The Murdered Merchant

  Chapter one

  Part one

  She awoke just before the sun had risen, the still darkened sky was just about visible through the round glassless window, her room was separated by a partition, on one side was light wood desk with a single chair to match, on this desk there were calligraphy and artist tools all placed perfectly, behind the desk on the wall was another round window with a white sheer drape hung at it sides. On the opposite side of this partition was a simple looking bed, the frame matching the light wood of this room, this half of the room was raised slightly by a single step, throughout the room was the same sheer white material hung across the walls and ceiling, creating a beautiful and elegant atmosphere.

  She rose from her bed, her light pastel blue eyes following the slight curve of the room, she had dark black hair cut short just above her defined shoulders, bangs defined the edges of her simple yet beautiful face, a silver pendant hung around her neck depicting a light pastel blue lily, but it was broken and it was only half a lily. Her muscles were defined and strong, easily shown through a light looking bed robe, she was tall and agile, definitely making her look somewhat opposing at first glance.

  She rolled out her shoulders and gave a deep stretch before changing into light pastel blue baggy trousers, an ivory white sleeveless shirt that had a turtle neck covering her neck, she pulled on simple flat shoes the same colour as her shirt, she tied a loose light pastel blue fabric around one of her upper arms, she did all this in quick time before making her way out the door.

  Through the door was a wide light wood hallway, the same light wood as the rest of the building, the same sheer white material draped across the ceiling and walls here too, every now and then there would be another round glassless window to let the natural light through, there were no candle lights here even throughout the entire building was there wasn’t a single candle you had to rely on your senses at night, but she had gotten to the point where she didn’t need to use her eyesight to move around anymore.

  She eventually came to a large round doorway, opening up into a courtyard. Here there were wooden training dummies scattered throughout, the ground here was of a fine white gravel, and in the very centre there was a large clearing for sparing, bigger white stones encircled the space in the middle and around the low walls of the raised veranda surrounding it, this training area was in the exact centre of this building.

  She chose a wooden dummy at random to begin training with, choosing one with multiple panels that would swing round as you hit them. Whenever she trained, she didn’t feel the need to add wrappings around her hands to give them a little protection against the hard wood, so it’s not surprising to her when her fist began to bleed slightly, she didn’t mind though. She dodged a few panels as they swung back around and would retaliate by hitting them as they came back around again, her movements rhythmic and quick.

  She continued like this until the sun bled into the sky, turning the dark blue into a golden haze. The shift in colours bringing out a new day, but it also brought out other people.

  Other monks began to make their way into the courtyard, all dressed in similar attire as she was but different coloured material. When she saw this, she stopped what she was doing and moved away from the dummy, she completely ignored the other monks and the other monks completely ignored her too, except for the fact that they made a wide birth around her not wanting to get too close.

  She moved past them and back through the open doorway she came through, leaving her training for the day there, she cleaned herself up back in her room before heading to the library.

  This library encompasses most of the monastery, there were many rooms all attached with the same large round open doorways, there were staircases that led up to higher floors, and the many walled library walls fully covered in bookshelves and the bookshelves fully overtaken by books and scrolls, even the rooms themselves had floor to ceiling backless bookcases entirely full of books. This library was like a maze that you get lost in for days before you found an exit.

  But she knew this library like the back of her hand, she has spent a lot of her time here. She chose a book at random and sat at a desk, it was rather pointless to read as she had already read all the books here, she could even recite them all from memory, but she truly had nothing else to do to pass the time here. That is until...

  Another monk came towards she had dark brown skin and short dark brown hair, the sides of her head were shaved and dark brown eyes, she wore a deep cobalt blue coloured fabric. This was Arasha, one of the only monks that actually talked to her.

  Five years ago Arasha had found her washed up on the river bank that passed through the mountain where the monastery was built, so Arasha had brought her back here to help her, but found it quite difficult, seeing as she had seeming lost her memory before finding her. So Arasha had let her stay and become a monk in this monastery.

  “Line, here” Arasha handed her a letter, it was unsealed.

  Line took the letter and opened it, when she finished reading, she looked back up at Arasha

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  Arasha smiled “a new case?” the monastery was slightly different from a normal monastery, all the monks here were inspectors of some kind, all solving various types of cases that civilians would ask of them, some monks were even known to become the king’s own personal investigators and join the royal courts ranking officers. The king highly favoured this monastery in particular.

  "Yes" Line’s voice was soft and clear.

