We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of the law.
Edward Purrow
"So, we basically found nothing." Emilia said, as she, her uncle and Bogo all walked into the ZPD.
"Oh, I wouldn't say nothing." Marceli said to his niece, as he walked by her side. "We made some pretty interesting discoveries today."
"But we haven't found any of the Vipers." Emilia said, looking back at her uncle. "We went to every one of the places that the jackal boy suggested, and the Vipers were not in any of them. Maybe they really left town, like he said they would."
"Perhaps they did." Marceli confirmed. "We didn't found any of them, but we did found plenty on the places that he suggested."
"There were clear signs of the places serving as someone's bases, and that they were performing some kind of complex ritual." Marceli continued, and then Bogo, who was coming behind them, butted in:
"You talking about the magic circles made on the ground with blood and bones?"
"Yeah, among other things." Marceli said, looking at them. "It was obvious that they wanted to remain in there for a long time as they performed that ritual. Judging by the circles and other factors around, it seems that the ritual they were doing would take at least one month to be complete. They seemed to have abandoned the ritual and left the place in a hurry."
"Probably didn't wanted to press their luck by staying after attacking the police." Bogo said, and Emilia then said:
"I can't believe they escaped." She sounded frustrated as she said that. "If we have found out about that earlier we could have caught them! They practically slipped through our fingers!"
"Well, its life, I suppose." Marceli said. "We will have other chances to find and apprehend them."
"But they were right here!" Emilia said, "We could have captured them all just days after we found out about their existence! Do you know how good this would look for us! It could be the perfect ending for my first mission!"
Marceli and Bogo only looked at the vixen. Both of them with raised eyebrows. Marceli then sighed.
"You will need to learn to have better priorities if you want to become a quality enforcer, Emilia." He said to his niece, and she looked back at him.
"Anyways, we have made important discoveries regarding not only the Black Vipers, but the Orphans as well." Marceli continued, "They are looking to supplement their ranks, and this is something that is worthy of attention. The Council will surely be interested in hearing this."
"Yeah, I bet they will." Emilia said, "I guess that we should thank that jackal for telling us this when no one else wanted. Too bad we don't know his name."
"Yes, too bad." Marceli said, "He probably had his reasons to not want to have his identity exposed. He seemed genuinely scared."
"That he did." Bogo agreed, and he thought back on that jackal.
The canine indeed seemed to be quite worried. Bogo noticed it by the way that he was behaving as he told them all that.
However, he was not worried as he said a specific thing to Bogo.
A thing that called Bogo's attention more than all the other things he told about the Vipers and the Orphans.
A thing that kept coming back to Bogo's mind every thirty minutes since the moment that the jackal said it to him.
Something that Bogo felt like he had already heard before.
Something that Mieczyslaw apparently knew well, based on what the jackal said to Bogo right before vanishing without a trace.
"Now we have to inform the Association about this." Marceli said, "I left my machine at your office, Chief Bogo." He said, turning to Bogo, and the buffalo nodded.
"So, let's go." Emilia said, but her uncle told her:
"I need you to talk to the other officers, and to contact Jackalson. We will need the places to be investigated in depth by the ZPD, maybe they will be able to find some kind of clue or evidence that we didn't noticed."
"Seriously?" Emilia asked, and Bogo looked at her.
"You think my officers cannot find anything that you haven't found already, Miss Mieczyslaw?" the buffalo asked, looking at her very intently, making Emilia realize that she might have said the wrong thing.
"Do as I requested, Emilia." Marceli said to his niece. "The non-mage authorities are good in finding clues and evidences. That is the kind of thing that does not directly relates to magecraft, so not having it is definitely not a hindrance for them. Believe me."
Emilia heard her uncle, nodded and went to do what was ask of her, and Marceli then turned to Bogo.
"You will have to excuse my niece, Chief Bogo." Marceli said, "She is definitely not a bad person, and she surely has nothing against non-mages. Still, sometimes she speak things without thinking them through. She needs to work to improve that."
"Yes, I understand." Bogo said, looking at the black tod. "So, we need to go to my office, right? I have paperwork of my own to work into."
With this, the two mammals were now walking to the office. An elevator ride and a walk through the second level that guided to Bogo's private office. All the way, Bogo kept reflecting on the fact that they were both going to be alone inside of his soundproof office, and how it would be the perfect moment to try to get some information out of the fox.
There were many things that Bogo wanted to ask that fox.
He wanted to ask him details about the package, once he was sure that the foxes knew more about it than they had already told.
He wanted to get more information about the event that Tim witnessed as a calf, and in which Marceli claimed to have been present
However, there was now something else that Bogo wanted to ask the fox.
Something that was seriously bugging him.
As the two arrived into the office, Marceli soon is walking to the place where his machine was. He was getting ready to start typing to inform his supervisor of the discoveries they made today. Due to the time zone difference, now it was afternoon in there as it was night in Zootopia. This meant that his supervisor would surely be able to answer to the messages soon, if he was not busy with other subjects.
Just as he was about to type, he was interrupt by the voice of Bogo.
"Mieczyslaw."
The fox immediately looked way from the machine and at the buffalo. Bogo was looking back at the tod with a serious expression on his face. It was easy for Marceli to tell that he wanted something.
"Yes?"
"I need to talk to you about something." Bogo asked, still looking at the fox with a serious expression on his face. Marceli looked back at him, and he had the impression that Bogo wanted to ask him questions. The kind of questions that he would certainly want Marceli to answer.
"What about?" Marceli said, looking at Bogo, and already getting ready for what he thought the buffalo was probably going to ask him.
However, the buffalo surprised him by saying:
"It's about Benjamin Clawhauser."
Marceli looked at him for a few seconds, before asking:
"What about him?"
Bogo looked at the fox as he said:
"On a span of twenty-four hours, I heard things being said about Clawhauser by two different mammals."
