Sjal
Approved Character
Fall 21, 124
The crafting hub, was located in the east of Meniscus. It consisted of a vast network of businesses operating day and night who worked to take in raw materials and send out processed goods. They manufactured parts to make repairs for ships, supplies for sailors, you name it. As Sjal and Ishida approached, the air grew heavy, and a smell of metal and coal.
They looked for about an hour until they found Kya Smitheries, belonging to the recently murdered Umi. A secretary welcomed them inside, clearly unaware that her boss had died the previous night. They were introduced to a delivery personnel manager who was a tall, thin, and dry man who gave Sjal the impression of hating them as soon as they met.
"I don't have as much time to devote to impromptu meetings, so if you would be so kind as to get to the heart of the matter…"
Sjal was struck by the manager's contemptuous tone. He hadn't introduced himself, not even a hello…
"Hello, sir…" she insisted.
"Khati."
"Hell, Khati. We would like to have some information about Mr. Umida. He owns this business, no?"
"Yes, I suspected as much. I heard the dreadful news, hence why I'm so busy. He left quite a big mess for me to clean up. What do you want, exactly?"
Ishida stepped forward and flashed his identification. "It would be helpful to give us a copy of one of his employment contracts, a copy of the logs of goods moving in and out."
"Done," Khati said, rummaging through some papers on his desk. He handed them to Ishida who passed them to Sjal as he looked them over.
She glanced at Ishida, who was as surprised as she was. Such rudeness was most irritating. She didn't know what they had done to deserve such treatment. Ishida said, "just stay with us a minute, okay? We won't take much more of your time."
Sjal thought that there was reason for them to get walked all over by a shitty little accountant. They had a real murder on their hands!. She didn't' think that Ishida was going far enough, but he was the official, not her. She gritted her teeth. She didn't like having to conform to rules and formality.
"Keep a cool head," Ishida said to Sjal, noticing her expression. "Anger isn't going to help their orphaned child."
"Wait, what child? I didn't know Umi had a child." Khati said, visibly shocked.
"Yes... Does that surprise you? You should know that, though..."
Sjal tried to figure out what the man behind his desk was thinking by looking at his face. She could hardly detect emotions like anger, surprise, disbelief, and a certain anxiety. He was searching for words. His surprise had to be justified in her eyes, and the man in front of them was speechless.
"What's wrong?"
"I... I didn't know that... I wonder why he never mentioned that to me... I should arrange for him to be taken care of, once I work out the finances. He would inherit most of the business, after all."
Sjal was reassured. Something so unimportant for the investigation, yet heavy with consequences if it ever came to light. Indeed, the company could face enormous turmoil now that its owner was dead. If the matter of inheritance was not known, then that might be part of a motive.
They didn't hang around much longer. It was near noon when Ishida and Sjal left. The official invited her to eat, and this allowed them to talk about the investigation while having their meal. They noted that Umi seemed to worked nights. His shift started at ten in the evening and ended between six and seven the next morning. Sjal would have to meet the entire work team that same evening. But first… she would have to spend the afternoon with the child. Try to make him talk.
That would be the hardest part. The afternoon was just beginning as Ishida and Sjal arrived at the hospital. She had warned him that she intended to meet the child alone. She was considering the possibility of having an exchange with him, even something non-verbal like a smile or a pointed look. However, if she entered the room with the officer… He might be nice but he was intimidating.
Sjal herself was changing before entering to see the child. She swapped into some clothes she picked up from a street merchant that fit the desert vibe more. Thin, nearly see through red clothes that flowed in the wind. She thought it would be better if she didn't look like a weirdo and sound like a foreigner. Anything to appear less aggressive. She tied her hair in a loose ponytail hanging at the bottom of her head.
At the reception, Ishida was recognized, as if he visited somewhat frequently to check up on criminals that had gotten hit on the head a little too hard during an arrest. They were given the number of the room where the child had been placed, along with a reminder of the floor (the second). Finally, Sjal was surprised when she was handed an envelope that had been placed there shortly before her arrival. It was addressed to her by name but bore no sender's name. When they questioned the nurse, all she told them was, "I don't know... Tall, quite thin... Disdainful... Why? Do you know who he is?"
This summary description meant nothing to either of them, to their dismay.
They finally arrived in front of the child's room. Ishida checked his name on the file. Tsen. Ten years old, give or take a few months. No injuries or signs of physical trauma. The rest was filled with psychiatrist jargon that he had difficulty deciphering.
Sjal knocked on the door. Only silence answered her, interrupted by the noises of a hospital in the middle of the workday.
