PART IV

"You've learnt much."

"I do try."

"I mean, you've learnt enough."

"Enough?"

"Yes. I believe so."

"So what happens now?"

"You must find your own apprentice. Somebody for you to train."

"Sounds simple."

"Not quite. First we must clash blades."

"What?"

"My time is ending. I must die. This is your final test. En guard."

Voldos had that feeling of impending doom that could only be brought about by the most evil and worrying things in life. He began to feel for the source in his heart, the source of the darkness. Then he saw Zinkata and all was revealed. He carried a warrior's sword.

"Hey, Voldos!" Cried the irritating human, "I don't suppose you feel like teaching me how to use one of these!"

"Aw nuts." Voldos spat.

"Come on. I want to be a warrior. To learn to fight properly. There's only so much my skill with a dagger can do." Zinkata was pretty close to getting down on his knee and begging.

"Fine." Sighed the elf. "Do you know how to use that thing?" He asked, gesturing to the sword.

"The extent of my knowledge is 'put the pointy bit in the other guy'." Zinkata explained.

"Right, means we can skip the first lesson." Voldos said sarcastically. "Well, the first thing you need is your stance…."

Blades waving was not an unusual sight in Bastok, so most ignored Voldos and Zinkata's training. Bootus watched with an unusual amusement as he passed by. The position of teacher came quite naturally to Voldos. Bootus put this down to his elvaan arrogance. He strolled away from the auction house, new purchases in hand. These included new gigantic metal claws for himself, and a new and improved gi to offer a layer of protection. He also carried a small cloth bag full of other items. Their purpose was less well known.

Despite the fact their relationship was supposedly patched up, Vivli still got a chill down her spine seeing the lumbering bulk of Bootus heading towards her. She gulped, and prepared herself for conversation, which wasn't too dissimilar to preparing herself for battle, she would just stand around and talk/chant in either situation.

"Hey." She managed to splutter at the giant.

"Don't look so scared." Bootus laughed. "I thought we were past the whole 'enemies' thing."

"You try being my height and not be scared of someone your size!" Vivli yelled.

"I don't think I can. I think I was bigger than you when I was born." Bootus laughed again.

"Yeah, you're a real joker." Vivli sighed wearingly.

"Look, if you're gonna moan, I won't give you what I've got in here." He put his hand into the bag and Vivli's eyes lit up. Fear and hatred would never stand in the way of the possibility of presents.

"Whatcha get?" She cried, dancing around like an excited young warrior who had just received her first sword.

"This." Bootus hurled to her a scroll and a tunic. The tunic landed over her head and buried her beneath it. She hurriedly moved it so she could see and looked at the scroll.

"Wow. A spell and a new tunic." She sounded genuinely surprised.

"Don't think I'm going mushy on you!" Snapped the galka. "I just-"

"-feel guilty about trying to kill me?" Vivli finished. Bootus remained silent. "I figured." She paused. "Thanks all the same."

Zinkata and Voldos now stood next to each other, wearing similar armour and wielding similar

weapons. They almost looked like clones.

"Guess now you need to put these skills into practice." Voldos told Zinkata.

"Sounds good. Any idea how?" The two were heading towards their mog houses to stash some of their more useless items before going out adventuring.

They stopped talking as they saw a large crowd gathered around a body at the bottom of the steps leading to their houses.

"What the-" Voldos began.

"Can't be a monster. They don't get inside city limits." Zinkata quickly said.

"Look!" Voldos cried, and they saw a figure fleeing the crime scene down an alley.

"After him!" Yelled Zinkata. "You take the alley, I'm on the roof tops!" As if he had had experience Zinkata hopped up some crates and clambered onto the roof.