"First, it was Rotun. While he was threatening me and Officer Clawhauser, he made a mention about him having been accused of doing something. I didn't gave much attention to it at the moment, but it did remained on my mind for a while." Bogo explained, looking at the fox, "I remembered it after we talked to that jackal. When you two were leaving, he talked to me and he told me that, sometime in the past, Clawhauser was accused of a crime."
Marceli and Bogo looked at each other's eyes as he said that.
"Of course, something like that is the kind of thing that I need to focus into. After all, it is one of my subordinates being accuse of doing something. You can't blame me for paying attention to something like that."
Marceli looked at Bogo for a few moments.
"The jackal... told you about the accusation?" Marceli asked, and Bogo shook his head.
"I tried to ask him about it, but then he got defensive." The buffalo said, "He said something about not being a good idea talking about powerful clans. Seemed to be worried. But, he told me that I could ask you about it."
More silence followed those words, as the buffalo and fox continued to look at each other.
"So, after hearing this kind of thing being said by two different mammals, I am asking you." Bogo said, looking at the tod. "What exactly was Clawhauser accused of doing?"
More silence followed those words. Marceli looked very intently at Bogo. As if evaluating him. It seemed that he was once more trying to decide how much he should tell the buffalo.
"Look, as a police officer I need to be interested if my subordinates are accused of doing something against the law." Bogo said, looking back at the fox. "Either it is an accusation of crossing the street on the wrong place or anything more serious than that, I really need to know. You would also probably need to know if another enforcer under your command had been accused of something, right? Especially if this was the kind of accusation that would cause rumors that could stain both his reputation and the enforcers'."
Bogo's argument had its logic, and Marceli was force to agree with that. He looked at him for a few more moments, before he sighed and looked down.
Was the fox resigning for having been defeat by his arguments? That was why he all of sudden had this expression on his face?
"Okay..." Marceli said, looking back at Bogo, and it was clear that now he had truly decided to give Bogo the information that he wanted.
"It all started seven years ago." Marceli said, looking at him. "At a village called Fawnshope."
"Am I... a living thing?" Judy asked slowly, as she looked intently at her partner.
"No, you're not." Nick said, also looking instantly at his partner's face. More specifically, at her forehead. "Do I hunt other mammals for food?"
"Yes, you do." Judy said, "Do I hunt mammals for food?"
"No." Nick said, "Do I appear only at night?"
"Yes. Am I native of another country?"
"Yup. I was a normal mammal before?"
"Yes. Am I covered in something?"
"Definitely. Do I appear only on a certain night of the month?"
"No... Am I... a mummy?"
"Yes, you are." Nick said to her, "There is a whole franchise revolving around a member of my kind?"
"Yes, there is." Judy said, and Nick smiled smugly at her.
"I'm a vampire, ain't I?"
"Yes, you are." Judy said, and with this, Chandler pressed the button on the timer, and he looked at the two admired.
"In less than one minute. Really impressive." The horse said, looking at the two cops as they removed the stickers from their foreheads, and both looked at their respective stickers, which had MUMMY and VAMPIRE written on them.
"And this completes our game." Chandler said, looking at the guests, all of which applauded the two cops.
"An impressive feat." Euphemia said, as she congratulated the two cops for their performance on the game. Nick merely shrugged.
"Well, what can we do if we work so well as a team?" Nick asked, looking at them with a smile on his face.
"The same cannot be said about Euphemia and her husband." Melor said, smirking. "Seriously, she got it in less than a minute while he didn't guess in five whole minutes."
"Hey, it was hard to guess!" Charlie said, looking at the hybrid. "Besides, you two didn't managed to figure out your monsters as well."
Legoshi looked down, while the hybrid shrugged.
"Meh, whatever. We are not really good at this." Melor said, and Charlie looked back at him.
"Yeah, maybe it was because of the questions that you were asking." Charlie said, looking at the two. "'Do I qualify for the Cassidy Law'? 'Am I a member of the phantasmal species'? What do those even mean?"
Legoshi looked down, as he had been the one who had asked those questions. Melor looked at the horse and said:
"You really have no idea?"
"Not the slightest." Charles said, and Melor said:
"Good."
Charles looked at Melor for a few moments, and then Josh said:
"Well, Ben and I still did the best time. We both guessed our monsters in thirty seconds."
"Because you cheated!" Charles said.
"Charles, not this again." Chandler said, looking at the horse.
"They both cheated!" The horse insisted, pointing at the cheetah twins. "They used telepathy to tell each other what they were!"
"No we didn't!" Ben said, and everyone looked at the horse, as he was still insistent in accusing the twins of having used their magecraft to cheat.
"They shouldn't have access to the clue!" Charles said.
"Oh, just leave them alone!" Gabe said, looking at Charles with anger, and the horse seemed about to say something to him when...
"Okay, everyone who didn't won the challenge get out of the room, please." Chandler said, "This includes you, Charles."
Charles looked like he wanted to protest, but then his own wife told him to cut it off and just wait outside. He looked at her in surprise, but soon he was doing what she had asked after she gave him a serious look.
Charles was still grumbling as he left the room, along with the others who had lost the game and were not able to guess which creature they were under five minutes.
The ones left on the room were Nick, Judy, Euphemia, Gazelle, Ben, Josh, Marcy and Hannah.
"To all of you, congratulations for having passed this challenge." Chandler said to all of his guests. "You all have earned the right to see... this."
As he said that, he pulled something from his pocket. It was a piece of paper, which Chandler unfolded and held in sight of everyone. The mammals who won all leaned over to see what it was.
It was a list.
