Pyre stepped out of his inn door carefully. It was still fairly early in the morning and he knew that the two wizards on either side of him preferred to sleep late into the day and do their quest so late into the night. Their weird habits kept Pyre up late at night and he found it incredibly annoyingly. But he didn’t blame them. Being a wizards was hard work. Reaching around to his back pocket Pyre grabbed his key and locked the door. The thunk of the lock sliding into place was the only noise that could be heard in the hallway at this early hour. Slipping the key back into his pocket Pyre made his way down the overly decorated hallway. There was a tapestry of a semi naked woman drinking wine from a jar as a floating man, who Pyre assumed was a god of some sorts. Smiles from above, presumbaly lusting after the woman. I’m conclusion Pyre guessed that the tapestry depicted one of the scenes where one of the more “playful” gods decided to sleep around some more. Turning the coroner he walked to the staircase, which was located at the very end in a small door. It was almost not there, but a small metal slab sat on the door and showed a man walking down a zig zag line.
The wing Pyre was staying in was labeled as the “wizard’s wing”. The inn owner had described it as a way for wizards to stay a pro-long amount of time and leave at odd hours but not disturb the more normal guests.
The staircase itself was also slightly odd, just like the rest of the building. It’s stairs were wood, but every creak gave off at least a pound of dust along with the groaning of the wood. There were walls on either side of anyone walking down or up, and the stairwell was skinny, with little room to move to the side if others walked by. There was a sconce every once in awhile that gave the stairs a darker casting. Pyre felt like the walk could probably take forever, but in reality’s it was only a couple of feet.
The main lobby had a large greeting desk with a tiny old lady behind it at the moment. Over the desk, on the wall, large gold letters spelled out “North Wood inn.” The rest of the lobby filled with o old chairs that resembled wooded forests. And the tabletops we’re made of glass with tiny coasters to rest your coffee on. As he walked out the door onto orchidia streets the old lady at the desk perked up and chased out after, calling his name. Surprised that she knew his name Pyre turned around. The old lady slowed, she was tired from such a short run. “You’re Pyre right? Someone wanted me to give you this letter.” She said. Pyre raise date an eyebrow. That way and soightly odd. He was very curious.

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Pyre read over the letter. Whoever wrote it had scribbled down some quick notes and had clearly been aiming at hiding their identity, but really, had just made their handwriting look like chicken scratch. Sighing, Pyre squinted, barely able to make out the location. Water fountain outside of Gerry’s bar, 10:15am.
Reading it one more time, squinting even harder and pulling it close to his face, he shoved it down into his pocket next to his keys.

Pyre sort of jump-stepped off the stairs. He broke into a run as soon as he landed, it was 10:10 at the moment and if this was a job he would rather not be late. He slipped past people with ease, winding in and out of the crowds. Since people were just waking up, the streets were just starting to fill, they hadn’t yet reached mid-day level traffic.
As he reached the fountain he looked forward to see who was there, and may the ancestors behold, it was none other than Dex Miller. Pyre sighed, this was likely going to be rather menial labor with a rather high pay. He was not upset, he was actually relieved. This meant that no fighting was coming his way likely. Probably just some over elaborate plot to give Dex Miller some form of credibility in the town. He had suffered a head injury long before and now thought he was a detective. But the polite towns people have made no strong effort to stop him.
Pyre strolled up next to Dex, who smiled mischievously. “Did you get the etterlay?” He asked in his somewhat high voice. Pyre mentally questioned the obvious use of pig Latin, and the fact that most parents with kids knew EXACTLY, what he was saying. But, Pyre played along, he was going to get payed after all. Dex slipped him a list in a fake handshake. Then leaned in amd whispered his actually insane plan. “I’ve got a plan, this will undoubtedly make me the best detective in orchidia.” Pyre raised an eyebrow, waiting for more. Dex continued, “ I’m going to fake a crime scene. But, if people see me collecting things they will likely assume I’m doing something ‘crazy’ again. So, I’m having you do it. There’s a few things I need you to collect. First and foremost being a large bag of animals blood. Don’t let any leak otherwise you’ll exposed us and that’s no good. After you have that,sneak around to the back of the forge, the blacksmith throws out all his beat up and bad weapons. Theft a few and head back to the alley three blocks down from here. I want you to sent it up like there’s had been a fight and someone had gotten hurt. Then I’ll swoop in and solve the case in a matter of minutes. Voilà, everyone will know I’m actually an amazing new detective.”
Pyre remained quiet,he wasn’t going to contradict Dex. He didn’t want to cause any big problems

