Seira’s limbs were aching. Each and every inch of her body seemed to be on fire and the young woman, in spite of her relatively high stamina, was suffering from unexplainable symptoms to an unknown disease. It was past nightfall in Orchidia Town, a doctor’s visit was impossible and even though she could barely handle everything that she felt all at once, the young woman remained stubborn and quiet about her suffering. Her condition had gotten worse by each and every hour and once she had arrived in Orchidia the girl barely made it to the inn where she usually rented a room during her stays, only to realize that there was absolutely no way for her to stay in a place where she was well known among the staff. Upon realizing that her efforts to find a comfortable place to live in had been in vain, Seira used what was left of her strength to carry herself to a rundown looking place, far away from the city’s center, somewhere close to a border with a forest right beneath her window. Seira chose a room on the first floor, which wasn’t too high up so she could always jump outside if she had to. The place was quite awful, hardly anyone lived here and it was cheap and in bad condition—but right now she was only grateful to be alone. After making it into her room she fell on top of the bed and although sleeping proved to be an impossible task at first, she eventually slumbered for a few hours and regained some energy. When she woke up the pain was still there, but it was something she could endure for now. Something about the stinging pain in her throat, the blurred vision during day time and the faint burns on on her skin when she stood directly in the sun made her feel not only uncomfortable, but also eerie in the strangest way. Seira wasn’t stupid, she knew exactly what was happening to her but the young lass wasn’t willing to give up on herself just yet. The events of the past two weeks had been more than just confusing and while she couldn’t exactly place what and why it was happening to her, she was getting a grasp, a general idea and it seemed that soon she wouldn’t be able to run from it anymore.

Seira was turning.

After being bitten and seemingly left to die by a female vampire going by the name of ‘Bianca’ (whom she had never heard of again) her body had been going through some significant changes and while none of them were visible, she could very much feel them inside every single one of her bones. Seira refused to give in to something she did not understand but at the same time began to realize that this fight wasn’t a fight she could win, even if she tried her hardest. It was awful, to say the least, and she didn’t even want to think about what was going to happen to her once the transformation was completed.

[516/3000]

If only possible the poor girl had to get her mind off things. She needed an escape, something to distract her from herself and she thought the best way to do so was to find work. Granted, Orchidia Town had always been an excellent place to find work. The town was friendly, so were the citizens and the people who lived here always had something to do, simple jobs and less simple ones, but they all paid a fair amount of money and truthfully—that was all that mattered to the young woman. She had long stopped caring about the idea of being a good (or a bad) person and all she did, she purely did for herself. Seira put on a few clothes, including a long dark coat and stumbled outside. She did realize that her outfit made her appear sort of fishy, especially when walking around late at night or in the evening, but at this point it could hardly be helped. She didn’t feel too well in her own skin and as humanity slipped away from her, the girl desperately tried to pretend as if it simply wasn’t happening. She ignored all warning signs and even though she was completely incapable of dealing with such a life changing situation by herself, Seira didn’t really have a better option. She was all alone after all.

The streets of Orchidia were mostly empty during this time of the day, but she could hear music, loud voices and laughter coming from the pubs and inns along the road. The people were still awake of course, and after all it was a place where many travellers and wizards, just like herself, came to have a good time in between jobs and missions. Seira wasn’t interested in joining them, not that she thought she could anyways, and decided to go on a little stroll. The fresh air felt good against her skin and for the first time in hours she finally felt like she could breath properly again. Although it had gotten fairly dark already, she was suddenly able to spot a person approaching her from a distance, and while there were no street lights nearby (the girl had disappeared into a darker alley to protect herself from curious eyes), the person approached her steadily, almost making her a bit nervous. Of course Seira was prepared to fight if she had to, and while the figure appeared in no way threatening, it still made her feel uneasy. She was able to make out the features of a young man, perhaps still a child and before she could say much or respond to any of their actions, Seira was given a letter and the person disappeared as quickly and mysteriously as they had shown up in first place. Seira was bedazzled at first sight, but upon taking a closer look at the letter itself, the mystery was quickly solved. A smile crept across the woman’s pretty face and the faintest of sighs escaped her lips.