"Tsen? Are you there?" she asked a little naively.
She knew he wouldn't answer, yet she hoped he wouldn't experience her arrival in his room as an intrusion into his life. In order to move things forward, she adopted another method.
"Well I'm coming in."
As silence was once again her only response, she took action by opening the door.
The boy was lying in his bed. Despite the heat of the afternoon, he had kept the covers on him. Rather small, even for his age, Sjal found his complexion whitish and waxy. His hair was stuck in small strands on his forehead and around his ears by sweat. She deduced that he was really hot and that the fabrics served as a sort of rampart placed between him and her. His brown eyes examined her - she didn't see fear or sadness in them. Only curiosity.
And besides, it disturbed her somewhat. "I'll leave the door open. It'll give us a little breeze, is that okay?"
The child didn't agree. He didn't answer in any way she could understand.
"My name is Sjal, nice to meet you."
She preferred not to talk about distressing topics from the start. Maybe giving him time to get used to her was a good solution? If she could ever be something other than… a curiosity… who knew? Maybe he would want to communicate?
She crossed the room and sat down between his bed and the window. The front door was still ajar, and she had taken care not to place herself between Tsen and the only exit from the room he could use. Ishida had told her to do that. Always give them a way out. Though she was promised privacy, Ishida looked at her from across the hall. Out of earshot, but there was no way he was going to let her potentially hurt the kid.
The letter was one of those big yellow envelopes. She stuck her finger in the opening and tore it open. Inside, two sheets stuck together. At that moment, Tsen, next to her, craned his neck to look over her shoulder. So she pulled out a…
Glowing stone with markings on them? "No!" Ishida shouted as he ran forwards. He took the stone and chucked it out the window where it exploded.
When Sjal woke up she saw that she wasn't in the room anymore but the hallway. "What happened?" she asked Ishida who was standing there looking like he was in much better shape.
"That was a stone with a contrivance on it. I couldn't tell exactly what it did, I'm a little rusty with my mystics, but it was obviously something bad. We're lucky it wasn't more potent or the three of us would have died."
Sjal groaned. How could she have not been fast enough to blink away? Stupid. STUPID!
"Tsen? How is he?" The question was sincere, pressing within Sjal. Had they managed to save him? Or was he in a condition comparable to her own? From the whistling in her ears, she feared she would suffer from tinnitus for quite a while lest she got magical treatment. With the pain in her back, she supposed she must have received some kind of blow there. From the marks on her right arm, she deduced that the spell had to have not only been fire based, as fire wouldn't have hurt her this much if at all.
Finally, with the headache she was dealing with, she did not doubt for a single instant that she had just received a blow to the head. She also realized that she had no memory of the explosion or anything since Ishida took the rock from her hand and threw it. She had never been trained for this kind of situation, and she doubted the child had been either.
"Girl, you should think about yourself…" the Officer had started before she interrupted him.
"No. If he's dead then I wasted all this time for nothing. If he's alive then I have to go talk to him!"
As she spoke, Sjal tried to straighten up, triggering a very impressive feeling of dizziness.
"Hey! Lie down," he said, putting a slight pressure on her shoulders.
"He's right," came a voice that Sjal didn't recognize.
Ishida did, however. He could recognize this voice among a thousand. It was that of one of his colleagues.
"Irou, you made it."
"Yes, and besides, it looks like that girl's dress is ruined. By the way, I would like you not to blow up the hospital in the future," he said with a smile on his face to convey his humor.
"I promise I will try not to."
Irou knelt by Sjal and said, "routine questions. Can you give me today's date?"
"No, I'm fine. Tsen, how is he?"
"I'll check first if you're in good health, okay?"
"No…"
"He's fine. Tsen is fine, just answer the questions or I'm not letting you go… and I doubt he has any intention of seeing you after what just happened."
Sjal blamed herself for having brought him with her and set off the explosive contrivance in Tsen's room. There were better first impressions! She had lost any chance of inspiring sympathy or comfort. She had been taken for an idiot… She would have to apologize to him at the very least.
As she submitted to the tests and care provided by Irou, she thought about what had happened. At times, she saw flashes of the explosion, as if her memory was coming back to her. Pieces of wood and stone flying in all directions, the light that followed the detonation… But nothing about her fall or the blast. Finally, she tried to put the pieces of the afternoon back in place.
A tall, thin, and lean man had provided a letter bomb intended for her… A man… She hardly even knew anyone here… who the hell could possibly have a grudge against her? The only suspicious person that came to mind was Khati, the man who worked or Umi. That explained his surprise when he learned that the victims had a son! It also explained why the boy had survived the attack on the family home. The killer might not even have suspected his existence… She felt so ashamed of herself for having been so easily fooled by Khati's compassionate reaction.
