No one wrote on the wall the next day or the day after that. But on the third day, another mother wrote the need of her hungry family on the wall. The next morning, she discovered a large basket of food thoughtfully covered with a cloth on her doorstep. There was quite a large buzz about the city when her joyful message of thanks was found on the wall, and various shopkeepers whispered to anyone who would listen of the strange disappearance of their food items only to find a stack of coins on a table or counter. Soon, more and more people began to petition The Watchmen, now dubbed by the people to be the 'Phantom Watchmen' for his anonymity and his unseen doings in the night. Soon, the Phantom Watchmen was 'all the talk'. Not only about the way that he helped people, but some shopkeepers also claimed they heard noises in their shops at night only to find a stack of coins and no one there.
Of course, not everyone was happy about this turn of events. Some shopkeepers did not like someone breaking into their shops at night and taking what they wanted without permission, even though The Watchmen paid in full for what he took. Others just didn't like the idea of someone prowling around the neighborhoods at night. Because of these concerns, a petition was made to the palace for someone with authority to look into the matter and stop The Phantom's unauthorized transactions where they were not wanted. And so it was that the king, Odin, delegated this task to some of his most trusted and resourceful warriors, Lady Sif and the Warriors Three; Frandal, Hogun, and Volstagg.
Having received their commission, the foursome decided to start at the 'writing wall', as it was now called, and begin their investigation there. They came to the wall and just stood a little ways away from it, taking in the whole wall with it's messages scrawled all over it, from the bottom to as high as a man could reach to about ten feet in width. The viewers estimated to themselves that there must be about thirty petitions in all.
"Well, what do we do now?" asked the impatient Frandal.
"Examine The Watchman's handwriting, so that we will be able to recognize it if we see someone write in the same style," Sif replied. They walked up to the wall and began to examine the original message, which was now quite faint and altogether gone in some places.
"What now? It's a little fancy, but that's all that's remarkable about it," Frandal commented.
Sif rolled her eyes before saying, "And what does that mean, Frandal? It means that our Phantom Watchmen is not a common beggar or of the lower class, for they do not learn to write so stylishly."
"The letters are also well-formed, not only in a flamboyant style," Hogun pointed out, "Which means that the Phantom is probably either of the upper class or one who keeps records, such as a shopkeeper who keeps his books, or a scribe. Well-formed letters comes with much practice."
"Agreed," Sif concurred.
"This doesn't help us very much though," Volstagg spoke up, "We already knew that the Watchmen had to be someone who was well off, otherwise they couldn't pay for everything."
"That's true, but perhaps we should ask the king to send out a proclamation asking everyone with money to check and see if anything has been stolen," Sif suggested.
"That would avail us nothing, because the Watchmen would have needed to steal an exorbitant amount of money to pay for everything each night, and I don't think that someone would have not noticed such a large sum of money missing by now," Frandal pointed out.
"Your right. Therefore, we must then assume for the moment that it is someone with a great deal of money, most likely a noble," Sif conceded.
"Agreed, but how do we find him now?" questioned Hogun.
"How about we write on the wall for anyone with information concerning the Watchmen to report to us?" suggested Volstagg.
"That would be detrimental to our task. We'll alert The Watchmen himself that we are looking for him. If he's done something wrong he may stop his activities and disappear altogether," Sif countered.
"But wouldn't that achieve our wanted end result? The shopkeepers want his prowling stopped, and if we drive him back into the hole he came from and he stops his activities, will we not have achieved what everyone wanted?" Frandal said.
"Not everyone," came a new voice from off to the side of the group. A lame beggar sat against the wall with his arm leaning on his crutch. "If you make the Watchmen stop, a lot of people are going to be disappointed and hungry," he pointed up at the writings on the wall above him. "A lot of these requests are for food, others for needed necessities. If you drive her away, you'll be harming the people of Asgard rather than helping them,"
"Her?" Sif prodded.
The elderly beggar chuckled before replying, "Forgive me my lady, but in my opinion, I think The Watchmen is a woman. Generally, women tend to be more caring and want to help people more than men sometimes do, but in my own personal, humble opinion, I like to fancy The Watchmen as a woman," he explained with another chuckle. "But I believe I may be able to help you track her, or him, whichever it may be. There are regulars that make requests on the wall and have them answered. If you come back tomorrow, early, I'll point them out to you and you can ask them some questions concerning our beloved Phantom. Is that acceptable to your ladyship and lords?"
"Yes, very much so, thank you for your help," Volstagg replied for the group before they moved off. "If we can get an idea from these people whether the Phantom is a man or a woman and even get a partial idea of what his face looks like, that will help our investigation greatly," Volstagg intimated to his friends as they made their way back to the palace.
But what they did not notice was a young woman discreetly standing at a nearby booth, quietly listening to the whole conversation. She was dressed in a cloak with the hood pulled, of which was made of a rich material, but in a subdued color, so as not to attract attention. She heard all this talk with worry in her heart, and quickly made up her mind to do something about it.