Lilly Ripper 05

Cherry Bomb

The way the ebony tower is build and lived in by the Church of the Living Goddess is like a large communal apartment. The bottom floor is a complex mixtures of teaching areas and wellness centers where the White Maidens have taken over. Below that and deep into the catacombs of the plateau are dungeons reassigns to varius tasks, but the deeper level serve their original purpose of imprisonment and occasional torture. Above and into the trunk of the tower, the White Maidens give way for the Red Gaurd, then a mix, then...who knows? The results of this mixture is that, although the Red and White Heart Magi seperate themselves in task and organization, they mingle socially.

One of the teaching rooms that Anna approached had much music drumming through it. Strings were plucked and skins were beat. When Anna opened the door, she wasn't surprised to see children dancing is semi-unison to the music. Music also created by children. On the stage with the young band was a White maiden who had a wide smile and white hair dyed dark red. Anna leaned on the inside of the doorway and watched.

"Right, now Jump! Really Jump! Who can touch the ceiling? Ooo! Ooo! I can!" The Maiden hopped higher than all but one of the children. Effee kids were good jumpers.

The class was primarily Mume kids with a few Borc and a few more Effee. The borcs were not graceful, but everyone was into the rythem and having fun. That's what Cherry did best. Teach people to have fun.

"Tandy, twirl your wrist when you spin. Bum Bum Bum Boom!" When the first kind fell Cherry followed, and then the rest of the class, probably thinking it was part of the dance. "Okay, guys! I think we've had enough." Giggle Cherry, cutting off the band with a gloved movement. "Take a second to catch your breath and it's totally good today. Hey, how about you guys try this move with each other? I'll see you all next week. Ooo, lights." Chery fell on the floor looking at the candles on the desk. They wern't lit. It was still morning. Anna had no idea what lights Cherry meant.

The kids passed by Anna after a good rest. Some stared at Anna's uniform, and a mume boy stopped. "Is Maiden Cherry in trouble?"

Anna held back a laugh. "Yeah. She's exceeded her fun quota today. We're planing on exiling her." The boy looked shocked and ran off.

"Goldy! I would recognize that voice under water!" Cherry didn't get up. "Quick, throw me a banana! I need to peel something and soon!"

"There are no fruit here, Cherry."

"An orange then!"

"There's no fruit, Cherry."

"A lime?"

"Cherry, there's no fruit. There's no fruit here, Cherry."

Cherry sprang up, reinvigorated by the half minute rest. She pounced Anna gracefully until they collided and then not so gracefully. She hovered over a surprised Anna and declared, "I need to peel something! You have to help me peel something! Let's go!"

I've heard a few stories about Cherry and what she was like. Anna met Cherry a long time ago when she was still training to be a Red Gaurd. Anna had a difficult time that after noon and was crying in the locker room, nursing her bruises next to a window.

"Why are you crying?" word from the window. Anna was so astonished she stumbled off the benches and back up against the wall. Peeking her head over the seal was Cherry, small and wirey. A little Mume girl in a white gown. She didn't have her veil, yet.

"Wha- Bu- What?" Anna stammered, too surprised to wipe the blur from her eyes.

"Stop that crying." Cherry climbed into the window and purched like a cat on the edge. "It's an awesome day! You gotta save your tears for rainy days, you know? Well I know, anyway. Hold still." Cherry pounced on Anna and used a tare from her dress to blot her eyes. "Stop strugling. Hey, do you know one of the Priestesses? I'm looking for a Priestess."

"How are you here!"

Cherry stuck her tongue out. "I climbed through the window. That one." She pointed to her point of entry. "It's used to look at the sky. See?"

"But...We're 6 stories high!"

"I know! You Red'ies have to keep your priestesses on the lower levels." I was told that no one except Cherry reffers to Red Guard as "Red'ies."

From that point on, Anna and Cherry were friends, and good thing, too. Cherry would'a had a hard time explaining to the Red Gaurd why she decided to climb straight up the Ebony Tower if Anna hadn't help sneak her back down.

And now, Cherry was grown up, Red-headed, and juggling apples. "I can't peel these apples!"

"Please, Ma'am!" The merchant outside the church was struggling to grab his fruit back. "Don't touch without buying!"

"Oh, don't be a sticky stuck stick thing, Harrad!" Oh, thought Anna. This wasn't a first offense. "I'll buy your lousy non-peelable apples, but I want something I can peel."

"I don't have something you can peel! Uh...Uh...What about Grapes! People peel grapes! You! You're Red Guard! You can help!"

Anna Shrugged and put up her hands. "Leave me out of this."

"Grapes Grapes Grapes. I don't have finger nails to peel grapes. Is that a Mango? Where did you get a mango?"

"No no. That's my lunch. Uh...Very bad Mango. You don't want that." Cherry wasn't listening. She was reaching in and adding the Mango to the swirl of juggled fruit. "No. No, come on, Maiden. It's my lunch!"

"I'll give your a full gold piece for these apples and that mango. Goldy, pay the good merchant." Anna dug five bits out of her purse and planted them on the merchant. Under that white veil, Anna could swear she saw her friend's eyes flash. "Thank you, Miss Red Guard Person. Catch!" That left two apples and a Mango which Cherry held with her gown. "Goldy, you don't come see me anymore." Cherry walked away with direction.

"You're not mad, are you?"

"Darn toot'n, I'm mad. Hey you! Catch!" Cherry threw an apple fast at the head of a City Gaurd. He caught it with ease and started eating.

"Thanks, Cherry."

Cherry walked in a new direction chattering. "You go off in one of your mopey fits and leave me behind, Goldy. Or worse, your little research runs and I'm thinking 'I'll wager two weeks allowance she's swinging from a vine from the ceilings of the docks!' Well I wanna swing from the ceiling too, Goldy! Why not me?!"

