Mage-Flaying Syndrome
Mage-flaying syndrome has started spreading on individuals. The symptoms consist of the Mage contacting this unknown source of energy. Upon contact, the Mage starts feeling like its skin didn't belong to the mage. Causing said to mage to skin himself in this almost-maddening behavior.
Mages who were flaying themselves suffer death almost immediately. Leaving no guesswork as a typical afflicted mind becomes broken. Disallowing further questions from said Mage who got the affliction.
The Neon Quarters had two incidents in the row. It was only after the second incident our 'friends' in the Quarters called us. Knowing we have expertise on Anomalies; they invited us to look at the body.
Mai, the girl I met on the train, left shoulder and arm covered in tattoos. Eyes with a light red makeup that emphasizes her eyes. On her back's a katana and on her waist a submachine gun.
"You sure have a lot of changes."
She grinned and posed her body. Curving her body and slanting her hips.
"I listened and thought of getting implants. Mind you, the usual muscle booster and the internal implants to strengthen your body."
"I was sure you'd get some cybernetic hardware instead."
"Thought so too. Then I saw my buds getting hardware. Gearhead Doc wanted to show off and boy it was bloody, seeing limbs cut off and the hardware implanted. It felt unnatural to me. I'd rather get something much more natural."
She led me to the room where the Mage died. A working girl wearing a kimono showing cleavage and shoulders was texting someone. Uncaring about the Mage who got himself killed.
"You're here? Ah, that the Investigator?"
"Kinda?"
Mai shrugged her shoulders and eyed the Mage before sticking her tongue out in disgust.
"She's Lili. Was going to serve the Mage when he started going about how itchy he was. Lili here told me she got worried and 'retreated'."
"It happened once already." Lili added. "I wasn't going to risk my life. The customer was starting to dance like he had an itch."
"Nice instincts, sis."
Lili shrugged at Mai's compliment and fished out the footage from the camera. Taking the footage, playing the video, it reminded me once again to never use this place.
"He was a cheapskate so I thought of earning money from him. Besides, we don't take footage of our special customers."
These girls sell their footage on their pages. Hard to trust them about these kinds of things. You'll be foolish enough to trust them in the first place. But they don't have the confidence to record important customers or allies. Hard to trust someone who'd sell your porn on the Net after having a good time. Lili saw my face and shrugged. It's not the first time she'd seen someone having zero trust in her word.
The footage could do without the hour-long of sweet talking. Servicing the mage and talking him into buying expensive wine. Quite the upselling skills she has. These girls do have talent in making their customers spend more than they should.
Past the sweet talking and the service. Footage revealed he started going on about his skin. His energy seemed disrupted. He tried casting calming spells and downed a potion. Yet this affliction seemed to have made him distressed. I paused the video and upon further inspection I saw the mage directing his eyes to somewhere. Like he's looking at something.
"Got this place locked up?"
"We have. Bosses told us no one should be able to come here unless they allowed it."
"Anyone touched the place?"
"No. Only seen. No touching."
I pulled on my gloves and started passing the man. Wallet, phone, book of spells, potions, and even cards for places. He also carried a spare 9mm in the pocket of his robe and kept this piece of wood wrapped with a cotton straw. It smelled of ointment so it must have been some charm. He also possessed rings with no power in them. Wait, if anything it seemed like the items didn't have any power at all. Robbed and disabled of arcane.
I took out a chrism oil and spread it on the room. Mai raised a brow and followed suit. Looking around with worry as I scanned the room for any potential aberrations.
"What's up?"
"The usual problem."
"The usual? So all the cases so far have been like this?"
"Seems like it. Items are missing any arcane energy and I can't feel anything from the victim. Does this guy belong to any group?"
I searched his wallet, card and contacts. He had no affiliations. Could be a street mage who learned a few skills and thought he's shot shit, made it, and then ended up dead in this place. Mages aren't smart. Spellcasting is a skill that needs study and dedication. Impatient ones contact demons and devils. Sorcerers who got their blood to thank for usually excel and then there are cases like Cindy. Those who don't rely on their bloodline alone and keep on studying the arcane for mastery.
