Alex knocked hard on the door of the building, hoping that Emily was in her studio. He had questions to ask about some of the details he'd come across in the study of the Delacroix manor and he felt it best to ask them while they were still fresh in his mind. He waited for a few minutes until he heard a solid sounding deadbolt slide inside the door. The door creaked open slowly to the sight of Emily's face in the gap peering out at him.

"Oh, Mr. Byrne, I wasn't expecting you this early. Please, come in." The door swung open and Alex noted the disheveled look of the woman. He smiled softly to her nodding gently.

"I'm terribly sorry Miss Beauchene; I didn't mean to wake you. I had just left the Delacroix manor and thought to stop in to ask some questions if you've got the time."

She sighed slightly and waved at him to have him come inside. "I'll answer everything I can, I'm sorry for my appearance, as you noted I'm just waking up. Sleep seems more and more fleeting since Sarah disappeared."

Alex looked over her studio entry as he walked through the threshold, paintings hung on the walls, many either complete works or stopped suddenly. He followed Emily into her main workspace noting canvases leaning against walls and the strong smell of the oil paints hanging in the air. "I won’t take much time, but I had some follow up questions about Sarah's study. I managed to get in much to the chagrin of the officers there. I noted two books that I was hoping you might be able to tell me about, I saw them sitting on her desk and they seemed somewhat out of place. Was Sarah into folklore by any chance?" Emily simply shook her head in response. "Well, I saw a book called "The Old Ways" and another called "Torches in the Forest" the inspector insisted they were fairytale books and of no consequence. That they were out on the night of her disappearance, I'm not so sure."

Emily thought about that for a few moments offering up. "If you think they might be useful I can ask a maid to bring them to your office after today if you would like me to." She smiled tiredly seemingly happy for the distraction from recent events. "The police would think nothing of the maids cleaning up and it would be simple to have them delivered."

Alex nodded in agreement. "I think I'd like that Miss Beauchene. I'd appreciate if you could do that for me. Just do make sure the staff are careful, I wouldn’t want them getting in trouble on account of my investigation. As I mentioned earlier, the police are none to happy about my involvement." He turned then to one of the paintings resting against the wall. "The other reason I thought to come by was to inform you that I saw your painting and understood what you meant about it being so out of place for her." He studied a painting of a large shipping boat floating far out from port. "I must admit Miss Beauchene you are incredibly talented in your art. When I went to look closely at the painting of the cave you mention it almost seemed to move with how real it seemed. I have to admit I’m impressed."

Emily seemed to become pale at that statement. "You saw it too then? I feel like those symbols she made me paint are what’s causing it. I saw the same thing after I painted them."

Alex looked at her in question. "Surely, you can’t believe that Miss Beauchene? That mere scribblings would have some sort of effect like that on someone? I think you might be underestimating your talent. I understand the disappearance of Sarah would be draining but that sounds like it might be superstition." He held up his hands in mock surrender. "I don’t doubt that a lot has been going on but I don’t know that I can believe that unless I have proof."

Emily looked indignant for a moment. "You looked at my other work in there I’m sure, and even in here you see it. None of those move on their own and I've seen what you saw. I'm not imagining it." Alex stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked to another painting of hers that was finished and hanging on a wall. There he examined it closely for some time. There was no illusion of movement to feel of it gripping him like the other one did.

"Maybe you are right but I'd need to investigate it before I made a call on that matter. I am sorry if I seemed dismissive but the idea is very hard to wrap my mind around." He conceded. "I'll leave you to your rest Miss Beauchene, I’ll see myself out." He started to the entrance with her following close behind him. "If anything else comes to mind, please don’t hesitate to let me know, I’ll be waiting for those books at my office. Thank you again for your cooperation." Alex opened the door and walked through it back out into the morning sun.

Emily moved to shut the door behind him calling out as she closed it. "Goodbye Mr. Byrne, I hope you find her soon." With that the door shut and deadbolt slid back into its place. Alex stopped turning to look back at the studio for a moment before heading back out to the sidewalk. He had a long walk to his office and it would be good to use it to think

As he made his way back through the city, and life started to fade back into the withered husk that was the port side of town, Alex mulled over the case in the simplest way he could. Often time’s solutions came from the simple answers. "Sarah Delacroix disappeared two nights ago, no traces, no signs of struggle. There is no viable motive at the moment unless its a case of ransom for a noble but with no struggle that’s not likely. So she had to leave of her own volition, and the maids reported that Emily was the only visitor that night. The only out of place aspects of the case are the books and that painting..." He played through everything he could in his head trying to find some sort of thread to tug on.

His thoughts were broken by the feeling of a sharp bite on the back of his neck. He reached back instinctively swatting at it. "Damn insects won’t even let me think in peace." He rubbed at his neck gingerly and kept on his path. Alex started to think on the individual aspects of the case as he passed by Salvadore’s diner, which was still unfortunately closed at this hour. Then it hit him: Salvadore was in the church, maybe he might know what those scribblings meant. It wasn't much of a lead, and subsequently not one he believed would pan out but if they did have some sort of supposed effect on the painting the church might know about some sort of occult meaning to them. That was his next order of business; he smiled slightly to himself, now he had a direction to go.

Alex continued on to his office, unlocking the door and starting up the steps, as he went to unlock the door into his office proper he found it slightly opened. He squinted his eyes slightly looking at it as it finally registered to him. Someone had to be inside. Alex reached into his coat looking to feel the familiar feel of his pistol but was left wanting. It dawned on him that he never pulled it out of the previous coat from when it rained. He frowned chiding himself for his mistake. He instead pushed open the door slowly and took a cautious look inside. A brief scan of the room later he saw a slim figure standing in the dim room in front of his desk. Even with the sun out the office was dark, all the blinds were shut and what little light was let in was hardly enough to lighten the room.