"I'm not swinging from anything, Cherry."

"Ooo! Are you swashbuckling? I don't even know what that means, but I'll bet it's fun! I heard it from a librarian! CATCH!" The last apple arched toward a hapless Effee, tossing wash water out someone's back door. It thudded on his chest and fell into the wash bin.

"Thank you, Mistress Cherry!" The effee yelled as Cherry turned a new direction.

"Eat you're apple, Goldy. Looks like they can be dangerous today." Cherry gnawed on the mango, tearing a grip in the skin.

"You're supposed to cut them in half first, Cherry."

"No knife. So what'cha do'n here, Goldy? We gonna party?! I love parties! Except your smoke parties. Those are dull. How about a contest! Who can guzzle the most Borc wiskey without throwing up!" Gnaw gnaw gnaw.

Anna passed her a knife from her hip. "No, I'm working on something. Something important, but secret. If you could, I might need your help. Can I trust you to keep your lips shut?"

"Huh?" Cherry was half gnawing on the skin, hanf poking, not stabbing, the mango with Anna's knife. "Yeah, sure." She turned attention from the Mango. Her eyes opening wider than before. "Are we going on an Adventure, Goldy?"

The spring mist returned. It was the monsoon trying to drive the ocean onto the plateau again, but failing as rain. Soon enough, another storm would come. Anna sat in her office, Duffworm's books in her lap and a hot cup of Bean Juice, a gift from Drate, on the table.

The first book was titled "Anatomy of the Dead, Volume 14, Spring of 2003ADZ by Arrat Duffworm, Mortician." And the second was labled "Victims of Lily Ripper, Spring of 2003 -" with nothing else.

Anna sighed and closed her eyes, opening Volume 14 first. The thick paperus bound in leather showed detailed and gruesome images of body after body. Race, Gender, and age followed no patern and each sketch was accompanied by notes, most in Ixxar, common tongue to Annalow, some in Borc'ish. Diagrams and notations pointed out depth of certain wounds or discoloration of the skin, some with notes like "probably an accident" or "Illness of the liver? Check with library." A few were clearly marked with "Murder. Tell City Guard."

Then the little girl showed up. Her name was "Unidentified." and she died in Mid-Spring, found in a back alley. Notes point to certain figures a through d.

"The child was drained nearly of all blood before her entrails were removed. Unusual. Point a shows her throat cut to remove the blood, but not all. Some had spilled on the cloth under her. Point b shows where the first cut was made. Knife used was probably dull. hole cut crudely around the belly to pull out organs from point c to point d. Why? Point f shows the girl had something in her fingers. Imprint of the knife? Note, Ask Felfkin his opinion. Never seen anything equal to this."

Anna turned the pages past a few dead men, then found another of Lily's girls. Her name was "Tanyay Dropkin."

"Same blue cloth. Same flower in her mouth. Less blood this time. All cuts were made after blood was drained. Blood loss cause of death? Liver pulled out of hole in belly at point a. Carved and spred into a star shape with stars cut into points b, c, d, e, f, h, and i. Some cut in throat at point j where blood was drained. Knife used was much sharper this time. Must be same as Unidentified on page 15. Holy Bear, what could do this kind of work?"

Only a few pages until the end of the book. No more children.

Anna put down the Bean Juice and shuddered. Looking through the history was like the first time she saw the body of poor Beatrix. These girls weren't mume children to UnSub, but canvuses. In UnSub's twisted mind, these girls were things to carv into art. Anna wiped her eyes and moved on to the next book. The opening paged read,

"Check volume 14 of the Anatomy of the Dead for other bodied like these. It is clear to me, Arrat Duffworm, that this is all done by the same murderer." An arrow points in from the margins. "Lily Ripper." It continues, "On suggestion of my frined, Drte Felfkin, I've begun keeping these notes seperate from the other bodies for ease of reference. In the Holy Bear's name, I prey these pages will be few."

They weren't few. There were 18 to 19 pages, each like the girls in the other volume. As the pages turned, there was less blood and more elaborate carvings and use of organs as decoration. The canvus focused on the torso, with few exceptions where vine work of plants or texturing bleed figuratively down the arms and legs of the victims. In an early case, there was a strange note "Weird blue stuff under finger nails at point e. It stings to touch it, but it washes off easy." And another "Traces of blue stuff again at point a. What is this? Library has no knowledge. Stings to touch with bare hands. Glowing?" Anna closed the book slowly. Blue stuff that stings when touched and may glow in the dark. She knew what that was and shook at it's implications.

A knock on the door sent a jolt through Anna who dropped the book on the floor. "Enter!" Anna stumbled to grab Duffworm's notes. Cherry peeked in. "Oh dear Mandra, that was SOO sad. Goldy? Are you okay?"

"What? Sure, why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you're crying."

Lily Riper 04

Blue and Green

Annalow is a laid back city, dispite how chaotic it can be. This is due to the unusually healthy weather, most of the year, and a strong Mume love of life that penitrates the attitudes of citizens and visitors alike. Traders, tho warey of the womumes (what with the females being the only magi allowed) find their wares generally apreciated and always feel safe, even in the seedier parts of town. It's this literal love of life, the energy of life and souls, that fills that atracts so much business and gold from all over Mash'ta.

So it is little wonder why the dead and dying are hidden away from even the Mumes. Everyone knows the dead are buries outside of city walls. Wakes last for hours as the body, wraped tight in a shroud and hidden from the mourners, is carried by the Mume's best friends and family down one side of the great ramp that leads south from the impossible plateau. Many traders set camps at the base of the ramp, but they know to part ways for the dead. The only other cemetery in Annalow was in the Docks. No one goes that anymore.