Since he's buying expensive champagne and food and renting an escort girl. He must be quite a good Mage. His age meant he's been doing this for a while and the discarded skin showed he had scars everywhere. I opened his tome and saw he had a lot of spells and incantations. Familiar with most of them, but there are some spells which seemed to have been recently jotted down. Expensive ink and quill pen from the looks of it.
"You think this is contagious?"
"Can you do magic?"
"No."
"Should have no problem. All signs point out this only affects you if you have magic. Do you have any magic?"
"Got some lucky charms."
"Toss it."
Mai hesitated, and then threw her charm. It was the usual trinket you can get from a shaman. Hers was about her constellation. I neared the charm on the body and didn't feel any of the charm's magic go away. It seemed like whatever it was that did this isn't around to affect this. I threw the charm back to Ma.
"So it's fine?"
"Thing's not around anymore. Whatever was causing this is hungry about magic. Feasting on it."
"Do you mind if we call a Redmond Mage here?"
"Not the Bureau?"
"They'll know. No point in letting them know for now. Besides, they'll hear about it. Give your place a chance to clean up."
Mai agreed. She called for her Boss and told them what's up. Room's going to be full of people so Lili picked her other clothes up and dressed up. Removing her sensual kimono and tossing it on the side. She covered her upper torso full of tattoos of cherry blossom and lightning imagery. She wore a strapless bra and a v-string panty.
"You'll have to pay more if you want someone."
She then looked down and raised a brow. Mai saw us and chuckled.
"Too bad, sis. He's used to this business and you'd have to do more than show."
"Well, that's tiresome. So you were a pimp?"
"Worked at a brothel once, but not a pimp, no."
"Hmm, you ain't looking at us like crap, so yeah, clearly not one."
She shook her head and used the mirror to redo her makeup.
"Do you think I can make a show of this? Bet it'll get me a lot of views."
"Wait for the Bureau. Could get in trouble if you do it now."
Lili put her mobile away and searched her pocket for any cigarettes and found none. Mai had already called her boss and with the go-ahead. I called a Redmond Mage and told said Mage about another case. I waited for an hour. While waiting I got out of the room with the girls and got to eat something while the Kurogane locked up the room. Adjacent rooms were also closed for now and they had their own watching the place.
I got into a booth with Mai and Lili and smoked some flavored tobacco with the shisha on the table and ate something. Mai's proud of her implants and boasted. While Lili started telling me about the customer and what she observed. To Lili the customer seemed to have been trying to take a load off and have some fun. He walked in confidently and the girls knew he was going to spend a lot of credits.
"One look at him and we know he wants some fun. I thought he'd want another girl to have both flowers on both arms, but he didn't. He wasn't kinky and only wanted to drink, eat, and fuck until he got enough."
"Didn't get any."
"Tragic. I was planning to give some service to make the mage swoon, but it turned out he had the affliction. Guess our place's going to put a ban on Mages until this thing's over."
"Kurogane will care?"
"You can say a lot about the Kurogane. But we protect our people. Make sure we earn a living and it's bad for business to have too much death happening. Our competitors will start talking and use that against us. If we start banning, they'll think we're responsible for our customers and care."
The girls seemed like they wanted to laugh saying that.
I guess even they can't be truly sincere when it comes to that. Can fake the body language, but not the heart. I acted hurt and kneaded my forehead.
"Ah, to think that I'm hated!"
Mai shrugged and snorted at me. Lili smirked as well and took a long drag of the shisha.
"You're not even a customer. We'll treat you extra nice if you do."
"Appreciate it."
Mai stared at me down. Her eyes were rather inquisitive.
"What do you even do other than work?"
I grinned.
"Sleep and some training. You think guns take care of themselves?"
I flexed. Mai took a bite of a fry and took a sip of her juice.
"It's not hard to notice you don't say much about yourself."
I don't see the point of it. The only place you can be sure you'd have a good time in this world is your dreams. Dreams about a peaceful life and a quiet place.
"We all have our bullshit to deal with. Besides, you don't hear me moping about it."
"True. How's the Boss lady?"
