After walking a few steps, Terra lets out a frustrated sigh and, without looking at me, says, “Sorry for earlier, pal. I hate to admit it, but Mom’s right. I didn’t give you the respect you deserve. But...y’know how it is when you’re basically immortal?”
Can’t say I do, but I keep my mouth shut and let Terra continue prattling.
“It’s just so...frustrating. Everything, every day and probably the rest of eternity is going to be ‘very much the same’. After a while you’ve just ‘seen it all’, y’know? When my sis bound her life to that human, I honestly thought she was bonkers, throwing half her lifespan away just like that. But in the decades that followed her death, I realized...that I was the fool. Sure, we had a world to rebuild after that stupid ass war and the emergence of that ancient evil dude who possessed Seph, but still...everyone I ever held dear either ‘went ahead’ or...well, ‘never changed’. And each generation of humans I watched, they did the same song and dance, the same mistakes, the same old bullshit. When my time finally came, I felt…‘relieved’, you could say. But boy can you imagine my surprise when I closed my eyes on the other side and opened them again here!”
“I can relate,” I admit, though I cannot recall ever ‘closing my eyes on the other side’.
“Either way, when I got here, sis had already recreated our hometown along with these shadows of the people we knew during our time when we were still alive.”
“Wait, what do you mean ‘shadows’?”
“...they are not real, detective. None of them are. They are formed and kept alive by our memories of our loved ones. Come tomorrow, they will have forgotten that you even existed. Never changing and eternal. Just like everything else in this place. Welcome to my personal hell.”

I really don’t know what do say to all that. Of course she could be lying through her teeth to get under my skin, but if so, she’s the best damn liar I’ve ever met...though in this surreal place, the same could be said about a lot of people I’ve met.

Just as I want to open my mouth, Terra suddenly shouts, “Watch out!” and tears me to the ground just before a bullet burrows itself into the ground where I had stood just before. Before I even fully process what’s going on, Terra is back on her feet and gives chase after the shadow disappearing into the forest.

That was an attempt at my life. With a gun. And from what I have seen from this room, ‘guns’ are not really a thing in here...meaning that it must have been someone from the outside! And there is only one person who would have a reason to follow me into this room to try to kill me!

I stumble to my feet and run after Terra who had already reached the outskirts of the forest and quickly disappeared into its shade.

When I finally arrive, Terra already comes back out of the woods, barely sweating, but a grim expression on her face and says, “Lost them…probably out of the door and gone without a trace.”
She then looks at me and asks, “Whom did you piss off so much that they’d try to off you here? This is a violation of the rules of the place. Fighting is only allowed in the twilight wing.”
I shake my head and reply, “It should be obvious...someone doesn’t like me sniffing around this case. Which is actually kind of reassuring.”
“Reassuring?! You got shot at with one of those ‘gun’ things!”
I smile and reply, “Yes and do you know what that means? It means I’m making someone nervous. That’s progress.”
“...heh...you know, anyone else from this village would think you barking mad…”
“But not you?”
“No, not me. In case you missed it, I ran after the guy with the gun. Not a very healthy thing to do.”
“But you are immortal,” I remind her, immediately cursing myself for my slight of tongue.
“...and you are not?” Terra asks, of course picking up on the insinuation.
I sigh and admit, “In all honesty...I don’t know. And I’d rather not find out either.”
“Then you’d better keep your eyes peeled. Cause someone’s got it out for you,” Terra says, hitting her fist into her palm and adds, “And they’d better hope that you catch them before I do. I will not forgive them easily for trying to kill someone in my room!”
“Even though it is ‘your personal hell’?” I follow up on our earlier conversation.
“Exactly. My personal hell. Not theirs. Love it or hate it, this place belongs to myself and my sis. And anyone who disturbs the peace will answer to me. Now...I believe you had questions?”

We return to the plaza talking about the case, but unfortunately Terra has very little new information to add.
Upon stepping into the village, an exasperated guards captain comes running and informs us, that Lady Celestia had been grievously wounded by an unknown assailant.
We run towards where they took her and, sure enough, there’s a gunshot wound worryingly close to her heart. A bunch of those elf people are already around her, some of them working some sort of light magic...but it doesn’t look like it’s working all that well.
The lady apparently in charge proclaims, that ‘something’ is stuck in her inhibiting the healing magic. Probably the bullet, though I really don’t know how it would ‘inhibit magic’.
“Well, what are you waiting for?! Get it out then!” Terra barks and wants to step up to the table, triggering every single alarm clock in my mind and I shout, “Don’t touch it!”
Terra turns around to face me and asks, “The heck is wrong with you?! She’s dying here!”
“Yes well, no. Listen, a bullet is only dangerous because of its travel speed. But right now, its stopped and its inside her body, possibly sealing off a number of arteries and what not, keeping her from bleeding out! We’d need a bloody surgeon and a sterile surrounding to remove the bullet. Just...just disinfect and bandage the wound. It should be fine then.”