[1017/3000]

“Dex Miller,” his name was written all across the white envelope, which addressed her, Seira, personally. “This man, out of all people?” She spoke to herself, quietly laughing as she opened the letter. It was almost ironic, and a little concerning that he had found out about not only her arrival but also where she was currently staying at. Perhaps Dex Miller was a true detective after all and even if he wasn’t, he certainly had work for her to do and she appreciated that he was going quietly about their business, not making a big fuzz. Dex Miller himself was well known among the townspeople and Seira herself had worked for him quite a few times before. He was lovable, a dork, an idiot even but none of this was exactly his fault. He had gotten into an accident many years ago, according to her sources, and upon waking up considered himself a professional detective—which he was not, of course, but explaining that to him was impossible and since he didn’t cause any harm to anybody, no one really wanted to burst his bubble. The people in Orchidia were many things, but they surely weren’t heartless. When Seira opened the letter she found out that it was a simple one, stating that Dex needed to visit her at a certain location as soon as possible to discuss the details of a job in which she would surely be interested in. He also didn’t fail to mention the reward, which was ridiculously high to be coming from someone like him so Seira decided to immediately give it a try, seeing how she needed that distraction after all. The meeting point was behind an old, empty store close by the west side of the town and upon arrival Seira could already spot the man from afar. She noticed that he didn’t see her approaching until she stepped into the light, however, and greeted him by simply waving her hand and saying “Yo,” in a rather nonchalant way. Dex, of course and as always, had come up with a magnificent plan that was going to restore his pride and honor among the people of Orchidia and he was going to share all of it with her. “Seira, with your return I will be requesting your help once again. You have served me well before and I expect nothing less than perfection of you! This plan I have his perfect in itself, surely it will work and we will both benefit from it, in one way or another,” he explained proudly and nodded along with his words. “As a matter of gaining the respects of everyone in this town, finally making them understand that I am a good detective, it is my plan to recreate a fake crime scene to rebuild my reputation. That way I will be taken seriously by everyone, and I need your help to accomplish that task. Lend me your hand and I promise you, the reward that awaits at the end won’t disappoint!”

[1522/3000]

He was right about that and Seira responded with a laugh and a nod. “Of course I will help you, as always. What exactly is it that you need me to do?” Mr. Miller pulled out what appeared like a grocery list and started reading from it. “Before anything else I need you to retrieve the following ingredients: a bag of animal blood, which can be obtained at the slaughterhouse nearby. The bag I am looking out for is fairly large, so please be sure not to spill any blood, because that could ruin everything for me. Next are the weapons, which you can get from the forge down the streets. I am looking for something violent here, something brutal, something that can be the cause for a lot of blood loss—you understand me?” She did. “Once you finish all of that meet me again in the same alley.”

Easy enough, Seira thought to herself and quickly left to find the slaughter house he had mentioned earlier. The thought of blood made her feel a little dizzy and also a little disgusted at the same time, mostly because it was animal blood. Something about it grossed her out and Seira couldn’t quite explain what it was. After all, human blood wasn’t much better now was it? Either way, once the girl had made it to the slaughter house, which was fortunately closed at this time of the day, she started sneaking around the dark and large building to find a way to enter it. There was something unsettling about the idea of being caught stealing blood and she truly hoped that no one was going to run into her. This mission could, by no means, turn violent simply because of the position Dex Miller had and Seira was well aware of that. The butcher was closed, of course, so Seira saw no other way than to break in through the backdoor by using a hair needle to open the gate. It was relatively simple, thank god, and after a little bit of searching Seira found the blood bags that Dex had mentioned. She picked one out, a little surprised by the massive weight and carried it outside, leaving everything else untouched and even closing the door behind herself. No one would miss a gigantic bag of animal blood, right?

The next stop was the forge. This place was equally easy to break into, but Dex’ choice of weapons made her nervous. If she was caught stealing knives and swords and lances that could have serious consequences for her, so she made sure to be even quieter than before. The forge was already closed as well and once Seira had made her way into the weapon chamber she picked up some cheap, but sharp looking weapons and stuffed them inside a large bag. This made her feel quite uneasy and once she had everything she needed she went back outside. She closed all the doors and grabbed the blood bag so she could leave.