Voldos sprinted down the alley after the stranger. He darted inside the metalworks, a gigantic factory like building. Voldos slammed off a wall in his pursuit, using all of his bodyweight to propel himself. Zinkata skidded to a stop on his rooftop pursuit and leapt onto the top of the metalworks, clambering towards the roof and the opening that was there. Voldos ran down the narrow corridor to see the brown robed figure jump on the lift. It ascended just before the elf could reach it. He jumped, grabbing the platform as it rose. The stranger just shrugged and stomped on his hands. The elf plummeted down and landed painfully on the ground. The figure sprinted up the steps and out into the open…

…where Zinkata slashed outwards with his sword. The figure jumped back, turning to run. He shot backwards, just as Zinkata followed. He reached the lift, but Voldos had arisen on it. The figure bolted past, knocking over the warrior and jumping. As he fell he turned and fired a fireball from his hands. The resulting damage caused the lift to take heavy damage and fall. Voldos leapt to safety, falling into Zinkata's arms as the lift plummeted and exploded below. The robed man disappeared.

"I really don't swing that way you know." Zinkata sighed as Voldos pulled himself away.

"Yeah, you're hilarious." The elf scowled. A member of the city guard came up behind them. He was largely built even for a galka.

"You two are pretty stupid." He said in a growl.

"I blame him, mostly." Zinkata quipped, pointing to the lanky elf.

"In fact, you might be stupid enough for a job I have in mind." The gigantic galka growled.

"Stupid you say?" Voldos repeated. "Well, that's him in."

"You see, with the monster threat, and now repairs to the metalworks, we're going to be pushed for guards to follow up this crime." The unlikely duo could see where this was going. "I mean, we'll chase him, but by the time we get around to it he'll be long gone."

"You want us to go after him?" Zinkata guessed.

"Pay'll be good." The galka explained. "Plus, judging by the commotion outside he murdered somebody. He needs to be brought to justice."

"Alright, we're in." Zinkata looked to Voldos, getting a nod in agreement. "We don't have another quest yet."

"Excellent." The galka saluted. "If you find anything, report it to a guard immediately.

The two casually strolled onto the scene of the crime, no longer bystanders but now active investigators.

"Stand back, please. Nothing to see here." Zinkata was enjoying his role of detective.

"Hm." Voldos made a grunt, looking at the fallen body. "There's no superficial wound suggesting murder. We're meant to think he died from the fall."

"Presumably by giving chase we provoked the killer into running and revealing his intentions." Zinkata stated the obvious for the audience gathered. He was enjoying getting into role.

"I wonder how he fell. Scare tactic?" Voldos suggested, not knowing quite what he meant by a 'scare tactic' was but he knew it sounded impressive.

"No. Look." Zinkata pointed to slight blackened ground at the top of the stairs. "This was where a magic attack impacted, knocking him down. Definitely a direct murder."

"Great." The two paused awkwardly. "Urm, what now?"

"I don't know! I'm usually on the supply side of crime." Zinkata shrugged.

"Well, don't look at me. I don't normally think about stuff." Voldos pointed out. "I just hit it."

"Guess the obvious thing would be to find out about this guy." Zinkata bent down and went through the fallen man's pockets, slipping fifty gil into his own pocket and pulling out a bottle. "Ah ha!" Deduced the thief.

"A bottle?" Voldos said sceptically.

"Yes Voldos. A bottle." Zinkata was stunned by his partner's awesome detective skills. "Where do bottles come from?"

"The bottle factory?" Voldos suggested.

"The tavern!" Zinkata cried. "We'll head to the tavern. We'll see what we can get people to tell us about this guy. Maybe somebody had a motive there. Maybe somebody knows him. Let's see what we can find out."

Vivli was preoccupied with the more trivial concerns of learning how to perform the spell 'protect' while the not-so-dynamic duo tried to solve a crime. She was chanting quietly to herself within the safety of her mog house before unleashing the spell upon her favourite vase, to make sure it would stay safe from harm. Instead of protecting it, the blue shield rocketed inwards, causing it to implode. She let out a half whine, barely able to communicate her thoughts into verbal noise. She looked at the scroll, and turned it up the right way. Okay, let's try this again.