Where are the bodies kept until then, or cared for, or wrapped in shroud? The single and only morgue of Annalow, located in a disused dungeon at the south-east edge. It's walls are slick with humidity and the stone is a sickly blue and green that flickers with the lamp or candle used to light the way. No source of light hangs from the walls, an anomaly Anna notice when she visited. She had to suply her own lantern as she steps downward into the slick sick place.

Anna was no stranger to the complex catacombs and tunnles that wound like roots into the plateau. It had saved her life once or twice knowing how to get from the top to the docks without taking the normal side ramp. Still, this area of the dungeons she had not entered, nor did she want to now. This place smelled dead. It felt like something rotting.

Arrat Duffworm was not unknown to Anna. A pale Borc who stood a couple heads taller than herself and covered in more hair that she'de like to remember. She had met him after my rescue during the last murder investigation my master had conducted. Some may say the First investigation Annalow had ever seen. Anna remember Duffworm being a bit unkeped, and seeing him around the corner, he hadn't changed a bit in twelve seasons. His think fingers carefully worked a quill in an unpublishable book. He was making notes, it seemed, about the body now on the slab next to him.

His unnaturally large er twitched as Anna entered the dread room. He turned and smiled with big yellow teeth. "My word. Another one, eh? Well, I don't got a but one chair." He droped the quill, hastely messed with his hair, and pushed a chair toward Anna. "Er...Hope ya' don't mind the mess. I don't get but two visitor's a year an' now it' seems I filled my quota! Kind'a disapoint'n, you know? Noth'n to look forward to until next winter, I guess." Anna carefully examined the chair before sitting down. No telling what gore could be found there. "Well, I says to Betrum, here. That's this fellow. I says 'Wonder what that last one wanted?' She was 'bout your height, too. You got a sister?"

"No." Anna lowered the flame in her lantern before placing on the floor.

"Oh, where are me manners?" The pale borc wiped ink and...something onto his leather apron and held his hand out to shake. "Arrat Duffworm, Ma'am. At yer' service, I am." Anna thanked Mandra she was forced to wear leather gloves as she accepted the hand. "My word, a Red Guard? Seems like yer' in the wrong place 'ere, Ma'am. All these fellows is dead. No souls to read. Er..." Anna gave him a look of discomfert. "...well, you know your business, Ma'am."

"I'm Anna Goldeyes, Mr. Duffworm. We met a few years ago." Duffworm pulled his beard, looking at the cieling for the memory. "You knew Drate Felfkin?"

"Ah, well why didn't you says so. Me an' Drate are still trading letters! Mind you, I have no ideer' how he replies so fast. You'd think he still lived in Annalow, but I know that couldn't be." Anna knew, but she was sworn to secrecy. Red Guard's discretion.

Anna looked at the body on the slab, forcing herself not to look away. This wasn't just to take in the details, but like with the dead child, Heart Magi forced themselves not to run from horrible things. Looking at the dead stung, like a bee in her brain, but it was a sensation and another word for Heart Mage is 'Sensate.' "Who was he?" The words quivered a little as she spoke.

'Who, this fellow? See for yourself, you should." Duffworm motioned to Betrum. He was a naked and pale dead borc, almost as big as Duffworm, with purple at the bottom of the slab, veining upword a quarter way to his front side. "See them spots?" Duffworm pointed at his face. "I seen them spots before. It's a type of poison, see? No need to cut'em open this time. He were workin' with somethin' ta' help tan hides, is what I think. They use some nasty stuff to cure leather and I think he were just exposed to too much too quick. He's not the first."

"What's this purple under him?"

"It's blood, Ma'am."

"Please, just Anna will be fine."

"Anna then." Duffworm flashed a yellow smile again. "See, when a bloke dies, the heart stops, it do. An all that blood ain't got nowhere to go but down. Well, see, it pools at the bottom of the body, unless it been drained out properly. Normally, once I get'em, I make a point to make a cut here." He pointed at the back of Betrum's knees, "Sometimes other places, and I drain 'em first."

"Why?"

"Well, er...to slow down the rotting, you see? I know you mumes don't like thinking 'bout it, but you die and you rot. The blood rots first, 'cuz it's moist-like. Flies and the like enjoy moisture. I think their's something else to it 'cuz bodies rot even without the blood, but I'm still work'n on it, you see? Anyway, Betrum, here, died and stayed dead a while as no one noticed he were gone, so now his underside's all brused, see, an' that's the purple coloring."

"Did you get the body of a little girl in the other day?"

Duffworm looked away. "Oh. You're here for her, are you?" He homed and hawed for a bit. "I seen all the girls Lily Ripper gives me, I do." Something dawned on Duffworm. Something big and he smiled just as big, turning to Anna. "Why of course. You're a Red Guard, you are. You're here to catch Ol' Lily!"

"Um..." Anna stood up. "Don't...tell anyone, will you? Technically, I'm not here."

"Oh right." the borc raised an eyebrow. "I suppose you's someone else, you is. Well, no one talks to me anyhow. Still," He shown his yellow teeth again. "It'd be nice to see fewer children in here. Help me get Betrum onto the cart and I'll show you the young missy."

A messy affair, moving a dead body. Anna had never touched one before and disliked the feeling. She and Duffworm maneuvered the cart through some of the darker hallways into a room who's walls were lined with death shrouds folded on shelves. "The Shroud room, obviously." Said Duffworm before motioning Anna onward.

A few twists and turns and Duffworm was leading her into cooler and dryer dungeons. That same sickly blue and green colored the walls. "You lot can read minds, eh?" Anna nodded, afraid speaking would force her to suck in more dead air. "I don't think it'd work, but you ever try read'n the minds of the dead?"

"There's no soul there anymore, Mr. Duffworm. Nothing to read."