"Kei? She's fine most of the time. Busy with work and always calling her contacts."
"If I get tired of this. I hope your office is hiring."
Lili remarked. I crossed my arms and looked at her with one brow raised.
"No stealing my job, okay?"
"No rule you can't have two assistants."
"True. Still, I doubt she'd hire anyone right now."
"Boss Kei is still upset about Eta?"
"And she got her heart broken."
"Oh yeah, she texted me about that."
"Didn't know you had contact with her."
Mai grinned and raised her chest proudly.
"She did after Eta fucked a lot of girls. Geez, breaking Boss Kei's heart, must be quite the stud."
"It's a Stacy actually."
Lili raised her head.
"Well, not surprising considering Eta. Still, I thought she was only straight considering how she sometimes looked at a certain someone."
"Who?"
I asked sincerely out of curiosity. Mai stared me dead in the eyes again before pointing to the door where the Redmond Mage was. I got out of the booth and heard Mai.
"See? Told you about it."
"Yeah. I got you now."
Aaron was the usual contact with the Redmond Mages. Cindy's a high-ranking Mage and the only one who's interested about the anomaly was this guy. Aaron got inside the room and scanned the room with her arcane powers before cutting it off.
"Place has hidden danger. Whatever took this man's powers ripped it away. The flaying he'd done to himself seemed to be the after effect of having his powers ripped away."
"Explain."
"Body got confused and then sudden loss gave him shock and then the flaying happened. Like all mages so far who become like this. No way of recovery."
"Did we get anything to follow?"
"No. All we can now is follow where he got his spells and trace back his previous location. I'll have some of our guys check out. Your office sure knows how to find cases like this fast."
Kei's office is popular and it also helped Kei have a lot of dealings in the streets. Not to mention Aidan and his freelancers have been making friends so we've a network now.
After Aaron got all he needed. The Bureau came and we had to testify. Lili got permission to spread the news to her followers. Bureau guys didn't look happy at another mage self-skinning disease. Looks like they have to take this seriously too unless they want every mage in Changye to die.
karsev Thanks for reading!
Mage-Flaying Syndrome
Mage-flaying syndrome has started spreading on individuals. The symptoms consist of the Mage contacting this unknown source of energy. Upon contact, the Mage starts feeling like its skin didn't belong to the mage. Causing said to mage to skin himself in this almost-maddening behavior.
Mages who were flaying themselves suffer death almost immediately. Leaving no guesswork as a typical afflicted mind becomes broken. Disallowing further questions from said Mage who got the affliction.
The Neon Quarters had two incidents in the row. It was only after the second incident our 'friends' in the Quarters called us. Knowing we have expertise on Anomalies; they invited us to look at the body.
Mai, the girl I met on the train, left shoulder and arm covered in tattoos. Eyes with a light red makeup that emphasizes her eyes. On her back's a katana and on her waist a submachine gun.
"You sure have a lot of changes."
She grinned and posed her body. Curving her body and slanting her hips.
"I listened and thought of getting implants. Mind you, the usual muscle booster and the internal implants to strengthen your body."
"I was sure you'd get some cybernetic hardware instead."
"Thought so too. Then I saw my buds getting hardware. Gearhead Doc wanted to show off and boy it was bloody, seeing limbs cut off and the hardware implanted. It felt unnatural to me. I'd rather get something much more natural."
She led me to the room where the Mage died. A working girl wearing a kimono showing cleavage and shoulders was texting someone. Uncaring about the Mage who got himself killed.
"You're here? Ah, that the Investigator?"
"Kinda?"
Mai shrugged her shoulders and eyed the Mage before sticking her tongue out in disgust.
"She's Lili. Was going to serve the Mage when he started going about how itchy he was. Lili here told me she got worried and 'retreated'."
"It happened once already." Lili added. "I wasn't going to risk my life. The customer was starting to dance like he had an itch."
"Nice instincts, sis."
Lili shrugged at Mai's compliment and fished out the footage from the camera. Taking the footage, playing the video, it reminded me once again to never use this place.
"He was a cheapskate so I thought of earning money from him. Besides, we don't take footage of our special customers."
