Her answer made Evanis believe that she thought he was offering his bounty up for her to take.  Before he went to the other table, he corrected the record saying, "Actually, I was thinking we could work together.  I saw that notice outside and saw you with it and figured we could track down the poor soul together and hopefully save her before whoever took her or…the other man do something to her."

Back at the table, Evanis let out a light sigh.  It seemed that the potential alliance was out, and he would have to find Codillius on his own.  Sources said he liked to visit Jayou from time to time, so now might be a good opportunity to ask around and see if any citizens had spotted him.  He could only imagine the horrors and tortures that his bounty's victims had gone through.  His fingers slid away his empty glass as he looked to the singer that had begun to perform.

It was an unfamiliar tune to him, but nevertheless he dwelled on his plan of action tomorrow.  He surmised that Jayou likely had a local butcher, so he would visit that first.  Fresh meat would be attractive to cannibals like it would be to flies.  Unfortunately, so were lives.

For the time being, he listened to the song, taking in the melody and the voice.

With some time to finally relax, she went back to her old habits of watching people in the tavern. As her eyes scanned the faces, she glossed over the person at the piano before doing a double take. Was that…? Shiloh was surprised to see her here of all places, she thought she preferred to keep to herself away from people. But she didn't question things too much on her. When memories change, so do habits. The aura she detected on the child wasn't hers, which cleared her suspicion.

As the hours dragged on and customers trickled out, she noticed a man clearly trying to wash away his pain with alcohol. Her lukewarm tea was now cold, and she overheard the barkeep giving his condolences to the man now there were less people around. The drinking man was still distraught, and shook his head multiple times as if refusing whatever consolation he was being offered. Through slurred speech and choking sobs she heard the man mention his despair and hopelessness now that 'she' was missing. It was clear those who disappeared didn't come back or were found, so his expectations were low. Shiloh felt sorry for him, but unfortunately she wasn't any more optimistic. Tomorrow she'd have a lot to do. 

Morning then noon passed, and as dusk approached she rose from the table to leave. The hour had struck–it was time to return to the gazebo for a confrontation. As she headed down the streets she didn't even make it to the willow-lined riverbank when she saw the boy from yesterday walking by himself at a steady pace. The direction he was heading wasn't to the gazebo, but instead as she followed it became clear his destination was leading towards the outskirts of the city. There was an unnatural stillness in the air as the boy kept walking towards who knows where. The skies were growing dark and it was just him and her tailing him like a shadow. The magical aura she had sensed the night before was highly concentrated on the child like a bonfire in the middle of a moonless night. As the boy made a turn down a small alley, there was a much greater source of magical energy radiating at the end. A strange wooden gateway painted in red stood in the alleyway, sticking out like a sore thumb. And yet the boy kept walking towards it without the slightest hint of hesitation. 

When the performer finished at the piano, Evanis exited the tavern and found a place to stay for the night at the cost of a small sum of silver.  When dawn struck, he was one of the first bystanders into the street.  Up and down the avenues he walked in search of a butcher's shop.  After a couple hours passed, he gave up on locating one and instead made his way to a grocery store that he saw several times during his probing.  Three men walked out with bags full of goods and they all stopped upon seeing him, their eyes full of uncertain curiosity.

The awe soon passed, and the trio went on their way.  Evanis entered the store and found a large assortment of food items with the meat section positioned at the back that was being operated by a burly man with arms that could snap a tree trunk in half. The shopkeeper was a young man who lifted an eyebrow at the sight of the deerman, but said nothing as he went back to his business.  Evanis stepped up to the meat section worker with the bounty out, and when the man turned around and saw him, he asked, "Can I help you sir?"

"Yes, I was wondering if you've seen this man," Evanis replied as he showed the man the poster of Codillius.

The meat worker gave the portrait an inquisitive look before he tilted his head and said, "I think I might have seen someone like him come in here before.  Purchased some porkchops and that was the only time he was here.  Had other gorgers like him come in, but that's unfortunately all I can give you."

"Did this man have any interesting mannerisms?" asked Evanis.

