Opening his eyes, nothing around him had changed. In a clearing somewhere in Feeorin Forest he had been waiting for an unknown length of time after entering in hot pursuit. "I need you to stay here." She said. "Wait until I come back. And whatever you do, don't leave if I come back empty-handed." Siris let out a sigh. If they were to compare in terms of seniority or experience, it would make more sense if he were saying those words. But she insisted, and had left him on his own in the vibrant purple and blue of this place. From the soil to the trees, this place was overflowing with all kinds of elemental energy to where it was hard to determine the source. Time trickled on as the ambient sounds of echoes and chatter faded in and out. The sky itself didn't seem to change either.

They nearly had them cornered when the chase led down southward from Iria. Where in the city he and Shiloh had the advantage, all of that disappeared when their target had gotten hold of a mark of teleportation from a local scrollery. Shiloh had managed to brand them before the spell took effect and the trail pointed them towards the depths of a forest well away. It was clear she wasn't happy about the turn of events, but they needed to make sure the shape-shifter was restrained. A trail of blood and chaos had been left in its wake which had gotten her attention months prior, but it was proving to be more troublesome than expected. Feeorin wasn't a place one entered blindly; that was what she had said when she was initially reluctant to go in. But Shiloh was determined to drag the fugitive out at all costs and make them accept their karmic debt, for better or for worse.

What he didn't understand was why she insisted they separate. He had more than enough experience in dealing with something like this but it was her idea to capture it alive. It wouldn't be hard to bind its movement and send its spirit to be purged through the waters of death and life. But she had a plan in mind, so he had to wait. Even if he did have all the time in the world Siris had to wonder, was it really necessary for them to wear the same clothing? A mundane detail like this didn't make sense for whatever she was planning. By now he was having doubts.

If he couldn't leave, then might as well see if he could discern where their target was hiding. Taking out a bronze bowl, he filled it halfway and uttered a chant before imbuing the water mirror with mana. The surface of the water became perfectly still as images began to take shape… 

And in those quiescent waters, the stranger saw not a place or his query. Instead, he saw a plague-masked visage as his scry was hijacked by a nearby stranger: me.

“What are you doing in my forest,” I asked him through his looking glass, my irate intonation betraying my underlying mood? I was peering at him through the tree line as well as his device, ill pleased with the activity that had visited my corner of the woods that day; but I hadn’t reached the point of aggression. All depended on the man’s answer and whatever he could tell me about the other intruders.

The moment the images stabilized Siris immediately felt something had gone very, very wrong. His hands let go of the water mirror, but the ominously masked face in the bowl's reflection remained. The most alarming thing wasn't just that his divination had been interrupted, but the fact he didn't sense anything beforehand. Very few individuals possessed the power or authority to interfere, and he recognized in an instant what kind of being he was dealing with. He answered the question without any attempt to hide or conceal anything.

"I and a companion are searching for a fugitive who escaped from Iria City. Our chase led us here, to Feeorin. The fugitive is highly dangerous, having committed multiple instances of manslaughter and impersonation for its benefit. Once we have it restrained, we will leave immediately. I was instructed to remain here until she returns with them." 

He wasn't sure if this would be enough to satisfy its question, but entering into an altercation with someone who had vastly superior arcane prowess than his own was suicide. Siris knew when you had to negotiate. And since they were seen as trespassers, appeasing those who claimed the land was the first course of action one took. Unfortunately with this interference he wouldn't be able to scry on Shiloh or the fugitive's whereabouts without this being's explicit permission. Meanwhile, Shiloh was doing her best to navigate the enchanted forest with a severely impaired sense of direction thanks to the overflowing magic radiating from everything. She was extremely tense from the persistent headache and nausea from the ambient levels of magical energy along with avoiding whatever natural hazards existed in this place. The shape-shifter might have set out traps to slow her down too, so she couldn't be careless. The clock was ticking as the longer this took, the worse her condition would be–and the lower her chances of catching it.

