Where Nobody's Good Enough

Detective Uresh Greystone was the smallest creature in the gray, stone-walled room. This did not deter him, as he often was - in fact - the smallest creature in most rooms. As an arctic fox, he carried himself with an air of a creature carrying a great weight but still managed to have groomed fur and a fluffy brush... or, as fluffy as he could make it when his arctic fur was not in bloom.

He scratched his muzzle and examined the room. The badger across from him was in battle armor with a red sash across his chest and a few gleaming awards pinned on it caught the torchlight in charming ways. There were two hare guards with pikes eyeing him with suspicion as a male bear with crossed arms, dressed in a huge, plain brown tunic, sat to the badger’s left while a female hare in glasses and a light, long, airy robe sat to the badger’s right. She had a pile of parchment and a quill ready to write. To Uresh’s right was a vixen of the red fox variety in a comely, short red skirt - popular in Vulane - with a similar pile of parchment and a similar quill at the ready. Her long, healthy brush was curled underneath her, with its tip hung in the air like a serpent ready to strike.

“Well, fox,” the badger began, emphasizing the detective’s species, “why don’t you begin?”

Uresh’s lawyer merely gave him a nod and grin, knowing him well.

“Well, badger, I think I shall,” Uresh began, noting a twinge of the badger’s right eye as he said it.

“Dispense with the jokes, detective,” the hare lawyer across the table said coldly.

“He was merely mirroring your client’s disrespectful attitude,” the vixen lawyer said flatly, not even bothering to look up from her parchment. “Detective Greystone didn’t even have to be a witness in this case.” 

Uresh waved it all off.

“Well, it started on a regular Tyrsday,” Uresh began. “My office is below ground, so I can see whoever is coming to my door.”

“Get on with it, fox!” The bear growled. The vixen, unmoved, merely adjusted her glasses and leaned forward.

“Can you please control your side of the table, Maresa?” she calmly asked. “Context is very important, here.” 

The hare leaned over and put her handpaw on the bear’s massive forearm as Uresh cleared his throat.

“Well, from my vantage point below, I can see the boots, feet, and shoes of everycreature that wanders by - especially those that are arcing their way to my doorstop.”

The bear rolled her eyes. Uresh loved it, noted it, and continued - a smirk on his muzzle.

“On this particular occasion - a warm Tyrsday night in the second month of Fall - I saw a pair of boots coming my way that caught my attention. These were real leather ones, and on the underside I caught a glimpse of the symbol of a seven-spired sun... Either this creature had stolen boots from a Tyrian guardhouse, or they were a guard themselves.

As you could imagine, a Tyrian slumming it to my little shop of intrigue was a rare sight. I sat up just as they hopped down the stairs leading to my door. I could see their long ears silhouetted in the fog by the orange lamps outside. I waited to see if they knocked. Their handpaw was frozen in the air for a second as I watched and then finally...

‘Are you lost, madam?’ I asked the female rabbit. She was almost as tall as I am.

She gasped and hid her ears immediately under her shawl, then looked side to side as though eyes were already watching her.

‘May I come in?’ she asked, a little more daintily than I would’ve expected from a Tyrian guard.

‘To what end?’ I replied, wishing I had armed myself before.

‘I... I have a case for you,’ she whispered, cupping her handpaw over her muzzle and leaning down over me.

I thought about it for a moment. I was closed, but I eventually sighed and moved to let her in. If this was a raid, it was a good one: I’ve always had a soft spot for damsels in distress... even if they were mercenaries of a god I didn’t much care for.”

The hare lawyer raised a handpaw to stop him.

“Do you live at your office, mister Greystone?”

“All good detectives do, ma’am,” Uresh responded. “May I continue?”

She nodded.

“...I looked her up and down and offered to take the rabbit’s shawl and coat. I think she sensed that I was just being chivalrous, because she smiled and merely took them off and folded them. I led her to my office after I closed and locked the door.

‘May I make some observations?’

I remember that she blinked and nodded.

‘Obviously your case is extremely sensitive, otherwise you wouldn’t be coming to a fox to solve it. You must also be at the end of your rope for the same reason.’”

“Nonsense!” The badger shouted, slamming his handpaw on the table. “He’s obviously lying! Anmara would never-”

There were overlapping voices as Uresh waited. Eventually the babble slowed down as the hare lawyer was able to calm him down. Uresh waited until the table was silent.

“You know, if I’m not going to be believed simply because of my species...”

“It’s far more than that!” The badger snarled again.

Uresh smirked a smirk of ‘I knew it’ that implied perceptiveness and a knowledge of a broken world. The hare lawyer said something into the badger’s ear that made his face droop and then nodded at the arctic fox to continue.

“I took out my parchment and quill and listened to her story. LIke our badger friend said, she indicated her name was Anmara. Originally from the inlands that fed New Nottingham, she heard her calling to... less pleasant lands.

