Once Upon a December Murder

“A job?” Aliarey blinked her blue eyes in a suspicious manner, although really she was quite curious as well. No one ever just came to her of all people for a job. She usually had to go to some stranger that did not know of her existence or the way she operated. It was early morning when the knock came at her room door within a local inn in Talonia. Her long blonde hair was all over the place, she looked half awake, and the woman still had on her girly pajamas that no one should have been allowed to see. She leaned against the open door with a yawn and started to fall back asleep. The job can wait. “Uh, hey wait! You can’t fall asleep now!” Eddie, the inn’s owner and acquaintance of the girl, shouted as his large hands grabbed her shoulders and started to shake her awake. “You. Are. Needed.” He let her go, resulting in Aliarey falling backwards into her room. Her eyes glared up at him signaling that she was most certainly awake by that point. “Hey! You can’t just barge in here, ruin my sleep, and expect me to take the job immediately! I have important business to attend to in my dream zone!” The re-quip mage stood up and placed her hands on the door to slam it shut. The force from her hidden strength behind the slam resulted in the door popping right off and flying until it hit the wall of the hallway, carrying Eddie with it. Aliarey cringed slightly, knowing there would be hell to pay if not a bill for door repairs.

“I suppose I should mention there’s a high price tag upon completing the job,” Eddie said from behind the door that had smacked him and pinned him against the wall. The door was then pushed to the side as he rubbed his now aching face. “And now you owe me a new door.” Aliarey just crossed her arms below her chest as her eyes narrowed into small slits. “You can just put that one back on, you know.” “Probably, but I never pass opportunities for an upgrade!” The large man snickered, causing the gun mage to shake her head and roll her eyes. “How much did this job pay?” The man grinned. “Two million jewels!” Aliarey’s eyes went wide as she was seeing money signs. Someone that rich actually trusted her to do a job?! She clasped her hands together as she began to daydream about all the weapons she could buy. The dream bubble then popped as she realized just how outrageous the whole thing was. “Wait a minute…rich people don’t come to me. They tend to get pissed whenever I break their favorite vase! What’s the deal?” Eddie’s smile turned into a frown for a moment before he began to laugh sheepishly and waved his hand carelessly, as if to push her suspicion away. “Oh, there’s no deal really. They just put in a request for someone of your…qualities. They didn’t specifically ask for you. The payout is enough to at least check it out, right?” Aliarey tapped her cheek as she thought about it and then snapped her fingers. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” In a flash her pajamas turned into her normal everyday wear and even her hair had become magically combed. The benefits of requip were amazing. “Where do I need to go anyway?” The blonde left the room and begun making her way down the hall towards the stairs and eventually the exit. No time like the present to get her butt moving and earning some spare income. “Shirotsume,” she heard Eddie say as she walked. “That mansion town?” Her shoulders shrugged, not thinking much more about it. “Makes sense, I guess.”

Seeing as how for some reason the re-quip mage had no other form of transportation, Aliarey took a train to the small mountainous town and then walked the rest of the way. It didn’t bother her too much since she was used to using her legs to travel, but for rich people they could have at least sent a car or a carriage. Something! She was already starting to get annoyed before she even met the client. Eventually her walk came to an end and she arrived at the correct mansion which seemed to be having a party. Needless to say, for a party full of rich people she was most definitely underdressed. She blinked her eyes for a moment and stared, then just said whatever and started to head towards the entrance gate. Before she could even get that far a few people dressed as maids and butlers grabbed her and dragged her all the way to the back of the mansion before any of the guests could see her. Once inside the building used as the staff living quarters, one of the butlers pulled the cloth that had been used as a gag out while a maid untied her. How they were able to quickly bind her without her being able to fight back was anyone’s guess. They certainly had enough practice with it. The butler was soon on the ground as Aliarey kicked him where no man should be kicked, and as the rest of the staff moved away the blonde summoned forth her normal pistols. “All right, what’s going on? I can tell you people have absolutely no magic so you’re not exactly a threat. I came here for some sort of job so get to explaining!”

