Holden and Sable swiftly made their way back to the RavenEye publishing house. Although neither of them knew the cloak man’s name, his face was one they would never forget, because his dying words are what broke this case wide open.


    Holden picked the lock and made his way into Mars’s office. It took some time to find the safe the cloaked man was talking about, not to mention breaking into said safe once they found it. It took around thirty minutes to do it all.


    Click! The sound of the safe finally being unlocked was the sweetest melody to both Holden and Sable. It had been a crazy case with all the different people they had met, the boring hours spent watching Mars, and the encounter with an assassin. All of it had left the two PI’s drained, and ready to put an end to this case.


    Sable breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the click of the safe’s lock. “Ah. There is no sweeter sound than that. We can finally put an end to this case.”


    Holden rolled his eyes. “You know, it’s only been a day. We actually solve a lot of cases really fast.”


    “Maybe. But still. This sucked. How do police detectives do this everyday?”


    “We can wonder about that once we’re done with this case.” Holden then threw open the safe. As expected, there was a manuscript, and a few other items held within. However, it wasn’t the manuscript they were hoping for.


    Both Holden and Sable’s faces contorted as they read the title. The Murder of the Red Mage. It was a story about a detective investigating the death of a well-known researcher who had stumbled upon forbidden magic.


    “That’s not Randy’s manuscript,” Sable pointed out, stomping the floor with his front paw in anger. “What is this? Did he already sell it off? Wait. Maybe there’s another safe here.”


    Holden shook his head. “We’ve searched the entire place. There’s nothing else here.”


    “So, what? Are you saying someone else stole Randy’s manuscript?” Sable huffed, while trying to think of other possibilities. “Or maybe it sucked so bad that Mars just burned it. Ack! What now?”


    The trail ran cold. They had nothing to go on. No other leads other than the suspects they had already talked to. Upon realizing this, Sable groaned once more. “Are we going to have to watch all of the other suspects now? I’m going to die of boredom.”


    “Take heart, Sable. With all the evidence against Mars coming to light soon, they’ll be an open investigation against him. Maybe the inspectors will solve this case for us.”


    “Doesn’t that mean we won’t get paid?”


    Holden grumbled at the truth behind the cait-sith’s statement. If the police ended up being the ones to solve the case, all of their efforts would be for not. The very thought frustrated Holden, yet there was nothing to be done at the moment.


    The two of them put the manuscript back into the safe, closed it up, and left. Mars’ office was located in the back of the publishing house. It connected to the printing room where RavenEye’s only printing press was located. Across the way from Mars’ office was the editors’ office, which was made up of several cubical sin a single large room.


    The entire building seemed quiet and stil, except for the door to the editors’ office. The door was partly open, and a gentle breeze caused it to swing on its hinges.


    Holden looked curiously at the door. “Hey, Sable, was that door opened when we first walked in here?”


    The cait-sith perked up his ears, hearing faint whispers coming from within the editors’ office. “It wasn’t. And there’s someone in there. No more like two someones.”


    The two of them snuck into the editors’ office as quietly as possible. The place seemed empty. However, they were able to hear a couple of high pitched voices talking to one another.


    One of them was talking in an exacerbated tone of voice. “Delilah, come on. Would you hurry up?”


    The other seemed nonchalant, with a wisp of snarkiness to it. “Hold up, Maple. I’m trying to figure out which I should read next.”


    “You have such a bad habit,” the one named Maple said as Holden and Sable rounded a corner toward one of the cubicles. The two PI’s found themselves face-to-face with a couple of fairies.


    The two duos just stared at each other for a moment before Sable had a sudden revelation. “Hey, I remember you two. We were in captivity together in the basement of that tavern.”


    The two fairies looked at one another for a brief moment before flying away as fast as possible.


    Holden quickly snatched up one of the fairies mid-air at the cost of letting the other get away. Sable was about to run after the other, but Holden stopped him.


    “Leave her be, Sable. We only need the one.”


    The fairy named Maple was trapped within Holden’s grasp, unable to escape. She tried pushing and biting at Holden’s hand, but he only tightened his grip, causing her to wince from pain.


    “Would you stop squeezing so hard?” Maple pleaded. “We fairies are very fragile.”


    “And tricky,” Holden said, ignoring her plea. “So, I think I already know, but what were you and that other fairy doing here?”


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    “Yeah,” Sable said, interjecting himself into the interrogation. “And where’s the red pixie? I’ve been looking for her.”


    “Looking is a generous term,” Holden said. “You spend most of your time lazing around when you’re not studying magic with Leryssa.”


    Sable just huffed, choosing not to respond to Holden’s comment.


    “Anyway,” Holden continued his interrogation of Maple. “Are you going to answer our questions, or should I keep squeezing?”


    Maple gnashed her teeth. “That idiot, Delilah. She’s a real bookworm. Always sneaking into publishing houses, libraries, book stores, and all kinds of places for her little hobby.”


    “As I thought. And has she ever stolen any of these books? Or perhaps, unpublished manuscripts before?”


    “Yes. A few times actually,” Maple confessed, biting her lip. “She stole a manuscript just the other day. She said she was going to return it once she was done. I think she did it already actually. That’s why she was searching for other manuscripts.”


    Holden unconscious tightened his grip further in frustration, causing Maple to cry out. He loosened his grip slightly before apologizing, then got lost in thought. As far as he could tell Maple was telling the truth. However, that didn’t explain why this fairy Delilah would start targeting unpublished manuscripts. “Why can your friend there just read regular books? Why cause all of this trouble by swiping manuscripts that haven’t been published yet?”