Celestia grimaces in pain as everyone in the room stares at me as if I had lost my mind. Of course they wouldn’t know the first thing about bullet wounds and how to treat them in the field. They wouldn’t know that ‘removing the bullet’ would cause more damage than it’d help. And I get it, really. There’s a foreign element inside her body, so of course the first instinct would be to pull it out with whatever means necessary. But the damage already is done. Pulling it out would only make it worse.

I turn to Terra and say, “Look, I know this is weird, but…”
“But you don’t know the first thing about elves, do you?!” Terra barks.
“Can’t say I do, but…”
“And you weren’t listening! This bullet thing probably is made of iron!”
“...usually they’re made of lead though...but what difference does it make?”
Terra groans and says, “You really don’t know the first thing…‘iron’ is one of the few things capable of killing an elf, because it disturbs the flow of magic running through our bodies! Anything else we can recover from, but not iron in our bodies!”

...of course. Alright, time to do this movie style then and hope their ‘magic’ is up to cleaning up the mess I’m going to make...

“Alright then, I need some strong alcohol and some pincers or a small knife! Also clean cloth, and make it snappy! We’re getting that blasted thing out of her.”

The people around me thankfully don’t ask questions and scatter to find what I’ve asked for.
Terra asks, now in a far less foul mood “Have you done this before?”
Can’t say I remember, but I can’t tell that to her face. If this is the same guy who offed Sue, there’s a good chance that Celestia won’t wake if she dies now. I can’t let that happen.
“At least I know what a gun is. Your sister got lucky though. A little further to the left and the bullet would’ve gone through her heart. But we need to get it out.”

Terra nods and says, “I’ll get the booze you asked for. The strong stuff, yeah?”
“The strongest you can get,” I agree.
“Be back in a minute then,” Terra acknowledges and runs out of the hut.

Of course it takes more than a minute, but at least the magic seems to keep her alive and relatively pain free.

While I am waiting for the utensils, I try my luck and ask, whether she had seen what happened.
Celestia forces her eyes to open to look at me, but shakes her head.
“I—,” she starts but her voice fails her. I really push her like this, but if she indeed does die, I owe it to her to catch the bastard who did that. Especially since he clearly was after me.
“Shortly...after parting, I noticed a...presence. Alien...malevolent...then...loud bang...burning in my chest...then...nothing…” Celestia presses out of her mouth, her chest heaving and sinking fast. Where are those damn pincers?!

Eventually, they at least manage to procure some cloth...considering their fear of metallic items, I really shouldn’t have hoped for a scalpel. And Terra still hasn’t come back with a disinfectant. But this is hardly the time to worry about a follow up infection. If I don’t act soon, she’ll be gone!

“Alright lady, this is going to hurt like hell. Hold her arms and legs please,” I ask my ‘assistants’ who comply, once again without asking questions.

I bow down over the gunshot wound and carefully probe with my fingers to see where the bullet is.
Damn it! I can basically feel her heartbeat! If my hand so much as jerks into the wrong direction, I’ll be the one killing her instead of the darn bullet!

I take a deep breath and steady my nerves. I don’t know how I know, but it feels like I’ve done this before. And know what I have to do. Eventually I find the bullet. Apparently the rib cage managed to stop it...she really did get lucky with that shot.

Another deep breath and I put two fingers into the wound, making Celestia howl out in pain, trying to hit and kick to make me stop, but my assistants hold her tight.

Seriously, this is exactly why she’d need proper medical attention and not some wannabe detective who can’t even remember his own name!

My fingers close around the bullet, fountains of blood pooling around me as I tear through her flesh. When I try to pull, the bullet suddenly heats up like crazy, trying to burn my hand and cauterizing everything around it, but I don’t let go. Instead I pull it out in one fell swoop and throw it to the ground immediately, where it stops glowing red and cools down again.

The healing lady takes over and by the time Terra finally gets back with the booze, the wound has already closed up for the biggest part.
I grab the bottle she must’ve fetched from the bar, say “Thanks, I really need that right now,” pop the cap and take three big gulps from the liquid.

An iron bullet that heats up when you try to remove it...just when I thought I had seen it all.