‟You saw nothing?” Morgan exclaimed as they ran through the village, townsfolk turning their heads to the body of Lethel that Morgan carried on her back.

‟I told you,” Curoi screamed after her with a huff. ‟I saw a lizard, same as you!”

Morgan wasn't sure what she saw. She saw a tail of metal, claws of steel. The only certainty she had was that Lethel Redinghood was bleeding over her back, dying very quickly.

The universal white staff and 'X' symbol popped up around the corner and she slammed through the door without stopping, dragging dirt and blood into the clean reception.

‟I need a doctor! She's been stabbed!”

There were two nurses at the front desk of the small town's clinic. The younger male nurse simply stared, slack jawed at the intrusion. The older female pushed away from her chair hard enough that the furniture toppled back, reacting immediately.

The nurse commanded, ‟Get her to the surgical suit!” She pointed to the back room as she hurriedly danced around the desk. ‟Louis, go prep the doctor.”

The male nurse finally got up and ran off into an opposite corridor as Morgan followed the other nurse to one of the back rooms.

There at the end was a set of copper double doors, inscribed with yellow magic circuit. The moment Morgan stepped through them, a gentle wave of decontaminating electricity washed over her, enough to tickle her body, but not to hurt or impede her movements. The nurse gestured to a metal surgical table where cyan magic circuits were also imbued.

Morgan set Lethel down onto the surgical table as the nurse took out a magic crystal and set in into a copper ring that extended out from the table. The ring glowed, extending to the circuits of the bed, and Morgan immediately felt the temperature near Lethel drop.

‟What happened?”

The nurse explained, ‟I've lowered the temperature of the bed to reduce her blood pumping. It should help slow the blood loss.”

As she said that, the doors to the surgical suit opened again, with short arcs of electricity sticking to the man in a white surgical coat that walked through.

‟Nurse, prep for surgery. Miss knight, I'm afraid you can't be here. You might further contaminate the room.”

Morgan nodded. ‟Right.”

She walked by the doctor, whose eyes seemed to trace the right of her face, though she was not sure if that was just part of her imagination.

By the time the doors to the surgical suite closed behind her, she could hear her heart beating against her chest. Giving herself a moment of mindfulness, she took two deep breaths to calm herself. The danger was out of her hand, and it was up to the doctor and nurse to help Lethel now. The sound of metal surgical tools being moved rang from behind. She needed to focus on her own job.

Who attacked them?

When she walked back out to the reception area, she saw the mess they had dragged in. Louis, the male nurse, had a broom in hand and a mop at the ready, sweeping up the dirt they had dragged in and preparing the blood on the floor to be soaked away.

The moment Curoi saw her emerge from the back, the knight with green stepped up and seethed. ‟We have to stop those snakes, now, before more people get hurt!”

Morgan waved him off. ‟I don't know what I saw! We can't say for certain it's a lizardkin yet.”

‟What the-! You just can't admit it, can you? You're empathetic to these monsters. Listen, just because they look like you, doesn't mean they're the sa-gurk!”

Curoi found his words cut short when Morgan's cracked arm shot out from under her cape and grabbed a tight hold of his neck. Louis the nurse jumped at the outburst, dropping his broom.

She growled, ‟I suggest you be very, very careful with your next words.”

Through his constricted airway, Curoi spat, ‟Or what?”

Or what? What was she going to do? She wanted to snap his neck, stab his heart. Summon her sword and just run it through him. Shove a ball of dark magic down his throat and explode it in his gullet. Solve the murders.

‟Morgan!”

She turned to Merylin at the door who had arrived with Sherl and John at her side. With a flick, Morgan let Curoi go, the latter stumbling back with coughs as he cleared his airway.

John Watson stepped past the commotion and approached Louis. ‟Nurse, where is your prep room? I'm Doctor John Watson. I'll help with the surgery.”

‟Ah! The nurse fumbled, before getting his head together. ‟Right this way.”

The two men left the scene without another word.

Morgan turned to Merylin. ‟How did you get here so fast?”

