Quickly typing in his login information, a bright green light shot up, scanning his face. It beeped and opened up into the CEB interface upon confirming his identity. He swiped right to get to the case inbox and clicked on the red flashingNewthat popped up in 3D once he got there. His brow raised slightly at the image of his next target as it floated up from the screen in 4D glory.
Damn—the beautiful creature had eyes the color of gold, ivory skin, and long, curly, vibrant cyan hair. They also had softly pointed ears, a pert button nose, and plush pink lips with a prominent cupid's bow. The creature was wearing a long white button up dress with a thick red belt cinching the waist, their feminine curves evident. The shot seemed to have been taken without their notice. They looked quite unhappy, uncomfortable even, and their eyes seemed sad, as if yearning for something.
“Well, aren’t you gorgeous?” he hummed as he began to read. “Name… Seri North, a Water Nymph. Thirty-six years old. Identifies as female—good to know.”
His brow rose at the note underneath outlining that gender identification had been changed from male five years ago. The government tended to list gender changes made under ten years ago…unless the person had them sealed. Hmmm, the age she decided to change it at was…curious…
Shaking his head, he kept reading. “Five feet seven inches tall…” he trailed off, head cocking in confusion once he read what the stunning Seri’s crime was. “Wanted for murder. Odd.”
Unusually so. Not in the sense that a person he was after was wanted for murder, but more that a Water Nymph was. He had assumed maybe assault once he’d read the species.
It was odd for him to come across such an individual, with his field being violent crimes, unless he was interviewing victims. Severo’s mind ran through what he knew of the specific species of Cryptid.
Nymphs, no matter what sub-category, Water, Forest, etc., were predominantly androgynous in looks. Many were also gender-fluid or bi-gender. This was mainly because Nymphs could physically transform their biological sex completely from male to female, or vice versa, at will. Though, until they were old enough to tell what they preferred, they were often referred to as the sex they were born as.
Seri, being specifically a Water Nymph, meant she had gills in her neck that allowed her to breathe underwater. Though if he was remembering right, they did also help them take in oxygen on land too. Something about taking in the moisture from the air… He wasn’t completely sure about how, just that they did. What he was sure about was that Water Nymphs could control water in any and all forms.
But none of that was what Severo found odd. What was odd was not only were Nymphs rare—as in, as a species, there were at most a thousand living in each country, and in space their numbers were inconsequential—they also tended to live in small settlements of their own kind, that were then divided into smaller clans. At least they had since the end of Cryptid-Human War.
This meant crimes committed by them usually were within or near said settlements, and they were rarely ever this violent, unless for defense against an outsider. Overall, Nymphs were listed as a non-volatile species, usually never causing harm unless provoked. The truth was, while they weren’t violent as a whole, shit still happened. And in terms of the settlements, when things went down, it was often not only violent but covered up.
Either way, he could probably count on one hand the number of times a Nymph had killed in the past hundred years, outside of a settlement. And all of them would have taken place near a community, and in self-defense.
So how did a Water Nymph end up murdering someone many hundreds of miles away from the nearest Water Nymph settlement?
He swiped up and scrolled through the woman’s background.
“Ah, an orphan…”
He looked up the orphanage and frowned at the location. What in the fuck…? Mysterious Nymph, who killed hundreds of miles away from any settlement, also somehow ended up in a random orphanage in the middle of nowhere…also not even close to any Nymph population. Neither made sense. But the location of the orphanage bothered him.
Questionable abandonments never boded well for species that were so insular… It usually meant humans were involved in some way. Cryptid baby trafficking was sadly a thing. Maybe he should ask whoever in Intel ended up on his case to look into that. He sighed. So many questions, so little answers.
Swiping again, his brow pinched when nothing showed up. Where the fuck was the information on the victim? He swiped back and found a small note saying the one that Seri had murdered was named Leal Craft… Helpful—not.
The Burston County Sheriff’s department was an hour away from the CEB office, and definitely dated. Two floors, the structure was boxy, and made of mostly beige brick with a black horizontal stripe on top and the word‘sheriff’in large silver letters. It was very out of place with the surrounding town.
Most of the architecture there was pretty much like all the buildings created in the last few centuries. Either a mixture of irregular shapes and organic forms, fully circular or tubally shaped, or lastly—Severo’s personal favorite—looking like they’d been carved slash grown from a tree.
The design was even more shocking since it was on a floating foundation. Floating, as in, nothing between it and the ground.
Elevation stones were an invention that heavily relied on Pixies. Something to do with the dust they created merged with other chemicals. Severo didn’t try to understand how that dust fueled pretty much anything requiring energy—cars, planes, rockets, the world's electrical grid etc. He really didn’t care, to be honest, as long as it worked and didn’t fuck up the planet. Which was the main reason Cryptids exposed themselves all those years ago. Yeah, dying because one species decided to fuck up the planet they lived on had been no one’s choice.
The elevation stones lifted the sheriff’s department at least twelve feet off the ground, suggesting that it wasn’t that old. Though, he supposed it could have been deemed historically important and therefore the town decided to preserve it, lifting it up from its old-fashion foundation. But…the town didn’t look old enough to have historical architecture. Most towns weren’t willing to spend more than a million to lift up an old building when they could just build something new for much cheaper. At least, they weren’t on something like a police station.
A large set of wide steps led up to the double doors of the station, though there was a lift as well. After the hour drive, Severo decided to take the steps up because his legs needed it. And boy he was glad he had, because a few seconds after entering, he had to sit his ass back down in a chair that looked about as old as the architecture. He couldn’t say he was happy about the receptionist shooing him away, saying they’d be right with him without letting him say more than who he was here to see. But he had sat…and sat some more.
After a while, Severo glanced around the small waiting room, fully noting the woman at the desk was obviously ignoring his presence. He pulled his sleeve back and looked at his watch.
For fuck’s sake, he’d been sitting there for thirty minutes. They had known he’d be coming, and exactly when he’d be here, it was not like he dropped in unannounced.
Welp, it had been thirty minutes too long. Standing, he groaned when his knees cracked. Face grim, he sauntered up to the receptionist’s desk and cleared his throat loudly.
The woman’s finger froze mid-typing and looked up. Her expression was irritated, as ifhewas the one wastinghertime. But Severo was pretty sure her irritation was more at his existence than anything. A human and a bigot, joy. After so many years, you’d think they’d just accept they weren’t the only ‘intelligent’ species, but whatever, he didn’t have time for this. He had a damn shuttle to catch to Mars.
She tutted. “As I said…Mr…”
“Agent Severo Ambrose,” he stated sternly. “With the Cryptid Enforcement Bureau. You said they would be right with me. Well, it’s been thirty minutes. Your definition of ‘right with me’ is a bit skewed, and my patience is about all used up. I suggest you tell Detective Liane and Sheriff Tormd to move it, because my boss will be pissed if I miss my shuttle to Mars. You know, the planet? As in, if I miss it, I’ll no doubt have to wait a few days to a week to catch the next one.”