"All I can say to that was a creepy grin," the man said with a shrug.

Evanis nodded and said, "That will be all, thank you."

"No problem.  Be careful out there.  Would hate to have you end up on this rack," the man warned.

Evanis scoffed and said, "I puke at the thought."

He left the store and his search for helpful leads continued.  Pedestrians were asked, but apart from probable sightings, none of them gave him any solid leads.  The day stretched into the night with his strongest source of info being from the meat worker.  As he was walking through an alley, he caught sight of the boy from yesterday walking alone.  Something was strange about him though; it was as if he was in a trance of sorts.

Moments later, the masked individual from the bar passed by.  He knew that whatever she was doing was important and that it was likely unwise to interfere, but something about this event piqued his interest and he approached the end of the alley to see where the two were heading.  He followed when they were far enough away, and this game of Follow the Leader led them to a small alley that the boy went down.  Evanis moved right toward a position where he could see where the boy and his tail were going without being spotted and found his perch to be an elevated area.

A red, out of place gateway was the boy's destination.  This peculiar situation made Evanis believe that something terrible was about to occur, so he equipped his bow and nocked an arrow, just in case someone or something appeared with the express intent of harming the boy.

The boy disappeared as he walked into the gateway, even though you could see the other end of the alley through it. She knew what this was, but she had no choice but to go in. Powerful beings were capable of creating dimensional spaces within the fabric of reality, like hidden partitions in boxes. If she didn't enter now there was no guarantee she would be able to find it again if the culprit left either. Once she passed through the gate she found herself in an entirely different location. The street had been replaced by a long, stone and dirt path in the woods and the remains of an Ataiyan-style house up ahead. The boy was nowhere in sight, and there was a mist that gave the entire area an eerie atmosphere. The skies above showed the moons in the clouds, but she didn't believe that they or anything here could be trusted. The entire place reeked with the aura from the gate, and the gateway itself was gone too. When this happened, there were usually two methods to escape: obtain permission from the host to leave, or destroy the domain by killing the creator. 

With a headache beginning to gnaw at her temples, Shiloh entered the residence's courtyard and started searching. Her ability to navigate was getting worse as time dragged on and she was sure the layout was shifting to the host's whims. Most of the places she passed by were just empty rooms, but in one of them she found an old dresser made of lacquered rosewood. Pulling out the drawers, she found several personal items and trinkets like hairpins, scraps of paper with shopping lists, assorted jewelry of varying value, and the ball the boy had been playing with the day before. Not only did these items have little in common, but they didn't belong to the same person. She paused for a moment, debating what to do before emptying the drawers out and dumping the contents into a bag. This was evidence, no doubt about it.

Shiloh continued her attempt to find the source of this phenomenon when she stumbled into the courtyard again. Beneath the lone gnarled maple tree stood a figure with its back to her. She approached it with steady steps and spoke in a low voice. "Are you a spirit? Are you a demon? Reveal yourself." The figure turned around and it was Jin. There was a lit lantern in his hand and a look of shock that changed into surprise on his face. "How did you–wait, don't tell me I'm not the only one in here! What a relief, I thought I'd never see anyone else in this place. So, did you get lost too?"

In response she went silent and continued to stare at Jin from where she stood. Tension began to fill the air when she spoke again, repeating her previous words with the same severity. "Are you a spirit, are you a demon? Reveal yourself." Jin was beginning to look uncomfortable and took a few steps away from her. "Hey, hey…what are you trying to do? You're starting to creep me out." From behind him there was the sound of footsteps and the boy Shiloh had followed came out from a room behind a sliding door. Jin looked over his shoulder and a mixture of relief and concern was on his face. "Theo? Thank goodness, it's you! What are you doing here?" 

Before he could continue his questions further, a shadowy knife flew at his head. Jin immediately dodged, retreating towards the boy as the blade embedded itself into the floor. As he positioned himself in front of Theo, Shiloh caught a glimpse of the boy as the light from Jin's lantern briefly illuminated his face. Theo's eyes were glazed over, his expression dull like a sleepwalker. Beneath the pale light of the moon, Shiloh's eyes shone through the holes in her mask as she asked one last time, her ears buzzing with the noise of building magical energy.

