predatory yellow eyes and snow-white hair. She has a thin, sharp nose, and her lips are covered with light brown lipstick. The woman has a noble, pensive, and lonely expression on her face.
The assassin and the witcher are walking through the muddy streets of the working-class district of Cintra. They are only dimly lit by the few braziers scattered along the roads. Braziers are all surrounded by vagabonds, drunkards, and beggars who have found the only way to warm up is to gather around them.
The sounds of footsteps, talking, and shouting creates an unusual atmosphere for a cold night when a creature is roaming around. This might have been true for the posh or more prosperous neighborhoods, but for this poor neighborhood where almost everyone is a wretch, death is sometimes their only comfort and way of salvation.
Every few meters, every time Saibus and Lyndis manage to carry braziers, they are stared at by the beggars. They stare at them. They wonder why a common thief and a mutant are teaming up and what trouble they will cause in town. Since the poor always pay for the mistakes of the rich, it is always the poor who get killed when there is trouble.
Lyndis and Saibus don't consider the looks the beggars give them. Their business is theirs alone, even though it will save the lives of many of these beggars. But this is the privilege of the ignorant. Not having to worry about anything but their own business. The happiest are the ignorant and the stupid.
Walking through the mud at a steady pace, Saibus and Lyndis quickly traverse the city's underbelly. Their route leads them to a part of the city that is both poor and well-to-do. The district delimits the city's underbelly and the commercial area of Cintra. The district is, of course, closed by guard patrols. But nothing can stop an Assassin from entering if he has the urge.
"So, now that we're here, how do you want to get us into the city hospital? Guards secure the area. And while they're not elite guards by the looks of it, they seem to be doing their jobs properly." Lyndis questions Saibus about how they will get inside to inspect the remains.
"Well, there are a lot of ways. As I told you, the steward is releasing you against the monster killing the townspeople. Unfortunately, I don't have any paper with the royal seal because the king doesn't care about the little people dying in his city." Saibus looked at the troop of guards posted at one of the entrances to the district.
Lyndis sighed. She knows Saibus is right about the king's attitude, but it saddens her. She was born and lived part of her childhood in this dear city. She loves it, after all.
"But don't worry, an Assassin gets in where he wants to. Besides, lend your grappling hook less." Saibus turns to Lyndis, holding out his hand.
Lyndis looks at him before pulling out a steel grappling hook with a long silver chain from her satchel.
"Hold but take great care of it. It's one of the only relics of the forgotten wizards of old that I've been able to find," Lyndis says firmly.
"Don't worry, little griffin, it's not the last one you'll get," replies Saibus.
"Wh-" Lyndis was about to call out Saibus on what he just said, but he had already run to the wall in front of them. Lyndis sees firsthand the legendary Assassin's climb.
Saibus runs to the wall in front of them. He jumps on the wall and takes three steps before jumping back. In the air, he turns around and hangs on to an exposed beam. Saibus climbs and balances on it. He advances on the other beams used to support the floor of the house. He gains speed and jumps on the second to last beam. Saibus lands on the edge of a closed shutter without any noise. Saibus puts his feet on the shutter's hinges and starts climbing the rest of the façade.
He climbs quickly and arrives on the roof of the house. He glances at Lyndis before jamming the grappling hook into a chimney and throwing the chain down. Lyndis approaches the chain and begins to climb. When she reaches the top, she sees Saibus sitting on the roof as if he owns it. He looks out over the rest of the neighborhood. He looks specifically at the location of the hospital.
"Took you long enough to put that chain together, scribbler." Saibus teases Lyndis with a slight smirk.
"No, you're the one who's too fast to climb facades. Besides, don't call me GRIFFIN." Lyndis retorts to Saibus by pressing the word doodle.
"Know that to me. You are one. In every way, but let's not dwell on it."
Lyndis complies. She retrieves her grappling hook and puts it in her satchel. She positions herself next to Saibus on the roof slope.
"Well, now that we are here, what do we do? We're still not in the neighborhood on the outskirts on a roof."
"Simple, we jump." Saibus looks at Lyndis and shines his hand. This makes Lyndis's medallion buzz, and it doesn't stop buzzing. A current of air is then projected on her and him. He then runs and jumps into the void. The following roof is at a little less than ten meters. Contrary to Lyndis' expectations, Saibus does not fall but manages to jump that far. He turns to her and beckons her to follow him.
"Come, you are under my air magic for about ten minutes before the spell stops." Saibus then resumes his run without waiting for Lyndis' response. He runs at full speed towards the next roof in the direction of the hospital.
Lyndis watches Saibus go in the distance. She approaches the edge and looks at the ground about ten meters lower. She steps back a few feet. She lowers her breath and pops up like a cheetah. She arrives very quickly at the edge of the roof. She takes support on the right leg and jumps. In the air, she feels that she is lighter.
Nevertheless, it is not the only thing she feels. She feels a force pulling her forward. A mighty force that allows her to easily cross the gap between the two roofs.
Lyndis runs in haste, not to be left behind by Saibus. The two of them run on the roofs of Cintra, jumping from roof to roof like all the Assassins. Their shadows play with the ground and the light of the braziers. The few guards who can only see their shadows are far too busy falling into their beer glasses. Only the Moon can see the Assassin and the Grim Reaper moving swiftly over the city's houses.
