The group arrived in Gorvia in the early evening of the same day. Disembarking at the empty station, Caelin stretched, allowing the blood  to flow into her limbs again after the long train ride. When Theo got off to stand beside her on the platform, Caelin noticed that he automatically raised the hood of his cloak over his head. He seemed oddly self-conscious about his face. Caelin felt it was strange for someone with his handsome appearance to actively conceal it. Was there something more that he was hiding?

“Wow it feels like a ghost town,” Hale whistled, looking around at their deserted surroundings. 

The railway tracks ran directly through the center of town, yet they hardly saw anyone at what should’ve been at the busiest time of day. The wooden buildings were short and unwelcoming, lining the streets just wide enough for a wagon to pass through. There was also a faint smell of animal manure in the air, which wasn’t unusual for a small farming town like Gorvia. 

“What do you expect after ten murders?” Caelin said, appearing a bit too happy at the idea. 

“Not murders, disappearances,” Lilac reminded her. After confirming that everyone in the group was there, she began delegating tasks. “Killian and Theo, you two will survey the townspeople. I want to know everything about the current situation. Look for anything or anyone suspicious, but don’t get involved in any sort of physical altercation. Caelin and Hale, you two will follow me. We’re going to meet with the mayor. I expect us all to finish up by sundown and regroup at the Lucky Duck Inn. Understood?”

“Yes.”

“Got it.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Sure.”

Lilac sighed to herself. “We’ll work on the teamwork later.”

“Are we going to interrogate the mayor?” Caelin asked as they separated and headed towards the town hall located two streets away from the train station.

“Not exactly,” Lilac said. “We’re going to ask the mayor a few questions to aid us in the investigation. He was made aware of our arrival in advance.”

“Well if you need anyone to help interrogate, feel free to ask me,” Caelin said with a wink.

“Thank you, Caelin, I will bear that in mind,” Lilac said tersely.

“Always happy to help,” Caelin chirped.

The town hall was a two-story, unimposing building made of wood and stone near the center of the town. Lilac pushed open the rickety door, which creaked like a dying breath. If Lilac wasn’t wearing gloves, Caelin could only imagine the countless splinters that would’ve found a new home in the Division 3 commander’s palm. Entering the building, the three of them saw a clerk sitting at a desk by the entrance, scribbling something down on the paper before him. There was a also couch, armchair, and table in the middle of the room. The foyer was quiet, broken only by the hiss of the lamps mounted on the stone walls and the rustling of the clerk’s papers. There seemed to be no other living being in the building.

“Good afternoon, where can we find Mayor Haddan?” Lilac asked, approaching the clerk’s desk.

Without looking up, the clerk pointed to a closed door to his right.

“Thank you,” Lilac said and walked towards the door.

“Did anyone else think that was a bit weird?” Hale whispered, glancing back at the clerk who continued writing.

Caelin shrugged, while Lilac didn’t respond and knocked on the door. 

They heard the sound of something thumping around behind the door before it swung open, revealing a stout man with a red face. “What do you want?”

“Mayor Hadden?” Lilac asked.

“Yes, that’s me,” Mayor Hadden confirmed, blocking sight of the room behind him with his large build. 

“We were sent by Count Kalindae regarding the recent missing persons case,” Lilac said. “You should’ve received a letter last week informing you of our arrival?”

The mayor’s eyes seemed to glaze over briefly before clearing—he nodded repeatedly. “Yes, yes, that’s right I remember.” 

He laughed, and a heavy stench of alcohol washed over the group.

Caelin frowned, detecting something strange in his odorous breath.

“Please, have a seat,” Mayor Hadden said, gesturing to a couch, armchair, and table in the middle of the foyer. He closed the door to his office behind him and turned towards the clerk, who was still writing furiously. “James, get the guests some tea.”

Caelin, Lilac, and Hale sat down at the couch, while the mayor settled down on the armchair with a creak.

“So,” Mayor Hadden began, “how can I help you?”