So, she told the officer about it. He looked at her, and in his eyes, she saw that all the pieces of the puzzle they had at their disposal were fitting together. The Umi some something that their employee didn't like. Maybe it was a new employee, or maybe he hadn't even been an employee to begin with? Either way they didn't know about the son who stood to inherit everything. That gave him just enough time to rush over and hatch this plan while Sjal and Ishida ate.
They still didn't know if there was more than one person involved… ugh, this all just made Sjal's head hurt even more.
"I… I'm sorry."
All three of them turned around. The voice that had spoken those words was high-pitched, like only children had. He was standing there, a few meters back in the hallway where Sjal's stretcher was set up. Tsen had just spoken.
She was surprised, really. Even if this surprise had many causes and resulted in many questions in her head. But she silenced her mind. There was something more important. Tsen.
She smiled at the boy as she sat up on her stretcher. Whoever had been in charge of healing him had done a job worthy of praise. He looked completely unharmed aside from a few scrapes that were bandaged up.
"It's good to see you, but… why are you sorry?" Sjal asked.
Ishida shook his head. How could she be so stupid? Did they need so much explanation to understand what was going on in the child's head?
This question must have triggered something in the boy because he folded his arms, lowered his head into the hollow of her shoulder, and let his tears flow freely. The doctors had said that he had hardly cried since he arrived.
Tsen started talking and giving them details about the night before. From very concrete things, like the night of the murder, the fact that the killer had shifted forms, the orders of his parents who had shouted at him to hide. Tsen also spoke of more abstract things, his desire to see his family again.
After an hour, when Tsen seemed to have emptied out his soul, he had fallen asleep against Sjal. She would have to leave him at the hospital and go and settle this matter once and for all.
It had been decided by Ishida that Tsen would not be registered in the hospital records, but that everyone would believe that he had left with Sjal. It was a way to ensure that the killer would hunt her down and not the child. Before leaving the hospital, she put on a new set of clothes that Ishida had brought for her. It was a shame that her other clothes were wasted without even one full day of wear.
Sjal was on her own now. Ishida went home to sleep – he'd been up for nearly two days straight. Sjal had at least gotten to sleep a little at the hospital. She didn't doubt that the murderer, whoever they were, knew that the child had survived by now. That meant that she needed to be ready for a fight with at least one mage in the near future.
Sjal walked down the street instead of teleporting. If anyone was tailing her, she didn't want to lose them. She headed all the way to Kya Textiles to see if Khati was there. When she arrived, she found that it was seemingly empty. All the goods inside had been transported somewhere else. She stepped into the center of the warehouse and wondered if she would ever be able to find Khati if he'd taken everything and run. And then…
It felt like something gripped around her throat, preventing her from breathing. It had been so sudden, so unexpected. She felt the pressure expand quickly to other parts of her body. She was starting to panic, seeing strange flashing lights. She felt like the oxygen was being forced out of her body and her fingers and lips were tingling.
And suddenly, everything stopped. She instinctively blinked behind a support pillar and her enemy's line of sight had been broken. With no more pressure on her throat, she fell to her knees, trying to breathe in a mad panic. She heard some footsteps and then the pressure started again. She growled and started blinking again, rapidly this time. She was a blur that couldn't be focused on as her position kept changing.
When she finally figured out where he was, she dove back behind cover. She focused on creating a portal above his head so she could shove her sword through it. However, when the portal opened, water started gushing out of it. Khati hadn't enough time to shape the water into a jet, so he'd created the water and dumped it through the hole instead. Sjal was drenched now and she had to quickly close the portal before Khati could do anything worse.
"C'mon Sjal, you're not stupid," she told herself, "just fucking kill him." She heard footsteps again, this time much closer. She heard something else too… a rush of water that smashed against the pillar and made her blink away again, except the next pillar took two short range blinks to get there.
"I will never understand why you decided to make such a big deal out of Umi's death," said Khati as he urged the water to coalesce into a ball before sending it crashing against the next pillar. He saw a flicker of movement as Sjal moved to yet another.
"From what I can tell, you're just a passerby, a runaway or a traveler. You could have accepted it as one of an infinite number of unfortunate things to have happened. But no, you just had to get in the way. I'll run you out of town, girl. Or worse."
Math:
many apprentice level free blink casts
2.45 (previous day) + .42 (reserve regeneration) = 2.87
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