_Bearna, Budai – Bear – Necromancer X [grave robber]
_Horne, Melor – Gazelle/leopard hybrid – Alchemist O
_Jaguari, Roberto – Jaguar – User of Macumba (Brazilian black magic) X [known swindler]
_Kayote, Olu – Coyote/jackal hybrid – Entomancer X [history of betraying employers]
_Kingsprey, Oren – Zebra – Astrologist X [stole from previous employers]
_Leoni, Cassandra – Lioness – Alchemist X [known predation offender]
_Ogami, Legoshi – Wolf – Entomancer O
_Roarty, Freddy – Lion – Summoner X [criminal wanted by the Association]
_Sangjon, Tae-Wool – Sheep – Sansinryeong (shamanistic Korean magecraft) X [suspect of performing blood rituals back on his country]
Everyone read it. Judy and Euphemia, in particular, read the list two times, in order to memorize all of it. They took notice on Horne's name, the part "/leopard hybrid" had been squeezed right after the word "gazelle", as if Chandler had only remembered to add it after making the list.
Or only after he found out...
"So... what is this?" Nick asked, and Chandler looked at the fox and smiled.
"Well, that's up for you to figure it out, my dear Wilde." Chandler said, folding the paper and putting it back on his pocket as soon as everyone read it. "Now, it is time for us to proceed to the next challenge. So, let's join up with the other four and we can..."
Chandler was interrupt when the door opened, and a butler walked inside.
"Master Chandler?" The butler said, causing everyone to look at him.
"Your father has requested you to come to the main living room." He said, and Chandler looked back at him.
"Oh, I can't right now. We are in the middle of the game. Can you tell dad that I'll talk to him later?"
"Your father said it is very important." The butler said. "He requests your presence and of all of the guests in the main living room immediately."
Chandler looked at the butler, and then he looked at the guests, all of which seemed as confused as he was. Even Judy and Nick were not sure of what it was.
Soon, everyone was following the butler, who guided them through the hallways and through other rooms, until they arrived in the main living room, the same place where the guests first gathered on the start of their first night of the game.
Adrian was on the room, and he looked like he had been waiting for all of them. He had a serious expression on his face as he looked at the newcomers.
They soon realized that Adrian was not the only one in there.
Four burly members of the security team were surrounding a single chair. Sitting on the chair, eating fancy bonbons from an even fancier box, was Chuckles.
"Hey there." The wolverine said to Nick and Judy, who were both surprised for seeing the criminal in there.
Didn't Adrian said he would take him to the dungeons?
However, they didn't had much time to think about it, as another door opened on the other side of the room. Carolyn walked into the room with a half-empty glass on her hoof, by her side was coming Yahya, and both of them were being guided by another butler.
"Adrian, what is..." Yahya started, but stopped as soon as he spotted Chuckles sitting on the chair. "Why is he not on the dungeons?" Yahya demanded, and most of the other present mammals looked confused.
"What is happening?" said another voice, and they looked up to see Simon Blackson coming down, being guided by yet another butler, who had been gone to his bedroom to fetch the blackbuck.
"Was that all, Mr. Manechester?" The butlers asked, and Adrian nodded at the three.
"Yes, it was. You can go now."
With this, the butlers all left, leaving the rest of the mammals on the room, and all of them now had their attention to Adrian and Chuckles.
"Adrian, what is the meaning of this?" Yahya asked his son, and Chandler said:
"Dad, did something happened?"
Adrian looked at his son, and he nodded.
"Yes, indeed, something happened." Adrian said, with a serious, but calm, expression. He then gestured to the sitting wolverine.
"Everyone, I want to introduce Charles Clawde. Also know as 'Chuckles'." He said, and the wolverine gave a polite greeting to everyone. "Some of you might know him as a criminal who, last year, was behind a stream of vandalisms, for which he was arrested and remained in prison for a few days before somehow managing to escape his cell."
Everyone looked at the wolverine, who seemed completely unfazed by having all of those eyes on him.
"So, as you can all guess, Chuckles is a criminal. Well, today he managed to break into the house. I could explain how and why, but that is not relevant at the moment." Adrian continued, making the eyes of everyone once more turn to him. "Now, in order to prevent unnecessary problems, we have decided that the best would keep him on the dungeons until the gathering ended and the present cops would be taking him under custody."
"Yes. And you said you would take him to the dungeons." Yahya said; looking at his son with a serious gaze and arms crossed over his chest. "What is he doing in our living room?"
Adrian looked at his father, and he then proceed to say:
"As I was taking Chuckles to the dungeons, he said something. Something that peaked my interest enough for me to want to know more. What he told me next was as surprising as it was unsettling."
He looked at all of the ones present in the living room.
"It is something that I believe that all of you should hear."
"It is about something he did last year, or while he was running?" Nick asked, looking at the horse. "Because if it is we better use our phones to record the confession."
"It is not a confession, Officer Wilde." Adrian said, looking at the fox. "It is not regarding anything Clawde has done. However, it is indeed something important, that all of you should be aware of."
Everyone traded looks, and then, Benjamin said:
"Well, if you say it is so important than I guess that it must really be." The horse looked at the cheetah, who continued, "Then, I guess that we really should hear it."
Adrian looked at Benjamin for a few moments, and he had a very strange look on his eyes as he looked at the cheetah.
"I am really glad that you think like that, Officer Clawhauser." He said, looking at Ben. "Especially considering that it is about you."
Ben blinked, looking at the horse in surprise. Why all of sudden he felt a sense of dread, as the horse told him that. Especially with that look on his eyes.
Before Ben or anyone could question Adrian, the horse turned to Chuckles and said:
"Now, Mr. Clawde, would you mind telling everyone in this room the same thing that you have told me minutes ago?"
Chuckles looked at him, and he swallowed the bonbon that was on his mouth before saying:
"Why, of course."
He put the box on a table by the side of the chair, and then looked at everyone, with his paws folded over his lap, and he said to them:
"Now, has any of you ever heard about a place called Fawnshope?"
Everyone looked at the wolverine as he said that, and most of them had either raised eyebrows and confused expressions. However, Marcy, Gabe, Josh and Ben had expressions of pure horror.
"Fawnshope was a small village on the west of the country." Marceli explained to Bogo, who looked intently at him. "It had 347 inhabitants, most of them elk of some kind, like deer and moose, as all as other medium and small sized prey, and even some resident predators. Nice place, very family-like, where everyone knows everyone by name. Said to be a peaceful place where you would go if you wanted for some calm vacations. It even once won an award of 'most welcoming town with less than five-hundred inhabitants'. Not your average tourist trap, but they got a number of curious every year."