One of the maids stepped forward with a small nervous smile and bowed her head. “We are sorry, miss. We just couldn’t allow any of the guests to see you dressed in…that. But you do have the features that were requested! Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a large chest!”

“Excuse me?” Aliarey’s eyes blinked in disbelief. She couldn’t even get angry at first. Did Eddie really suggest she take a job not for her skills as a mage, but because she had certain features that some people would think made her pretty? SERIOUSLY?! That innkeeper was dead when she made it back to Talonia. “Want to run that by me again? I really am not here so you can stare at me all day, am I? Oh my god…don’t tell me you freaks are going to cut off my hair and steal my eyes!” Aliarey gasped as she looked down at her chest, then back up towards the staff, and then used her arms to cover her natural pillows protectively. “Oh, hell no!” The entire staff that was in the room sweat dropped, wondering how on earth the mage had come up with such an outrageous conclusion. The lead maid held out her arms and vigorously shook her head. “No, no, no! We just need you to put on this dress,” she then waved over for another couple of maids to come closer while holding up a blue ball gown dress to present it. “And then at the stroke of midnight we will use a spell that will transport you into a fairytale book.”

Aliarey raised a golden brow at those words. “What am I? The Cinderella of Fiore?” Aliarey asked sarcastically and then immediately backtracked her thoughts. “Wait, what? Why am I dressing up to be put in a book?”

“A fairytale book. You must look the part to get in which is why we will be dressing you up as one.” The lead maid then picked up a book that was lying on a nearby table and opened it, showing images and words that changed magically. “You see, this story here is all wrong. It’s supposed to be about a young woman that lost her memory when she was a girl and cannot remember that she is actually a princess. There’s a bad guy and such that tries to kill her as she meets other characters and yada yada yada she soon remembers who she is and it’s happily ever after. However, for some reason this random character I have never seen before comes and kills her during the ghost ballroom scene.” The image of a dancing and singing red haired woman plays and soon a rather suspicious man appears and shoots her in the head with a gun. Aliarey took the book for herself and flipped through some of the other pages, and cringed when she saw prancing pink bugs that seemed to be singing. What the actual hell was this story?

“This…you are really paying two million for this job, right?” Aliarey asked rather bluntly as she stared at the staff crowd with obvious suspicions. “Of course! This story is a favorite among the daughter of our master and the book is quite rare. Paying you to correct the story is cheaper than buying another copy.” The gun mage didn’t even look insulted by that remark. All she heard were the words “of course” and she was sold. The rest was just glitter. “Consider me signed on then!”

The next thing she knew all the butlers left and she was surrounded by a group of maids that looked as if they were plotting her demise. Aliarey blinked and started to back up nervously before she was tackled and they went to work turning her into some girly fairytale princess. Whoever made the rule that people could only go in those types of books while dressed as a fairytale character was cruel and an absolute genius! “Hey! Easy there! I am not the latest edition of a popular toy dress up doll! Oh, my god! Ow! How can anyone breathe while wearing this thing?! What?! NO! My hair is not meant to bend that way or be pulled that much! Eeek! Keep that fancy glitter and perfume away from me! Achoo! Now all I can smell are chemicals. Ugh! Is there really a smell check or are you people just getting too into this?!” Eventually Aliarey had been turned from her usual self into some Cinderella imposter. It hurt. Oh, man did it hurt wearing that dress and even walking in those horrible fancy shoes.

“Now that I think about it, why didn’t you people just use magic on some local mage to look like some fairytale weirdo?” The answer she was given was basically she had to go into the book to correct the story, but she couldn’t affect the natural order of the story. Naturally this meant using more ranged techniques in order to deal with the mystery character. The masters of the house did not know of any ranged type mages personally and a requip mage seemed like the type of mage that would be prepared for anything. Finding one with certain physical characteristics just made things more smoother and real. If the magic used for the impersonation were to wear off then the one in the book would be immediately thrown out, meaning all progress on the mission would be lost and would have to be repeated. They also only had a Cinderella outfit rather than an assortment of fairytale costumes. Where in the story did it say Cinderella had a large rack though? Weirdos.