The small figure stood motionless, a blot of substance where there should be nothing. Alex swallowed hard and pressed into the room reaching out fingertips touching the figure just long enough for him to register that it was, in fact a person, who abruptly spun and locked fingers around his wrist in a steel vice like grasp. Alex's entire world spun erratically as he was soon slammed hard onto the wood floor flat on his back. Everything was a haze to him, he had no idea what happened aside from the fact that his wrist hurt like hell and that the floor made a poor place to rest ones head. Light footsteps crossed the wood floor then the click of a switch as the ceiling fan started to spin and the light bulb burned to life with a feeble attempt to fight back the shadows.

A soft giggle echoed in the room. "Good morning Mr. Byrne." The voice was pleasant, and Alex would likely have thought so were he not currently on his back splayed out across his floor and still utterly confused on what happened. "I would have thought a career soldier would be more careful." The voice was playful, Alex craned his neck back trying to see who it came from but as he turned to look she walked out of his vision before he could get a clear picture of her. "Now, now little bird, don't get up. You're going to lie there, and you and I will have a little talk." There was a dull click from where the voice was coming from, it was faint, but he knew the sound all too well. The safety of his pistol was now off and it was likely pointed right at him.

Alex complied but attempted to play the situation off, there was no way he was about to admit that he was legitimately terrified to have his own weapon pointed at him. "You, uh, appear to have me at a disadvantage here. Who are you, how do you know my name?"

A soft laughter "This is worse than a disadvantage. I've been watching you, little bird. I'll admit, up until now, I was impressed by what I saw. But for the knight to forget his sword while going off to rescue the maiden? That's just foolish. You never know what sort of dragons are out in the wilderness" Then came a hard stomp on his already hurt wrist, a pop shot straight up his arm ringing out pain through his body. Alex clenched his jaw hard, he would have pulled his arm back up to his chest but this woman was standing on it still. He was finally able to see her though it was hazy as tears reflexively came to his eyes from the pain, and as he thought she had his pistol pointed at him. Her hand was steady, there was no shake, no tremble, she was a tested soldier as well. This woman grinded her heel down into his wrist one final time then stepped off of him, her footsteps went to the part of the room where his desk was and he heard the familiar creak of his chair then two loud thumps on his desk.

"You overlooked something in your investigation; specifically who Miss Delacroix is associated with. You're looking at the wrong information...” Alex brought his injured wrist to his chest and rubbed it gingerly, he could feel the dislocation and he winced in pain.

"Why tell me this? Who are you?" It was really the only thing he could think of, he realized that this woman wouldn’t suffer him being smart with her. The pain radiating through his wrist didn’t help him to think either.

"Why? Because, little bird, I like you. It would be a shame to see someone with so much potential die because they weren’t checking all the angles." She stated in that same playful tone. She was like a cat toying with a mouse before going in for the kill. "As for who I am, don’t you worry your pretty little head about that just yet. Maybe if you live, you’ll learn." In that brief moment of silence he heard that familiar click once again, then the slick sound of metal sliding out of metal. "Do get up; I can't be bothered to raise my voice to speak to you."

Alex frowned and slowly sat up cradling his wrist gingerly against his chest, his eyes met hers and he burned with absolute venom. She had a smirk as if it amused her all the more. He glanced to his desk to see the pistol was laying on it, next to it was its magazine and beside that the singular bullet that was in the chamber before. She interlocked her fingers and rested her elbows on the desk leaning forward in the chair. "There’s that passion I wanted to see. That hatred I felt when I watched you dream. Little bird, you have quite the set of talons on you."

He looked her over, he would make sure to remember this woman, she was dangerous and he wanted to make certain he didn’t fall to this same mistake again. She was tiny in comparison to him; how she managed to absolutely roll him like she did was humbling, but a learning experience. She had light brown hair and the most intensely bright blue eyes he'd ever seen, everything about her facial features was unreal, if he were not just manhandled like a toy doll he would have been shocked by her general beauty. She was lithe and her movements were quick and extremely confident. She finally stood up and smoothed out her coat she stood at about 5 foot 6 and she again leaned forward to him. "Remember me well, little bird, you'll see me again soon." She walked around the desk and towards Alex she knew she completely disarmed him by this point. She had that sly smile and reached out tapping a finger on the tip of his nose. "Don't look so sad, check those markings, little bird they'll lead you to me.” She walked around him and laughed again behind his back the click of the door as it opened up behind him.

Before she was gone he turned towards her. "Why do you call me little bird?"

She smiled at him ducking out the door and calling out as she went down the stairs. "Because, I name all of my pets!" The main door shut behind her, leaving Alex standing there dumbly, the fact that this woman viewed him as her "pet" was in no way comforting to him either.

He went to sit at his desk tired of the sudden excitement; his wrist ached so much worse now that his heart had time to calm itself. He dug up a first aid kit from his desk and proceeded to treat his physical wound. His pride however, would likely take so much longer to heal.

After a bit of time, awkward wrapping of gauze, and liberal use of aspirin Alex got up from his desk, he rolled his sleeve back down and snatched up the case file from his desk and started down the stairs nearly tripping over a small wooden box at the bottom of the stairs. He looked at it and scooped it up making his way back up to his office. He examined the box which had no real identifiers on it aside from the corners all appeared charred. Alex flipped the lid of the box up and inside found a note as well as a small charm on a silver chain. The charm was in the shape of a small Celtic knot and seemed to glitter even in the dim light of the overhead light. He put the charm on his desk and flipped open the note. The handwriting was flowing and eloquent, it felt like it moved of its own accord, Alex rubbed his eyes and looked at it again it read: "A little protection for a little bird, wear it, don’t let me see you without it. Signed - The woman who kicked your ass."