In the next moment, there was an explosion as a bright flash of light shattered the uneasy stillness of the old courtyard. The smell of burnt hair and smoke was in the air as broken clay fragments laid scattered on the ground. Shiloh's mask was destroyed and she was locked in direct eye contact with Jin who was now behind Theo with a very different expression. The lantern was also smashed to pieces, and flickering flames came from its remains as the night's peaceful facade was finally shattered. With eyes still wide in a piercing gaze, Shiloh muttered through clenched teeth, her face in a spiteful grin. "So it was you." An axe appeared in her hand as she crouched low to the ground in preparation to strike. There would be blood tonight.

Evanis blinked twice when the boy vanished into the archway, despite the opposite end of the alley being visible.  The mysterious person went in after him, and Evanis considered going in after them, but decided against it.  He had no clue what was on the other side, and for all he knew it could have been an abyssal horror seeking to make mincemeat out of whatever poor sod was lured into its domain.  This dimensional gateway still remained, as if inviting him inside, but he refused to take the bait.  Instead, he decided that he would get himself a small dinner before he turned in for the night and continued gathering intel on Codillius tomorrow.

As he made his way toward a garden-themed restaurant that he had seen before, he kept the poster out this time in the hopes that it might spark some recognition in a passerby.  For once, fortune favored him as a woman made a disgusted face at the poster and pointed to it saying, "Ugh, I've seen that bastard before.  Glutton was…holy shit a cannibal!?"

He nodded and replied, "Yes, where have you seen him?"

The informant pointed at the restaurant he was heading to and replied, "He was in there earlier, bugging people and talking about how some of them would be 'ripe' for eating.  Shit, knowing this now makes that so much worse!"

"Thank you," he replied as he started toward the restaurant.

"Please lodge an arrow in his throat!" she called after him.

The restaurant had chairs and tables that were meant for the outdoors seated on fake grass that had tiny blue illuminated specks flowing upward from it.  Paper window shades were on the sides and back of the establishment.  The ceiling had a few potted plants hanging from it and waiters in green garb strutted about taking and providing orders.  Par for the course, glances and stares were sent his way before the patrons returned to their meals.  He approached a greeter who did a double take before he regained his composure and asked, "Hello sir, how many to seat?"

"Just one," Evanis replied.

A waiter walked over to Evanis and said, "Right this way sir."

He led Evanis over to a table on the right side of the dining room with four chairs and once the deerman sat down he informed him, "Check out the menu, a waiter will be with you shortly."

"Thank you," Evanis said as he both looked over the menu and watched for someone who might be in charge of the restaurant.  During his observation, three men burst in with faces tinged with fury.  The head of the trio was tall with curly blonde hair and had on a brown vest with brown pants.  He thrust a finger toward another man in white, disheveled clothing who was also seated alone on the opposite side of the room and roared, "I know you took her you sick voyeur!"

The accused's head swished to the ridiculer and shot back, "I didn't take anyone you numbskull!"

"Stop lying!" the betrothed snapped as he and his cronies stomped toward their suspect who rose from his seat with anger flashing in his eyes.

Waiters rushed at the impending brawl in an attempt to prevent it, but they were shoved aside and the three-on-one began.  The lone opponent was punched to the floor where the three above engaged in a stomping fest against him.  Onlookers watched on in helpless horror, while Evanis sat with a nonchalant attitude having decided on a vegetable salad.  It was around twenty seconds when the boots finally stopped their assault and the man lie on the floor with his face bruised up and his right eye swollen.  The ringleader dragged the man to his knees by his shirt and hissed, "Where'd you take her?"

"I didn't take her anywhere dumbass!"

His response was rewarded with a punch that dropped him back to the floor.  In a huff, the trio departed from the restaurant.  A few bystanders went over to assist the accused, and when normalcy returned, a waitress came over to Evanis's table and asked, "Hello sir, sorry about that.  What will you be having?"