Aliarey glanced away rather nervously, concluding that no one had actually told them that she was very very VERY far from being some stealth combat mage. Her way of dealing with things normally resulted in rather obvious and impossible to hide explosions, mass projectile flying mayhem, and loudness. What they needed was some sort of ninja Cinderella, not dual gun wielding and turret disc tossing Cinderella. She was not about to tell them that though. Lying may have been something she never found herself doing, but not telling the complete truth wasn‘t exactly wrong either. “Right, I can totally go the sneaky way…” It wasn’t a lie if she planned on trying.

The book was set down on the table, opened. The lead maid grabbed some sort of thin silver wand and motioned for the fancily dressed Aliarey to stand in front of it. The sounds of a loud clock could be heard through the halls, indicating that the midnight hour had approached. “You have one hour. Remember do not do anything that will alter the story. Find this mysterious character before he kills the heroine of the tale and eliminate him however you see fit. After the hour is up, you will be brought back here. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo!” With a flick of the wand by the lead maid, magic sparkles surrounded the face palming gun mage, who was in utter disbelief at the scene. The room began to morph and turn from her point of view until it had changed completely into a large castle ballroom. It was empty and quiet, and Aliarey herself was standing on some inner balcony above the main dance floor where she could look below her. Good. The main scene had not started yet. She was maybe a few minutes before the heroine of the story made her entrance.

“Re-quip,” Aliarey whispered, not wanting her voice to echo loudly through the large and empty room and give away the fact she was there, thus resulting in mission failure already. A glass looking eye visor formed over her eyes, and with its magic she was able to have different visual enhancements. Hey, it was never said she couldn’t add a few extra accessories to her version of Cinderella. Unfortunately, even with that magical piece of technology she could find no traces of a strange character being where they weren’t supposed to. She really should have asked for more details such as how and why the new character even existed in the first place. Too late for that now. The conclusion for the moment that he simply had not arrived on scene yet was made. The accessory remained on as she waited a few minutes more for the main character to arrive.

Soon the red haired woman she had seen in the book images previously arrived in the abandoned castle. The gun mage watched for a bit, leaning over the balcony railing with her elbow resting vertically against it and her chin resting in the palm of her hand. Boring. Honestly, she wasn’t even sure how the story was supposed to go. Children stories wasn’t exactly something she followed up on even as a kid. The woman then started to do something that made Aliarey’s brow arch and her mouth to silently form the word “seriously?” The story character began to sing and slowly dance around. Good grief it was one of THOSE stories. Then as if by some form of magic or some really convincing movie set effects, transparent and ghostly looking people flew through the windows, not breaking them, and took to the dance floor. They were all formally dressed as if they were attending a grand ballroom party, and clashed heavily against the heroine that was dressed in some type of poor commoner getup. The ghost party guests started to twirl and dance around in some complex ballroom dance style Aliarey was sure she’d mess up with the first step. Their movement matched that of the song the woman was singing, and somehow even background music accompaniment started to play. All right then. The mage was not about to figure that mystery out.

The thermal sensor settings were completely blank when it came to viewing the random ghost people, as well as the lady character. That probably explained why she could not locate the man. If he was a story character then he probably did not have any form of heat signature. Or, should have. Aliarey’s blue eyes blinked and then narrowed as she straightened herself from leaning against the railing. There was a heat signature at the corner of the room and, based on its shape, it was human. So, she wasn’t the only one from the real world in that book. The story was being edited in a repeat loop cycle by someone on purpose themselves rather than had created some mystery character. Okay, time to be sneaky. “Re-quip,” she whispered once more, although with the music going she likely could have shouted and not be heard. A pair of blue colored pistols appeared in her two hands. Their specialty? Freezing and slowing down a target. All she had to do was sneak across the dance floor while the woman was distracted with her activity and then nail the guy before he made his move. The freezing was more silent than her normal weaponry and…left less of a mess. The last thing she needed was to lose her payout because the story had random and unexplained blood pools on the floor.

