A few days later…

  "What do you think we will expect?" said a man sitting next to Orion in the carriage. He had short black hair, a long neck, and skin on the edge of wrinkles. He was older than Orion himself. He was neatly dressed, with a white top hat that covered his eyes. On his right shoulder was the coastline mark.

  The man leaned back, casually putting his arm around Orion, who sat firm, his back upright.

  Orion thought before replying. Recently, they had gotten an order to investigate anomalies happening in the Pale Verge. The area had become severely destabilised. There were no other orders.

  "The order was vague, Caedmon."

  Caedmon looked at him and smiled.

  "They are all vague, but you always know something, don't you?" he said brightly as he leaned on Orion.

  Orion sighed and closed his eyes. He leaned back in his seat. For the past few days, he couldn't get enough sleep. He kept reminiscing about that incident and that boy. That feeling. He never quite understood it. Did he make the right choice? Only time would tell.

  "Well, my guess is reality is already… let's say, starting to malfunction in the Pale Verge."

  Orion's brain was starting to switch off.

  "Interesting. So why are they sending us?"

  Caedmon was deep in thought. Even though he was older than Orion, albeit by a few years, he was childish.

  "Our job isn't just to investigate anomalies and mysteries. It's to fix them. To the dominion, we are nothing more than disposable tools," Orion said with his eyes closed.

  Caedmon was still new as an imperial anomaly inquisitor. He didn't quite understand the ropes yet, but he was still extraordinarily ahead of all the other newcomers.

  "Well, I guess we will meet up with Liora when we get there."

  Orion didn't reply. He had dozed off in the carriage, trying to get as much sleep as he could.

  Caedmon looked at him, smiling.

  There were many imperial anomaly inquisitors ordered to go. They usually had teams of three with a leader. In their group were Caedmon, Orion, and Liora, the team leader with the most experience. Their main job was to go on the surface and document any irregularities that were occurring.

  It was going to be a long ride.

  ----

  The carriage bumped on the rough stone, jolting Orion awake. He woke up, stretched his arms, and wiped the sleep from his eyes.

  "Awake?" said Caedmon as he checked over his notes again.

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  Orion looked outside the narrow windows. The atmosphere had completely changed. It was a stark contrast to the White Meridian. The stones were feeble and decaying, not painted like the ones in the Meridian.

  Some wore white, some didn't. Not that it mattered. Even though the Pale Verge was part of the dominion, the White Meridian was paid the most attention.

  The stone houses seemed like they could fall at any second. And the people, well, they looked… normal. In fact, everything looked normal. There was nothing out of the ordinary that Orion had seen. He had visited the Pale Verge many times. The scenes he saw were the exact same as his last visit.

  The carriage stopped. Orion didn't notice any other inquisitors around. Maybe they had arrived earlier.

  "Here we are, sirs. We have arrived."

  Orion and Caedmon walked out of the carriage.

  "Thank you, fine gentleman," said Caedmon as he took his top hat off and bowed.

  The driver was flabbergasted and blushed. Royalty never thanked him.

  "Ah, no need, sirs. Umm… have a good journey."

  Orion breathed in. The air was murky and riddled with particles. It smelled like a city left to decay. This sector never got allocated resources. They were just left to rot. The poor became poorer until eventually they were silenced and died forgotten. It was the unfortunate truth.

  Caedmon looked at his notes.

  "The first order of business. There has been a supposed murder in Building 15A. We should meet Liora there," he said, ticking the task off his notes, the cap in his mouth.

  Orion looked at his watch. Concern rose on his face.

  "We better hurry. We are already late."

  They walked over to the building. It was a large stone structure, housing many residents on each floor. The murder occurred on floor three, house number twelve.

  Normally, murders weren't dealt with by the inquisitors. They were highly unimportant. What made this one so special?

  Outside the building stood a guard, roughly dressed, with a spear in his hand planted on the ground.

  "Sir Inquisitor, we welcome you to the Pale Verge. We are delighted to have your assistance with this investigation," he said, standing upright.

  Orion took out a cigarette.

  "Right, officer. Lead the way to the residence."

  "Sir Inquisitor, we welcome you to the Pale Verge. We are delighted to have you…"

  "Huh?" Orion looked in disbelief. Didn't he just say that? What was going on? Caedmon stood still for a while, then turned his neck towards Orion and smiled.

  "You know what this means, right, Orion?"

  Orion's face tightened.

  "Yes."

  ----

  They walked to the residence. Liora was waiting at the door. She had long, curly black hair and razor brown eyes. She wore a coat, like iron, reaching her calves. On her shoulder was the mirror mark. The light behaved strangely around it, reflecting patterns. It was a smooth shape.

  "Yes, my partner here took more time than I anticipated getting ready," Orion said, looking at Caedmon.

  Caedmon flinched, rubbing the back of his face. He couldn't formulate words.

  Liora didn't reply. She shrugged it off. There were more urgent things to get to.

  Orion and Caedmon stepped in. Their boots were painted with… blood? Blood. There was blood, spattered like paint everywhere. Orion widened his eyes, his face going pale in shock.

  "The victims were male. Draven Grimsley and Isha Grimsley, married."

  Organs were scattered all across the room, the fan covered with intestines, the hearts broken and flung to the edges. It was a revolting sight. Orion finally understood why they were called for this case.

  As they stepped, their boots made soft splashes in the blood.

  "Their bodies are completely dismembered," said Orion, looking over at the ground.

  "Yes, they are unrecognisable," replied Liora.

  Caedmon looked over, cap in mouth. He took notes, his hands gliding across the pages. He seemed unbothered by the scene in front of him.

  On the walls, the blood was spattered, but something was off. The blood had formed intricate geometric patterns, as if someone had drawn them. What did they mean?

  "Who is the suspect?" asked Orion, eyeing the scene.

  The closer he looked, the more unreal it got. Hidden in plain sight, patterns were drawn with blood all across the room.

  "Right there," Liora said, pointing to a boy in the corner, surrounded by guards, crying.

  It was just a boy, around the age of twelve, his face and body covered in blood, crying his eyes out.

  How could he have done this?