"Right..." Bogo said, following what the fox was saying. As he did, he could not shake the feeling that 'Fawnshope' was rather familiar. He felt as if he had heard that name before, and that it was not really a nice thing.
"It was really a good place to live, full of lively and happy mammals." Marceli continued, and his face adopted a darker expression. "Until all of them died in a single night and the village burned to the ground."
As the fox said that, it clicked in Bogo's mind.
"Yes, on that huge fire, I remember now." Bogo said, "I saw the news about it seven years ago."
Indeed, Bogo had.
Fanwshope was a small village that had been victim to a terrible fire, of which, up until today, no one could identify the origins, although professionals assume that it started because of some gas leak or electric malfunction. It spread across the entire village over the course of a single night, and none of the inhabitants survived.
It had national repercussions. They even made a documentary about it.
"I see you are familiar with the event." Marceli said, and Bogo confirmed that he had followed it for a while, as it was indeed a great tragedy.
"I see. Well, I am about to tell you something that you certainly change your perspective about that tragedy." Marceli said, and Bogo looked at the fox, as he said:
"The story of the Fire of Fawnshope... is all a lie."
Bogo blinked, as he looked at the fox.
"What?"
Marceli looked at him, and then he said:
"Well, it is a lie in a sense. I mean, there really was a fire. But it was not a fire caused by gas or by electric failure, like it was said on the news. That was a cover story that the Association used to hide what really happened from the public."
Bogo heard that, and he looked at the fox.
"So, the fire was not accidental?" He asked, and Marceli shook his head.
"No, it was not." Marceli said. "It was arson. The enforcers started the fire when they arrived at the village and saw what had happened."
Silence followed those words. Bogo looked at the fox, as a tension had grown between the two of them. The kind of tension that usually preluded some serious event.
"Are you telling me that seven years ago the Mages' Association ordered for an entire village full of innocent people to be set on fire to protect their secrets?" Bogo asked, there was tension on his voice as he asked that. He really wanted to her the answer to this but, at the same time, dreaded to hear it.
Marceli shook his head.
"Of course not." He said, looking intently at the buffalo. "The Association ordered the enforcers to set a village full of corpses on fire to avoid the public from finding out the truth."
Bogo looked at him, and the fox said:
"There was really a fire. That much is truth. The enforcers started it. However, not a single mammal of Fawnshope died because of that fire." Marceli looked at Bogo as he said those words. "All of those mammals were already dead when the enforcers arrived."
Bogo looked at him intently, looking for any signs that would tell him the tod was trying to lie to him. That is another good thing from being a cop for so long, you learn how to know when someone is trying to deceive you. Bogo learned how to see through others, and he was proud for being able to tell when others were being dishonest to him.
He got particularly good at it after he decided not to let personal feelings influence his judgement.
He and the fox had a staring contest for nearly thirty seconds, before he relaxed, causing the fox to relax as well.
"So, they all had already died before the fire?" Bogo said, and Marceli nodded.
"Every single one of them." Marceli said, looking at the buffalo. "The enforcers found them all dead, and after seeing them like that, they all reported back to the Association. They were given orders to arrange the corpses and set the whole village on fire, to have it serve as the cover up for the incident."
Now, there were many things going through Bogo's mind as he heard that.
The Fire of Fawnshope was an event known throughout all of Animerica. It was a terrible tragedy that affected many people, and made it to the news all around the world. Now he was finding out that the whole fire was stage by the Mages' Association to serve as a smokescreen for something.
That is the kind of thing that raised a lot of questions.
However, now there was one that Bogo felt like making. Two, actually.
"If the mammals of Fawnshope weren't killed by the fire or by the smoke, like the news said, then how did they died?" Bogo asked, "And what it has to do with Clawhauser?"
Marceli looked at him. Those were direct questions, and the look on the buffalo's face demanded direct answers. So, Marceli was not going to dance around the questions. He then explained:
"The mammals of Fawnshope were all murdered."
"Murdered?" Gazelle said, looking at the wolverine, just like everyone else in the room.
"Yes, murdered." Chuckles confirmed. "Pretty brutal stuff."
"But... why?" Judy said, looking back at him. "Why would someone murder an entire village like that?"
It looked like the bunny was trying to wrap her head around the notion. Murdering someone already didn't made sense to her. Murdering over three hundred? Sounded like sheer insanity!
"For a ritual, Officer Hopps." Chuckles said, and everyone looked at her.
"There are all kinds of rituals around." Chuckles continued, looking at everyone as he did. It nearly seemed that he liked the attention. "Some of those rituals are nice and harmless, like the ones to erect bounded fields or to protect from simple curses. Other rituals are... well, they are not as harmless. Those kinds of rituals require blood. They require sacrifices."
"Now, sacrificing mammals had long been deemed illegal by the Association, ever since the Codex." Chuckles continued. "Nowadays if you need to do a sacrifice it has to be a chicken or an iguana, and even that is seen with mistrust nowadays. Still, some of the most powerful rituals ever created were done with the sacrifices of living mammals. I fact, some rituals actually only work if you use mammals as sacrifices. Naturally, those rituals were all put on the blacklist, and using them is a sure way to get yourself a one-way ticket to Terrain Tartarus, that when you don't get a straight sealing designation."
Everyone took in what the wolverine had just said. Chuckles looked at the mammals around, and he used the silence as the cue to keep talking.
"Still, there are still some guys around who don't care about it. They perform those blood rituals without any hesitation or remorse." Chuckles said, "They are fully willing to kill others if that means being able to do something really cool. Between us, most of those old blood rituals do some really cool things."
"So, they were all killed by a mage?" Judy asked, looking at the wolverine, and Chuckles nodded.