Bootus was preoccupied also. He had been strolling to the goldsmith's guild, planning to get to work to make some money. Sadly, he had run into a young tarutaru dancing in the street along the way, and become helplessly preoccupied. The gigantic galka watched the tiny midget dance, throwing coins to keep it up. He couldn't help it. It was far too amusing to break away from.

Away from these two trivial storylines, Voldos and Zinkata were working hard to solve their little mystery. It had taken a few hours, but the two warriors had assembled all the information they could. The victim was a male hume, aged 44, worked at the blacksmith's guild, was a loner, rarely had any friends, very introvert, rarely discussed his emotions and had no enemies. This came from a combination of talkative tavern goers and the official records from the guild.

"So, all we've done is eliminate the possibilities of any suspects?" Voldos asked.

"Pretty much." Zinkata sipped a drink. The two were in the tavern.
"I mean, if you were going to murder someone and not get caught, this guy is perfect!" The elf cried in exasperation. "Maybe we should leave this to the professionals."

"There is the possibility of money in this." Zinkata reminded Voldos.

"I suppose. So what now?" Asked Voldos.

"I say we sleep on it." The thief suggested. The two strolled out of the bar…

…And onto the scene of another murder. They quickly pushed past the crowd to see a female hume lying dead. Her chest was scorched.

"Another one!" Exclaimed Voldos.

"But this was more direct. Is he getting sloppy or something else?" Zinkata asked.

"I don't think that matters." Voldos muttered, looking sadly at the dead body. "We need to catch this guy before he kills again."

It was the following afternoon when Voldos and Zinkata met up to compare case notes.

"What've you got?" Asked Voldos.

"Well, she regularly adventured in a party of three. I talked to the other two. They regularly fought monsters, she could have had many enemies, but none they could think of, was quite able to defend herself and fairly experienced. What did you get?"

"Simple facts. Age, 21. Profession, Black Mage. Belonged to the goldsmith and the blacksmith guild. Didn't drink. Didn't have a residence in Bastok. Hailed from Windurst." Voldos summed up. "Which gives us a problem."

"It does?" Zinkata didn't seem to spot it.

"One's male, one's female. There's a twenty year age gap. One's a loner and one has a party. Neither had met. One spent his nights at the tavern, one didn't drink. One lived here, one didn't. One was an adventurer, one was a smith. Both murders took place at drastically different locations, a fairly public road leading to the mog house and outside the tavern in the afternoon. There is no link." Voldos took in a deep breath after that.

"No link…" Zinkata repeated.

"It seems to be random killing. They were both human, but that could just be coincidence. Or maybe some killer with a grudge against humes. Maybe some kind of disfigured tarutaru or something." Voldos suggested.

"Voldos. We chased him. He was tall. Remember?" Zinkata sighed.

"Oh yeah." Voldos murmured.

"Wait a second!" Zinkata clicked his fingers. "Form it into the list, and there is one link. One reoccurring theme."

"What?" Asked Voldos quickly.

"Think about it. No links between the victims, and apparently no links between the locations. Except one."

"Which is?" Voldos prompted.

"Us." Zinkata stated bluntly. "After each crime we were there, almost instantly. Like the crimes took place as close to us as possible. And to make matters more suspicious, the man in the cloak seemed to let us see him and give chase, instead of escaping quickly. Why hang around at the crime scene?"

"Are you saying we're the prime suspects?" Voldos asked.

"No. I'm saying he wanted us to see him."

"What does that mean?" Voldos found himself asking questions again.

"It means we got given this job. To track down the murderer." Zinkata said, getting passionate. "He is murdering so we get to chase him."

"Why?" Voldos asked, shrugging in confusion.

"To help us gain favour with the guards?" Suggested Zinkata.

"Don't be stupid." Voldos said bluntly.

"Or to keep us busy?" Zinkata thought. "We're working like crazy on this case without a thought for much else."

"Busy from what?" Voldos shrugged again. "We don't do anything."

