Chapter Text
The first time it happened, Kravitz just assumed that one of the other bounty hunters of the Raven Queen’s retinue had fucked up their paperwork and was just fixing their mistake without causing much of a fuss. After the second and third time it happened, he interrogated everyone in the astral plane who could've been responsible for this occurrence. No one had a clue what was happening. After the fourth time, Kravitz was beckoned by the Raven Queen herself to determine just what the hell was going on.
After a moment of her council, Kravitz called upon the two best hunters, aside from himself, to go on a mission to the Woven Gulch. As Lup and Barry stepped through the portal into his office, he explained the situation:
A man had most certainly died, this much was true. But the date of his death kept changing in the official records of the Astral Plane. Sometimes it changed drastically, like decades of difference. Other times it was mere minutes. Did the man die the future? In the past? Not only that, but his soul was not reported to have entered the Astral Plane at all. The way he died and circumstances surrounding his death stayed the same: bullet wound to the heart, his body found in Refuge, not too far away from the Temple of Istus.
“Previous envoys have confirmed that his body is definitely in the Refuge mortuary,” Kravitz said, concluding his brief. "We have to collect information about how he died, locate his soul, and send him back here to be judged by The Raven Queen.”
He cleared a stack of papers off his desk and shuffled them neatly into an off-hand pocket dimension before continuing. “We’re going to have to be conspicuous, so any long-distance traveling will have to be done by cart or horseback once we get to Refuge. There will be a base set up for us at one of the rooms of Ren’s Inn for us to confer information. This could be very dangero—”
“You had me at horseback, my man,” Lup cut in, waving her hand in the air excitedly. A genuine grin with just a hint of deviousness was plastered on her face. “I just got the dopest steed and a new outfit, I am so ready for this!”
Kravitz could hear a very telling voice in his head remind him that his compatriots had spent most of their lives not really getting to enjoy that much of, well, life prior to defeating the Hunger on the day of Story and Song. So—when Lup summoned her Phantom Steed, a equine fire elemental, and immediately took off riding across the open stretch of land between their drop off point and the entrance to Refuge, leaving a straight line of rippling fire marks to scorch the earth—he held back the urge to yell about keeping their appearance’s lowkey.
This urge went double for Barry, who—even though he had chosen, rather sensibly, a perfectly normal horse—also took off galloping across the plane. Though that tidbit could possibly be attributed more to the excitable nature of the young Appaloosa he was riding, and not Barry himself. The horse had no trouble keeping a bead on the fire trail being left by Lup, and the two went blazing over the sunlit earth. A huge grin appeared on Lup’s face as soon as she caught sight of Barry just barely trailing behind her, and with a loud, “ Heyah! ” She snapped the reins of her steed and egged it faster toward the entrance of town.
Kravitz took his time on his ride: a large, black Fresian, who just whinnied causally and kept a steady pace to the entrance. Of course, the horse had the ability to go much, MUCH faster in it’s reaper form. But Kravitz would save that in case the situation got hairy. The last thing the people of this little western community needed to know was that the Grim Reaper himself was rolling in to survey the town’s dead.
It was, however, hard for him not to cut an imposing figure upon arrival. The three of them stopped just past the gate surrounding the outside of the main buildings. Kravitz wore a black pinstripe suit with a long black duster and matching stetson hat. Lup wore a red vest over a fringed petticoat. To avoid needing to ride side-saddle, she opted for leather trousers and knee-length boots instead of an underskirt. She wore a large, red sombrero to shield her eyes from the afternoon sun. The only one of the trio who didn’t look like some sort of big-name gunslinger was Barry, who wore a simple, brown leather vest, tan slouch hat, and signature blue jeans.
The trio got nervous side glances from a good number of passers-by, who quickly averted their eyes and went about their business. It wasn’t very often that three dramatic homebodies appeared at their gates, kicking up clouds of dust like they had just been in a derby. But then again, the last three dramatic homebodies that had appeared had done the town a great deal of good, so these fellas were nothing if not prime intrigue material.
