amenya

So here's the second part of it. I tried very hard to make it work right, but it just wouldn't. I think I'll rework this if ever I find the time to. It still serves the point anyway.

The library in the clan home was rather large, but very specialized. The books all dealt with only the subjects the clan expected to need -- in other words, there was very little in the way of modern literature, and many books on folktales, the traditional uses of herbs, and the like. The walls and floor were dark cherry wood. Weapon sketches -- many of them life-sized -- hung on the walls, including one particularly realistic ancient-looking silver gun. The tables, like the one a lithe blonde girl was sitting at, were only barely furnished with basic overhead lights and long benches. Across her sat Maria, lounging with her head on the table and a half-eaten apple in one hand.

"That's how many now?" a blonde girl asked as she wrote a few sentences in her notebook.

"Three, including the first one from a month ago. Second one was from five days ago, then the third yesterday," Maria answered, chewing on a bite. "Only common thread is that they're all missing heads, and cut too cleanly to be human. Madame determined it to be work of fay, but there's too little information to decide what kind exactly."

"Sounds like he's got his work cut out for him."

"You mean the detective? Yeah, I guess. Madame's going to work us to the bone too, Nina. Looking after him, I mean, since it's technically clan work he's doing. "

"What name does he go by now? It's a little difficult saying 'detective' when we have to refer to him," Nina asked, violet eyes bright.

"Mm, Lorenzo Luis Remedios, I think. Oliver'd know, but I don't really want to ask."

"I don't either," Nina replied. Involuntarily she shivered a bit at the thought of having to approach Oliver. Maria laughed a bit -- a rather shaky, nervous laugh -- and returned to the problem at hand.

"In any case, it's you two who'll be doing the thinking. I'm just here for the fighting and examining," Maria said and finished the rest of her apple. "I've been taken off my regular duties for this, you know. Madame's pretty concerned."

"It's not everyday you get to see such obvious work, and from non-strays at that. You'd think whoever did this would at least use human tools."

"We're not humans, you know, and they're not either. I'm just surprised they don't eat the meat."

"You would be. How long does it take for a wolf to get hungry anyway?" Nina asked as she closed her notebook. She stood up. The two girls looked about the same age and stood almost the same height, but their clothing stood at opposite ends of the spectrum. Maria preferred traditional feminine skirts and blouses; Nina tended towards pants and a dress shirt and tie.

Maria stood up when Nina did. The apple core was tossed a few times into the air, then straight into a wastebasket at the other side of the long table. "Me, about two or three hours. If I get a really large meal though, like a couple of whole horses or something along those lines, I'd last at least a day."

"And Lorenzo knows that?"

"He's grilled me enough about that for the last three days," Maria muttered. She cracked her knuckles a few times. "I told him I wouldn't do a thing like that, because madame..."

Nina patted her clanmate's shoulder, "I'm sure he doesn't suspect you. It's just easier to get information from somebody who knows firsthand."

Together they stepped out of the library and onto a garden walkway. On either side were tall walls of shade trees which reached far overhead and flower beds beyond those. Near the main house, the green grass and gravel gave way to a zen garden.

"Oh right," Maria added when they were halfway along, "he's coming today."

"What?" the other girl stopped dead in her tracks.

Maria grinned with great and undisguised glee. "Today. He's coming. To meet with the madame regarding the case, I guess. He's going to get grilled."

Nina fell silent after that. She kept walking, head bowed down a bit, with hurried little steps that were unusual for the girl. Maria kept pace with her regular stride. Soon enough, the main house appeared past another thick line of greenery. The clan home was a large and sprawling manse positioned in the hills just outside the city proper. Greenery flourished on every side and even overhead. It was a beautiful and cozy place, though most of the clan would be away at any given time for various reasons. The Spanish colonial mansion with its modern extension buildings was usually empty save for the matron and six or seven members.

To the neighbors and any of the curious, the property was advertised as the home of the eccentric Delilah Murray, widowed twice and part of an extremely large family network that included several near-identical generation-separated relatives.

It was par for the course for any fairy clan that owned territory. The ones that preferred to stay in one place and have any level of human interaction, at least.