"Aw well, just ask'n."

The shine of the walls disapeard completely when they were done climbing downwards. Duffworm lead her to a large room filled with shelves and dead bodies. All of them children. Anna's reaction was one of unutterable horror. She spun around in the doorway and ran down the hall.

So much death. It was hard enough to look at the one girl, but all of them were children. Borc, Mume, Ixxar, Effee, all races, it seemed. All dead and all small. Gastly images. Some in shrouds so with just sheets. All dead. All dead.

The spit of vomit bleed between Anna's fingers. She just realized she almost threw up into her hands. The Borc was leaning over her, seeing if she was okay. How long had he been there? There was something over her shoulders. A sheet? Was it a shroud? Thank Mandra, it was only a coat.

Anna looked up. The borc had enough time to go and get some leaf-juice brewed. He was offering her a cup. She had just realized she'd been sitting up against a wall. "Ma'am? It ain't get'n any hotter." Her fingers were shaking. Anna took off her gloves and grasped the cup. "S'aright. I thought you lot were all soildures and the like. I should'a warned you. It can get a might grim in there."

"How many?"

"Not many, this year. Mostly Lily's do'n with the kid's room. Here." Duffworm held out a hankercheif. Anna looked at him confused. "For your eyes, Ma'am." Her fingertips told her she'de been crying. For how long? It would be a bigger blow to her ego, but she thought even Major Eleanor would have collapsed at that sight. "Sorry, Miss Anna. Folks die. Young folk die, too. You...uh...sure you wanna see the girl's body?"

Anna shut her eyes and reaffirmed her focus. Cup down, gloves on, wipe the tears away, Anna. You're a Red Guard, for Mandras sake. "Yes. I have to."

"I'll just fetch the poor thing, then..."

"No. I'll go in with you."

Duffworm sized her up. Meeting her deturmined look with a nod he said "Right."

The morgue was lit just with Anna's and Duffworms two lanterns. Anna pushed herself to look. First with just one, then the other. It was a kind of mental atricioun. She kept reminding herself that these wern't just lumps of meat, they used to be children. They were the reason people like Lily had to be stopped. The reason she developed her art. The disgust she had before turned to anger and she was ready.

"Over here, Ma'am." Duffworm was in the corner of the room back a ways. All the shelves held little mume girls mostly bound in a shroud. "My boss and I tried to tell people to claim their dead, but with Lily Ripper's girls...er...well few get claimed."

"The mother's don't come to bury their children?"

"I think it's mostly they don't know about this place, Ma'am. Or they're afraid. You're the first to be in this room, but I thought you should see the other girls, what with your hunting Lily an' all." Anna nodded. "This here is the most reacent." Duffworm slowly lifted the sheet from one of the girls. It was the body Anna had already seen, a sun flower carved in flesh still on her chest, but...

"Where's the flower stem?"

"You meant he gut-rope? Oh, I tucked that back in. Not right it hang'n out like that."

"And the other girls?"

"Right." Duffworm uncovered two other girls. "These is the one's that weren't claimed, Miss Anna. Tomorrow, I'll wrap em up to be buried, too. Pity we don't know their names. Er...You should know that this recent one, she's already been seen by her mother."

"And what's her name?'

"Beatrix Mellowond. Mrs. Mellowond told us that yesterday." Duffworm sighed away a frown. "At least she'll get a proper send off."

Anna took a closer look at the other two girls. Designs on the skin were clear and geometric. "Look," she said, pointing at one of the girls, "the skill to do this pattern. This is a ship on it's side."

"Er...Yeah. Lily usually goes for flowers, like on Miss Mellowond, here."

"And this. I've seen painters work with less precision. The cuts are perfect."

"Imagine she got a lot of practice with the knife."

"Not just any knife, Arrat. A very very sharp knife. The movements are fast and sure, like caligrafy, and the depth of the cut. I don't see any purple around them, but there must have been blood pooling, like you said."

"Er...no. None of these girls came with a drop of blood. Only the first one, Ma'am."

Anna spun to face Duffworm. "How do you remember that?"

"Well, I keep notes, don't you know?" Of course. He was writing when she entered. "An after the first couple of bodies, I started a book just on Lily Ripper. Her work does stand out a bit."

"I wonder...Do you..." Anna hesitated. She would be too lucky if, "Do you keep diagrams of the cuts?"

"Oh yes, Ma'am. Ever since I begun studying anatomy and what not." Yellow teethy smile again. "An if'n you can stomp down this Lily person, you can keep the book."

Lily Ripper 03

The guard stumbled from under Anna and headed to the street. His whistle screaming like a dying bird, a cry for help from any city guards near bye. Off duty, but prepared, the guard was.

Anna realized that she had been pushing herself into the wall away from the body in the shadows. The haze of illusion ran from her mind like rats jumping off a doomed ship, a ship on fire, a mind on fire. The image stung, but she forced herself to look as her Heart Mage training took over. Don't turn away, Anna. Don't close your eyes. Savor it. "No." She wimpered to herself, fighting the urge to run from this place. "Don't make me."

One hand placed in front of the other. One knee in front of the other. Anna realized she was crawling closer to the image, drawing outlines around the curved shapes. It was Mume, once. Now bloodless pale beads of mist polished the flesh and inside. The meat showed underneath, carefully shaped and folded to spiral like sun rays from the heart and out onto the cloth. From the center, also, was a single strand of unused gore pulled and curled down the body toward the crotch with bits cut and peels to look like leaves on a flower stem. The thing's face was at rest, peaceful, with a lily in it's lips.

No, not a thing, Anna thought. This was a life lost. I'm running away again. The was a little girl.