"A vegetable salad with a glass of water," he answered.

The waitress jotted down the order and said, "Alright, I'll have them get your order ready."

"Hold on, before you go," Evanis showed the waitress the poster and asked, "Someone said this man was here."

The waitress sighed and said, "He was.  We were quick to remove him because he was harassing customers."

Evanis nodded and said, "If you don't mind, I'd like to talk more about that."

She nodded and departed to get his order ready.

The rest of that night was filled with similar songs to the first. Ragtime piano always was one of my favorites, even as far back as freshman year at the academy. These were songs I knew by heart from all those days at the arcade: easy money for establishments like that tavern in Jayou. I sat there at the owner’s piano in a sapphire blue dress for hours, playing one classical song after the other; and not a one had ever been written by a Revaliir native. The end of my shift came quickly, driven by those memorable melodies.

“Thanks a lot, lass,” the tavernkeep said while placing a pouch of crescents in my hand to a rousing applause. “You helped me out of a real bind. Ol’ Charlie seems to have lost his soul ever since Miko disappeared.” Charlie was the drunken sod at the bar, the one whose shift I had stolen. He was passed out with a half-emptied mug of swill next to his head. Doubtful even the massive church bells of Abed could raise that man, though perhaps that’s why the owner hadn’t tried.

“No problem,” I told the shopkeep while fastening his payment to my waist with a leather string. “I’ll be leaving now. My hotel is down the way.” Most of the patrons had retired by then, leaving Shiloh and a handful of others at their table. Perhaps that’s why the tavernkeep stopped me as I turned to leave.

“Miss, I’d feel better if you stayed here tonight.” His grip was gentle, but unwanted. I stared at him out of the corner of my right eye with acute judgment, waiting for the rest of his explanation. “It’s dangerous out there lately. People are disappearing, and a beautiful, exotic thing like you-”

“Would be a perfect victim. Is that what you want to say?” I blurted out the question before the middle aged man could finish, catching him off guard before I pulled my arm away. “I assure you, Mr. Deiter. I can take care of myself. There’s no need to worry about me.”

I walked out of the tavern then, leaving behind an anxiety ridden owner. He was a good man, and, as fate would have it, a correct one.

Not long after I had left the establishment, I was waylaid in an alley by a portly man.

“Well don’t you look delicious,” he said while blocking my way. “And a fox too. Haza blood?” It was Codillius Tree, a cannibal who had been blatantly attacking people in Jayou. For some unknowable reason, he was still hanging around in town even though his face was on several posters. Was it arrogance? Gluttony? Who could say, but he did mark me as easy prey as he towered over me in that narrow passageway between ships.

“Oh no, you’re that cannibal, aren’t you?!” I recoiled from the fat giant as he advanced far more quickly than a man of his girth should have been able to. He grabbed me by my chin, then slobbered as he spoke.

“I’m going to enjoy this.” He tried to restrain me after that, but staggered as a result of the attempt. Great pain showed on his face as the sweat rolled down his forehead and his mouth started to foam. Suddenly, he fell to the walkway, writhing from the poisoned knife shoved in his gullet.

“Funny,” I said while finally dropping my act. “I was just about to say the same thing.” Codillius’s skin started turning blue around the puncture wound. It wasn’t long after that before he died from the lethal dose of poison I had given him. Yet his punishment wasn’t over. Soon as the body grew still, I brought motion back to it. With a pained moan, the cannibal rose anew.

“Hello Codillius, my fat cannibal friend,” I said while retrieving my knife from his gut and wiping it off on a cleaner part of his shirt. “Do me a favor and walk around town pretending that you’re still a living cannibal, but this time do it during the day and be incredibly obvious about your… tastes.” Throwing the knife over my shoulder into a storage portal, I walked past the former criminal to his grunts of approval.

“Yes, master,” he said before he was about to trudge off.

“Oh, but before that, go get yourself cleaned up with a fresh pair of clothes,” I said before he could, giving one final command at the end. “And Codillius? Tear out your teeth for me, would you?”