She told me that several of her compatriots had been... found... in shallow graves. ...And that she suspected a fellow guard of the murders.”

“Blasphemy!” the badger said. “These are all lies!”

Uresh didn’t even have to say anything: his vixen lawyer leaned forward and gave a bored stare at her hare counterpart, who tapped the badger’s forearm to calm him. The arctic fox waited as the badger looked to the side, giving a huff. Eventually he spoke.

“Anmara told me a story. A story about a rift in the Tyrian ranks. You see, there’s the Tyrians - god of Justice and all that... sure you’ve heard of ‘im... but then there’s a subsect. Autumnwrath. Kind of secretive, you see. Well, I was somewhat familiar, but the average creature wouldn’t imagine paladins to be the kind that kept secrets.

We waited till it was morning... or as ‘morning’ as it could get in Vulane... when the parties had all ended or drunk themselves to slumber. When the gangs had gone to sleep. That’s when I followed her to a place behind the Green Dream Inn. A place for the more Tyrian crowd to rest their heads - where the Docks and the Entertainment District kiss. Just out of direct sight of the Veilwinter Tavern and the House of the Moon.

The proprietor - a squirrel - didn’t like seeing a fox there, but he must not have thought I was a threat because I had a rabbit with me. She lead me to through the kitchen - she was obviously a regular - and to the back where they tossed their refuse. However, there was already a crowd of prey and sympathetic ‘pred’ creatures gathered around something.

There were a lot of smells, so I had to concentrate. I recall burnt sage. The victim was a collie Tyrian - his arms crossed against his chest and his head caved in with a hammer. Dressed in full regalia.”

The badger didn’t move other than his eyes, which were shooting daggers across the table. Uresh’s lawyer gently patted his shoulder in encouragement.

“I cleared my throat.

‘Name’s Uresh Greystone. Anyone willing to talk to me?’

The crowd was a little stunned to see me.

‘What’s HE doing here?’

‘A fox? One of Veilwinter’s spies?’

‘I don’t work for Veilwinter,’ I said. ‘Anyone know this dog here?’

There was some tense silence until Anamara put her pawhand on my shoulder and nodded. A bulldog in an apron stepped forward.

‘His name was Tared,’ the bulldog blurbled. His jowls were really big - you know? Bulldogs. ‘Tared Uldin. I knew him when we were both pups.’ That’s when he began to cry. Instinctively I patted him on his shoulder. It was an ugly, ugly sight. Real ugly. Slobbery.

‘He was a good boy!’ he said. He sniveled.

‘There... there,’ I said. Anmara spoke up next.

‘He was a lieutenant. Nice doggy. Spoke up for the rights of every-creature.’

I took some mental notes. Nothing definite. The testimonies were all the same: a good dog. A good creature. The next sight was a tree in the middle of a prey marketplace a few miles away from the Docks - where the city starts turning into farmland. She pointed to an open grave. Again, there were lots of creatures gathered around.

Arms crossed. Head bashed in. Full regalia. A husky sergeant, this time. Same story: good boy, cared about everyone... head smashed in.

‘He would always spend time up here,’ his sister said. ‘Meditating on the Books of Justice.’

I remember turning to Anmara.

‘If one’s a coincidence and three’s a pattern, what’s two?’

She nodded and took me to a third site.

Another grave, this time closer - behind a smaller temple to the God of Mice. Right in the graveyard. His was the largest grave by far, of course being a mastiff, but the killer didn’t care. It was like they cared more about the recently deceased.

The mastiff was a colonel this time. The father knew him well. Apparently, he had been praying for every creature’s souls - not just the Tyrian ones.

Head smashed in.

Full regalia.

‘I understand why you couldn’t go to the other Tyrians on this one, sister,’ I said.

She nodded, barely able to hide her tears.

‘One of your Tyrian compatriots is killing other Tyrians. The nice ones. The loved ones. Your killer loved them too. But, of course... you knew all this. You just needed another pair of eyes. ...To confirm what was happening, before you did what you needed to do.’”

“Stop this at once!” The badger roared. This time, the hare lawyer wasn’t able to stop him and the two foxes fell backwards.

“I didn’t kill your brother, badger,” Uresh said, “Anmara did: Because he was killing the Tyrians that he thought were too soft!”

“Silence!”

“Because he thought Autumnwrath was the right way! Because he loved revenge more than justice!”

“BE QUIET!” The badger said, holding his hammer aloft.

“I think we’re done here!” Uresh shouted to his lawyer.

“I think so too, detective!” She shouted back.

By the time Detective Greystone had made it back to his office, he had - reluctantly - put in a request for more Veilwinter guards nearby. He looked at the misty sky and wondered if the world could ever heal before pouring himself some Veilwinter whisky and posting himself near his door with his sharpest knife.