"A pretty good mage, I might add." Chuckles said, "Not only he was smart enough to know how to perform the ritual, but the guy was methodic and resolved enough to go to the ritual to the end, and it is not an easy ritual. It requires chants, circles written with blood, you gotta make sure the hearts are all pilled up nicely..."
"I'm sorry, hearts?" Euphemia asked, and Chuckles looked at her.
"Oh, yeah." Chuckles said, looking at her. "That ritual involves removing the hearts of the sacrifices while they are still alive."
Judy gasped as she covered her mouth, and Gazelle did the same. Legoshi had wide eyes as he took his paw to his own chest, where his heart was. Even Charles looked slightly unsettled by what he just heard.
"Okay, I think we have heard enough." Marcy said, looking at the wolverine. "You don't need to speak anymore."
"Oh, I believe he can, Ms. Foxgrove." Adrian said, looking at the female hybrid. "Please, continue, Mr. Clawde."
"Yeah, it is a fun little ritual. Pretty heavy black magic. One of the first to be put on the blacklist after the Codex was stablished." Chuckles said, looking at the present mammals. "Now, I won't tell you all of the gory details, mostly because I don't know them myself. But, it does involves removing someone's heart on a very specific way while the mammal is still alive. The method of removing the heart actually is aimed to keep the victim alive during the entire process, so they only die after the heart has been pulled out of the chest."
"Sweet cheese and crakers!"
"Dios mio!"
"Okay, I guess that now is enough." Marcy said, and she looked like she really wanted that talk to stop. However, Adrian seemed like he had other intentions.
"And, you mentioned to me that the ritual would be more powerful if there were multiple sacrifices, ain't that right, Mr. Clawde?"
"Oh yeah." Chuckles agreed. "Quantity affects the ritual. Taking a hundred hearts produces a much bigger effect than if you take a single one. The more the better. Of course, it takes a lot more effort. You need to go to the next sacrificing just seconds after finishing with the previous one, otherwise the ritual gets lost. The mage who did the ritual wanted it to have the most power possible. That's why he took the entire village hostage and used every single one of them as sacrifices."
"He probably spent hours doing that. Going from one sacrifice to the next, gouging their hearts out with a dagger." Chuckles said, as everyone had their eyes on him. "He did it with the males, the females, the elderly, the cubs... he killed the entire village for his ritual."
"I-I don't think that we need to listen to this." Gabe said, looking to be pretty nervous. "I-I mean, we are all having a good time playing the game. There is no need to hear about such things."
"Oh, but this is pretty important, Mr. Deerbrook." Adrian said, looking at the deer, and then looking back at the wolverine. "Especially the part about the mammal who was responsible for this event. There was pretty strong evidence against him, ain't that right, Mr. Clawde."
Chuckles was about to speak, when...
"Enough of this!"
Josh outburst surprised the presents. The muscular cheetah had a fierce expression on his face as he looked at the wolverine.
"Clawde, don't you dare say another word!"
Everyone looked at him, most of them were looking weird at him. Yahya had a raised eyebrow. Adrian, on his end, seemed to be completely unfazed. Nearly as if he was expecting someone to act like that.
"Mr. Clawhauser, are you trying to intimidate Mr. Clawde?" the horse asked to the muscular cheetah, making him turn to look at him. "Would there be any reason for this? Maybe because you fear that his words could compromise someone?"
Everyone looked at the horse.
"Someone... in this room?" Adrian said, and shifted his gaze from Josh to Ben.
Ben looked the exact opposite of his brother's fierceness. He had wide eyes in what seemed to be some form of fear. He was breathing heavily. His eyes were also focus on Adrian, and they nearly looked at him in a panicked, pleading way.
As if he was silently begging to him.
Adrian was completely unmoved.
"Clawde." Adrian said, and the wolverine knew that it was his cue to resume.
"After the event, there was an investigation by the enforcers, before they made up an entire story to cover up." The wolverine said, and once more, all eyes were on him. "Not only they found the dagger that the mage responsible left behind, but they also managed to get the testimony of some very influent mage that pointed to them the one who could be responsible for that."
"With those two things, it was very easy for them to quickly conclude that the responsible for that massacre was a single mammal." Chuckles said, and made a pause, seemingly for dramatic effect, before he said the next words:
"Benjamin Clawhauser, of the Clawhauser clan."
No.
Just... no.
There was no way.
It couldn't be.
Bogo didn't believed.
He couldn't believe.
He didn't wanted to believe.
He refused to believe.
"No. You must be wrong." Bogo finally said, looking at the fox as he said that. "You have to be wrong. There is no way Ben... that Clawhauser would do something like that."
"It wasn't what the evidence we found said." Marceli said, looking back at the buffalo. "It was some very strong evidence against him. A powerful mage gave a testimony claiming that he could be the one responsible."
"Was that mammal there when it happened?" Bogo asked, looking at the fox. "Did he witnessed Benjamin killing those mammals?"
"No. He wasn't even on the same state when it happened."
"A single mammal's testimony who wasn't even there when it happened?" Bogo asked, looking at the fox. "That is not a strong evidence."
"It is in the world of magecraft." Marceli said, looking at the buffalo. "Name and prestige still mean a lot in the world of mages. If you are a strong and influent mage, then your word have weight, and a strong and influent mage came forward to accuse Benjamin Clawhauser of being the author of that heinous crime. That was more than enough for the enforcers to pay him very close attention."
"And even if it was not, there was still the dagger." Marceli said, looking at the buffalo, "The dagger that was found soaked in blood on the top of the pile of hearts. The dagger we confirmed to be the one used to kill every single one of the three-hundred-forty-seven mammals of fawn's hope. The same dagger that we have come to confirm, without a doubt, belonged to Benjamin Clawhauser."
Bogo looked at the fox, who looked back at him. Soon, Marceli was speaking again.