“Yes, master.”

For the rest of that night, Codillius stood on the boardwalk pulling his teeth out one by one. It was a shame that a corpse could not feel pain, but the self-mockery was good enough for me. A former cannibal’s corpse, doomed to romp around town gumming up random passersby. How that turned out, I wouldn’t know until much later. After the last tooth was pulled and the corpse’s clothing was changed, I released my control. He needed no guidance beyond that point. He would do what he was made to do.

Meanwhile, I passed time until the next night when I happened upon Shiloh following a boy through a red spirit gate. By this point I had changed into some black menswear, and I stared curiously at the obvious portal. I smelled blood from beyond its borders, and grinned at the possibility of another victim in the roster I had made since arriving in Jayou. Inside, a fierce battle was raging, one that was soon joined by a grim reaper holding a giant hourglass.

“When the sands fall silent, so shall you.” The phantom stood at the entrance to the space, holding nothing but the hourglass. He extended a bony digit from there, pointing squarely at the one called Jin. The next in a long line of killers had been chosen.

Although Shiloh's appearance came as a surprise, Jin assumed he had the upper hand from his countless years of experience. The jig was up and he made no effort to hide three black vulpine tails tinged with red as he positioned a bewitched Theo in front of him as a shield. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't the only one who was skilled at using underhanded methods as Shiloh redirected her aimed attack at him without difficulty. As shadowy hands burst from the ground and grasped at him, Jin was able to slip away leaving his human meat shield behind–only to let out an agonizing shriek. The smell of blood joined the smoke as one of Shiloh's daggers was embedded in a severed tail pinned to the ground. Perhaps if he hadn't moved, he'd still have it attached. The shadowy limbs quickly pulled it into the darkness before he could get it back as the apparition of the reaper appeared to foretell his inevitable demise. 

Upon sensing and witnessing this disturbance to what should have been his domain, Jin's centuries-old resolve was shaken. He didn't even have the time to question if this ill omen was the masked woman's doing, as in the next moment Shiloh slammed him to the ground with a single-handed vice grip around his neck. An incredible, oppressive force bore down on him as he struggled to breathe, his remaining two tails writhing as he felt as if someone was setting the blood in his veins on fire. As he tried to break free, he saw Shiloh's other hand raise a two-toned sword with its point facing downward and made the mistake of making eye contact. In the eyes looking down he saw no vengeance, hatred, or spite–only indiscriminate and unbridled rage. "You won't die from this sword." She said, her words unsettling and calm. 

"Why–" His question was cut off by the Equilibrium's Edge stabbing into his chest. With those same wild eyes she answered in response: "You came too close to my family." A choked scream echoed in the ruined courtyard as another tail was torn off, and it was like his soul had was being ripped to shreds. By now his human disguise was severely weakened and more vulpine traits were now visible. Jin had never thought someone would hire a hunter to go after him. With only one tail left, he desperately tried to gather what strength he had to escape.

"Was it the girl?" He asked through strained gasps. Shiloh did not answer.

Jin's crimson eyes threw a glance where Theo was lying on the ground, unconscious. "Was it the boy?" She said nothing. 

It was then that it dawned upon him, and a chill ran through his body at what she had meant. She was no hunter; she was acting like an animal attacking someone who had gotten too close to her cubs. And as long as she thought he was a threat to them, he would die. As his vision began to blur he could still make out the figure of that spirit of death looming in the background holding its hourglass, watching like a crow.   

Once Evanis finished his meal, and paid, he noticed some commotion outside.  He stepped out and spotted a crowd gathered around a man who to his confusion and disgust had a bloodied mouth with all of his teeth missing.  When he got closer, he realized that this was the man he had been searching for, Codillius Tree.  However, something seemed off about him.  His movements were unnatural, and his skin was blue despite his twisted smile, the deerman unaware of his fate beforehand.  Either way, this man had to be dealt with before someone else got hurt.

The woman who told him about Codillius's disturbance earlier was there, and pointed to the glutton shouting, "Get away, that's a cannibal!"

