With another sigh Hona quietly intervenes, “One's knowledge on the matter is not the most important thing here, it’s one’s willingness to help, which both of you are. Myself and the rest of my clan are very grateful that you two have come to our aid.” His words, paired with a pleading look, is enough for the brothers to calm down.

Sae turns with his most brilliant smile and casually loops his arm through Hona’s. “Of course, if you ever need help I’m always willing to come.” His words and actions cause a faint blush to appear across Hona’s cheeks. Frey has to duck her head to hide the grin on her face that appears from the sight them. She glances over at Scripp who also appears to have a smug expression. “Hmm, so as soon as you all are done here you can show me the remains.” Sae ruins the moment with these words.

Everybody wrinkles their noses at this request. Trae angrily sets his bowl of half-eaten food down, “Aye, fine. We can go now and get it over with. Get up.” He orders Sae.

Sae grins and follows obediently. Hona and Frey hesitantly follow after with Scripp trailing behind in the rear.

✧ ☽ ❀ ☾ ✧

Since the deaths had occurred after the first snowfall, burying them had been out of the question. The ground during this time of year is completely impenetrable. Until the ground thaws the bodies had been wrapped in burial shrouds and carefully laid to rest in the gardens amongst the empty flower beds.

Sae inspects the three bodies wrapped up in their burial shrouds with careful consideration. The first burial shroud is beautifully woven with intricate patterns embroidered onto it, the second one was clearly hastily made, and the third is only moderately better than the second. Clearly the first one had been made way ahead of time in preparation for the occasion of death, but the second had caught everybody off guard and so the shroud is barely passable, and the third was made with the efficiency of someone expecting there to be more deaths to come.

“I’d like to examine the most recent one please.” Sae points to the third body and Hona only frowns slightly as he goes to remove the fabric from the former disciple.

Frey grimaces at the sight of the young girl left in the snow. “Why did you say it wasn’t a curse or poison? You wouldn’t be able to know that without seeing the bodies.” She asks Sae as he kneels down next to the body.

“Because the point of curses and poisons is to attack people who have earned someone’s wrath. Two servants and a disciple who didn’t even have friends would hardly be noticed in the temple. How could they have earned anyone’s wrath? So clearly they were targeted because nobody would immediately notice their deaths. What type of monster targets people like that?” He raises a brow at Frey who can only frown as she mulls the question over.

Sae starts his examination by roughly forcing the mouth of the dead girl open. Everybody winces at the sound of muscles and bones creaking and popping under his rough handling. Sae isn’t remotely affected by it though, he leans his head closer and examines the inside of her mouth. “Ha, see, I was right!” He cheers. “I got it on my first guess.” He grins and Scripp warmly praises him by rubbing her head against his shoulder and happily waving her tail side to side.

Trae scowls and steps closer, “What are you going on about?” He looks down at the dead disciple, but the sight of her lifeless body yields no answers to him.

“Here, look.” Sae points at the mouth and Trae begrudgingly gets on his knees and trades places with him to see what Sae has found.

“I don’t see anything.” He says though after a moment of examination.

Sae rolls his eyes, “That's because humans can’t see into dark places.” He makes a quick gesture with his hand and a small glowing orb appears there. With another movement the orb is sent into the mouth lighting up every dark crevice inside. “Can you see now?” Sae asks impatiently.

Trae huffs, but turns back and reexamines the inside of the mouth. He narrows his eyes and leans in closer as he catches sight of what had caught Sae’s attention. Around the back of the throat are bruises and scratches caused by some manner of beast. “Some sort of parasite or worm monster crawled in through the mouth?”

Sae taps his chin, “Hmm, maybe, but I don’t think so. Monsters like that aren’t usually intelligent, they’re about as smart as any other bug. We already know that this monster is intelligent because it chose specific people to be its host. And parasites would leave the host alive for as long as possible to feed off them slowly.”

“So what do you think it is then?” Trae asks as he stands back up and brushes away the snow clinging to his cloak. As he returns to his spot by Hona and Frey he rubs his hands together and blows on them to try and get some warmth back into them. Frey sees this and smiles. Without saying anything she passes him a paper talisman that gives off heat once activated which Trae takes gratefully.

Sae continues to explain his thoughts and doesn’t pay any of them much attention. “I think this type of monster would be something like a puppeteer. It kills its victims and wears their skins. That’s why the insides were all destroyed like you described, its to make room for the creature hiding inside. After a month the body is probably too decayed to operate anymore so it abandons it and finds itself a new host. What do you think?” He grins as he turns back to look at the others.

Hona nods his head. Sae’s logic seems sound to him and the others also agree. Frey though asks a question that dampens their moods. “You said it kills its victims before taking control of it? Doesn’t that mean there are actually four dead bodies?” She gazes down at the three lying in the snow with a sorrowful expression.

Seeing his sister’s expression Hona kneels down beside the dead girl and carefully sets to put her back to rest. He closes her mouth and gently brushes her hair to the side before moving the shroud back to covering her face.

Sae, unbothered by the dead, continues to talk while Hona does this, “Aye, I should be able to find it pretty easy. The shadows for dead things and living things have a different feel to them, not to mention a moving corpse will smell pretty bad.”

Trae sighs and brusquely turns to leave, partially because of Sae’s cold demeanor, but also because of the cold temperature. The thought of the warm braziers in the great hall and a cup of steaming tea fill his head. Scripp, seeing him leave, trails after him, playfully jumping from one footstep to the next that have been left behind in the snow. Frey follows beside them, but Hona stays next to Sae. He offers a heat talisman to Sae, the same type that Frey had given to Trae, but Sae doesn’t take it.

Hona frowns at Sae’s refusal, “Are you not cold?” He asks much to Sae’s delight.

The two walk down the path just a few steps behind Frey and Trae, but they might as well be in their own world. The tall evergreen trees watch silently from where they stand sentinel on either side of the path. Their piney branches softened by the layers of snow and ice layered over them, causing them to droop. Every now and then one can hear a branch giving way and the muffled sound of snow crashing to the ground in the distance.

Sae leans his head closer to Hona’s shoulder with a playful smile, “Are you worried about me?”

The sound of their feet crunching in the snow fills the space between them as Hona quietly struggles to respond. “Most guests think the weather here is too harsh.” He explains in a hushed voice.

Sae’s expression softens and gingerly he takes one of Hona’s hands in his own, “Don't worry about me Hona.” Sae blows his breath against their hands, “See? One has to feel warm to be able to feel cold. I don’t feel either.” Hona stares down at their hands with a complicated expression. True to Sae’s words his hands have no warmth in them, neither does his breath. Seeing this expression Sae politely drops Hona’s hand and turns away. “Come on, those three are leaving us behind.” He points out. Frey and Trae hadn’t noticed their companions stopping and Scripp hadn’t cared so the distance between them quickly grows.

“Hmm.” Hona manages out as he turns to follow beside Sae, but his attention is still on his hand that Sae had held. He should’ve known quite well, the glamour that Sae wears is only for appearances. A spell like that doesn’t actually change one’s body so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to him—one hand had felt normal, but the other had felt… not human.