Siris was quick to answer me when questioned. He described how he was hunting someone alongside his compatriot for crimes committed in Iria; while I couldn’t care less about the city ordinances this person may or may not have violated, I did appreciate the hunter’s honesty in the matter. From all I had experienced that morning, Siris very well could have been an officer or bounty hunter chasing after his query, especially since he told the truth about someone recently teleporting to my corner of the forest. That gate scroll’s activation was actually what had first alerted me to the presence of uninvited guests, so this man’s story held water.

Unfortunately for him, that didn’t mean I suddenly enjoyed his company.

“Meaning you don’t know how long this trip of yours will take, and the longer that it does the longer I’ll have to keep an eye on unwanted house guests.” I would abide by his and his compatriot’s presence so long as their ultimate goal was to leave the forest, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. It also didn’t mean I had to let them accomplish their goal either.

That’s when I had an idea. A lucrative, no good, awful idea.

“Fine, I’ll hunt your query for you,” I said from beyond the veil with silent avarice. “But fair warning to you and your compatriot: I don’t have a habit of letting hostile intruders leave this forest alive. If you really want to keep the person you’re hunting alive and well for the trip back to Iria, I suggest that you think up an incentive for me so I don’t entertain thoughts of removing your suspect’s organs and using them for potion ingredients.”

I began terminating my connection to the man’s scrying glass then, looming just a moment longer to deliver a final message to my guest. “You may continue your scrying now, detective. Should you come up with a suitable bribe, just shout it at the tree tops and I should hear it. Otherwise expect your fugitive to be very much dead when I find him.”

An omelet. She wanted to make an omelet. The young woman was carrying a giant egg through the Feeorin forest, trying to go find a place to start a campfire or one of the fire pixies to share an omelet with. The egg had been found in a torn up nest surrounded by other broken eggs. Despite the egg being untouched, it was perfectly fine. There weren’t any enchantments or traps or mischief. The egg wasn’t even rotten so Dala could only assume the hunter had gotten its fill. The young woman spotted a person in the distance and was about to turn away in the opposite direction, she didn't trust most in the Feeorin forest, but realized she recognized the person.

"FLYING SWORD GUY!" She called out, forgetting Siris' name. 

The young woman rushed up to him, still carrying the large egg. She had a feeling it wasn't a fae trick since a fae would be smarter off using her parents or people from her village. Siris was busy doing… something. Dala couldn't really tell what but she had spotted him.

"What are you doing out here? Trying out a new weapon transportation system or something?" She asked.

Siris stopped holding his breath once the masked face disappeared. The good news was they weren't going to be attacked, however he needed to contact Shiloh lest she accidentally get caught in the crossfire. Calming himself, he performed the scrying ritual again and found Shiloh, then created a small hummingbird-like familiar to fly off towards the place he divined. No sooner had it left when he met a familiar face he didn't expect to see here in Feeorin.

"FLYING SWORD GUY!" There was only one person who would call him that. Dala would see a bowl of water in front of Siris while he was wearing something different than his usual outfit. It was like he borrowed clothes from Shiloh. He assumed he wasn't talking to the shapeshifter in disguise as he and Shiloh didn't see Dala in Iria. It would be very suspicious if it happened to know how to take the form of someone they knew without having met them first. "I could ask the same for you. This forest is quite dangerous to travel through alone."  

"Shiloh and I came here in search of a fugitive we were chasing from the northwest. Hopefully we won't need to keep searching much longer." In the depths of Feeorin Shiloh was trying to hold back the impending desire to empty her stomach when a hummingbird flew around her head. She was starting to think she was hallucinating when it turned into a recorded message from Siris of all people. The good news was someone offered to help catch the fugitive for them, for a price of course. The bad news was they needed to convince them to not kill their target before bringing them back to where Siris was holed up. 