This show offered to the Moon must end like any show. It is on a flat roof covered with black tiles with many chimneys that it ends. The two contemplate the backyard of the building.
"Well, let's go downstairs." Saibus makes a hand movement and jumps. He lands perfectly well with a roll to the ground. Lyndis then jumps, understanding that Saibus has cast a spell alleging their falls. And as she thought, she landed without any problem on the ground.
She gets up and approaches Saibus, who is next to the door. She positions herself on the other side.
"Well, here is the plan. I'm going to cast a kind of silence with me in the center. The spell is a dome with a two-meter radius. It will prevent any sound from forming, whether it's our voice or the noise we're going to make. We will have to communicate only by signs. However, we can hear the sound made outside the bubble. If you have a sign that allows you to amplify your senses, it is the doodle moment. You have the better sense of smell of the two of us. If a particular scent comes from the corpses, you should be able to smell it and identify it."
Lyndis nods and shoots a stream of white light toward her.
"Do," Lyndis says only one word and moves into position. Saibus then casts his spell. Lyndis feels her griffin-headed medallion begin to twitch. Saibus takes two hooks out of his sleeve and inserts them into the lock. It takes him no less than a minute to unlock the door. He puts his tools away and opens the door.
The hospital is silent, sad, and gloomy. The walls are black with a light, unlit candles as the only ornaments. Entering the building, the two move quickly, with Saibus in the lead. He has the plan of the hospital in mind. They walk through the empty corridors, the closed doors, and the putrid smell of decomposition. They quickly arrive at a staircase leading to the morgue. The assassin and the sorceress descend the stairs leading them underground.
Descending underground, Saibus and Lyndis were greeted by a small hallway with crates, shelves with surgical tools, and jars with fetuses. Animal and human limbs are preserved in oil. Tables with open and closed books. Plants hanging under the support beams of the ceilings.
The hallway continues into a corridor with many doors spaced apart. Saibus steps forward from the first door. In front of it is a plaque that reads "Crematorium 1". On the opposite door, the same plaque is hung, but this time it says "Autopsy 1". Saibus feels a stone hitting his back. He turns around and sees Lyndis holding a book in her hands. The book is open and comprehensive.
He moves closer as Lyndis places the book on the table where she found it. Saibus quickly flips through the two pages of the book and realizes that the book is one of the city's death records. It is the latest one because the last entry recorded was today or yesterday because midnight has already passed.
In the entry for 7 Birke 1208, Saibus can read that another body has been found in the lower parts of the city. The body shows mutilation marks and fang marks. The body is pale and thin. The skin of the body is frail and marked by time. The body does not show any toxins. Other similar entries are written about the last few months. Saibus can read that the last body is in the storage room with tag #7.
Saibus gets up from his reading and follows Lyndis, who has gone a little ahead. He catches up with her in the back room, a large room with nothing but some black cloth on the floor on which the remains lie. The remains are numerous and have no distinction. There are men, women, children, people in the prime of life, and old people.
Saibus can see that Lyndis is crouched down next to a body. He hears her slowly moving her arms and legs and turning them over to inspect them. He approaches, and the thin audible noise stops, but not Lyndis' movement. Saibus lowers himself next to Lyndis. The body is quite pale and thin, and her skin is fragile. At the slightest touch, too sudden, she can leave.
She throws him a glance and then points out the various deep lacerations on the corpse. She moves her hands away, indicating that the things that inflicted these wounds are substantial. She clenches her fist and makes a move on one of the mutilations. She shows that a blade does not make it but a claw.
She turns it delicately with the help of Saibus this time. The body on its belly, Saibus, can see without Lyndis help scratches all over its back. Scratches made by nails, very long nails. On the neck of the victim, there are many hickeys and marks of kisses. Both of them put him gently on his back.
Suddenly, Lyndis turns her head in the direction of the stairs. She taps his shoulder to attract his attention before pointing to the hallway. Saibus' gaze turns stern, realizing that someone is coming down the stairs and into the hallway. Saibus emits a flame from his finger written in the air. The flames take the form of letters and fade away a few seconds later.
Lyndis quickly reads the flames.
"If we're not done, let's go out through the sewers."
Lyndis looks at Saibus with a blank stare. Footsteps approach, allowing Saibus to hear them as well. He wastes no time and approaches one of the walls. Lyndis follows him, and the footsteps get closer and closer. A whistle reaches them, then a noise of flesh. Then follows a deep voice.
"Who goes there?"
Saibus taps on a brick, and the wall slowly moves aside. The light of a muted lantern brings out the first corpses in the room. A man then enters the under another pound of flesh. The man at the entrance scans the room with his pernicious brown eyes.
"By the plague, what is this obnoxious noise doing." The stocky man approaches the wall from which the fleshy noise comes. He reaches up and grabs something with a liveliness that should be foreign to him.
"There you are. You're the one squealing." In the man's hand, a giant rat, of all monstrousness. The man laughs, hangs his lantern on his belt, and takes out his knife. With a sharp blow, the rat's head falls to the ground. A spurt of blood stains the wall, the man's tunic, and the ground. But the latter only laughs.
"Well, let's spread your blood and guts all over the place, so your brothers don't roam around here. I'll have your head placed with the others. You'll look great in my collection.