"Great Bear!" The unfamiliar voice came from behind Anna. Two sets of arms pulled her up. "It never ends, do it?" He was another city guard, Borc, elder to the young man who made the call.

"I donno if she can hear you, sir." Said the young guard, also helping Anna up, "I think it's the petal."

"I'm fine." Anna shook off their assistance. "I'm fine. I think this is enough to sober up the drunkest of borcs on a festival night."

"You sure?" Asked the borc.

Anna squatted down in front of the body. "I... Yes, I'll be fine." She turned to the younger Mume guard. "Do you recognize her?"

"Huh? Me?" Anna realized the guard had his head turned away all this time. "I donno."

"Why him, miss?" The borc put a hand on her shoulder to pull her up again. Bare skin against bare skin.

She pulled away again. "I meant no offense. You're night-shift, he's off duty, which means day-shift. I figured he'd be more likely to see the child." Anna turned to the mume, put a gloved hand on his chin and forced him to look at her. "My eyes. Just look at my eyes. It's alright."

"See here," the borc protested.

"In a moment." Anna put her other hand toward the borc, showing her black leather glove. A signle inscribed on the back to prove she was Red Guard. "It's okay, just look at my eyes." The young guard obeyed. "What's your name?"

"Peter Leftgood."

"Peter. Very quickly, I want to you look away from me at the girl's face, then back. Do you understand?"

"Uh..."

"Go." Peter turned his gaze at the child, then back. He looked more confuzed than horrified. "Do you recognize her?"

"No. No, miss. Can I have my chin back?" She let go. Peter quickly turned around and walked away a few paces.

"What's this, then?" The borc demanded. "Is the Red Guard finally helping to catch Lily?"

Anna relaxed. The haze slowly returning. "No, Guard. I just..was hoping we were lucky."

The borc pulled his cloak off. Green. Anna hadn't noticed he had it on which made her curse the petal for the first time in a few years. He covered the poor girl and motioned Peter to return. "Knowing where she came from won't help nothin', miss."

Looking at the cloak, Anna was suddenly too aware she, herself, had neather cloak or jacket. Just her red trousers and white armless shirt, as tho it hadn't been raining for the last couple of days. She held herself and turned away. Nothing more to see. "It would help the parents, Guard." And help me to track down Lily, she thought. "You borc are made of sterner stuff."

"Eh?"

"I could barely stand to look at her."

"Oh, that." The borc stood proudly and thumbed at himself. "I fought up north for the empire back in my youth, miss. This is nothing. There's no blood. Heard there never were none." He coughed. "Before I can let you go, miss."

He wanted her address. The city guard didn't investigate or search for killers, but all of them wanted lily caught so they made an exception recently and tried their best to think. Anna had offered to help them with their methods, but they would have none of it. Still, at least this was progress.

"I'm just over around the corner. At the Silver Wheat Inn." Anna offered her hand and was happy to recieve a shake in return. "I'm Anna Goldeyes. Red Guard Researcher Class."

"Lieutenant Morbin, miss. Annalow City Guard...er...Night Watch class, I supose. Peter, over here. Don' worry, son, she's covered up now." Peter still did his best to look away from the body. "I want you to go to the barracks and tell 'em what happened, then head home, son. You look rough."

The haze returned in full force. Tendrils of purple wrapped around Anna's legs and tugged the back to the inn, oddly back the way she entered. "Lieutenant, can you handle this?"

"Sure, miss. You head on back to bed, you should. We'll get this mess taken care of."

Her feet pulled slowly, but she forced them to stop. "Where do you take these bodies?"

"Only one place for 'em in Annalow, miss."

The name "Duffworm" hovered in front of Anna, but she didn't know why. Something about a dungeon. She batted it away. "There's only one morgue. Of course."

The borc tipped his helmet. "Miss."

Anna sunk into fog again. The mist turned purple and blue. Only thin pin-pricks of light indicated her progress through the streets. When she woke the next morning, she was at the inn again. Her hand instinctively shot out to her jacket and she was out the door.

-=-

UnSub

The previous account, including the strange hallucinations, were written and delivered by me to Master Drate along with the following querry.

"Recall my conversation with Brishah. Is it possible to deduce information about a subject with only the results of the crime or action they've left behind?"

After the incident, for record, Anna was pleasant enough to send back the letter Master Drate had sent to her.

"Anna, what you ask is of course possible. Remember our creed when searching; For every action there is an opposite reaction. A foot in the snow will leave an outline of a foot for later. It takes a genital hand indeed to leave no trace at all, or a mind trained in our invented art to remove the traces forcibly. With that in mind we know that this 'Lily Ripper' is at a disadvantage, especially if your mistress would set you loose upon him or her.

"Let's create a definition first. The subject, or prey of our investigation, is unknown to us. We shall refer to him or her as the Unknown Subject, or 'Unsub' for brevity. 'Lily' brings to mind a female subject, but we do not know if this is true. UnSub is a thrid, neutral gender and a 10th neutral race of person until we know otherwise.

"Now we look at UnSub's actions and see what we can see. The first trace is the missing children themselves. After two years, I'm sure mothers and fathers guard their children closer during the spring rains, and that means UnSub is someone who doesn't look like a shadowy figure or brutish monster, rather they look normal, unassuming, or worse, trustworthy. Someone that not only the children would allow close enough to them, but the parents would as well.

"We also know there is death and, strangly, the draining of blood. That fact speaks volumes for it's absurdity and uniquness. Dear me, I've never even heard of such a thing, but it's act still requires specialize location in the city. There must be a place quiet enough to muffle any of the sounds of assault on the child. More importantly, there must be a place that one can dispose of blood without notice and often enough to accommodate 10 bodies a year. Have you an unused slaughter cabin in the city?

