[ WP ] The shadow in the corner of your room just blinked .

Vira Muave sat comfortably in a chair humming quietly, he green eyes flitting around the room looking for…something. The room she sat in was surprisingly large for how bare the furnishings were: his chair, a simple table, a cabinet and bookshelf, and not much else. A single glowlamp hovered above the table and swung gently to-and-fro as she continued to hum and glance about the room. 
 
 As she continued to look around, the shadows in the room ebbed and flowed. She changed the pitch of her humming until finally a gentle knock at the door was heard. She adjusted her robes and moved quickly to open the door. A figure stood on the other side, his hood up and his face covered in shadow. The robes he wore were non-descript in the most obvious way possible, and she suppressed a smile as he stepped in. She offered him the other chair and he took it. 
 
 “ Cold night tonight, ” she said non-committal to gauge his reaction. It was the middle of the dry season, and was unusually hot tonight. 
 
 “ Spring seems to have just left us, ” the man responded as he took the chair. 
 
 A quick smile passed across her lips as she moved over to take her own seat. She returned to humming gently and glancing about the room. The man fidgeted for a moment before finding a comfortable position, and then whistled once. 
 
 Vira raised an eyebrow and stopped humming. “ Satisfied? ” 
 
 The figure nodded and raised the hood on the cloak revealing a man with strong features, brown eyes, and long, blonde hair. “ Yes, quite, ” he said, “ Why the secrecy? ” 
 
 “ Oh don ’ t play coy with me, Jule, you know exactly why, ” she said as she leaned back gently in her chair. “ You and I both know we can ’ t be seen together. ” 
 
 “ True, ” Jule said as he fidgeted with a piece of hair that fell across his eyes. 
 
 Vira returned to humming as her eyes flitted across the room again before returning to her gaze to Jule. She smiled coldly, “ So the deal is still on the table, Inquisitor Abir is still willing to just talk. ” 
 
 Jule fidgeted for a moment before lowering his head slightly, “ If I turn in the Boss. ” 
 
 Vira returned her chair to the ground, “ And by the Boss you mean Nij “ Red Hands ” Gunter, right? ” 
 
 “ You know exactly who I mean, ” Jule said as he pulled his head up with a start. “ I want you to spell this deal out for me again. I want to know it hasn ’ t changed. ” 
 
 Sighing, Vira reached into her robes and pulled out a small roll of documents. She opened them up and slid them across the table. The deal hadn ’ t changed; not really at least. Jule would turn State ’ s Witness on his Boss, Nij Gunter, and provide information necessary for taking him down. He was the largest smuggler on this coastline, and Almighty preserve them, he was good. 
 
 His laundry list of smuggling crimes was long, and impressive. He was responsible for ‘ Dragon Tears ’ incident where over 500 dragon eggs were smuggled into the hands of very rich people who wanted cheap bodyguards. He was also responsible for the shipping, and perhaps manufacture, of hundreds of non-regulated enchanted items that had killed fifteen, and turned several dozen more into various forms of goose. Those were, of course, just his more notable crimes. He also liked to steal the undergarments of nobility and sell them to fetishists. 
 
 “ Well, ” she finally asked as Jule flipped through the documents again. 
 
 “ You lengthened my prison sentence, ” Jule said as he placed the documents down again. “ The original deal was for only 5 years. ” 
 
 “ Yea, well the original deal was a one-time offer, and 7 years is still pretty generous, ” Vira said with a snort. She glanced around again at the shadows as the glowlamp swung. 
 
 Jule sighed and flipped through the documents again, apparently looking for something, anything that would give me an edge on getting a better deal. Finally, he sat the documents down again and rubbed his temples, “ Fine. ” 
 
 “ Fine? ” Vira looked hard at a corner of the room where the shadows seemed to be just out of sync with the bobbing of the lamp. 
 
 “ Fine, I ’ ll turn State ’ s Witness, ” Jule said. “ What do you want to know first? ” 
 
 Vira kept her eyes on the corner as she asked, “ Where is he hiding? We checked Smugglers Point, as well as Not-Smuggler ’ s Point, and couldn ’ t even find a trace. ” 
 
 Jule smiled, “ Yea, he— “ 
 
 Suddenly, there came a loud whistle, the sound of breaking glass, and the shadow in the corner blinked. Jule slumped over onto the table, a crossbow bolt piercing his back. 
 