"With both the testimony and his dagger, it was possible to place him as the responsible. At least, that was what our authorities thought." The fox said, "So, it wasn't long before Benjamin Clawhauser was labelled as a mass murderer. As a result, according to our laws, a sealing designation was immediately emitted for him, and a skilled enforcer was dispatched to hunt him down and capture him."
"But, this enforcer didn't captured you, right?" Adrian said, looking intently at Benjamin. "For what I understood, your family used their influence to free you from that sealing designation. To allow you to walk free. Ain't that right, Officer Clawhauser?"
Ben didn't answered. He had big eyes, but they weren't focusing on Adrian. He instead was looking around, seeing all of those eyes now focused on him.
"I-I didn't do it..." He said, barely a whisper.
"Well, I assume that this is the kind of thing that you can do when you are from an influent family." Adrian said, looking at the fat cheetah the way a shark would look at a fat fish. "You are able to do something like that and completely escape justice."
"Shut up!" Josh said, baring his fangs at the horse. "You know nothing!"
"I didn't do it..." Ben said again, this time louder.
"Ben, calm down..." Marcy said to her sibling.
"Well, that might be okay in the world of mages, but it is not in this one." Adrian said, "As a Manechester, I'm afraid I cannot allow for someone who did such crime to escape all responsibility for his acts." He was looking at Benjamin with a hard glare. "Even if I can't properly have you arrested, at the very least, I can make sure that you won't be able to run from your past."
"I didn't do it..." Ben said, this time loud enough for everyone to hear. He looked around, at all of those eyes looking back at him. Judging him.
"Benji..." Chandler said, raising a hoof on his direction. All that Ben could see was a paw holding a dagger in his direction.
"I DIDN'T DO IT!" Benjamin cried out, making everyone around him jump back from surprise. The cheetah's face was of the purest despair and panic.
"I DIDN'T DO IT! I DIDN'T DO IT! I DIDN'T DO IT! IDIDNTDOITIDIDNTDOIT!"
Before anyone could react, Ben turned around and dashed away. He slammed the doors open and ran out of the room.
"Ben!" Chandler said, and he was about to go after Ben, when his father stopped him with a hoof on his shoulder.
"Chandler, no." Adrian said, making his son look at him. "You better leave the present authorities go after him."
"Huh?" Judy said, and she and Nick both looked at the horse, who was now looking back at him.
"Yes, that would be you." Adrian said to the two cops. "You should make sure that criminal doesn't escape."
"No!" Chandler said, "You cannot just want Ben to be arrested!"
"He is a criminal, Chandler." Adrian said, looking back at his son. "He may be your friend, but he is a dangerous and violent criminal who murdered an entire village."
"No, he isn't!" Chandler said to his father. "There is now way he can be! I know him for years! There is no way Ben would ever do something like that! He is innocent, I am sure of it!"
Adrian was about to say something back to his son. Probably telling him that Benjamin really was a criminal. However, Chuckles was faster than him.
"Yeah, you are right about that."
Everyone turned to look at the wolverine. Including Adrian, who seemed confuse.
"What?"
"Benjamin Clawhauser is innocent." Chuckles said, looking at the horse. "It was another guy who killed everyone in Fawnshope. He did it with the dagger that he stole from that cheetah months before. That fat guy never killed anyone."
Adrian blinked, his confusing turning into shock.
"You didn't told me that!"
"Well, I didn't had the chance." Chuckles said, looking at the horse. "Right when I was about to explain it you said that you had heard enough. I tried to explain again, but you shushed me. Then you gave me instructions to repeat the story to everyone and emphasize the horrible nature of the crime and how the evidence clearly pointed at Benjamin Clawhauser."
Adrian looked at the wolverine in shock, while the predator looked back at him with crossed arms.
"You only asked me what crime he was accused of. You never asked me if he was guilty of it."
Adrian blinked, and he looked around. Then he looked at his son. Chandler was looking at him with a scowl and a reproving glare.
Chandler then turned to the door through which his best friend left and run to it, calling out for Ben's name.
Marcy was following him soon after, and so were others, but the female hybrid stopped him.
"You stay." She said, most to Josh than to the others. "You know that when Ben is like that he is not a fan of crowds." She then ran after Chandler, aiming to find her brother and comfort him now, for he surely needed it.
This left all of the other animals on the room standing in silence. It lasted for nearly half-a-minute, until someone finally broke it.
"So, the big guy never killed anyone?" Melor asked, looking at the wolverine. Chuckles soon answered.
"Nah, he doesn't have it in him." The wolverine said as he looked at the hybrid. "You know, five years ago, I actually believed that he had done it and that his family bailed him out, like the rumors said, but I changed my mind right after meeting him. Seriously, you just need to talk with him for ten minutes to know that he doesn't have the stomach to swat a fly, much less to gouge someone's heart out."
Everyone took in what was just said, and Nick was the first one to speak.
"So, someone else did it using his dagger, right?" Nick asked, looking around. "They did it to frame him?"
"Oh, you can bet that bastard did." Josh said, his face a pure scowl. Everyone looked at him, some with surprise. The muscular cheetah seemed to take knowledge of it, and he soon recovered, and he started explaining.
"Four months before Fawnshope, we were all going out for a compromise." Josh said, looking at everyone. "It was a rehearsal for Ben and Gabe's wedding."
Everyone looked at Gabe, and the deer looked down. Josh continued:
"We took different cars, and most of us arrived sooner. We waited for the other car to arrive, but they were not arriving. After thirty minutes, we started to get worried. We tried calling them through the phone, but no one was answering. We then decided to make our way back and see if something happened. Turns out, it did."
"When we arrived there, we found the car flipped on the street, crushed. The driver was dead. Our older brother, Jace, was under the car, alive but saying that he couldn't feel his legs. Benjamin was a few feet away, sobbing, and he was holding our younger sister. She was in coma."
"Did the car crashed?" Gazelle asked, and Josh shook his head.
"They were attacked." Josh explained, "They were attacked by... an enemy of our family."