“Okay, here I-GAH!” Aliarey had planned on taking the stairs she saw to the lower level, but when she had turned she stepped on the dress she wore, which resulted into more misteps, which further resulted in her falling over the railing and hitting the floor. It wasn’t too high up so she was more or less free of anything broken or serious injuries. It still hurt though and as she winced and sat up from where she landed, she looked around to see if she had been noticed. Nope. All figures still dancing and singing. Her visor still had her target in sight as well and seemed to be moving around the room slowly, trying to blend in with the dancing figures and copying their movements. Her guns had slid across the floor from her fall but in a flash they disappeared and returned to her grasp before anyone could step on them or kick them around. Were those ghosts solid enough to even do that? The answer came shortly after wondering.

As Aliarey stood up and planned on doing the same thing the man was doing with blending in, she was suddenly forced into the dancing scene as one of the ghost characters grabbed her wrists, twirled her in such a way that sent her sliding across the floor in a comedic fashion towards the next one, again past the man that was the target, past the woman that was also dancing with ghosts, again and again to the point that the blonde’s head was spinning from the dizziness. The dance suddenly came to a stop as there was a pause in the music. The main character had stopped for some more dramatic and low tone for her song, causing everything else to as well, aside from the two people that were not supposed to be there. Her back was turned and she was very much distracted and aloof to anything that was going on around her. The ghosts themselves did not seem to have any such personality. Good, because it would have been very difficult to make any moves otherwise. The man had gotten rather close to the main heroine character but he was still too far for physical contact, although not like he needed it. Aliarey saw him start to go for his coat pocket, which likely had the gun used in the images prior. Her own pistols were raised to aim at the target so she could freeze him right then and there, but the moment she went to pull the trigger the weapons disappeared. “WHAT?!” Who’s idea was it to put time limits on things?!

The sound of a scratched record sounded as the main character’s scene was interrupted. Both she as well as the would be character killer turned with surprised faces to face the woman who had shouted. Oops, cover blown. “Oh, the hell with it!” Her favorite way of dealing with things was soon acted upon. As the woman screamed and made a run for it, Aliarey summoned forth her gatling turret disc and tossed it onto the ground. The mini turret formed and, with more of her magic added on, it split into two more copies on both sides of the original. All three fired at the wide eyed man, who was shocked at the change that was not of his own making to the story. He was bombarded by the high amount of projectiles sent in his direction and made no efforts to even dodge them. Clearly he was not an actual magical fighter by any means. One mysterious stranger turned into a blood dripping corpse on the ballroom floor, one peasant woman soon to be princess again saved, and one mage prepared to receive her payout. Sure there was still a murder scene in the story, but it wasn’t the heroine’s. That made everything okay, right?

An old clock somewhere in the castle made a loud sound as it struck one. No way had it been an hour yet! Eh, oh well. Time must of worked in a whacky way while in a magical book. The surroundings began to twist and morph until it formed into the room she had been in before with the maids. Instantly the re-quip mage changed out of the dress with her magic, wearing another set of her everyday clothes. “Job is done. Now pa-” Aliarey didn’t even finish her sentence as she was caught off guard by the mixture of blank, surprised, and terrified stares of the staff members. They were flipping through the pages of the book and each expression on their faces got worse as it went on. “Oh, come on. I may have gone overboard but it can’t be that bad. The princess idiot is alive. Let me see that.” Aliarey snapped the book out of the lead maid’s hands and held it in one of her arms as she flipped the pages with her free hand. Her expression too went from normal, to sweat drop, to blank, to surprise, to absolutely horrified. All in a matter of seconds. How did that one scene completely change the entire story?! It wasn’t even significant! “Well,” she begun to say as she closed the book and handed it back to the maid. “You have to admit it has got to be way better than it originally was.” The book was opened up once more and she quickly flipped to a certain page and held it up with a grin. "And look! No prancing pink bugs! I did you guys a favor for that one. That was really the dumbest thing I have ever seen." Needless to say, she wasn’t paid. Time wasted.

(Word Count: 3737)

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