"Got it–I'm on my way back. How does a small one-time shipment of blood ingots and other alchemical ingredients from Onnen sound? I can throw in some silver too. If that's not enough then we can work things out once I'm there."

The hummingbird messenger then flew back carrying her words as she retraced her steps to find the clearing she had told him to stay at. The messenger arrived well before she did, as a bedraggled and pale Shiloh pushed her way out of some bushes. "I'm back…Oh hey Dala. What's with the egg?" As she sat herself down Siris went over with a stern look. "There's a powerful mage residing in this forest. Why didn't you tell me beforehand?" Without missing a beat, she responded with a deadpan expression. "There's a mage in the magical forest? Who knew? Look, I may have an extensive information network–but I'm not omniscient."

Before he could argue with her on semantics, there was the sound of stumbling nearby to which they turned to see Shiloh…come out from a different set of bushes. This Shiloh looked to be in slightly better shape than the first, with lots of twigs and leaves stuck in her hair and clothes. The second Shiloh pointed at the first in disbelief. "Wait, what are you doing here?!"

When I was finished talking with Siris, I thought that the day’s situation had been completely handled. The solution was simple. Three trespassers had entered my home and all three would leave the way they came. Just one of them would be in chains and the others would leave me with a sack of crescents for keeping their prisoner alive. Whatever happened beyond that point was of no consequence to me, or, at least, it should have been.

I kept telling myself that after the scry call, but I started to hyperfocus on the story Siris had spun for me when I should have been hunting. Robin was still on my mind; and her conscience was beating me over the head. For a moment in that sickeningly magical forest, I actually saw her face. She was pleading with me to give the fugitive a chance because I too had been like them once. I suppose that’s why I couldn’t pull the trigger when I had finally had the target in my sights.

When I finally tracked down the changeling, it had already made its way back to Siris. Four people stood in that clearing now: Siris, Shiloh, the changeling, and Dala. To anyone else, it would have looked like triplets were standing in a clearing with their baby sister. The changeling had adopted the appearance of its pursuers, trying to sow discord. The poor thing had the worst luck considering I wasn’t fooled.

“Meeting up with her partner, I assume,” I said while deigning to approach the group of four. I was wearing the same plague outfit that Siris had seen me in during the hijacking of his scry bowl, but there was a sinister change in my appearance. The mask I wore upon my face was corroding. Pieces of fabric flaked off at regular intervals, igniting in mid-flight with the crisp sound of an open fire. The erosion was slowly peeling back the material around my left eye as I kept aim at the third triplet with my Redeemer.

“That disguise may fool the others, but you can’t escape my gaze so easily. Might want to start with explaining yourself and your motives before I decide to stop playing nice. That is, of course, unless you want me to show you exactly what happens to uninvited guests in my home.”

Suddenly, Shiloh popped out of the forest and Siris immediately began asking her questions before Dala could respond or greet Shiloh. Then another Shiloh came out of the bushes, only this was a cleaner less exhausted version. There were two of them now?! If only Dala had brought popcorn or cooked her omelet faster! She would have had snacks eat while she watched this chaos.

Dala plopped herself on a rock, still holding the egg, and began watching the chaos develop. When the person wearing the plague mask approached, Dala realized she had seen her before. It was Fox! Yet the mask was different. It was eroding and resembled fire burning away in wisps. The young woman could only assume that this was some sort of strange aging process for Foxes or she was extremely angry at all of them for intruding. Technically Dala had simply gotten lost but it still was intruding. 

"Ummm egg?" Dala offered up the egg she was holding to the angry Fox. 

The young woman wanted to make her friend feel better but was also curious as to whether or not Fox's temper would allow her to cook the egg with her bare hands. Then there was the whole two Shiloh's situation and Dala wondered if it would be socially acceptable to make bets on who the real Shiloh was. Her bet was secretly on the disheveled miserable looking Shiloh, as it tended to be the goddess' eternal state. Dala couldn't even remember the last time Shiloh wasn't being hounded and beaten by fate. A clean and happy Shiloh was a good sign it was an imposter. 