  Arasha took the book Line was reading “good luck”

  Line gave her a smile before making her way back to the dormitory, when she came to her room she turned to the door opposite, she didn’t bother knocking as she knew she wouldn’t get an answer, so she just entered on her own.

  This room was almost identical to her own, except for the fact this room was messier than hers. Lying soundly asleep in her bed was Ali, she had light blonde almost white hair, still tied into a short pony, she also had bangs that covered her pretty freckled face, her half-closed eyes revealed big brown eyes, she would have looked exactly like the epitome of innocence if it weren’t for the fact that she was still wearing thick looking black leather armour with multiple buckles, belts and unnecessary wrappings.

  Line glanced around the room, looking for the heaviest thing she could find and her eyes landed on a thick brown leather-bound book with no title that was scattered amongst piles of loose paper on the paint-stained desk. Line took the book from its place and opened it halfway, she casually strolled over, close to Ali, before slamming the book closed as hard as she could. Ali gave a scream and jolted upright, covering her ears with her hands while also trying to cover herself with her blankets.

  When Ali noticed it was Line standing over her Ali’s expression immediately turned into a scowl “what?” Ali then noticed how bright it was from the morning sun and her scowl deepened “it’s soooo early” she complained “Line, what do you want?”

  Line produced the letter she had been given and held it out for Ali.

  Ali’s eyes widened slightly, her scowl softened into a bright smile "a new case?” she asked excitedly as she took the letter

  “Yes” Line responded

  Ali began reading from it “Dear Inspector Line- they didn’t spell your name right -I am in desperate need of your assistance, you see my husband has been murdered- Another murder, don’t you get bored of these? -But the authorities won’t investigate, saying his death was an accident- An accident? -Please help me. I’ve been staying at The White Rabbit Inn as of late and would very much appreciate it if you would come and investigate his death fully. Thanking you dearly, Vivien Falls-“ when Ali had finished reading the letter she looked up at Line “are we really investigating this?”

  “of course”

  Ali groaned “why? What’s the point if it’s been ruled as accidental?”

  “Because, right now we don’t really have a choice in the matter. This case is the first in a while and we should at least try to get our names out there to find better cases, and besides, Vivien Falls is dead”

  Ali frowned “what do you mean she’s dead?”

  “I mean, Vivien Falls died three years ago”

  “How do you know that?”

  “The public records”

  Ali rolled her eyes “do you do nothing but read?”

  “if I didn’t read, I wouldn’t want to take this case”

  Ali groaned “can we go later?”

  “No, we are going now”

  Ali’s groan became longer “but I’m hungry”

  “You can get something in the city”

  Ali continue to groan

  “Well, you did say the monastery’s food is bland”

  Ali responded with another groan

  Line stifled a sigh “when you’re done meet me at the main hall” Line put the book back where she had found it and left Ali to her groaning.

  *

  The main hall was a large room, the same white sheer drapes hanging from the walls and ceiling with large round glassless windows throughout, in the centre of the room was a slight raised platform with a large curved light wood desk. There was three round doors in this room, the main door which had a grander feel to it was stood at the southern side of the monastery, the two smaller doors were on the opposite side on either side of the wall, this wall depicted a large symbol of the monastery. It was a large circle and within this circle was an eye with three wavy lines that crossed across the centre vertically. All the monks here would carry a token that looked like this too, as a way of identification.

  Line waited here for a short while, until Ali finally made her way through one of the doors. Ali smiled “did you miss me?”

  Line replied with a solid “no”

  “Aww”

  Line moved to the desk, where there lay an open book with names and times written in it, Line wrote down her name alongside the current time, then offered the white feathered quill to Ali “here”

  “do I have to?”

  “Yes, it is the rules” The monastery had very strict rules about monks who were leaving for the day had to write their names and times whenever the entered or left, and the only person who could write down your name was yourself, if you didn’t there would be severe punishments for both parties.

  Ali rolled her eyes with a scowl “fine” she took the quill and messily wrote down her name “there”

  “let’s go”

  Line led them both through the big round doors into the bright morning. The area around the monastery was rocky, a few deep green brushes were dotted here and there, ahead of them was slow decline that curved slightly around the peak of the mountain to the right, white fluffy clouds surrounded the peak of the mountain and some straggling clouds hung lower towards the many spiralling towers of the light wooden monastery. This was the mountain of Yor and at its base stood the city of Yor, the walk to the city through the mountain took around thirty minutes, so Line had to listen to Ali’s constant whining. Until they reached the monastery gates.