This declaration caused the onlookers to backpedal and run in panic, and the woman did the same in case he lashed out.  Evanis drew closer with his dagger out and said, "Shame about this.  You would have made a nice bounty alive."

He herded Codillius toward a back alley where there was a crate large enough to hide what he was about to do.  With no one watching, and some work with his blade, the severed head was dropped into a sack.  The headless corpse was abandoned in the alley and Evanis made his way to the office where he found the bounty in the first place.  He entered into the small room where the clerk looked at him and asked, "Watcha got there?"

The clerk was presented with the poster, and Evanis opened the sack to reveal the head of the cannibal inside.  A whistle came out of the clerk followed by a laugh saying, "Finally took the chicken's head off!"

He then poked the forehead and asked, "Why's he blue though?"

"Unsure.  Asphyxiation perhaps," Evanis guessed as the clerk produced the reward money for the capture and said, "Here you go."

Evanis took the money with a small, "Thanks," and departed.

He made his way back to the gateway that both the boy and the masked figure disappeared through before, curious to see if it was still there and if anything had changed.

With the messenger sent and the gate clear, I began working on “popping” that dimensional bubble. It wasn’t fragile. Clearly the conjurer possessed some amount of skill, but they hadn’t been able to make it impenetrable. This pocket could be broken, provided I put in the right amount of effort.

Meanwhile, a terrible bout of violence ensued beyond the veil. Shiloh had temporarily relinquished her humanity, tearing the tails off the malignant spirit one by one. My reaper merely stood there, witnessing the bloodshed to the hiss of his hourglass.

Outside the domain, I chanted.

“Scatter to the four winds this barrier. Begone, fragile pocket! Release your occupants unto the world, for I come upon this land with avaricious intent and woe be unto those who bar my path. I hereby banish you to the depths.”

Placing my hands against the gate, I finished the incantation and shattered the front of the pocket dimension into transparent shards. In a flash of illusory glass, the red gate had been felled, giving way to a new exit and the terminus of my spirit’s time.

Sadly, my assistance was no longer required by then. Beyond my minion lay a battle that had already been decided. I saw first hand the feral human stick a blade through the spirit’s chest, and I was not about to change that fate.

“Pardon me, detective,” I said while dismissing my omen from beyond the gateway. “I’m not in the habit of stealing other people’s prey, so I’ll take my leave of you and your ‘friend.’ Continue as you were.”


I turned to leave then, but the fox fiend spoke up before I could walk away.

“What the hell is that,” he asked with a pained voice? “It wears the skin of a fox spirit, but it’s no kin of mine. It’s not even a demon! What in the Void is that?” With naught but a playful smirk on my face, I responded to his question in an unsettlingly cordial manner.

“A devil.”

As the black fox struggled in her grasp, the walls of the domain began to collapse around them. The courtyard and ruined mansion gave way to the alleyway as the red gateway was destroyed completely, vanishing into thin air. The former three-tailed fox no longer had the strength to prevent this from happening and they re-emerged in Jayou. Shiloh barely acknowledged the woman who called herself a devil despite recognizing her, and once Natsumi left that was when Jin breathed his last. 

When Evanis returned, he would be greeted by the smell of dried blood and smoke as Shiloh stood over a fire burning the remains of the creature that called himself Jin. Not too far away there laid Theo, the boy who had entered the gateway in a trance, unconscious but unhurt. For a while she stared into the flames, waiting until every last discernible trace of the beast was consumed before putting on a mask of normalcy. There were superficial cuts on her face from when her clay mask had been broken which were already nearly healed. She momentarily left to find a member of the local authorities to report she had found a child lying unconscious in an alley and reviewed the missing persons posters from the past few weeks to see if she could match the items she had found in the fox's domain with any of them.

She then went back to the alley to see how things would proceed and planned to begin the long process of returning the personal items to the friends and families of the victims, providing both closure and a confirmation of their fates. Unfortunately, Saya would never return home. Her aunt deserved to know at least. No one would be able to claim that poster's reward but there wouldn't be any need for it either.