"It was confirmed that they had been attacked on their way to the rehearsal of the wedding." Marceli explained, while Bogo looked intently at him. "Someone who already had tried to harm the Clawhauser clan before had prepared a trap and attacked the car and the ones inside."
"They fought him the best they could, but they were overwhelmed." Marceli explained to him. "Their driver was killed by the attacker. The oldest son ended up under a flipped car, with serious injuries to both his legs and his spine. Their sister, who was on the car with them, ended up in a deep coma that lasted for weeks afterwards. Benjamin Clawhauser only had a dislocated shoulder, but I heard that he was in shock for days after the event."
"Only many days later they realized that the attacker had also stole Benjamin's dagger." Marceli explained. "The same dagger used to perform the ritual with the mammals of Fawnshope as sacrifices, and that was conveniently forgotten at the scene."
Bogo took in all that the fox said, and it was not hard to figure the obvious.
Benjamin had been framed.
"The bastard used Ben's dagger to do it." Josh said, resentment and anger clear on his voice. "And he left it behind all so Ben would take the blame for what he did."
Everyone reflected on all that was being said.
"Wait, what about the testimony?" Charles asked, looking around. "That influent mage who told the enforcers that Clawhauser was the responsible? Wouldn't he have done that only if he was sure?"
"Who gave that testimony?" Judy asked, looking at Josh. However, it was Chuckles who answered.
"That would have been Gabriel Deerbrook."
"What?" Nick said, looking at the wolverine, before turning his eyes at the present deer, just like everyone.
"Gabe... did you...?" Judy said, and Gabe was quick to answer.
"NO!"
Everyone looked at the deer, and after a few moments, Gabe sighed.
"I am Gabriel Deerbrook Junior." Gabe said, "It was my father who gave that testimony accusing Ben."
"And he knew that it wasn't truth!" Josh said, clear indignation on his voice and expression. "He knew that there was no way Ben could have done it."
"Why not?" Charles asked, and Josh nearly roared back:
"Because Ben was four states away!"
Charles recoiled with the outburst from Josh, and he actually seemed scared, by the way he was clinging to his wife, nearly as if intended to use her as a shield. Josh had calmed down, but he still seemed pissed as he continued talking:
"On the night that all the mammals of Fawnshope were killed, Ben was in another state. There is evidence that he was on that state at the same time the mammals were being kill. There was no way he could be there to commit the crime. And your father knew it!"
He had turned to Gabe as he said that, and Gabe himself flinched.
"He knew because he met Ben there on that same night! He talked to him there! If you can even call that one-sided verbal attack of 'talking'!" Josh said, Gabe flinched more, and he looked hurt. This caused Josh to stop and calm down, before he continued.
"He knew that Ben could not have done it. He knew that it was impossible for him to have done it, because he wasn't even close to the place and couldn't have gone there in a single night. He knew it, and yet that antlered bastard pointed a finger at him."
Everyone took in what was said, and they looked at Josh, who still looked to be fuming, and at Gabe, who was looking down in sadness.
"You know, you are right about a thing, Manechester." Josh said, looking at Adrian. Hostility was clear on his glare. "Our parents did used their influence to get Ben out of trouble."
"While Ben avoided being captured by that enforcer, they spent days gathering all of the evidence of Ben's innocence." Josh said, looking at the horse. "Then they flew all the way to Liondon, and they used all of their influence and all of the favors that the big shots of the Clock Tower owned them so they could go directly to the Council and present all of the evidence that cleared Ben's name."
Adrian didn't had the same defiance that he had on the beginning. Actually, the big horse seemed meek. Nearly like a cub being scolded by a parent. He could do nothing more than to look down, as the cheetah, and everyone in the room, had their eyes on him.
"In the end, the evidence presented by the Clawhauser clan was irrefutable." Marceli said, "It proved Benjamin's innocence."
He looked at Bogo, who still looked at him.
"As a result, the sealing designation was immediately revoked, and a new one was emitted for the real culprit."
Marceli looked down, and he let out a sigh.
"I still remember when I received the message telling that the cheetah was innocent. I was just getting ready to attack and take him in for sure." The fox said. "I couldn't believe that I spent days hunting down an innocent..."
Bogo looked at the fox with a raised eyebrow, and Marceli looked back at the buffalo, sensing his silent question and giving the answer that Bogo already expected to her.
"Yes. I was the enforcer charged with capturing him."
Bogo and Marceli continued to look at each other as the fox explained:
"It is the main purpose of the enforcers, to go after condemned mages and make sure they would receive the deserved punishment. I was chosen because of my good skills in tracking and capturing, and they thought that I would be able to capture Benjamin with no problems."
"I actually could have, if it wasn't for that bodyguard that his family placed protecting him. He was very good."Marceli said, "I was annoyed to no end that he was keeping me from capturing my target... but now I am glad that he was able to keep me from getting ben to long enough so his innocence could be proven... To think that I could have sent an innocent to a fate like a sealing designation... I mean, I already feel horrible for the way that I pursued him."
Marceli sighed, and he looked at the buffalo as he continued:
"I was told that Benjamin Clawhauser was the responsible for the slaughter of an entire village, and that, since he was willing to do that for a ritual, he was to be considered violent and highly dangerous. So, I was authorized to use as much force as I wanted to capture him, even lethal one, if I had no other choice."
Bogo tensed as he heard that.
"And... did you?" He asked, and Marceli looked down.
"I tried... but his bodyguard stopped me." The fox admitted with shame. "I still feel awful for having done such things to someone who didn't do anything wrong... He is still scared of me. I saw the fear on his eyes when I showed up on your front desk. I actually thought that he was going to faint. Luckily he soon saw that I was not here to do him harm."
Silence followed those words, as the fox continued to look down, and Bogo processed all that he had just learned.
"And the culprit?" Bogo asked to the tod. "The one who killed the mammals and tried to frame Clawhauser? Was he caught?"
Nearly a year after the fact, but he was." Marceli said, "He was quite sneaky, and hard to approach. We lost two good enforcers, but we managed to capture him. His sealing designation was fulfilled, and currently he is in suspended animation in a classified location."