These girls sell their footage on their pages. Hard to trust them about these kinds of things. You'll be foolish enough to trust them in the first place. But they don't have the confidence to record important customers or allies. Hard to trust someone who'd sell your porn on the Net after having a good time. Lili saw my face and shrugged. It's not the first time she'd seen someone having zero trust in her word.
The footage could do without the hour-long of sweet talking. Servicing the mage and talking him into buying expensive wine. Quite the upselling skills she has. These girls do have talent in making their customers spend more than they should.
Past the sweet talking and the service. Footage revealed he started going on about his skin. His energy seemed disrupted. He tried casting calming spells and downed a potion. Yet this affliction seemed to have made him distressed. I paused the video and upon further inspection I saw the mage directing his eyes to somewhere. Like he's looking at something.
"Got this place locked up?"
"We have. Bosses told us no one should be able to come here unless they allowed it."
"Anyone touched the place?"
"No. Only seen. No touching."
I pulled on my gloves and started passing the man. Wallet, phone, book of spells, potions, and even cards for places. He also carried a spare 9mm in the pocket of his robe and kept this piece of wood wrapped with a cotton straw. It smelled of ointment so it must have been some charm. He also possessed rings with no power in them. Wait, if anything it seemed like the items didn't have any power at all. Robbed and disabled of arcane.
I took out a chrism oil and spread it on the room. Mai raised a brow and followed suit. Looking around with worry as I scanned the room for any potential aberrations.
"What's up?"
"The usual problem."
"The usual? So all the cases so far have been like this?"
"Seems like it. Items are missing any arcane energy and I can't feel anything from the victim. Does this guy belong to any group?"
I searched his wallet, card and contacts. He had no affiliations. Could be a street mage who learned a few skills and thought he's shot shit, made it, and then ended up dead in this place. Mages aren't smart. Spellcasting is a skill that needs study and dedication. Impatient ones contact demons and devils. Sorcerers who got their blood to thank for usually excel and then there are cases like Cindy. Those who don't rely on their bloodline alone and keep on studying the arcane for mastery.
Since he's buying expensive champagne and food and renting an escort girl. He must be quite a good Mage. His age meant he's been doing this for a while and the discarded skin showed he had scars everywhere. I opened his tome and saw he had a lot of spells and incantations. Familiar with most of them, but there are some spells which seemed to have been recently jotted down. Expensive ink and quill pen from the looks of it.
"You think this is contagious?"
"Can you do magic?"
"No."
"Should have no problem. All signs point out this only affects you if you have magic. Do you have any magic?"
"Got some lucky charms."
"Toss it."
Mai hesitated, and then threw her charm. It was the usual trinket you can get from a shaman. Hers was about her constellation. I neared the charm on the body and didn't feel any of the charm's magic go away. It seemed like whatever it was that did this isn't around to affect this. I threw the charm back to Ma.
"So it's fine?"
"Thing's not around anymore. Whatever was causing this is hungry about magic. Feasting on it."
"Do you mind if we call a Redmond Mage here?"
"Not the Bureau?"
"They'll know. No point in letting them know for now. Besides, they'll hear about it. Give your place a chance to clean up."
Mai agreed. She called for her Boss and told them what's up. Room's going to be full of people so Lili picked her other clothes up and dressed up. Removing her sensual kimono and tossing it on the side. She covered her upper torso full of tattoos of cherry blossom and lightning imagery. She wore a strapless bra and a v-string panty.
"You'll have to pay more if you want someone."
She then looked down and raised a brow. Mai saw us and chuckled.
"Too bad, sis. He's used to this business and you'd have to do more than show."
"Well, that's tiresome. So you were a pimp?"
"Worked at a brothel once, but not a pimp, no."
"Hmm, you ain't looking at us like crap, so yeah, clearly not one."
She shook her head and used the mirror to redo her makeup.
"Do you think I can make a show of this? Bet it'll get me a lot of views."
"Wait for the Bureau. Could get in trouble if you do it now."
