Chapter Four

~v~

"Here goes nothing," Jo'masha released his last gust. With a subtle tremor under his skin, he clenched his gloved hand before rapping the door in a short burst.

"Come in," a muffled voice from the inside of the room allowed.

The twins pressed their way into their captain's office. As always, Captain Iril was behind his old pine desk, scribbling unsignificant doodles with his hawk feather quill. His face was in between two of dozen towering piles of untended papers. "Reporting in, sir," Jo'masha said.

Captain Iril took a moment until he finally decided to quit scribbling and put his quill on a small rag at the corner. He rose his long-faced head, travelling his narrow amber eyes on the Khajiits. He licked his lips, before saying, "First of all, I feel like it is necessary for me to apologise for our previous encounter. I was too harsh."

"We didn't mind much, sir," Jo'masha lied.

"Good for you," the captain nodded. "Now let's cut to the chase." The buffet of the old desk gritted as he shifted it out to take a leather dossier inside. Captain Iril casted it on his desk. "Open it," he commanded.

After several glances exchange, Rhika embraced herself to open it. As soon as she could see what was on the paper, she furrowed in a peculiar disapproval.

"... A sensual picture?"

As quick as a cliffracer in mating season, Jo'masha craned his head to see what it was. A picture of a young braided Nord woman, drawn with pencil--and was wholly dressless. He wished to see more of it, but before he could study the detail, Captain Iril already had the picture in his grasp.

"You saw nothing," he said in a blunt tone, folding the paper and putting it into his pocket.

"Yes, sir," both of the Khajiit replied, somewhat unsynchronized.

"Read the note," the Altmer said, indicating a small note in the dossier. It was a papyrus paper, now browned from humidity, and its corners suffered the worst. On it was a short message written with black ink:

~

Burn this letter as soon as you've done reading.

Come with this letter is a paralysation spell tome, per your request. Use wisely.

-C

~

"Scene investigation group found this in Narcius' basement, along with all seven decayed victims' heads. They estimated it to be two and a half years old. Possibly, he had received it before day one."

Foolish Cyrodiil, Jo'masha thought. From then, he knew Narcius hadn't been a lunatic lone wolf after all. Someone had been pulling the strings, orchestrating the whole case with him as the culprit. "He's not the main suspect," he guessed.

"He isn't," Captain Iril repeated. "As for the victims, do you have any idea who they were?"

"One that I know for sure was Leftenant Mortred, sir," Jo'masha admitted. Leftenant Mortred had been a police officer in Rosa District. She'd been found dead in similar condition with the others: headless and left without any piece of cloth left on her body. However, forensic had found out there'd been no proof of sexual harrassment. She'd been believed to had caught Narcius in the act, which subsequently had turned her into a high priority target.

"The other six, as far as I had known, were mere civilians: Velik the Poacher, Sigrid Sword-Shiver, Seld Battle-Born, Bryn Shatter-Shield, Gindir Gray-Mane, and Jelda the Singer. All of them were Nords, except for Leftenant Mortred, as she was a bona fide Breton."

Captain Iril hummed thoughtfully. "Almost precisely."

"Pardon, sir?" Jo'masha demanded.

"This might surprise you," Captai Iril offered. "But after further investigation by scene investigation group, turns out three of those six Nords were key members of Snowhounds; the personal bodyguards of the High King. Sigrid, Velik, and Gindir had been in an undercover mission the day they'd been murdered."

Of course, it did surprise the cats. "You mean ... Narcius--"

"... may be involved in a conspiracy against the High King of Skyrim." He breathed. "But, of course, that is just a hypothesis."

"Why would he do that?" Rhika decided to speak. "At first ... we ..." she hesitated, forcing herself to spell the pronoun she despised the most. "We thought it was his murderous tendency."

"We're not sure. What all we do know is that High King Asbjard isn't safe anymore here in Whiterun."

Jo'masha had a heavy thought inside his head. "What do we do now, sir?"

"That is what I am going to discuss," he stated. "You are to investigate it further."

The twins glanced at each others. "Why us?" Jo'masha asked.

"Because you are the youngest and most 'innocent' of all the inspectors in Astridia District. I trust you both for this," he said. "But, this would be an unauthorized investigation. I cannot risk to legally approve you for this, but I promise, I'll try to give you any assistance you need."

Jo'masha was drowned in his deep thoughts. This was too much for them; a pair of novice inspectors who had only solved a single murder case--and it might've been a pure luck. It was the time for him to make the decision, whether or not he was up to it.

"I think it'd be best to let Bureau do their job--"

Captain Iril cut in. His tone was an unpleasant one. "The reason I summoned you here is because of my skepticism against them. In fact, I suspect them to have something to do with this bedlam."

Jo'masha blinked. "What?" was the only word he could manage.

"They had recommended you both to investigate Narcius' case, a horribly difficult case for you rookies, as soon as Leftenant's body was discovered. That was odd, because before her death, Bureau insisted to investigate Narcius' case by their own. I repeatedly refused their demand, and was going to deploy Inspector Erik and Inspector Nirin instead. But, hell, were they persistent bunch of pricks. You see these papers?" Captain Iril waved his hands toward piles of the untended papers on his desk. "These are their proposal messages! I'd fed up with it and bitterly deployed you two to investigate, hoping these papers would stop getting slipped under my door. I had lost my hope back then. But, beyond my wildest imagination, you both somehow could solve the case!"

What?

How?

Jo'masha was full of questions. Do Thalmor Bureau of Justice have something to do with this? Did they already predicted the two would solve the case?

He couldn't stop thinking why would anyone hate a perfect leader like High King Asbjard. Despite his Nordic bloodline, he was respected by everyone; from the superior race that is Altmer, to the lowest but proud race of all, Cyrodiil; from the majestic stone city, Markarth, to the rich, yet a corrupt city, Riften.

All the heavy ideas nauseated him, and everything felt spinning in his head. "We understand," Jo'masha said, breaking the short silence. He forced himself to say that. At the time, he remembered what they had taught him for: to serve the queen and the Dominion until his death. He wasn't expected to bail out. He would shame himself if he did so. "Where should we start?"

"Start by digging as much as possible from Narcius," Captain Iril answered. "Ask him who the hell is 'C'."

"Yes, sir," both twin said.

"Dismissed." The two saluted and walked away for the door.

"And, inspectors..." Captain Iril delivered. Jo'masha and Rhika stopped by the door step. "I only asked you to find the main suspect. Take a mental note on that."

~vVv~