Work

I arrived at work a little past 10. I do have to admit I was running a bit late but meh, it'd be fine.

I was never late so if they complained about it they just needed to, you know, shut the fuck up.

"Yo, Maura, I was waiting for you. I'm surprised you're late but I have something you need to see." The person saying this was Cassy, my partner. she hadn't been there for the investigation of the attack on Leo's home because she had given birth not too long before.

"I had a date last night, sorry I'm late." I walked to my desk and routinely checked that everything was where it belonged.

"Oh, a date eh. I didn't think the ice queen could be interested enough in a guy to arrive late for work." I playfully threw a plushy I had on my desk at her.

"I like him ok. Anyway, what was so urgent you had to show it to me?"

She remembered her urgency and took out a file from one of the drawers on her desk. "See this, you know those grave robberies we've been having, all victims of attacks of The Whisperer's gang. This is a picture of one of the graves being robbed, it's The Dollmaker who's doing it."

The picture showed a round man, you could see at a glance that he was very strong yet it also looked like you could roll him around with ease if you tried. He had a stubbly beard and was nearly bald, his face was just plain ugly, this was the real face of the dollmaker.

"How did you even catch him on camera, we never caught him before." The entire gang was slippery like a snake. "I think he wanted to get caught, the Morgen kid had a run-in with him recently so this is probably to send a message."

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"Did you get that?" The girl opened her eyes. "Sir, they got your message." I chuckled at her submissiveness. "Never forget, Ana, we are equals here, fellow generals."

The all-seeing general shook her head, "Nuh-uh, you are still the one that took me in so you're the boss." When I found her and discovered her abilities, I was fascinated. She was able to see through the eyes of the dead. She formed a connection with them after which the eyes stopped decaying. Afterwards, she placed them in strategic locations to keep an eye out.

"Turns out that learning to read lips was useful, now I know that Maura was on a date and that's why she was late." Ana saw the police station as her very own sitcom and was apparently very invested.

'Kill him, why didn't you kill him?'

I ignored the voice inside my head and walked up to my student, Bao Shing. she was another fascinating case.

Everybody knows about the dark arts being forbidden magics, but not many people know that within the dark arts there are lines that should never be crossed, one of these lines is soul magic.

Normally when someone shows even a lick of potential for soul magic they have their soul burned out with hellfire, a high form of fire magic, to make sure there is no chance they return.

They never found Bao making her to rarest mage in this world, I found her, took her in, and thought her how to make cloth dolls and use them to her advantage.

She uses Tormented souls to make her dolls move. In some aspects this is better, she doesn't have to form a hive-mind with her dolls but on the other hand, they still can only do something that hen she tells them to meaning that they can't react to situations in the spur of the moment, I can.

The only advantage she has is the fact that if she grows her power enough she probably would be able to have them make spur-of-the-moment decisions.

"How's the repairing going?" I asked her with a gentle tone, she was young, closing in on ten and apparently an 'adult'.

"It's going fine, master, but how do I do this part do I stitch the hole or put a new piece of cloth over it?" She was referring to quite a big hole in the rabbit doll.

"Stitch a cloth over it, the hole is too big."

After that, I walked to our torture room. Screams could be heard from the inside.

A man was standing over a woman, torturing her while asking her for information he knew she didn't have.

"Last, that's enough, we both know she doesn't know anything." The man looked up, he had quite a handsome face actually, but he was so obsessed with pain, both inflicted on himself as on others, that you should never get close to him.

"Oh, the big bad general, hearer of the whispers is complaining again. Go kill yourself ... please."

"Wow, you added a please this time, we're making progress. You need to get ready, you and the kids are moving out."

"Great, I'm the babysitter, again." He rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Nope, this is a, let's call it a black ops, you need to test our little loin, see if he's ready to for more."

"Can I hurt him?" Always with his pain obsession. "Yes, but make sure not to kill him, we both know his purpose."