After a few minutes of letting their horses calm down, Lup and Barry passed affectionate glances at each other and then focused all their attention to their fellow bounty hunter.
“Alright, if we’ve gotten all that out of our systems,” Kravitz said, in an accent not too affected. This was a mission, but not one that required intimidation tactics just yet. He gently tugged his reins to turn his horse toward the center of town. “Let’s head over to the morgue and see if we can get some clues about the man who is failing to die at a consistent time.”
The Temple of Istus was in beautiful condition, made apparent by the clean white stone walls and hourglass symbols etched into the stained glass windows. The last of the renovations had been completed some months ago. White cactus flowers lined the path that led to the front of the building. Luca, one of the temple leaders, and Mayor Cassidy stood at the doorway, eyeing the trio expectantly as they pull up.
“Howdy,” Cassidy exclaimed, smiling in her half-crazed way. “We was informed that a couple of detective-like folks would be comin’ to investigate the case that’s done shook up this tiny town of ours. Don’t suppose you’d be the folks who’d be doing the investigation’?”
“That we are,” Kravitz said, tipping his hat politely. “Care to point us in the direction of the morgue?”
“If you don’t mind me mentioning it, miss,” said Luca, tilting his head towards Lup. “You look rather similar to another elf I seem to know.”
“If you’re referring to my brother,” Lup said, eyes narrowing playfully. “Then yes, we do share a bit of a resemblance. But let the record show that I am the far better looking twin. And any notions of the otherwise will be met with heinous retribution.” A flicker of fire danced along the brim of her hat.
“Of course,” Luca said wisely.
He and Cassidy led the trio around to the back of the Temple. Behind it lay a cemetery. Further on was a small building, the local mortuary. They walked quietly through the little graveyard, which was neatly kept and looked more like a garden then a final resting place. Lup nudged Kravitz in the arm and grinned.
“Aye, Bones,” She whispered. “Did you have anything to do with any of these dude kicking the bucket?”
“Don’t be crass,” Kravitz hissed back. “These people all died of natural causes.”
“So you didn’t play a hand, but you DO know how they died huh? Sounds like something a goth nerd would say.”
“What can you tell us about the victim,” Barry interjected, to keep them both from blowing their cover.
“Rusty Doads was his name,” Luca said, with a bit of sadness. “From outta town. A good fella. Came out here to trade jerky for diamonds just about once a month.”
“So he was a merchant?” Lup asked, her voice jumping away from the teasing tone it held before.
“Of sorts. He owned a sizable ranch down in Clayridge. Never brought his cattle through, only jerky. But damn, if it wasn’t the best jerky this side of Woven Gulch.”
“Yeah,” Cassidy said. “Shore am gonna miss some of that jalapeno jumpin’ jerky. That’ll wake a son of a gun up first thang in the mornin.”
Cassidy produced a key to open the door to the small building and all five people walked through. They were greeted by the body of a man, laying solemnly on a metal examining table. His clothes were placed neatly on another table nearby. The cold building looked fairly empty, but santitized. A single light bulb hung from the ceiling.
“The body was found a little more than a week ag,” Luca The gun was laying a few feet away. No one had reported any sound of gunfire. The strangest thing was that there was little blood, and no footsteps tracked in the dirt around it.”
“We didn’t think this case was anything beyond run of the mill murder or suicide until we dropped off the body at the coroner’s place and discovered-”
"The body doesn't look decomposed in the slightest," Barry cut off, staring at the figure with wide eyes.
“You said a week?” Kravitz asked, looking genuinely dumbfounded. “There was no preservation done to it since then?”
“Not a whip,” Cassidy said shaking her head. "We already inspected and dispelled any residual magic on the body, there was no arcana that anyone ‘round here could detect."
“Does the man have any family that know about this?” Lup asked.