[2025/3000]

So far so good, she thought to herself with a sarcastic grin on her lips while she carried all the things, which were quite heavy already, back to the promised meeting up point. Dex was smart enough to have chosen one of the many dark alleys so Seira hoped she wouldn’t run into anyone just yet—having to explain why she had a bag full of blood and another one full of weapons would be a real pain. But of course life wasn’t always going to be that easy, so when Seira heard footsteps approaching she tried her best to hide away, but it was impossible and, of course, the poor girl was stopped by none other than a Rune Knight. The tall man confronted her directly, and he didn’t seem to be amused one bit. “Excuse me, young lady, but where exactly are you planning on going with all those weapons which, I assume, aren’t yours?” Seira swallowed down her spit and gave the man a shy smile. “Don’t look at me like that,” he grunted, “You have two minutes to explain yourself or I will have to arrest you.” Rune Knights had always been a pain to deal with, Seira (who was born in Era) knew that better than most people. She hated them, but she had to feign respect to get out of this situation. “Ah, please, don’t do that,” she sighed and carefully put the items to the ground. “I don’t mean any harm, I’m just trying to help. Dex Miller asked me to help him stage a crime so he could be more respected among the people. I know it’s silly, but I really need the money,” she smiled meekly and watched as the man shook his head and rolled his eyes. “I understand. I will allow you to continue, for Dex’ sake, but the Magic Council will oversee the investigation, so he doesn’t get the idea of doing something stupid like this again. Thank you for your honesty.” Seira knew that mentioning Dex would easily bail her out of the situation and the man believed her quickly. The Rune Knight accompanied her for the rest of the way until they arrived at the location where Seira was supposed to scatter both, the weapons and the blood to make it appear like a crime scene which could then further be solved by Dex, the Magic Council or whoever—Seira herself didn’t really care. Now that a Rune Knight was involved the young woman couldn’t wait to get out of here and disappear with her money, so when he looked over her shoulder while she did the work she felt more than a little uncomfortable, but really, that couldn’t be helped. Seira scattered the weapons across the market place and made sure to make it look like a fight had happened without actually breaking anything. She then took out the blood bag and started spilling blood everywhere where the weapons were until everything was covered in disgusting animal blood.

[2526/3000]

The scent of iron filled the air and she could barely stand it. Once all the weapons were coated in animal blood and the scene looked ever so gruesome, Seira turned around towards the Rune Knight who seemed to approve of the situation. “You did quite the job at staging a scene like this. Makes me wonder if you’ve been in a bloody fight like this before?” He gave her a long glance before shaking his head and chuckling. “Impossible, what am I saying? You are way to dainty for that. Either way, it is time for us now to start some commotion to get the people out of the pubs and inns so Dex has his audience.” Seira and the Rune Knight both used magic, but rather than actually damaging anything they only caused loud sounds, followed by the Rune Knight pretending to be caught off guard and defending himself. Seira used those last moments to disappear into one of the dark alleys while the Rune Knight remained in his position. Relatively quickly everyone had gathered around outside and a lot was going on. Seira had successfully managed a scene and while she felt a little ridiculous throughout the whole ordeal, seeing how everything had worked out so well and the entire town was falling for it, she felt something in between relief, satisfaction and concern. She didn’t want to lie to these people so she quickly made her way through the alley until she found Dex, who was happily observing the event. He was more than happy with how everything was unfolding and immediately handed out the generous reward to her.

“This is perfect, absolutely perfect,” the detective whispered in awe while he kneeled on the ground and peeked up from behind one of the building’s walls, with Seira sitting next to him, carefully counting her money. “This is exactly what I had in mind! Now I can solve the situation with my mastermind and everyone will finally respect me!” It seemed that he had it all planned out just fine and Seira decided not to tell him about the Rune Knight, pretending as if it was all part of the plan. “Glad you are enjoying yourself. This was definitely one of the weirdest things I’ve done for money. Either way, I would be grateful if you could make sure not to mention me and my involvement to anyone or anybody here. If you do you won’t get all the credit and I’m sure that that is not what you want, correct?” Of course she was correct and Dex Miller nodded along quickly. “Absolutely. No one shall ever find out that I assisted you. Perhaps it's best to leave town again, quickly this time.” Was she being kicked out now? Seira wanted to laugh out loud—but the man wasn’t wrong. She had made more money than usual in one night and now that the Rune Knights were involved and with everything going on in regards to her situation, she decided that it was time to change locations quickly, for her own sake. Seira gathered up her belongings and left while Dex approached his new audience with open arms.

[3056/3000]