"True." Zinkata admitted. "It would make sense if we were protecting something or someone but-" They both froze.

"OH FRACK!" They cried in unison.

Vivli had stormed out of her mog house, having smashed just about everything in her quest to perfect her spell. Even the moogle had been yelling at her. She marched for a moment before getting an unusual feeling of unease. Like somebody or something was following her. Watching her. She turned, but the streets were so busy she couldn't see anything anyway. She walked a bit further before somebody grabbed her from behind and dragged her into an alleyway. She tried to scream but her mouth was covered.

"Shut up or I'll kill you." She was thrown to the floor and came face to face with a brown robed man. He threw off the robe to reveal a man in black armour, an elf with a long flowing black cape and a sword that shone with magic energy. A dark knight.

"K-k-kill me?" She stammered.

"Hurt you at least." He snarled. "My superiors want you alive." Oh nuts, thought the mage. "Keeping your friends busy was easy. It's surprising what a tarutaru in your pay and few murders can achieve." He laughed, picking her up in one hand. She started whispering. "What are you doing?" He asked irritably.

"PROTECT!" She cried, and blue shield popped around her. This caused the dark knight to drop her and she reached for her staff. Her staff she had forgotten to replace. "Frack." She mumbled. Vana'diel had some really poor swearwords.

"Hehehe, goodbye little girl." He drew his gigantic sword, apparently forgetting his mission to capture her alive.

"Not so fast!" Zinkata dramatically cried from the roof of a building overlooking the alleyway.

"Curses!" Cried out the dark knight, and he turned to flee. He ran, but Voldos was stood there with his sword drawn. He swung outwards and the knight blocked, parrying Voldos's sword down. He kicked the elf away, but Zinkata leapt down heroically and landed behind him. He pulled his sword across, parrying the blade of the dark knight. Voldos threw a punch, not bothering to lift up his sword. He struck the dark knight, and he stumbled back. Zinkata swept down, grabbing his legs and lifting him up. He crashed down to the floor. Voldos leapt on top of him and hit him until he no longer moved. The two lifted up his dead weight with beaming smiles.

"Oh yeah!" Cried Voldos.

"I'll go get a city guard to lock him up for good." Zinkata stated, leaving the alley.

Zinkata and Voldos both eyed the bag of 3500 gil proudly.

"We earned that." Voldos beamed.

"That we did." Zinkata smiled. Vivli was staring at the floor.

"Urm. Thanks. Guys." She managed to say, slightly embarrassed at the situations she kept finding herself in.

"No problem. Thanks to you we got this reward!" Zinkata cried.

"So really it's my reward?" She said with a cautious smile.

"Yeah right!" Exclaimed the elf.

As they walked down the path back to their homes, they caught site of Bootus, still mesmerised by the dancing tarutaru. Vivli sighed.

"Come on!" She snapped, trying to grab him by the ear to drag him, but finding herself much to short. Voldos sighed and dragged him himself.

"OW! OW!" Exclaimed the galka rather humorously, "Let go! Let go!" He added in a childish whine. The others couldn't repress a girlish giggle.

"My master." Signot was on one knee as usual. "The dark knight failed. They stopped him."

"Oh no, my dear lord Signot, his mission was quite accomplished." The bellowing voice replied.

"My lord?" Asked Signot curiously.

"His capture and defeat has risen the band of adventurers she hides behind high in the opinion of the guard. They will be considered for any future mission that is dangerous now. Especially with their past deeds."

"You're plan, my master?" Signot dared to ask.

"Order the orcs to launch the attack on San D'Oria." The voice began to cackle. "Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen…."

Vivli lay awake sprawled on her back. A copy of the Vana'diel Tribune lay on her floor. On the front were two drawings of the deceased. They had been killed in this foul game to capture her. Whenever she shut her eyes she saw Voldos, Zinkata and Bootus dead. Were they next? How many more would die to keep her safe? She shivered at the thought. And always kept her eyes open.