    Maple sighed while shaking her head. “I’m afraid she’s become much more troublesome ever since we started working with that red pixie.”


    Sable’s eyes widened in both surprise and excitement. “So, I was right. The red pixie was involved. Ha. Who’s the fool now, Holden?”


    “Cat, you’re jumping to conclusions,” Holden said. “I doubt the pixie was directly involved. Maple was it? Explain exactly how this is the red pixie’s fault.”


    “Her malicious temperament is rubbing off on all of the fairies working for her. She’s been using us in her plot to take revenge on our captures. The fairy trafficking ring will get what’s coming to them. Unfortunately, that pixie’s underhanded tactics have caused most of us fairies to become a lot more mischievous and compulsive.”


    “So, your friend started stealing manuscripts because of that?”


    “It’s her newfound lack of patience. She consumes literature at an amazing rate. A book a day, sometime more when we’re not busy fulfilling the pixie’s schemes.”


    Holden caught a hint of anger every time Malle mentioned the pixie, making him wonder why she would work with it. “You despise the red pixie. So, why work for her?”


    “It’s complicated,” Maple said, her head dropping in shame. “I’m forbidden from saying anything about it. I honestly can’t tell you anything about her, or our plans.”


    Holden didn’t pick up on any deception, so he decided to leave the subject alone for the moment. “All that aside, can you tell us where your friend Delilah keeps all of the books she steals?”


    “I can do that, if you let me go.”


    “Not going to happen. I will let you go after we get there.”


    Maple sighed, and provided directions to them. Holden and Sable made haste with Malle still tightly bound in Holden’s hand. The area Maple described was nearby in a building that was partially abandoned. One half of the building was being used as a warehouse, while the other half was currently unoccupied.


    The fairy and manuscript thief known as Delilah stored all f her stolen books in a closet in the basement of the abandoned side of the building. This basement had a grate that drained out into the sewers. The gaps between the bars of this grate were large enough for a small fairy to squeeze through.


    Delilah was currently in the closet searching through the stacks of books, frantically searching for something. “Where is it? Where is it? I have to get it out of here before Maple divulges this location to those two. Where is it?”


    The door suddenly swung open. Holden walked through with Maple in hand, and Sable standing on his shoulders. Delilah panicked, and attempted to fly away, only to be punched on by Sable.


    “Hold up there, Delilah,” Sable said, pinning the fairy to the ground. “We don’t much care about all the other books you stole. We just want the maniscript you took from the author Randy. And whatever you can tell us about the red pixie.”


    Delilah growled. “Hey, get off of me. You can’t take it. You can’t have my stuff. It’s mine. It’s mine.”


    Maple’s jaw dropped seeing her friend’s behavior. “Delilah, please, stop. What is wrong with you? Why are you behaving in such a manner?”


    Delilah continued to flail about under Sable’s paw. All eyes were on her, until a sudden sparkling red  light appeared above all of their heads. It started out the size of marble, then grew until it was the size of a head. Once the light faded a red-skinned pixie appeared in its place.


    “Maple, Delilah, where have you two been?” The red pixie asked with a forceful tone.


    Sable’s eyes narrowed. He crouched low to the ground, then attempted to pounce. “Red pixie! I found you!”


    The red pixie teleported a few feet back, avoiding being tackled by Sable. She turned her gaze toward Maple, then to Delilah, before raising her hand in the air. “You two, I’m ordering you to come with me. We have much to do. So, stop whatever foolishness this is.”


    Black collars materialized around the fairies’ necks. The red pixie then cast some sort of spell, causing herself, Maple, and Delilah to teleport away right before Holden and Sable’s eyes.


    The two of them just stood there slack jawed after witnessing the red pixie’s magic. Although neither of them were considered experts in terms of magical knowledge, they knew enough to recognize that the spell the red pixie had just used was a rather powerful one.


    Spells were separated into six ranks based on their potency. The least potent were cantrips, which used up so little magic that a mage could theoretically cast them continually without ever running dry on magic. After cantrips, spells were given a rank with rank one being the least potent, and requiring the lowest amount of magical reserves to use. Meanwhile, rank five required the highest amount of magic, and was the most potent. Judging by the effects of the spell they had witnessed, it was at least rank three. Possibly even rank four.


    “What just happened?” Sable asked no one in particular. “I finally found the red pixie, and she just teleported away.”


    Holden slapped his forehead from stress. “This is-.” He paused for a moment trying to find the words. “I’m not exactly sure what to say. I guess you were sort of right about the red pixie being involved, though.”


    “I’m not particularly proud of being right,” Sable grumbled. “Let’s just find Randy’s manuscript and get out of here.”


    “Sounds good,” Holden replied while picking up a book off the floor. “Though I wonder why that fairy ran off here first when she knew we had her friend in custody.”


    “Who knows. But this certainly explains a lot. Delilah probably snuck in to Randy’s apartment through his open window, then slipped out with his manuscript.”


    “Maybe he’ll think twice about leaving that thing open all day.”


    Holden and Sable continued sifting through the book until they finally came across Randy’s manuscript. It was bound in leather, and frayed on the side. However, it looked fully intact.


    “Well, lookie here,” Holden said. “Sable, we can finally put this case to rest.”


    “About time,” Sable replied. “Let’s get this thing back to that annoying author and claim our reward.”


    Holden and Sable returned to Randy’s apartment in the middle of the night. They had to wake the man up, but he was grateful to see his manuscript again. The two PI’s left after receiving their payment, and hit their bed the moment they got home.