Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5583506-20160112022353/@comment-5583506-20160125203332

(And thus I conclude Forgotten Archives: Magnum Opus with this post. Thank you all for participating and stay tuned for the next mystery.)

Things had certainly changed around the offices of the Investigators. The news that Remian Fortus had finally retired was almost surrealistic. The Imperial had always been around, breathing down the Investigators necks to make sure that the cases were carried out correctly.

Sibern stroke his stubble as he wandered along the many countless aisles in the cellar. On each shelf there was a box containing all the documents and related evidence to specific cases. And they all wore tags with a number and a title. The Nord made a short stop in front of a tall mirror hanging on the wall, observing his own image for a brief moment. He had certainly seen better days. He needed to take care of himself better. In front of him there was the image of a man with grizzled hair, which just a few years ago had been smoldering dark brown. He couldn't recall that he had always had wrinkles along his cheekbones or dark sockets around his eyes.

The experiences of Riften had certainly taken their toll on him and he still could see Embla's face before him whenever he closed his eyes, blaming him for not being able to save her. Just like his sister. He blamed herself as well, even though he had begun to let the past remain in the shadows. He couldn't always hate himself for being too gullible to not have recognised the evil that had been in front of him the whole time. While his treatment at the Solitude's Estate for the Mentally Ill had certainly helped him improve, there were occasions on which he still believed to see shadows in the corner of his eyes.

That's when the small case with moon sugar crystals came out, earning him the moniker of "the Sugarman". The other Investigators simply believed it to be a bad habit of his, taking moon sugar. Little did they know that he had relied on its effect for years, in order to make the demons of his mind disappear for good. Even as he gazed upon himself in the mirror he believed to be seeing things move about in the shadows.

The evil...

As he turned around they would always be gone however, but he knew that the evil was always there. Lurking about in every place of this world, unseen to those who didn't know where to look. Thus it was the Investigators job to make sure that evil would never triumph.

"Investigator Cold-Castle?" asked a voice from behind.

He flinched, slightly startled. "What?! Oh... Yeah, that's me."

A short Bosmer held out a box for him to take. "The latest case that needs to be sorted."

"I will take care of it", sighed the Nord and pinched his sellion. He had really need of his daily dose and then return home to do some paperwork. "Just put it on the desk over there."

The Bosmer did as he was told and then left the great archive chamber, his footsteps echoing as he left and headed for the stairwell. Sibern glanced after the man as he left and then sat down by the desk. He opened the box and overviewed its contents. There were lots of papers all describing the details of the latest case solved.

"Immortal alchemists, the Elixir of Life, the Crimson Academy", he muttered as he scanned through the papers. Just by touching the papers, he believed himself to catch a glimpse of whatever horrors the Investigators that had been involved in the case had had to face. He painted his own image in his head from the details and slightly shuddered with discomfort.

When all the work was done and sorted he put the contents back into the box and slapped another tag onto it. He rose up from the desk and walked along a lonely aisle, looking for an appropriate section in which the case would fit. He passed a box with the tag title: Case File 150527: Around Every Corner, and gave it a suspicious glare as if he expected the Pale Man to suddenly pop up from beneath the lid like a jack-in-the-box.

Finally he reached a shelf empty enough to fit several more boxes to contain cases. Cases far too obscure, surrealistic or perhaps supernatural for the common City Watch to handle. He cast a last glance at the box in his hands before shoving it in along the rest.

The box's label title was: Case file 160125: Magnum Opus...