..When the initial shock had worn off, Yuffie stood up, moved her head from side to side, and asked, "What's next?"
..I was still in a bit of a daze, so it took me a few moments to respond. Eventually I said, "Well, these sorts of killings aren't exactly done for no reason. There's usually a very specific goal in mind when someone chooses to sacrifice someone else. I figure we should drop by the library. They might have some sort of reference on this sort of thing." And if that failed, I'd have to try and seek out the little bird who told me to look into the other murders.
..Yuffie, surprisingly, didn't seem too disappointed by the news. This took me off guard, because I didn't have her pegged as much of an enthusiastic reader. Then it struck me that the reason why she was so depressed here was that she was probably bored out of her mind. After helping to take down a maniac bent on world destruction, the tourism industry didn't seem like it'd offer too much excitement. This was probably the first interesting thing that had happened to her since she started working in Costa del Sol. I even started to wonder if her superiors were really responsible for her hiring an investigator.
..I had Yuffie lead me out of the police headquarters and toward the library. She really did seem to take on a new life as she strode toward the building. The building, for its part, was fairly livelier than I thought it'd be, too. There weren't exactly crowds of people around, but the lights were on inside, even late at night like it was.
..We got into the library, and I took in a nice long view of all the books. While the library itself was a fairly small building, the aisles were very narrow to make way for more shelves. It had to have a huge collection of works from just about everywhere on just about everything. Finding the specific book would have been like finding a needle in a haystack.
..I didn't really notice the receptionist, as he was a fairly bland looking customer, especially in comparison to the hordes of books. But he looked up from his desk and said, "Ah! You must be Mr. Traveler!" I gave him a confused look, and he continued, "A friend of yours stopped by. Long, silvery hair. Covered in tattoos. About this tall. She asked me to deliver a message to you."
..Phacia. "Oh," I said. "Uh, yeah. That'd be me. What did she say she wanted?" I was hoping that she'd been setting up some sort of tryst, but I'd settle for an extra lead on my case.
.."The lady in question said that the book you're looking for can be found in section 2-G, third row down.'"
..This was my first lucky break in awhile, so I figured I'd better get right on it before something screwed it up. I turned to walk away from the receptionist when he cleared his throat. It occurred to me that he might be looking for a tip. Not having any cash on me, I said, "Always pack your unmentionables and money in more than one bag," and got the hell out of there while he was still looking confused. I headed for section 2-G.
..2-G, as it was, was a fairly large block of occult books and grimoires, which really made me wonder about the night life in Costa del Sol. Here I thought it was just sex and alcoholism, but throw in some dark rituals and you've got yourself a party. I scanned the third row of the shelf, and to my horror, there were fully thirteen books on sacrifice. I groaned to myself and told Yuffie to get cracking on one end.
..When we'd both settled down with a book, Yuffie asked, "Who exactly was he talking about earlier?"
.. "Oh," I said. I tried to think of something, quick. "Just a uh..." I failed. There really wasn't any lie that could make sense there. So I just said, "I'm afraid I can't tell you. Try to understand, Yuffie."
..I don't really know if she looked hurt or annoyed, but I figured she had to be upset at me in some regard. She started skimming her book in silence.
..I tried flipping through my book, as well. This wasn't a novel that detailed how to commit sacrifices, thankfully, but an educational book detailing what certain sacrifices meant. I could have sworn that I heard Yuffie mutter something along the lines of "Maybe that's how her boobs got so big," but when I asked about it, she claimed not to have said anything.
..Luckily enough, the volume I pulled down first happened to be the correct one. I saw an image of a body carved up in a familiar fashion. This is quite possibly the only time in my life I had ever silently cheered upon seeing a mutilated corpse. I exclaimed, "Hey, I think I've got something," and showed the book to Yuffie.
..Silly me, I hadn't read any of the surrounding text, so I was mildly surprised when Yuffie started citing, "Goddess Restoration Spell: Though immortal by nature, it is occasional that a member of divinity becomes slain or otherwise stripped of their rightful power. Of course, it becomes quite chaotic after an event so significant, and often one wishes to restore the fallen deity, as it could often be less catastrophic in the long run. Restoring a female deity involves a slightly different process than restoring a male one. Note the crosshatch pattern of the cuts shown in figure b. In a standard male deity restoration sacrifice, the lines are cut in the reverse direction. As per standard, the blood sacrifice is performed accurately at every midnight for two lunar cycles, or else the process will need to be restarted. This ritual is always performed with a ceremonial double-crescent knife, shown in figure c."
..She stopped reading. "Well," she said, "that sounds pretty crazy."
.. "Yeah," I said. I reviewed what I knew of Ghaleon's history in my head. I remembered that he was a fairly decent guy at one point, but snapped when something happened to his goddess, Althena. Though, he had seemed to get over his initial bout of insanity, something like this might just be enough to send him over the edge again. Ghaleon could be a pretty obsessive guy from what I knew about him. I idly wondered what Althena, who by most accounts was a goddess of good, would say if she knew that she'd been restored by the death of nearly sixty people. She couldn't be too happy about the idea.
..Unfortunately for me, a clue is just a clue, no matter how good it was. I still needed solid evidence, and the best way I figured on getting any was either by catching Ghaleon committing a sacrifice or by sneaking into his room and finding the required exotic knife. The former meant certain death and the latter meant just about certain death. I mentally figured out the distance to home and thought about swimming back. On the bright side, I finally had a real, tangible lead. If Ghaleon really was committing these sacrifices, then the original victims were probably just people who got in his way.
..I grit my teeth, remembering what the wasted corpses looked like. I just hoped that I wouldn't be the next one.



~VSM