"So, he won't be representing a danger to the Clawhauser clan or to anyone again." Bogo concluded, and could internally sigh, as he knew that Benjamin was safe.
"Yes, he won't." Marceli admitted. "But, he already left his mark on the Clawhauser clan. Jace Clawhauser is going to spend the rest of his life on a wheelchair, and Penelope Clawhauser still has lingering mental sequels even after being awoke from the coma. And, of course, there are the rumors."
"Rumors?" Bogo asked.
"About Benjamin Clawhauser." Marceli said, looking at the buffalo. "Rumors that haven't vanished after his innocence was proven."
Bogo continued to look at the fox.
"Rumors that all the evidence presented proving his innocence was forged." Marceli explained, "That his family used their influence and power to force the Council to revoke a deserved sealing designation."
Bogo was silent as he heard that, and the fox sighed.
"Rumors about a powerful clan tend to be subject of interest, even long after the event has happened." Marceli said, "They are not spoken openly, of course, but they are still whispered. And people who don't know the entire story could very well believe such rumors."
"It has been seven years, and Benjamin's innocence has long been proved. Still, the rumors haven't died down, despite his family's efforts in fighting them." The black tod said, "Until today, there is a number of mammals on the world of magecraft who still believe that Benjamin Clawhauser is a mass murderer."
After Marceli was done, Bogo reflected on everything he just heard.
For several minutes.
Being attacked by an enemy of his family?
Being accused of a crime he didn't committed and sentenced without trial?
Having his entire accusation based on a stolen object and on the false testimony of his fiancé's father?
Being forced to run away like a criminal for days to avoid being buried in suspended animation forever?
And in the end he even was left having to deal with rumors of him being a monster who murdered hundreds?
That was too much. Bogo was sure that it was too much for anyone, and it obvious was too much for Benjamin.
No wonder he decided to stop being a mage. Bogo thought, and he couldn't help but feel really sorry for Benjamin, who had to go through all that.
Benjamin wanted to vanish.
He wanted to curl into a ball so small that he would just wink out of existence and no one would find him again.
Even the hoof and paw on his shoulders, from Chandler and Marcy, both trying hard to comfort him and make him feel better, were doing very little for him, as the big cheetah continued to sob, with his face on his paws, and repeating:
"I didn't do it... I didn't do it... I didn't do it..."
"Ben?"
Benjamin rose his head from his paws, and looked ahead, seeing the one who had spoken to him.
Judy had a worried look on her face as she walked to the crouching cheetah. She could see clearly how Ben's eyes were bloodshot, and it was possible to see the tear marks on his face, as it was washing down the red makeup on the lower part of his face.
"Hey, buddy." Nick said, as he walked by Judy's side. "You... you doing okay?"
Ben looked at them in silence for a few moments, before he said:
"I didn't do it."
"Of course you didn't." Nick said, looking at him. "Chuckles and your brother told us everything. You are a hundred percent innocent."
Ben looked at the fox, and he said:
"I didn't do it."
Nick blinked, looking at the cheetah. Judy was the one who acted. She went to Ben and got close enough to place her hands on his legs, as the cheetah was hugging them against his chest.
"Ben, we know you didn't do it." Judy said, in the gentlest way possible, as she looked up at the cheetah's eyes. "We already know everything. We know you got framed, and that the real culprit already paid for the crime. We know that it was all a set up, and that you never did it. We know you never would do something like that. No one in here believes you did it. Do you hear me? No one."
Ben looked in her eyes, and saw that she was being honest. He knew that she was telling the truth. He knew that she believed in him. He opened his mouth to speak.
"I didn't do it."
"Ben..." Judy said, and she seemed about to say something else, when Nick placed his paw on her shoulder, making she turn her head to look at him.
The tod had a serious look on his face as he looked at her, and simply shook his head slightly.
Judy looked from him back at Benjamin, and the cheetah was in a state that was familiar to her.
She had seen the same expression on mammals that were on a state of shock.
"Well, I don't know you guys, but I think we should go back to the living room, maybe Ben would feel more comfortable lying down." Nick looked at the cheetah, not really asking the question, but making it silently. The cheetah looked back at the fox, and only gave a silent nod.
Soon, the two cops were walking forward, while the other three mammals crawled behind them.
That was an advantage of being so small. They didn't needed to crawl while under the dinner table.
Nick and Judy exited first, and they held the cloth of the table so Benjamin could crawl out of there.
The cheetah did, and the first thing he saw were a pair of legs before him.
He froze for a moment, before looking up to see to whom those legs belonged.
"Grandpa." Chandler said, looking up along with Marcy as they crawled out from under the table behind Ben. Yahya was looking down at Ben.
There was a very tense moment of silence as Yahya crouched, getting on eye-level with the cheetah. He didn't said a word, but he had a serious expression on his face as he looked at the cheetah.
Ben seemed to get even meeker as the horse looked at him, and his voice as a whimper as he said:
"I didn't do it."
For a long moment, Yahya looked at the cheetah's eyes, and the other four mammals nearly seemed that they were holding their breaths as they looked. Then, the dark horse's features softened.
"I believe in you." Yahya said, nodding at the cheetah, before he placed his hooves on Ben's shoulders. "Get up." He said simply, as he helped the cheetah back to his feet.
Soon, all of the five mammals were guiding Ben back. All the while, four of them were checking on Ben constantly. Constantly letting him know that they were there for him if he needed. And all the while, Ben continued to look down, with a sad expression, as he continued to repeat the same four words:
"I didn't do it..."
And this concludes this chapter. Hope you have all enjoyed it.
By the way, I'd like to inform you that this is officially the last chapter of the year. I'll be taking the last month of the year to work on other stories, most of which won't be posted in here, due to being NSFW, but that will be posted on my AO3 account, so you can go in there and read if you want to.
So, this is all for now, I presume. Thank you all for reading and see you in 2022