The carriage ride was smooth. The magic tool that absorbed the shock from the road was top of the line, so it was to be expected. Though, it never failed to amuse Cyris when his occasional companion, Timetheo Cronwright, praised how comfortable the ride was.

Timetheo leaned back in the seat across from Cyris. He moved the curtain aside a bit to gauge their progress before letting it fall back into place and glancing Cyris’s way. “You seem to be quite relaxed despite the short notice and late hour of this request, Commander.”

Cyris supposed it was surprising that he hadn’t at least postponed his involvement until morning, but a request–well, it was truthfully an order phrased as a request–from the Elder of the Mages’ Council and the Prime Minister was hard to ignore. The Emperor himself would likely be the next to order his involvement if he didn’t act promptly. He knew that Timetheo knew that as well, so he wondered why the question was brought up at all.

“Well, it is a case that likely involves a unique skill of some sort, and a potentially dangerous one at that. The Elder and the Prime Minister have reason to be concerned.” And the sooner Cyris was pulled onto the case, the better, but he didn’t say so aloud. “The City Knights have no leads either, so it’s not unexpected that the case would fall to me.”

“True,” Timetheo replied, looking thoughtful. This was another reason he preferred working with this man over another city knight. He didn’t take offense at the mention of the City Knights’ shortcomings, and didn’t take Cyris’s statements the wrong way. Timetheo glanced out the window once more.

Is he anxious to arrive? Cyris wondered.

Timetheo must have seen the question on Cyris’s face, for he said, “I have family that doesn’t live far from here, and my family has ties to the location of the incident, so I suppose I am a bit anxious to see what leads you gather.”

“Ah, that would be your sister, wouldn’t it?” Cyris had had Timetheo looked into the first time they’d worked together, so he knew Timetheo was the middle child of the famous clocksmith, Arimedes, having one older brother and one younger and a mother still living. Given that the man’s parents lived in the high-end merchant area in the central district and his elder brother was the family heir and likely living there as well, it made sense that the family he was talking about was his younger sister.

“I’m surprised you knew, though I suppose I shouldn’t be.” Timetheo quirked a smile as though he knew exactly where Cyris had gotten such information in the first place. “Yes, my younger sister, Thea, lives just beyond this edge of the central district in the eastern one. She works there as a librarian.”

“The eastern district has a library?” As far as he knew, that area was mostly commoners who worked their crafts and trades and much of the district was residential.

“A small one and not long established, one of the few open to commoners, and the only one in the eastern district.” Timetheo listed off his explanation matter-of-factly, but then his eyes widened when he peeked out the window once more. “Ah, we’re here.”

Right on cue, the carriage slowed to a stop without jarring its passengers. Their arrival cut short any further talk about Timetheo’s worries or his family. It was time to get to work.

The carriage door was opened from the outside and Cyris stepped out onto the sidewalk. Several city knights were loitering around the area, but beyond them, the Imperial Clock Tower rose high above them, the point of its steep roof seeming to reach towards the nearly full, waning moon.

“Commander Holendale, I’m glad you were able to come so soon.” A gruff man with a large mustache and a slightly receding hairline approached them. His uniform told Cyris that he was part of the city knights, but the pins along his collar marked him as someone in charge. “I’m Captain Jackson Rowell.” Captain Rowell saluted, his whole body showing that he was tense.

Cyris nodded to the captain. Taking a pair of beige, cotton gloves out of his coat pocket, he began to tug them on. “How has the area been handled until now? I received a brief but I’d like to hear your take on what has been found so far.”

“Of course,” said the captain, and he began to lead the way toward the base of the clock tower. “As soon as damage was noted, we roped the area off, but repairs to the clock tower can’t commence until the investigation is concluded.” He grabbed the rope and held it high for Cyris and Timetheo, who was following close behind, to duck underneath. He continued to talk as they stepped into the first floor of the clock tower; the shops and a small cafe located here were dark and abandoned.

The captain recounted much of what was in the brief Cyris had received when he was requested. Around sundown yesterday, reports of people seeing large, moving figures at the top of the clock tower started coming in, and soon after that, city knights began hearing quite a few distressed citizens speaking to family and friends about how they’d had a strange feeling before their unique skill had stopped working. One or two mentions of it wouldn’t have garnered their attention, but the knights soon realized after grouping back together to give their reports, that dozens of similar stories were being told. After documenting the knights’ reports, the captain here had alerted the Royal Knights and the Mages’ Council. The epicenter of all of those stories when plotted on a map had been the clock tower, and the timing coincided with the strange reports of shadow figures being seen near the top.

“We gained access to the upper levels of the clock tower early yesterday afternoon, and noted damage to the floor just below and the floor containing the clock face and most of the mechanisms. The clock itself was damaged enough to have stopped, putting the time of damage about sundown on the previous day, the same time as those reports.” The captain opened the door to the lift by touching a special emblem to the magic stone on the outside of the door. The stone on the emblem and the stone on the lift door both glowed a light orange before the door opened, smoothly retracting into the side walls.

Whoever vandalized the clock didn’t try to force their way into the lift, and that key emblem isn’t something just anyone can get ahold of. In Cyris’s mind, there were already only two possibilities, one more likely than the other: either someone with access to the emblem planned and executed the damage, perhaps as a retaliation against something enacted by the Emperor, or whoever did this bypassed the lift entirely. Cyris wondered if there were people with unique skills that allowed them to fly or climb walls expertly. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility, and he couldn’t forget the possibility of a mage being involved.

He hoped the Mage’s Council had a firm hold on their members, but no organization was perfect.

“I’d like to borrow the emblem and go up, just myself and Sir Cronwright.” He held his hand out for the emblem. It was well known that he liked privacy when he worked, so the captain handed the emblem over with only a moment of hesitation. With it in hand, he placed it in his jacket pocket and patted it. “I’ll return it so that you can then return it to the palace yourself.”

With that taken care of, Cyris stepped into the lift. Timetheo stepped in behind him, turning to stand shoulder to shoulder with Cyris as the doors to the lift closed. He didn’t miss the sympathetic look the captain gave Timetheo. But Timetheo did not react to it, his business-like manner unperturbed. Only when the doors fully closed did Timetheo relax into his more easy-going expression.

“Why do they always think you’re suffering by coming with me?” Cyris mused.

Timetheo shrugged. “You come across as quite the imposing figure, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. I suppose they see my job as one they wouldn’t want to have. Perhaps they feel guilty for being glad it’s me that has been roped into being your liaison with the City Knights.”

Cyris rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers and sighed. It wasn’t exactly his intention to intimidate others, but being the son of a marquis, who is a general in the military to boot, caused enough of that on its own. His necessity to work alone had only exacerbated the issue.

He glanced over at Timetheo again. Well, at least there is one person I work with that seems more at ease with my presence. He knew why Timetheo was chosen as the liaison between himself and the City Knights. He was one of the few City Knights with a family that had a noble title. Timetheo’s father might only be a baronet with no land or real power, besides His Majesty’s patronage, but it was more than the commoners of the City Knights could boast. And if Timetheo was intimidated by Cyris, he managed to hide it well. It was their sixth time working together on a case, and he’d only seen some hesitancy in Timetheo’s demeanor once, and that had been when they first met.

With the emblem in his pocket, Cyris touched the largest stone on the lift’s control panel. It glowed a faint blue before the lift began to slowly rise. He redirected his thoughts back to the investigation at hand. It took less time than he thought to reach the floor that held the clock face. It was time to expose who damaged the clock, and perhaps figure out how the vandalism was connected to the stories of unique skills ceasing to work.