Lili put her mobile away and searched her pocket for any cigarettes and found none. Mai had already called her boss and with the go-ahead. I called a Redmond Mage and told said Mage about another case. I waited for an hour. While waiting I got out of the room with the girls and got to eat something while the Kurogane locked up the room. Adjacent rooms were also closed for now and they had their own watching the place.
I got into a booth with Mai and Lili and smoked some flavored tobacco with the shisha on the table and ate something. Mai's proud of her implants and boasted. While Lili started telling me about the customer and what she observed. To Lili the customer seemed to have been trying to take a load off and have some fun. He walked in confidently and the girls knew he was going to spend a lot of credits.
"One look at him and we know he wants some fun. I thought he'd want another girl to have both flowers on both arms, but he didn't. He wasn't kinky and only wanted to drink, eat, and fuck until he got enough."
"Didn't get any."
"Tragic. I was planning to give some service to make the mage swoon, but it turned out he had the affliction. Guess our place's going to put a ban on Mages until this thing's over."
"Kurogane will care?"
"You can say a lot about the Kurogane. But we protect our people. Make sure we earn a living and it's bad for business to have too much death happening. Our competitors will start talking and use that against us. If we start banning, they'll think we're responsible for our customers and care."
The girls seemed like they wanted to laugh saying that.
I guess even they can't be truly sincere when it comes to that. Can fake the body language, but not the heart. I acted hurt and kneaded my forehead.
"Ah, to think that I'm hated!"
Mai shrugged and snorted at me. Lili smirked as well and took a long drag of the shisha.
"You're not even a customer. We'll treat you extra nice if you do."
"Appreciate it."
Mai stared at me down. Her eyes were rather inquisitive.
"What do you even do other than work?"
I grinned.
"Sleep and some training. You think guns take care of themselves?"
I flexed. Mai took a bite of a fry and took a sip of her juice.
"It's not hard to notice you don't say much about yourself."
I don't see the point of it. The only place you can be sure you'd have a good time in this world is your dreams. Dreams about a peaceful life and a quiet place.
"We all have our bullshit to deal with. Besides, you don't hear me moping about it."
"True. How's the Boss lady?"
"Kei? She's fine most of the time. Busy with work and always calling her contacts."
"If I get tired of this. I hope your office is hiring."
Lili remarked. I crossed my arms and looked at her with one brow raised.
"No stealing my job, okay?"
"No rule you can't have two assistants."
"True. Still, I doubt she'd hire anyone right now."
"Boss Kei is still upset about Eta?"
"And she got her heart broken."
"Oh yeah, she texted me about that."
"Didn't know you had contact with her."
Mai grinned and raised her chest proudly.
"She did after Eta fucked a lot of girls. Geez, breaking Boss Kei's heart, must be quite the stud."
"It's a Stacy actually."
Lili raised her head.
"Well, not surprising considering Eta. Still, I thought she was only straight considering how she sometimes looked at a certain someone."
"Who?"
I asked sincerely out of curiosity. Mai stared me dead in the eyes again before pointing to the door where the Redmond Mage was. I got out of the booth and heard Mai.
"See? Told you about it."
"Yeah. I got you now."
Aaron was the usual contact with the Redmond Mages. Cindy's a high-ranking Mage and the only one who's interested about the anomaly was this guy. Aaron got inside the room and scanned the room with her arcane powers before cutting it off.
"Place has hidden danger. Whatever took this man's powers ripped it away. The flaying he'd done to himself seemed to be the after effect of having his powers ripped away."
"Explain."
"Body got confused and then sudden loss gave him shock and then the flaying happened. Like all mages so far who become like this. No way of recovery."
"Did we get anything to follow?"
"No. All we can now is follow where he got his spells and trace back his previous location. I'll have some of our guys check out. Your office sure knows how to find cases like this fast."
Kei's office is popular and it also helped Kei have a lot of dealings in the streets. Not to mention Aidan and his freelancers have been making friends so we've a network now.
After Aaron got all he needed. The Bureau came and we had to testify. Lili got permission to spread the news to her followers. Bureau guys didn't look happy at another mage self-skinning disease. Looks like they have to take this seriously too unless they want every mage in Changye to die.
karsev Thanks for reading!