"UnSub's artistic attitude tells us there is significance to their reason. This sort of murder is not made from passion that you and I are aware of, rather some unknowable significance. From what I know of your race, do not take offense if I say that UnSub is most likely a mume. Quill tells me that mumes have it in them a calling to bring something beautiful to the world. She says your race is compulsed to art. These murders appear to me to be a form of art. I'm also told that the blue Lily is a mume funeral flower. Perhaps UnSub has affection for their victims? Motivation may be a mystery to us even after the murderer is captured. Keep that in mind.

"The one things about UnSub I find most interesting the their ability to place the bodies without notice. After so many assaults, you would think a concerned citizen would notice UnSub with a blue sack large enough to hold a child slung over their shoulder and report it to the city guard. The fact this doesn't happens baffles me. The expensiveness of the blue dye used on the cloth is a good indicator of UnSub's wealth, but it's their ability to hide that smacks loudest of their cleverness. That will be your biggest challenge.

"I recommend you track down parents who know their children were taken. Also check with my friend Duffworm at the morgue. He's a bit uncouth, but do not underestimate his intelligence. To me he has proven loyalty, friendship, and a powerful ally, especially if he has examined the victims. If you can contact the City Guard without word getting back to your supeiror, you may find other things, such as the other locations of the victims, useful toward the investigation.

"Finally, with luck I wish you, but also to easy your mind. Your superior may not agree with your investigation, but I'll wager one of my finer clocks that they would agree with your results. After all, is it not the Red Guard's duty to protect the city from threats of assult and terror? I believe UnSub has already afflicted Annalow with both.

Good luck,

Your friend,

Drate Felfkin"

Anna placed the letter on the table in her tiny office. It's stone walls harbored more shelves with papers and books that bricks. One would scarsly believe it was once a prison cell. The level directly under the White Maiden's shrine was transformed into reseach office and phasilities. If the White Maiden's value feeling and dignity so much, Anna thought, you would think the Red Guard would pay more attention to reason and method. Not that it mattered to her. Most of the time she spent her days in her head or outside observing random populous to practice, then asking them if she was right.

For every action there was an opposite action.

Anna walked outside and looked for someone she didn't recognize. Only one walked down the steps into the now well lit dungeons where her aquatences milled about with their own work. Ah, she thought, practice.

White Maiden, meaning face unseeable as they all wore veils that just cover their eyes. Hands, then. Calloused and carrying a pouch of something. Bits of dirt in her finger nails? Same with the gown she wore, tho she's done her best to wash the grime away in one of the fountains. Knees are wet. Okay, she's a gardener. White Maidens must keep bare feet in the church, but her feet are clean and dry like the rest of her dress. She's done plant work off the grounds or in a green house. It has been raining all morning. Green house, then. That means works with flowers and herbs. Both are used with alchemy research which means Madeline Fallbringer on the other end of Research.

The Maiden saw Anna watching and walked up. "Uh...excuse me..."

"Fallbringer is down that way to the left. You'll smell the alchemy labs before you see them. Can't miss it." The maiden's mouth fell open. With all Heart Magi, you would need physical contact to read minds, but somehow Anna had done so without being near her.

"Th- Okay. Thank you." She bowed and left Anna with a smile on her face.

Lily Ripper 02

Purple and Blue

Even the humblest of Annalow citezens find themselves with a small plenty of leisure time and a few gold bits in their purse. Many end up at one of the many pubs, but some may find a more refined pass time to help erode the nights. There are about 20 of them, that I know of, spotted across the city like stars in twilight. Half of them are public. I know not of a way to decribe these places, so I shall call them "Pleasure Houses" for now.

A pleasure house is a mix of many things. They offer drink and food, like a eatery, but also company of beautiful slaves, like a brothel, but there is also performances of plays, song, and poetry, half by the patrons themselves. All pleasure houses are run by a "mother" or "father" who own and run the business side of things. The owners are so described because the slaves are looked over like children, except in the seedier houses.

I tell you about these houses because one of the few vices of Anna Goldeyes is her addiction to the petal, a narcotic dried, ground, smoked in a pipe, and sorely looked down on by society. Her main suplier of this petal is Queenly Spires, Anna's favorite pleasure house, where she sat thinking and smoking one night.

Two beautiful boys looked after her as purple smoke spiraled from her lips. A lite drizzle of rain could be heard from other side of dark green curtains hung on light blue stone. Mother Brishah, handsome in her youth, spoke with Anna on the lazy night.

"Spring rain, a treat of demons. Lily will be skulking about on this dread night, mark my words."

Anna turned her half lidded eyes to her friend. A ribbon of coiled purple entered her chest and escaped with her words. "Eleanor would have me avoid the city's jurisdiction, else Lily would be exiled or worse by now." Mother Brishah cocked her head to the left. "She's is a Major in the Red Guard, Brishah. My direct superior." Another slow draw on the pipe before she spoke, "I've prooven my methods, but the Major would have none of it applied to..." Anna frowned, "...mundane issues."

"Surely you would search for the Ripper like the rest of us?"

Anna shrugged, "I am bound by duty. If disobedient, Eleanor would revoke my special pursuits and I would be a simple soilder again. She disaproves of my 'research' as it is, but..."

Brishah put her hand on Anna's and she fell silent, lost behind the effects of the petal. They talked over other subjects for a while before returning again. Anna put down the empty pipe into it's case and pushed it across a table to Brishah who bowed. "Rest, Goldeyes. You may sleep here, if you wish."

"No, I'll be off." Anna rose and slowly tumbled back into the cushions, the two boys helping her down.

"No, you'll rest, Anna. No one smokes like you do. Most only have one pipe in a night."

"What? How to they find faces in the sky?"

Brishah giggled in a honey deep voice moved to leave. At the doorway she paused and turned, "Lily, she's a Borc, surely?"