“Old Dusty has a wife that takes care of the ranch, and a daughter that’s about grown. We informed them of his death right after discovering the body, but no one wanted to proceed with the funeral, what with the body being in the odd state that it is.”
“Not just the body,” Kravitz said under his breath. His gaze traveled from the fresh-looking dead man to the two townsfolk. “Would you give us a moment to discuss among ourselves? This is definitely ...unique case.
“I’d also like to sample a bit of that Jumping jerky if you still have some left, Lup added with a wink.
“Well, sure,” Cassidy said excitedly. “I’m sure you city slickers are peckish after your ride out here. We be right back in a sec” She and Luce ushered themselves out of the room, leaving the three bounty hunters to once again look over their target.
After a moment of pensive silence, Lup gestured with her thumb at the languid body on the table. “There’s no way there’s not magic still flowing through this fucker. It’s been a week and there’s no sign of decay.”
“Gentle repose maybe?” Barry offered, circling around the body, studying it carefully without touching it.
“But that’s such a brief spell. It’d worn off by now.”
"Perhaps he casted the spell before the gun fired, and his soul attempted to inhibit something else in the fray of the moment?"
Kravitz glanced around, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. "The soul and the body still existing simultaneously in the material plane doesn’t count as death—at least on a technicality.” He said that last bit with a hint of spite. “But a mortal body without its soul will cease to function after sometime, in which case the user wouldn't be able to re-inhabit it, then death is more or less... assumed ."
"We're really going into ethical dilemma territory," Barry said,a kidding smile emerging on his face. It fell intp a sheepish smirk. "But I guess that's a bit rich coming from me." Kravitz failed to hide a smile. He and Barry had been bitter rivals for nearly a decade. But here they were, co-workers and friends with all their powers focused toward the sacred balance of life and death. He valued both him and Lup’s company more than anything.
"Ditto, babe," Lup says, affectionately nudging Barry with her shoulder. “So we have a dead-ish dude with a bullet to the chest.”
“And the bullet wound is definitely there,” Barry replied, pointing to the small, clean hole in the man’s chest. He tapped a knuckle on the side of the cold, metal table in thought. His eyes went from there to the pile of clothes on the table. They looked immaculate. Barry’s eyes narrowed. “But no blood stains on the clothes. And I’m going to go out on a limb here and say they haven’t washed the body yet…”
Lup and Kravitz shot glances at each other, slowly following their partner’s train of thought. Barry straightened his glasses.
“Kravitz, I’m going to ask to do something I know you’re going to say no to.”
“Absolutely not,” Kravitz replied immediately.
“Good, now that we got that out of the way—”
Lup grinned, she could see the gears turning in Barry’s head just from the look he got in his eyes. “What do you have in mind, Babe?” Barry looked from the dead body before him to up at the love of his life.
He shrugged. “Nothing...illegal. Depending on the law, that is.”
“Whatever it is, I forbid it.” Kravitz’s face was already wincing at the thought of what Barry J. Bluejeans, leading mind in Modern Necromancy, was possibly planning. One of Lup’s hands found itself rested firmly on Kravitz shoulder.
“Hey Krav, do you like jerky?” She asked, decidedly not looking into his annoyed eyes. “I think it’s okay. It’s a decent treat for hard pressed travelers like ourselves. The folks around here probably have some pretty good drinks too, maybe. I’ll buy you a round. You want a round? Let’s go get around real quick.” The way her voice pitched an octave higher was very reminiscent of her brother.
Kravitz looked from Lup to Barry, and there was that telling voice again. The voice that told him that he was going to have a LOT of paperwork that he probably was going to have to file, and even MORE explanations that he was going to have to make to the Raven Queen in the near future.
But if it would get the job done...
Kravitz pointed a figure at Barry. “One round. Thirty minutes TOPS. I do not want to see ANY evidence of this man’s body leaving this building.”
“You think I’d leave a mess? Excuse me, I’m a professional,” Barry said, feigning an innocence that had been disproven many, many times before.
Yeah, this was going to be an interesting mission for sure.