Skulduggery Pleasant glanced at his assisstant, Valkyrie Cain. She was now 19, and still alive. That was certainly a record. To him, anyways. His last assisstant/apprentice/whatever had not lasted long, and had been killed infront of Skulduggery's own eyes. That wasn't something pleasant, and certainly wasn't something he planned on letting happen again. Never again would such a careless thing happen. Especially since he didn't want his reputation ruined. Didn't want people to think he didn't pay attention or something like that.

Skulduggery then realized that during his reflective thoughts to himself on Valkyrie and deaths and whatnot, she'd walked ahead of him down the dark murky street. "You know, you could try and act like you don't know where you're going" he said as he caught up with her.

Valkyrie rolled her eyes at Skulduggery, mimicking his tone as she spoke, "You could try and pay attention more."

Skulduggery would have rolled his eyes, if he had eyes. Or eyelids for that matter. In fact, he probably would have preferred having eyelids, rather than eyes. Eyes would be useless without eyelids. Whereas, you could still roll eyelids. "Well...I do pay attention. This just isn't my best day." Skulduggery replied, straightening his finely tailored suit, made by none other than Ghastly Bespoke.

Valkyrie nodded in such a sarcastic fashion it nearly made Skulduggery proud. Obviously she got her sarcasm from the best. Him. "Yeah yeah." she said, nudging Skulduggery's bony body as she gestured for him to continue walking.

Skulduggery let out what sounded like a huff, though he couldn't be sure. "Be careful" he said, patting his ribcage. "I'm very delicate, I've been taken apart and put back together so many times you wouldn't believe!" he said with a nod. It was true, he was delicate. Each day he found his jawbone was looser than the day before and he had to click it back in. Sometimes he literally just wanted to fall apart.

Valkyrie merely rolled her eyes and continued to walk. She was unsure of where they even were. It was too foggy when they'd arrived in the dull town to even see the 'Welcome to...' sign. But she could see the street names, so she knew where she was going, roughly. Skulduggery followed her, most likely smiling in his own mind, as he always was.

The case, was a simple one. Valkyrie remembered when Ghastly had told them about it, it was a very unusual briefing, considering neither her nor Skulduggery usually ever got briefings. Skulduggery somehow always knew when there was a case and Valkyrie never chose to question it.

But it went like so;

Ghastly had walked into the room, his Elder robes on. He looked grumpy, as he always did when he didn't want to something but he clearly had to.

"Oh mighty Elder Bespoke" Skulduggery had said dramatically, getting down on one knee, sweeping his hat from the top of his skull as he bowed his bony head.

"Stand up and shut up" Ghastly muttered, his eyes narrowing at his oh-so sarcastic and witty friend.

"Of course, oh great leader" Skulduggery said, still keeping up the dramatic soap opera act as he stood up and placed his hat back upon his head, an invisible smirk drawn across his lips. Ghastly had grumbled on for a while about more sightings of Warlocks around the Dublin area, and how more and more sorcerers were disappearing and being found in their homes, dead.

When Ghastly had finished talking, Skulduggery got down on one knee again. "Oh your majesty, we thank you for this honourable task. We shall fulfill the duty you wish for us to fulfill, ever so thoroughly" he'd said, and Valkyrie couldn't help but let out something between a snort and a laugh.

"Skulduggery, stop taking the piss or I will...Chop your head off" Ghastly grumbled. Skulduggery went to correct him and say that even if he did that he would still be alive, but Ghastly held his hand up to him. "Don't. Go get started on the job" he mumbled before hoisting up his robes to his ankles and leaving the dark room.

And now they were in god knows where, looking for...Something.

Skulduggery stopped Valkyrie, only to walk past her to the door of a house. They were on Toirdhealbhach Street, however that was said. The number on the house was 18. Skulduggery tapped the door four times, and waited. After ten seconds with no answer, he kicked the door down.

"Just because someone isn't home, doesn't mean that you need to break down their door. You could leave a 'We visited' note. But no.." Valkyrie started, but trailed off when she walked into the house and felt the necromancer ring on her finger get considerably colder. Death.

"I'm always right" Skulduggery said as he walked into the house behind Valkyrie. He picked up the door and placed it back, balancing it against the frame so it looked like it was on the hinges, but it wasn't, obviously. He was no mender-of-doors. Skulduggery walked into the living room, and lying in the center of the room, was none other than Dexter Vex. Skulduggery paused. Valkyrie blinked. The nice man she'd met at the Requiem Ball, one of Skulduggery's long-time friends, was lying dead in front of them.

"I didn't know Vex lived here" Skulduggery muttered. What he really meant was; I really did not expect to find my friend here. Ghastly hadn't said whose house he was sending them to to inspect. Maybe because he didn't want to tell Skulduggery himself. Or maybe he himself didn't know Vex lived here, since Vex travelled, no one knew he even had a home.

Skulduggery's demeanor changed, and Valkyrie could tell he wasn't going to let it get to him just yet. He was going to do his job before he decided to grieve.

Both silently inspected the house. There was not a smidge of evidence. When Valkyrie walked back to the living room, Skulduggery was knelt over the body, holding Vex's hand with his head bowed. "Skulduggery..." she trailed off, unsure of how to comfort him.

"I've got it!" Skulduggery exclaimed as he wrenched something from his friend's hand and held it up in the air. He stood up and brushed himself off, nodding down once at Vex's body. "Sorry Vex old buddy, I'm sure they can fix your fingers before we bury you" he said, leaning down and giving the corpse a pat on the shoulder.

The item in Skulduggery's hand, was clear black stone. It had the look of a crystal. It was carved in the perfect shape of a half-moon. Skulduggery popped it into his pocket and nodded to the broken door. "Let's depart, shall we?" he said.

"What about Vex?" Valkyrie asked as if it was blatatly obvious they couldn't exactly leave the skeleton's friend lying there dead. "Oh he'll be picked up by the sanctuary later, and I can grieve properly at the funeral!" Skulduggery said as he pulled the door a little and it tipped over. He walked over it and out of the house, Valkyrie following suit.

"What was that moonstone thing you picked up?" Valkyrie asked after pulling the door up into place, following Skulduggery through the foggy streets. He was bent over, trying to look below the fog for the Bentley.

"It, is the Desiderium" Skulduggery said as he patted the pocket he'd put the stone into, a slight mysterious tone to his voice. But Valkyrie couldn't tell if he was trying to be dramatic or if such an item deserved the mysterious tone.