"What makes you think so?"

"We've served many a borc, here, and they're the only ones I would think that could be so...brutal." A cold shudder caressed Brishah's spine to think of the huge Bear-kin hovering over a broken child's body. "No Mume could do that, could they?"

Anna gave it some muddled thought and, long after Brishah had left, said "I don't see why not."

-=-

Rain misted on the empty sand cobble streets and the boots of a city guardsman. He didn't have his armor on, which meant he was off duty. That's what Anna thought when she saw him nod to her. A haze of hallucinations stood between her and the way to the inn she stayed. She would not return to the church barracks in this shape.

A whisper seemed to wave to her from the corner of her eye. A breath of something. Directions to the inn? She watched calmly as her finger tips pulled her into the back ally. A strange sense of fear mixed with discovery. Into the tween of buildings she was lead to find...

Nothing.

Empty of anything other than the discarded refuse of a dinner. Light washed gently downwards on Anna's face as she slumped to the wall. Five pipes was too much petal. She would have to cut back, but it was hard without the pursute of prey she was so used to. Since her last project 15 seasons back she found the lack of puzzles and mysteries...boring. With every Mume there was an insatiable drive to bring art into the world and Anna had realized her gift was an art of method and, as discussed with Master Drate, deduction.

The petal made shapes and stories out of mist and force her mind to work. It was still in her, even now, making shadows into plants and the sounds of footsteps behind her turning into brush strokes of drums.

"M'Lady, are you alright?" Anna tossed her hair back to see the guardsman that passed her before. It may have been suggested by the petal, but he was gorgeous. She turned away, blush and unconsciously messing with her blonds already ratted up with mist fall.

"Of course." She said, a small wisp of purple falling from her words. "I'm fine."

"Come on, then," He pulled her to her feet.

"I said I'm fine!" Anna jerked her arm away. She wasn't angry, just grumpy from embarrassment. Looking at him she softened. His face was young, but his eyes were orange and old, almost hidden behind dark yellow bangs. Lovely tan skin wrapped his thin but strong features. She thought, I could fall for him.

Then she fell.

The drop lasted merely years to Anna. Nothing new, but she had pressed the petal a little too hard that night and the guard caught her, so no damage done. Except to her pride. One thing at a time.

"M'Lady, you're not fine. Come now, I'll help you on your way." He force a shoulder under her own and lifted her up. "Where do you live?" The Church, she thought, but Mandra help me if you take me there. Anna let her left finger tips float and tug her further into the ally. "I'm sure there's a safer route than a dark Annalow ally, eh?"

Anna shook her head. "Fingers say go that way." The two stumbled onwards, into dark blue shades blanketing the buildings. He was warm and much too nice. Young, too. A pleasantry in the soft blanket of mist...

Soft blanket.

Blue.

Shadows.

There was a soft blue blanket in the shadow of the ally. Something dancing on it. Anna screamed and threw herself and the guard into the opposite wall.

"What's wrong?" He said before he let out his own scream and obscenities.

Lily Ripper 01

---===Day 1===---

Introduction

By the Effee Scribe, Quill

Since my exile from the city of the Living Goddess, I've used my unique endowments to keep in touch with Annalow. Annalow who's image burns in my memories.

Oh Annalow, the Mume city that sits atop an imposible platue. On the sea side, her mountain empties into a deep cave holding all docks and ships that travel from along the world's eadge just to glimpse her magnificient. The climb, either from her ramp at south or the cave up north, leads atop the flattented mound entereing a city that swings it's two mile radius to hold homes, buildings, and lush parks of blue, orange, and yellow stone masondry. She basks under a tropical sun and her greenery shines for it. She is beautiful, fore she is the capital city of the Mume race and it is in the Mumes to always stirve to make the world beautiful. Sometimes terrible, but always beautiful. And both terrible and beautiful is Annalow's key feature, tho you would think the platue should be enough. At the center of her circular encumbrance stands a huge ebony tower that shines black with the sun behind it. Mandra's Tower, the Church, that reaches two-hundred and Twenty-one stories into the sky and houses the Goddess at the top where she can look down and watch over her people.

As I write these words now, I sit south of my beloved city, and although I was a slave in Annalow, the last city of the world to allow slavery, I long for looks upon my home. Three sylabals the house my heart and tease my long ears and longing eyes. Ann-A-Low.

With my longings, you understand, I had to keep in touch with my few but loyal friends. The most interesting of them was Anna Goldeyes, a strange Red Gaurd of the Church of Mandra, who's eyes were, in fact, gold and flashed pleasantly in the sight of all children. The Red Guard stand as elite military who police the magic of the Mume people and protect the city if it is threatened. The Red Guard, crueler half of the church, but solid and dutiful. They are like a trained bear or wolf, frightening to outsiders and strangers, but a comfert once you realize they are on your side. I have spied on them for my former masters and I have judged them strong, practical, militant, and sturdy Mumes.

They're mirrored people, the White Maidens, are kind, generous, wise, and above all else, strive to be the bindings of comunity. All members of the Church of the Living Goddess are womume, for in womume only could the Living Goddess Mandra trust her magic, the feared magic to control minds and souls. Heartmagi, a feared word describing both white and red members womume.

Durring the events that lead to my exile, Anna Goldeyes did an intelectual dance with my current and brilliant master Drate Felfkin who now resides in a hidden felf village to the south. I would speak more of him for I'm so very devoted to his well being, but neither he nor the Felf race have much to do with this tale, I'm afraid. Perhaps another day. Anna Goldeyes made herself known as an oddity of the Red Guard for she believed, like my master, that the guilt of one's crimes would be precievable in traces left durring the act of the sin. Annalow has one cardinal and strict law above all others, there will be no death in the city. It was Anna Goldeyes' duty, therefore, to track like a huntress the deeds done by a rogue Red Guard that damaged and snuffed out minds and drove one poor White Maiden to madness. Master Drate found in Anna both an ally in his own quest and, much to his delight and surprise, a student of the art known as "Deduction."

