Investigation

"That involves me how?" The Mage said before he started to walk back into his room, 'I thought something interesting would be happening.'

"Everyone will be questioned, even you. They found an arm in the well." The mother said while covering her daughter's ears. Her daughter just held onto a cloth doll as she watched everything happen around her.

'The well?' The Mage turned back to the pair, he followed them down the stairs and into the street.

A crowd had gathered outside the inn, the guards were trying to direct people into the town hall. There were only five maybe six outsiders in the entire village, they stood out like sore thumbs in the crowd. The only one occupied by a villager would be the Mage, making him the least suspicious out of all the outsiders.

Robin had already settled on the roof of the inn, watching the crowd from above.

After the inn was emptied by the guards, they moved everyone into the town hall. The building stood the tallest in the village, in the moonlit night, it seemed to tower over the crowd as they were funnelled into the building.

The hall was filled with hushed voices and upset children, everything was rushed making the atmosphere tense.

A man walked to the stage at the front and shouted over the crowd "QUIET!".

It first started in the elders before making its way to the children, silence slowly descended on the hall. The man then started to speak while signalling to the guards.

"There has been a murder." The man shouted to the crowd, "There has been a murder in our village, one of our own has been killed and their body mutilated, we will find who did this and we will bring them before this town to get their punishment." The man slowly shouted, his skills in leading showing as the room slowly got engrossed into his words.

The mood of the crowd shifted.

"Will you admit to your crimes? Will you prolong the inevitable? Will you cause unmeasurable suffering for everyone as they search for you?" The man said as he pointed at the crowd, slowly everyone looked around them.

Soon the outsiders excluding the Mage were surrounded by empty space, they would rather believe an outsider did it than a villager.

The little girl hid behind her mother, their thoughts chaotic. The Mage, however, had an idea what he would consider brilliant and effective.

The Mage used his hands to amplify his voice as he shouted: "Why don't you bring us to the body, the murderer will be filled with guilt and will give in then!"

The man's face turned towards the Mage, his eyes searching this hooded person for any sign of semblance. "And who is to say that you didn't kill them? That you aren't using this to cast suspicion on another!"

The Mage grinned underneath his hood before shouting, "Because I would leave the body intact." The man looked slightly shocked before nodding towards the guards, everyone was soon brought out by the man's order.

The sky was pitch black with the light from the torches cutting through the darkness, there was a slight breeze as they walked through the night.

There were eight people who seemed to be isolated from the crowd, five of them looked like travellers while the other three appeared to be townsfolk.

They soon reached the well.

Grey cobblestone walls covered in thick moss, no roof covered the well from the rain, a rotten bucket. A wooden cap sealed the well shut, on top lay various plants and an old set of rosary beads.

A pool of blood was at the foot of the well, its colour seemed to seep into the night making it crimson or maybe the night was seeping into the blood. The smell of blood lingered in the air, the trees swayed as the wind picked up.

There was something in the pool of blood, it had been left there. The crime scene almost perfectly preserved.

Some wept, some turned away, some showed interest. No one showed any guilt.

The man from before walked up to the Mage before saying, "Any other bright ideas huh?" he said while grinning. "May I examine the body?" The Mage said while grinning too, his humour well hidden in the depths of his hood.

Once again the man was shocked, the Mage repeatedly said things which could be used against him but didn't seem afraid of being accused. The man quickly shook these thoughts of his head, he must treat everyone equally.

He nodded to the Mage while asking two guards to make sure he didn't do anything suspicious.

One of the guards jokingly asked, "Work with dead bodies often?" The Mage scoffed, "I used to come in contact with them daily." The Mage said before leaving it at that.

His mind going back to when he didn't wander but had a place to live and a job to do, all left to show is his research and the skills he learnt while there.

'Sadly I never completed my research, teacher said that if I did I would become stronger but it would be hard, what a mysterious bastard.'

The Mage started to angrily examine the corpse, 'Acting all high and mighty just because he was an Awakened for longer, no wonder the hunters nearly caught us a few times, he didn't even act human let alone normal.'

The Mage got some of the blood on his fingers before rubbing it, the blood was almost spongy in his fingers, it didn't leak through his fingers or lose its shape.

"They have been dead for at least a few hours." The Mage said before reaching for the shape in the blood.

It was an arm, the wound was rough like the limb had been torn off. The fingers still moved slightly, 'Death's grasp hasn't fully taken hold of the body.'

'I would if I used the arm to make an Undead, would it regenerate its body?' The Mage thought as the townsfolk backed away from him, anyone who associated or worked with dead people was to be avoided.

While scholars had learnt more about the world, only the nobles stopped believing supernatural stories or legends which passed among peasants.