 “ Shit! ” Vira shouted as she leapt up and hurled the chair in the direction of the blinking shadow. Immediately after, she ripped off her robes revealing the garments for one of the king ’ s police. She tracked a shadow ripple across the wall and onto the ceiling as she pulled a small vial out of her pocket and hurled it in the direction the shadow was moving. “ Shadow person, get the Containment Squad! ” 
 
 Two burly men in guard uniforms burst through the wall into the room immediately after, just in time to see the vial strike the ceiling and break, splashing the shadow with the amber liquid. 
 
 “ It ’ s tangible, ” she shouted as she leapt towards the opposing wall where the shadow was slinking towards. The two men who had just entered leapt towards adjoining areas in an effort to trap the shadow and hopefully have one person grab it. Apparently sensing the trap, the shadow flitted back up the wall and over towards the window. 
 
 “ No, no, no, ” Vira said as she rushed over towards the broken window. She leapt again and felt her finger brush something soft, and cold as the shadow flitted out the window, and down the side of the building. “ Pentagram! ” 
 
 A sudden chanting came from down below, and Vira looked out and saw the shadow flit down the side of the building, only to get suddenly trapped in a column of light. Three other guardsmen stood around a trap-o-gram painted on the ground with candles and chicken blood. Vira sighed with relief when she saw the shadow bounce around inside the light column, and then stepped back when she saw it start slowly getting pulled down towards the containment jar. 
 
 “ Burns, Birns, grab Jule and bring him with us. I ’ m going to want a Level 5 Rez on him immediately, ” Vira said as she brushed past the two men and went towards the door. The two men nodded and went over to grab the body as Vira exited and started rushing down the stairs. 
 
 A shadow person spy, she had been worried about that. Somebody must have either leaked the information, or Jule is a bad actor. Thinking back over their conversation, she decided that it was probably the latter; he had barely been able to contain his nervousness, and that non-descript clothing? Please, that just screamed, ‘ I ’ m betraying you. ” 
 
 Getting downstairs she rushed over and offered up a prayer to the Almighty when she saw the shadow person trapped inside the Containment Jar. “ Officer Jilroy, thank you so much for getting this set up. ” 
 
 “ No problem, Investigator Muave, ” he said. “ We ’ re pretty sure the shadow has been bonded to Nij Gunter, so we can ’ t get testimony from it. ” 
 
 “ We can if we Turncoat it, ” Vira said, causing the men around her to grimace. Burns and Birns, who had just dropped off Jule with the medic, had also grimaced. 
 
 “ And who are you going to get to Turncoat it, Investigator Muave, ” a voice said behind her. 
 
 Vira turned and saw Captain Malloy confidently stride up to her. He was half-smiling, which was at least not a bad thing. “ Good job on catching it, but do you really want to file the paperwork for a Turncoat spell? Shadow people have rights now according to the newest legislation. ” 
 
 Vira thought back through all the protests she had been ordered to attend and grimaced, “ I think it ’ s still our best lead. I also request permission for a Level 5 Rez on Jule Biltson in order too— “ 
 
 “ I ’ m sorry, ” the medic said as he walked over, “ That ’ s not possible. Once I extracted the arrow, I noticed it had been dipped in something. A quick scan showed it to be Devil ’ s Gift. ” 
 
 Captain Malloy raised his eyebrow and Vira swore. Devil ’ s Gift was rare, very rare, and only used to insure someone staid dead. It basically streamlined the paperwork for the afterlife, and the soul would be gone within minutes. She hadn ’ t even thought that Nij Gantor would be that wealthy; or devious. 
 
 Vira looked at Captain Malloy, “ I again request permission to perform a Turncoat on the shadow person. If Gantor is using Devil ’ s Gift, he ’ s planning something huge. I think it ’ s worth it. ” 
 
 Captain Malloy frowned, “ I agree. Get the paperwork. ” 
 
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