On the Beat

Since being named the captain of the riders, F’nen had had rather more paperwork than he had had the presence of mind to expect, and so for the past few Turns he had been spending more time behind a desk than, if he was being entirely honest, he would have liked. Still, that was the duty that came with the honour the Masters had bestowed upon him, and he would not complain. He owed all he had to the Masters and he would repay them in any way he could, even if it meant that several hours of each day were spent in tedium.

Fortunately for him, it was only a few hours of each day. For the most part the remainder of his working time was spent overseeing the wings’ training drills, dealing with the more difficult criminals, and if he was lucky, meeting with the Masters. This evening was slightly different though; this evening he was back out on the streets, watching and listening for rumours, clues, even, if fortune smiled on him, some evidence, that pertained to the particularly intriguing case he was currently worked on. The previous night there had been a spree of murders in these streets; four men and a woman, all apparently unrelated, had been killed in their sleep, and so far no one had any idea who the culprit might be. All five victims were fine now of course, having been stitched back up, but they were still rather shaken and apparently baffled as to why anyone should want to kill them, apparently just to mess up their day.

Most people would have been happy to write the incident off as a random attack, probably by a drunken thug, but there was something about it that felt odd to the experienced F’nen, something that warranted a trip down to the streets to get a feel for the atmosphere, to find out whether anything else strange had occurred that had not been reported. After all, it really was peculiar that five people had been stabbed but their possessions had not been taken, and no one had heard or seen anything, at least no one that had been questioned. For that reason F’nen was out and about to get a feel for things on the streets. He would have sent some of his lower ranked enforcers, but he often felt they didn’t have the necessary enthusiasm, and besides, there was nothing like getting a first-hand feel for things. He had sent a few out all the same, to quieter parts of town, while he himself prowled the region the attack had actually occurred in.

In the gloom of the streets, he made a menacing site; tall, broad-shouldered and imposing, wearing his trademark black, floor-length cloak, he was instantly recognisable, but that was the way he liked it; the people here feared him, and their fear would come in useful. He was not alone either; a dark silhouette flapped above him, blotting out those few glows that remained alight. It could have been any dragon, but it was not; it was Thengrith, a creature even more feared than his rider, and he was ready to plop down at any moment to act as a silent threat.

So far though, the night was not proving particularly fruitful. It was quiet, and the few people he had seen had seemed genuinely baffled by his questions. A few of them had been recent immigrants; topsiders who were even less useful. At length he came to a stop on a street corner at the intersection of a more well-used road and leant against the stone building behind him, while Thengrith landed somewhat more awkwardly on its roof. F’nen was a very patient man, at least when it came to his work, and he was happy to wait for something of interest to come his way. A lot could be learned from watching and listening, and he would get a good enough impression of the populace’s collective emotional state if he stayed quiet.