The spill of words from his tongue was a mixture of interest and grating annoyance as he spoke. The sarcasm in his tone notable as brown eyes met her maple ones. There was no opportunity to respond as he kept going.<i>Yildar,</i>he called himself. She’d need to look into him later. Know just what sort of person she was working with. The last thing she needed was to bet embroiled with someone who caused more trouble than they were worth.<br/><br/>All she had to do was kill a killer. Occultist or no, she could do it if she<i>had</i>to. Employ a few favors better used for other things, she could form a team of her own if she had to. None of it would prove easy, but it may prove doable. But that meant jumping the gun and assuming the man before her was useless. And Zara wasn’t the sort to judge of first looks alone.<br/><br/>Before she had an opportunity to respond, the judge stepped from the court room. Only then did Zara bother to rise. If he’d shown, that meant they might be leaving soon—and she looked forward to getting out of the stuffy halls of the court. She pressed a hand to her hip as the two men doled out information and the judge caught Yildar up to speed. As the former said, the man seemed excited to work on the case. Whatever reasons he had, Zara didn’t particularly care. At least, not until those brown eyes of his turned to her.<br/><br/><br/>“Funny,” he said, eyeing her up, “I used to know a certain Zara who looked somewhat like you… but that was long ago! So, how can you help me in finding the murderer?”<br/><br/>Panic froze her in her track, but she didn’t let an ounce of it show. Her face a careful mask—if not a bit colder—as she looked to him. With an almost sneer, she shoulder by him, looking over her shoulder as the cape twisted with her movement.<br/><br/>“We go to the source.”<br/><br/>***<br/><br/><i>The source</i>was a small section of the city near the docks. Though the body was gone, swaths of dried blood remained. The cleaners had left behind most of the scene at the judge’s request, but Zara would need to look at the body later. Determine the sort of magic used before knowing where to begin.<br/><br/>Within Suvar, there were three distinct cults. Each sporting different talents, but all dangerous. Any residual magic was long gone from the scene. So, despite Zara’s natural ability to pick up on those sorts of things, it became clear there was little to find her. With any luck, the cultist may have dropped something. Anything to give them a clue.<br/><br/>Zara turned to look at Yildar, her nose wrinkling. “Do you intend to stand there, or are you going to help me search the area?”