"Hey, Siris. What's going on?" She whispered to him. 

Dala was the only one who wasn't involved in what had transpired here, and Siris hoped it would remain that way. "Patience, you will see soon enough." He said quietly in reply to her. It appeared the master of this land already knew who was who, but until the right steps were taken–exposing the impostor right away could lead to casualties. He couldn't act rashly now an innocent bystander was present. Despite the masked one's warning, the charade continued. The Shiloh who just arrived pointed at the one Dala had first seen with an accusatory tone. "That thing is responsible for at least a dozen cases of first-degree murder, over the course of less than a month no less. Most of the victims weren't even related, so it's been on a killing spree targeting people at random. From the looks of things, they were gutted before they could scream."

The first Shiloh rubbed her forehead and crossed her arms looking at her double. "Really? Well that's news to me. I had no idea the victims were random. But a good number of them were found dead after some time had passed. Also every single body was found horribly mutilated in different ways–missing organs, bones, and flesh. When we inspected the bodies the damage resembled less like an animal attack and more like carcasses that were half-eaten." She stared back at the other Shiloh, unblinking. "So why didn't you mention that first?" It was easy to figure out what was going on by piecing the information together. "Oh and another thing you forgot to mention, not all of the victims were alone. It wasn't only single-target murders. If there's one thing you got right, it was that it was a killing spree–or should I say a feeding frenzy?"

Siris by now had determined what their fugitive exactly was based on the details both Shilohs brought to light. Now the most critical moment was upon them. His eight-trigrams sealing mirror was ready. She had called its bluff, but if it attempted to flee he would ensure it wouldn't escape a second time. His greatest concern was Dala, as if the shape-shifter chose to retaliate she would most likely be it's first target. Shiloh on the other hand wasn't feeling as tense. Sure it could try to escape again, but with someone even stronger than Siris here, she was pretty confident it wouldn't be able to pull the same trick twice without being interrupted. As she was observing her double, suddenly something clicked in her head. At first she thought it used the teleport scroll to come to Feeorin at random or because it would be much harder to be tracked down here. But in most situations, logically a teleport to say–Kurayo or Baltil would make more sense. Those places were much farther away and it would've bought them more time to hide or escape. 

"Wait a minute… Oh, I get it now. No wonder you chose to run to Feeorin. You weren't just trying to throw us off; you came here because this place gives you a distinct advantage over the streets of a city. You're a type of nature spirit, aren't you?" The other Shiloh visibly stiffened at that remark, but soon it would have something more important to worry about after attempting to lie before the eyes of the current landowner.

In the end, my guilt was misplaced.

Standing in that clearing of doppelganger drudgery, the last embers of my mask drifted into the northbound breeze. The trees surrounding us breathed with their exit, shuddering under the burgeoning power of avarice now awakened and freed. The sound of cockroaches crawling across glass briefly crescendoed in their presence, before an uncomfortable silence descended upon the five of us.

Then suddenly crack! Thud! The flare of the Redeemer’s barrel let loose a concussive air spell, snapping one of the false Shiloh’s legs in two. It bent backward at the knee, resembling a chicken’s leg more than a human’s, and the beast cried in agony as it fell to the ground.

“You come into this place to escape from the price of murder, and have the audacity to lie to me,” I said while readying myself for another shot. “I can see every crime scene through your eyes: the victims, your joy during their murders, and your lack of cause. You did all this for pleasure, for food; and you had the nerve to believe you were going to do the same here with these people and me?” I chuckled wryly. “Whatever sympathy I gave you on behalf of my wife is obviously wasted on you.”

Still keeping my eyes trained on the shapeshifter, I paused his execution only to notify my potential employer of their obligations.

“If you’re going to pay me, detectives, do it now. Otherwise, I’m putting a bolt in your suspect’s head. I won’t ask again.”