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Pyre got right to work he wasn’t going to spend all of his day doing this job. It was too easy really. Well...mostly. He walked the backstreets. Making his way to the butcher, who left large bags of blood outside his back door to be taken away with the trash. The butchers building was too old to have modern drainage, so all of his trash was taken out with other peoples.
As pyre approached he could here the butcher open his back door. Thinking quickly, Pyre dashed behind a nearby dumpster, holding his breath even though he didn’t need to. It was only a few seconds until the door was shut with a horrendous slam once more. Pushing himself to his feet Pyre walked to the back door and snagged one of the bigger bags of animal blood. He had to drop it momentarily though, gagging from the terrible smell. The loud chatter of the blood clearly raised the attention of the butcher, who yelled from his kitchen “WHAT IN THE BLAZES IS THAT?” Before thundering over towards the door. In a attempt to get out of there before he opened the door. Pure ignored the terrible smell and nagged a bag and dashed off behind a corner. After he was safely away from the butcher, he slowed down, making sure that none of the bright red contents of the bag had managed to sneak their way out of the bag and stain all of his clothes. To his surprise, the bag held strong under the weight of the blood.
Mentally checking the blood of his list Pyre made his way out of the alleys across town to the black smith. He didn’t want to get caught with all the blood so he took the back ways. Walking around stored and winding his way around the multitude of stores that existed along the streets of orchidia.
After awhile he finally started getting close to the blacksmith’s shop. Pyre could see the smoke rising from the chimney. It quickly dissipated into the air but it was thick and black, like the charcoal had just floated into the sky instead of being burned. Pyre places the blood bag down a few feet away from the bag and walked over to the back. And just as Dex Miller has said. There was a pile of janky old weapons. A knife with scratched edges, a sword that was missing its top and an axe that had a large dent in its side. Deciding they were good enough he wrapped them together with a small piece of string and tied them to his belt. Pyre quietly clanked away back to his bag. Slugging the blood bag over his shoulder he continued to sneak his way back to the area where the supposed crime scene wasn’t supposed to be. He was just starting to get use to the foul smell of the blood but that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to get any better when he opened it. He was absolutely dreading this moment.

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Suddenly, a loud voice echoed down the alley way. “YOU THERE! STOP IN THE NAME OF THE LAW.” Pyre froze. He could NOT get arrested at this time, it would not bode well for anyone involved in this quest. Turning around slowly Pyre saw a rune knight standing there. Looking at him curiously. Pyre was about to open his mouth to explain, but the rune knight cut him off. “You have two choices, tell me what you’re doing and I might let you go. Or I’ll jail your ass for possible intent for murder. Because it sure as hell looks like that.” The knight said, his voice slightly jarring to Pyre’s ears. Now that he wasn’t being cut off Pyre spoke, “I was hired by Dex Miller, you know, the poor man with the Hearn injury? Well he asked me to formulate some fake crime so the people would take him seriously. But obviously they’re going to ignore his ideas of the crime and call a real detective maybe. But honestly, I really just need the money.” Pyre explained. The knight sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I can’t believe this! This ‘Dex miller’ Has been causing problems for quite along time. The rune knights here have kind of let him go and do his own thing. But I fear this is too far. But... I don’t want to be the one to ruin husband phone. So instead I think I’ll just let you do this, in fact I’ll help. But the rune knights will be the ones to “look into it.” And we’ll declare it a cold case, a gang fight maybe.” The rune knight finished. Pyre stared at him for a moment and just sighed. He waved a hand at the rune knight, “okay, let’s go, he wants us to set it up in the alley not too far away from here.” Pyre said. The knight nodded and followed suit.
The two made their way toward the meetings area. It wasn’t a big Area but it was the perfect place to make a fame crime scene. Big enough for a fight, but small enough so injury seemed somewhat plausible. Pure wasted no time. He stabbed the bag with the brokenness knife and threw the knife acorsd the area. Now a with a giant leaking hole he threw the blood bag around. Splattering it it all along the walls. After awhile the blood had finally been spread enough that it looked like someone’s had been brutally stabbed. Smearing the sword with blood Pyre stuck into in the wall nearby. Looking at the rune knight pyre saw that the axe had been strewn across the ground. The rune knight gave a little thumbs up in a “we’re done kind of way.” Thumbs upping back Pyre pulled out the instruction sheet. Reading it carefully the next instructions were to cast a few spells to create a commotion. Pyre showed it to the rune knight who decided they could take charge.