But Sherl was the one to answer. ‟It's a small place. Word travels fast when a monster looking knight carrying a bleeding girl runs through the street.”

Morgan clicked her tongue in frustration, but before she could retort, Merylin asked, ‟What happened?”

Curoi answered, ‟Redinghood was attacked by a lizardkin. Slipped past Dresden and attacked Redinghood, then it attacked Morgan.”

‟You were with them?”

‟Not exactly,” Curoi replied. ‟I was watching from afar.”

Sherl interjected, ‟Then you could not be sure what you saw, right?”

‟Stay out of this, outsider!”

The detective laughed madly. ‟We're all outsiders here.”

‟Morgan,” Merylin's stern voice cut through. ‟What did you see? You fought the assailant, did you not?”

‟I...”

Memories of the quick encounter were still flashes in her mind. But she could not get certain frames out of her head. The metal tail and claw were some of them, sure, but something else felt off.

‟I don't know,” she finally admitted. ‟It may be a lizardkin, but I did not get a clear look.”

‟Coward!” Curoi spat. ‟You know what you saw!”

‟I don't!” Morgan reinforced. ‟I saw something that looked like a lizardkin, yes, but I have doubts. For one thing, it looked like it was wearing armour. They've been living in a forest. Where in the world are they going to get custom made armour from?”

Sherl cooed.

The male knight's head bobbed up and down, not in agreement, but in disbelief. ‟Okay. Okay. Have it your way, Dresden. But the next body is on you!” He shot an accusatory finger at her before storming out of the clinic.

Merylin tried to voice out for Curoi to stop, but the latter exited at light speed. The old knight sighed tiredly before turning to Morgan and Sherl.

‟I need you two to solve this, fast. It's a powder keg here, and with everything happening in the city, we're sitting on a civil catastrophe.”

Calming down, Morgan nodded in understanding. ‟Got it, Merylin.”

The old knight then left after Curoi, to talk him down or to give a talking down to, Morgan did not know.

Sherl then stepped up. ‟What exactly did you see?” the detective emphasized.

‟A metal tail, armoured,” Morgan answered truthfully. ‟And a claw weapon.”

‟Those sound pretty concrete,” Sherl argued. ‟So you must have seen something else. Something to make you stop.”

Morgan had not thought of it that way. What was it about what she saw that stopped her? There was something weird, something abnormal, something familiar.

‟Those weapons,” she said. ‟I feel like I've seen them before.”

‟You've fought them before?”

‟No. I've never fought a claw wielder. But I can't help but shake the feeling that there's something about them that reminds me of... something.” It was on the tip of her tongue, an aftertaste that just would not wash off.

‟Excuse me?”

They turned to find the nurse, Louis, walking over. ‟Doctor Watson told me to give this to you. He said Lethel likely hid it in her clothes.” In his outstretched hand was a familiar crystal, still coated with droplets of water after being washed of blood.

‟A photograph crystal?” Sherl took the gem from him.

Morgan explained, ‟She was looking for it. Said she bought it from the photographer and it would help prove her lack of motive to kill her.”

Sherl snapped her fingers and lit a magical flame, shining the light through the crystal and onto the nearby wall. At first the light formed a kaleidoscope of sheen, until the detective twisted the gem around and the specks of light formed together into an image. It was a frame of Lethel, posing in front of her flower fields, smiling happily.

The detective deduced, ‟Looks like she was on good enough terms with the victim if she was even willing to buy a picture from her.”

‟That does lighten her load.” Then, a question popped into Morgan's mind. ‟The killer was clearly tailing Lethel for a while, if they managed to avoid Curoi's gaze. So why wait to attack?”

‟That's a good question. When did they strike?”

‟Right after Lethel brought up the photograph.” Morgan then thought aloud. ‟Do you think there's something on this crystal that the killer doesn't want us to see?”

Sherl shifted the flame against the wall, as if shifting the angle of light could produce a different image, but nothing new showed itself.

‟We're missing something,” Sherl noted in annoyance. ‟And I feel it's likely something right in front of our eyes. Literally.”