2 Monday: Library

He only rose from his seat at three o'clock, going out for a walk under the blue sky.

He lived in one of the outer city's many districts, specifically District 265-C.

Districts were numbered clockwise in order from 1 to 360 according to the arms of a clock, starting from due east. Over time, additional subdistricts had been added as the city infrastructure and population grew, additional subrings numbered from the innermost to the outermost in alphabetical order. The outer city had reached subdistrict K, each about the size of a municipality and with their own independent Municipal Halls, this consisted of deputy-mayor office and a municipal council that had the powers and jurisdiction of an actual City Hall anywhere else on the planet.

These municipal councils each ran independent Municipal Police Departments, and the Grand City Hall ran both an oversight committee, and a Grand City Police Corps. These handled crime and law enforcement of mundane, or fairly common form, with even a paramilitary wing.

An hour later, Don got to the public library.

He wondered why the place was empty, before recalling that it was the week commemorating the founding of the city. In the distance, he could see the massive pillars of water created by the dragons at the City Walls, sparkling and shimmering and coloured by beautiful rainbows.

"Hello Gloria," Don greeted the receptionist, her eyes didn't rise from the novel she was reading as she actively ignored him.

He went to the section with magitech journals, planting his bum on one of the provided couches.

"How may we help you?" came the melodic voice of Anna, Hannah, and Anne. The three fairy sisters were employed as assistants by The Library, and would appear in whichever affiliated library a Librarian appeared in.

"I'm feeling a little hungry, care to join me for Tea?" he offered the three fey.

"Of course, why not?" they gleefully answered, conjuring a tray of tea.

He continued leafing through the journals, listening to the girls chattering like teenagers. He only occasionally answered some questions directly presented to him.

"Have you heard about the Circus shenanigans in the city?" Hannah asked him.

"What shenanigans?"

"Earlier today, the Circus hijacked the parades and events in different parts of the city; they really have the City and Municipal Police hamstrung... once again" piped in Anna.

"What happened?"

"In the low and medium alphabet districts, they cast random people into virtual game dimensions, mostly simple innocuous games. In the games, failure resulted in ejection from the illusory game world, but winners were treated with gifts in form of artefacts, depending on the points they earned..."

"What was more interesting," Anne," is that everything was broadcast live on 'The Stream'. And at the end, a video was released to all participants." "The video was a recording of a city official, with his face and voice anonymized, signing a deal with some hooded figures in his office in the dark..."

"Their entry by dark mist was suspect enough, but what they discuss is high treason," Hannah hijacked her sister's narration," they are discussing plans to suppress several criminal investigations by the Municipal Police, and interfering with detectives from the City Police, including bribes..."

"However, that was bad enough, but with each case mentioned, it was revealed that they were missing person cases from some of the Venatian and Blue Hellhounds territories. with images of some of the victims and their families..." Anne continued the tale.

"After that, in the afternoon, a second incident happened."

"They visited major parades, casting powerful silence spells and playing audio recordings of police interrogations of various victims and witnesses," Anna, "all the videos were poor examples of police conduct, but what was more intriguing was that the recordings were about the same cases revealed in the leaked video."

"The City Police Mage department eventually managed to clear all the sound seals around the city streets," Hannah went on, "at the end, cards rained on the crowds at the parade bearing images of police officers from District 364-H, the respected officers were found dead at their desks." Anna finished the tale.

"Needless to say, the Grand City police have announced formal investigations, and are calling on the public for information."

"Fat chance they'd be able to get anything done."

Don kept his peace.

He left at 8 o'clock, after listening to the gossipy sisters' chatter on through dinner. He took a leisurely back to his house.

As he sat at the apartment balcony, he watched the evening traditional fireworks show, normally a colourful display.

He shook his head as a picture mosaic was created in the sky using illusion magic. A 3D image of the mayor of District 364-H, standing and waving to an invisible crowd from a podium.

"Tomorrow is going to be a busy day." He muttered to Bobby, who docilely lay by his lounge chair.