The battle raged on below, in fearsome and bloody horror. The charge of the cavalry had seemed succesful. Then came the Karaphin, on their elephants. The sound of their horns had broken even the noise of the battle field. For a brief moment, everyone was silent, distracted by the noise and the sight of the terrible beasts. The trained wolves were no match for the killer tigers. The horses could not stand against the elephant. They were outnumbered and had no advantage whatsoever. Then the soldiers charged back into battle with as much ferocity as before, and the chaos broke out again.

Up in the balcony stood the girl, in the highest floor of the castle. She was far out of range of any arrows or catapults. So silent and still that she seemed but a statue, she watched. The only sign of life was the blowing of her dress and the tears that stained her once rosy cheeks. The blood had gone out of those cheeks and she could only weep for the horror that was below her.

Why?

That is a question only He can answer.

But for you, gentle and fair one, this:

Cry, fair maiden, and hope for better days. There seems to be no hope, but you always believe in hope. Cry for the nightmare of a war that goes on below you. Cry for the loss of your dear subjects, countrymen, and friends. Cry for what must be. It must be.

It Must Be…

  The “M”s of Marchmont Manor

The first case of the 3piR team struck me as a singularly remarkable one for a first case.  Perhaps a fifth, or a twentieth, but as a first it seemed highly unlikely that we should be fortunate as to get such a lovely case.  I use lovely, of course, only in the sense that it was dramatic and intriguing.  Lest it should add to any impression of pride that I might give, I realize that we were selected, not because of our expertise, but for our lack of them.  However, I found it a very good start to a promising career.

I am Metro; that is my code name. My colleagues, Mystic and Energy, and I had the idea of starting a detective agency while we were young and careless.  The name 3piR seemed to fit since we liked pie and said that solving mysteries would be as easy as pie for each of us.  There were three of us and the R was thrown in to add a sort of mathematical flair.  It seems sillier in retrospect, especially since mysteries aren’t as easy as one would like to think.

We had started our agency and located it in the basement of an old and abandoned factory that we were given for our use.  For the first few days nothing very interesting happened.  We opened on Monday and by Wednesday we had received only one phone call from a little girl who had lost a watch that she was actually wearing.  All in all we were a little disappointed.  I hope that Mystic, Energy and I are all sensible girls and knew not to expect anything very interesting at first, but we had hoped for something, even a trifle, by Wednesday.

Is life incredible?  Is life absurd?

Sometimes it most certainly seems that way.  I've been very, very disappointed recently and have no idea what to do.  I could argue and fight.  I could lie and decieve. 

Neither of those options are really any good.  There's nothing to do.

There never really was...