The word was coined by Master Drate as such "To deduct is to remove slowly and methodically that which is imposible to find the gem of truth, however unlikely, that remains. Even in the unstudy rules of so called 'Magic' there are rules indeed that leave foot prints in the ground of reality." Master Drate and Anna traded countless letters he would show to me in excitement as the two created the idea of a detector of these footprints. A "Detective," as Anna would come to finalize the term.

The size and scope of Annalow would put their theories to the test during the spring storms that occurred five years after the bi-millennium. Tho the events actually began in mid-spring of 2,003 AZD.

Intro 2

Death of the First Child

Everyone knows of the two cardinal rights of everyone inside the walls of Annalow; The Right to Live no matter what the crime and, barring the Effee race, the right of property. To have our first and most guarded right breached on a child, even if it is a slave or Effee or urchin, stands the most regretful.

She was a Mume girl, perhaps 10 or 11 years young, found laying in a back ally in the north district. Her enshrined corpse were found by Ixxar eyes, a set of twins that lived in the richer of neighborhoods, but decided to take one of the city's short-cuts, famous for trouble. The North district is not particularly dangerous and so the alleyways were not such a great risk, but the image the Ixxar saw force a scream from both of them in unison.

The child was naked except for a single blue lily placed carefully in her mouth. Her hands rested on her chest as if she had just fallen asleep, and her elbows lay on a blue cloth. The true dread of the site was her stomach, which was ripped, bloodless, out and down the rest of her body, covering her from tummy to knees. Everything was so carefully done that the murder raised much interest, not just in the city guard who's jurisdiction it falls under, but the locals, the rest of the city, and eventually of course, to Anna Goldeyes.

The name given to such a villan capable of this deed was "Lily Ripper." Race? Gender? Nothing was known. We only knew that over the next two years, Lily would gift us 20 more atrocities, all alike. Some differences would be had, but they were all Mume girls with face and lips untarnished to accept the death-sign of a blue lily flower and they all lay on blue dyed cloth. That was significant to Anna Goldeyes, she once wrote me, because blue dye was dreadfully expensive.

Lily Ripper was the fear on the lips of all Annalow, making the spring months dreadful and unacceptable. Lily was a ghost, a blue shadow, Mumes would paint her as darkened azure cloaks with fingers like knives and hovering over girls waste high in waters that bore her name-sake flower. Each murder made Anna Goldeyes angrier and angrier until she finally stumbled on the traces of the killer.

NaNoWriMo 2012

This is the time of year when I try to win the NaNoWriMo challenge.

For the next 30 Days, I will be trying to write out 50,000 words, about 1,700 at a time. I will warn you; This'll be rough.

I'm not editing spelling errors.

I'm not editing grammar.

I'm not editing anything.

I've got a vague outline of the story and I'm just typing.

In retrospec, I think I've always planed on using Heart Mage for this very challenge.

The story is a sequel to my first NaNoWriMo novel, simply Titled "Annalow" which is what this entire blog is based on. I hope this'll help fill out the world a little.

With that, please enjoy my crazy ramblings.

A Rainy Night at the Rusty Goblet 1

Night time over Annalow was soft and warm like a blanket in cool wind. All inviting nights, as every paradise should be for the city under the Living Goddess, except on this particular night when it rains like it does on this particular night. When it rains, the Mumes resist their natural love of dancing in the tumbling water, instead choosing to hide in their homes and pubs due to the Marfs disturbing play in the storms.

There are 21 pubs in Annalow, most of them distributed even yet randomly along the inside of the round dwelling. At the edge, one of them, The Rusty Goblet, sits brooding this night. A typical pub-sounding-name for a typical pub. There were no doors, only curtains enclosing one entire side fo the building from the downpour and vission of outside interfearence. At one corner was an empty stage yearning for performers of music or poetry on this night. Opposite that, along the closed curtains, was the bar and bar stools filled with patrons who really wanted the slopping sounds outside to stop. In between were tables filled with workers of all races, except Marf and the elusive Felfs. Even Ixxar huddle at an exclusive table, shuddering from the thoughts of the outside celebration.

"It ain't natural, what they do." Said a Mume at the bar. "Why do we have ta' hide like this from those lousy Marfs." He slammed down his pint and marched outside. The pub looked on with interest, watching him leave, waiting, and watching him shudder back to his stool and finish his pint. "Merygold, Another." He called to the womume behind the bar.

"Ya' fool, Tumic Mousenose. Tain't none'a us wild enough to stand the likes out there while the Marf play." Merygold put a bitter in front of the shooken Mume. "Ya' wait, like the rest of us, till the small-folk are finished."

A soft pat came from an old and bearded borc at Tumic's left. "S'aright, I think." Oh no, thought Tumic. Baren's going to reminisce. "This reminds me of my company up north when we happens [sic] to take shelter from a blizzard in an old Marf-hole."

"Baren, No!" Merygold begged.

Baren the Borc spun around, ignoring her, and addressed the pub. "They all had bent noses and chubby cheeks an not a lick of hair, 'cept maybe a whisp on the elder's head. Bald and white like blind worms, but it weren't rain'n up there, cuz it don't rain. It snows, see?"

And Ixxar yells from their table "Borc, I'm willing to give you 20 horns to shut up!"

Baren ignored him, too. "Well, they still celebrate, don't they? The water's fall'n from the sky and they still gotta thing for that. It's just softer."

Tumic planted his head in his hands. "Goddess save us."

And she did.