“To begin with, we’d like all the information you know regarding the missing people,” Lilac said.

Mayor Hadden nodded. “It’s certainly a strange case, but not to worry, we have everything under control.”

“You have at least ten townspeople missing with no identifiable cause,” Lilac said. “Please explain to me how that is ‘having everything under control’? We wouldn’t have been contacted otherwise.”

“We’re handling the case properly,” Mayor Hadden insisted. “It’s still a bit uncertain that all the missing people are connected to one another. For instance, two of the women were in unhappy marriages, and one of the men owed a great deal of money to many people in town. We believe that it’s very likely that they simply ran away.” Mayor Hadden looked at the clerk walking over with a tray of cups and a teapot. “Please, have some tea.”

Caelin glanced down at the cup of tea she was handed by the clerk. It was a murky brown that shared more similarities to a bog than tea. There were a few questionable sticks of tea that floated to the surface with the aromatic quality of spoiled meat. Caelin gracefully took a sip of the lukewarm drink. It tasted as bad as it smelled. 

Watching Caelin appear unbothered after drinking the tea, Hale took a sip too. He immediately put a hand over his mouth, trying not to throw up in front of the mayor.

“My point is, we have everything under control now,” Mayor Hadden repeated. “I’m sorry we bothered you to come all the way here, and please give the Count my sincerest apologies, but we know exactly what to do to protect our town.”

“Can you tell me your exact next course of action regarding this case?” Lilac asked, wisely choosing to skip the tea. 

Mayor Hadden nodded. “Yes, well, we have an organized volunteer night watch. People are also free to report any suspicious activity to James here at the town hall.”

“But how are you planning to find the missing people?” Lilac asked.

“Yes, we have a plan to find them,” Mayor Hadden said.

“And what is it?”

 “We have some volunteers to make rounds around the town at night.”

Lilac closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Do you even have any leads on any of the missing people?” 

“Yes.”

“What are they?”

“Well two of them were in unhappy marriages, and the other one owed a great deal of money to many people in town.”

Lilac took a deep breath as the mayor continued to answer her questions with the same responses like a well-rehearsed parrot.

In the middle of repeating the same answer for the sixth time, the clerk walked over to the mayor and said something in his ear. Mayor Hadden immediately stood up stiffly. “Excuse me for a moment, I have a quick message to take.” 

They watched him walk back into the room he was in before and close the door with a slam.

“So what do we do now?” Hale asked.

“We’ll just have to wait,” Lilac said calmly, though her hand gripped the handle of the teacup so tight that her knuckles turned white. 

And so they waited, watching the sun through a window slowly sink closer towards the horizon until the clerk returned to them. His blank stare bore down on them as his mouth moved out of sync with his voice.

“Mayor Hadden will unfortunately be unavailable for the rest of today and asks for you to return tomorrow if you wish to speak some more,” the clerk said monotonously. Without waiting for a response, he returned to his desk to continue writing.

The teacup in Lilac’s hand shattered, murky tea dripping down her gloved fingers. She stood up, letting the ceramic shards fall onto the floor. “Let’s go.”

On the way out of the town hall, Caelin stopped at the clerk's desk. She wanted to know what he was so busy writing the entire time. Ignoring his vacant stare watching her as she approached him, Caelin looked down at his paper and burst out laughing. 

“Good luck,” she said, giving him a pat on the shoulder before walking out of the building after Lilac and Hale. 

“What did you see?” Hale asked, walking beside Caelin as they headed towards the inn. Lilac fumed angrily a few steps ahead of them, but he was curious about what could’ve been on the unsettling clerk’s paper to prompt such a response from Caelin. “Was it some sort of funny drawing?”

“No, even better,” Caelin said, shaking her head in amusement. “He had written ‘help’ on the entire page in dark red ink.”

 Hale looked at her like she was crazy. “Why would you laugh at that?”

“Because, Apprentice Hale,” Caelin said, draping an arm around his shoulders. “It means that this mission is about to get a lot more interesting.”