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The rune knight waved his hand in a circular motion, pure white sand began to appear around his hand. Intrigued pyre watched as he continued to spin his hand until the white sand was writhing. Then with a swipe of his hand he launched a raging mass of the white sand at a wall. It landed with a horrendous crashing noise. It took out a chunk of the wall and cracks spread up and down the wall. Pyre gave a silent applause and continued to watch as the rune knight this time, clapped his hands together, then when he released them a small white orb sat. It slowly expanded into a large white spear made of sand. He then aimed it at the dumpster nearby and flicked his wrist. The spear shot forward, it pierced the dumpster and left a hole about 4 inches in diameter in the steel wall. After the spell was done the two could hear the yells of the people who had heard the commotion. The rune knight was going to cast one more spell. Holding out his hand he made a fist, then flattened his palm. Then a fist, then flattened his palm
He did this for at least a few seconds before a small fountain of the white sand began to pour out of his hand. The fountain grew stronger and stronger until it was erupting from his hand. The white sand was gathering itself into a ball. By the time the fountain had run dry the ball was the about five inches in diameter. Raising his hand, he tossed the ball in a random direction. As soon as it touched the ground it erupted back into a fountain once more, drilling its way into the ground. By the time the fountain ended there was a hole about 3 feet deep in the ground.
The rune knight pulled pyre in a direction away from the commotion. They waited for a few seconds as people began to pour into the area, speculations as what was actually going on. Slowly the crowd had become enough that the two could slip out of their hiding spot. The commotion was almost unbearable but it was enough for the two to go unnoticed. Pyre gave a nod to the rune knight and parted ways. Pyre slipped out of the growing crowd and into the streets. And just as promised Dex Miller sat a few benches away from all the commotion. Clearly trying to play it cool, but failing miserably. Pyre walke duo and nodded at him. Smiling at his new found possible glory. He stood up and checked around the corner to see if everything went to plan. He fake bumped into Pyre and dropped a large bag of cash in his pocket and then headed off towards the commotion. Pyre looked down the street as Dex got closer. He sighed, in the depths of his stone heart he felt a little bad for the kid. Glancing in the other direction he could see the rune knights walking closer.

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And pyre walked away he sighed. He had not exactly planned that his day would go that way. But he should have expected something weird when he signed up for a job with Dex Miller. Pyre turned a corner and began walking down a back street. There was graffiti all over the walls. Some seemed to be from some
Small guild. It center was a triangle with a a bleeding heart in the middle. Ivy vines climbed its way around the outside of the triangle, making a shape that could only be described as an opening. It was obviously one of the older paintings there, one could tell because of the variety of lost, wanted, and now hiring signs. Pyre looked at the weird symbol and kept walking. Down the way was something else scrawled on the wall. This one more ominous, a note actually. All it read was a warning. A warning of the scratched man. Pyre himself had heard the rumors of the scratched man. It was a tale told to children who stayed up too late. Even his mother had told him that story when he refused to sleep. It would go that the scratched man wondered the streets for any lights left on by children who weren’t already asleep. And he would go to the window and scratch lines along the window. And if the children didn’t go to sleep he’d snatch them away.
As pyre remembered his mother only told him about the scratching but not about the stealing of children. Pyre walked a little farther. He was far into the alley ways by now. The sun was getting low in the sky, he had been out longer than he had thought. Sighing he decided he should probably make his way back to the inn. As the sun began to set the shadows began to slip along the walls and grow to a new length. Swishing their way into new shapes. Terrifying ones. Ones that might just be real. Pyre held his breath and walked closer To the lamps that lined the street. Shivering, Pyre became suddenly aware of the cold. Groaning he walked faster, his feet hitting the ground and causing an echo to ring up around the walls. The choir of the thieves that stalked the more dangerous streets at night began to call back to his loud shoes. Rubbing his hands he broke into a run. After creating a crime scene all day, he was about to become one of a real crime scene. He dashed quickly towards the door of the inn. He heard the footsteps of the thieves behind him. He wasted no time slipping in the front door and closing it behind him. He only stopped to look out to the window. But outside no one was standing. He had been alone, no one behind him. Shaking his head in disbelief pyre wound his way up the hallway, through the wizardung doorway. Back into his room. Closing the door.

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