Kazuki/Eidolon

The Eidolon of Highlane District

One of the famous criminal cases of the recent past of the Boil, the assassination run performed by the person nicknamed the "Eidolon of Highlane District" remains one of the few unsolved investigations in the history of the Boil. Many have speculated as to the reasons behind the murders, and, of course, the identity of the assassin for years, but the lack of evidence, as well as failure from the investigators to find any sort of link uniting the victims, have led to the abandon of the case a few years after the seventh murder. Some have not forgotten, however, and would still like to find out what really happened suring this troubled time in the Boil.

The facts

The case of the Eidolon of Highlane District - Seven murders, comitted in the span of one year and a half. All victims were wealthy or important citizens of the Boil, and all were killed in their homes, in the heart of Highlane District. A most puzzling case, as a connection between all of the victims was not at all apparent, leading to the idea of a killer choosing random victims, but the methods employed suggested a very careful selection of targets. The victims were, in order of their deaths:

Rueben Munizen, notary
Hans Derling, official of the industrial district
Daeren Sheldon, city official
Leon Slein, merchant and exporter
Matthias Delgerst, powerful merchant
Jonas Williamson, city official
Harold Lanserton, judge and city magistrate

After much confusion, the string of murders ended with the seventh and last victim, and the one known as the Eidolon has not resurfaced ever since. There are still those what would wish to shed some light on the mystery, but most of the authorities have resigned to classifying the whole case as unsolved. With the parties involved mostly dead, the incident has been more or less put to rest.

There is a big part of the mystery that was never revealed to the public, however. Through a pretty successful investigation, the city patrol has managed to fit one of the biggest parts of the puzzle. Piecing together fragmented evidence with some written correspondence that were meticulously preserved, they have found a motive.

The seemingly unrelated people that fell victim to the Eidolon were in fact united through a common secret. An association of powers within the city - people placed in key positions, which allowed vast amounts of money to be diverted from the city funds right into their own pockets. The whole scheme was so perfectly orchestrated that it lasted for almost 12 years until the first threat to its existence surfaced.

One of the members of the conspiracy, Lawrence Sheldings, turned his coat and decided to expose the treachery to the people of the Boil. With the already tense climate on the streets of the Heartless city, such an incident would have caused much discontent, and could have pushed some of the radicals of the city to revolt...

Holding a quick meeting with key members of the organization, a decision was quickly reached. This situation had to be resolved, and as fast and quietly as possible. With reputations, positions, and perhaps even lives at stake, there was no delaying this case. Even though dissent passed in the council, the majority voted to use the treacherous Sheldings as a scapegoat, and have him removed from the scene.

Once the decision was taken, the events succeeded very quickly. Sheldings was judged, despite his protests, for the acts that the whole of them had commited. The sheme went further, using "evidence" to paint Sheldings as a crime lord that was operating from the city's very offices, the trial took on a theatrical tone that distracted from the true issues at hand. Harold Lanserton was the judge appointed to the affair, which doomed Sheldings from the very beginning - Found guilty of all charges against him, the scapegoat was executed three days after the end of the procedure.

And three months after Lawrence Shelding's execution, the first victim was found.

From the correspondences exchanged between the future victims, the city investigators concluded that they were aware of the eerie circumstances, and that they knew it was somehow linked to their past actions, and most probably their murdering of Sheldings. Somebody knew, and that somebody was taking revenge...

This lead led nowhere for the investigators, however. Sheldings had no family to speak of, and no real friends that would be suspected of wanting to take revenge (his only close friends also number among the victims). The evidence gathered by the city patrol seem to point that the Eidolon was in fact a hired hand, an assassin sent out to kill specific people. But the questions remains as to who supplied him/her with the necessary information, and who ordered these kills in the first place...

The Truth

The key to this mystery, and the one fact that kept the investigation from progressing, is a detail that was regarded as fact, while it is not really so.

The presumption that there were 7 victims, while in reality there were only 6.

Rueben Munizen, the one known as the first victim, was the mastermind behind the deaths of the other conspirators. Munizen was a good friend of Lawrence Sheldings, and was one of the few that did not want to use him as a scapegoat. His opinion was drowned in the voices of the majority, however, and Sheldings was removed as a possible threat. In the days following the death of the scapegoat, Rueben has come to realize just how meaningless it all was, and that their lives were nothing if there was a threat to the big secret... He could be the next scapegoat, if need be. Or it would be someone else...

Observing how his brethren handled the whole situation, Rueben knew that justice would never be dealt against them, at least not in a convential way. They were too deeply involved, and had hands in the system which would garantee their safety. One week after the demise of his friend, Rueben Munizen knew what was the right thing to do. He would use their type of justice against them. If Lawrence was to die for the crimes they all committed, then they would all follow.

Rueben planned to have all of them assassinated, one by one, as if getting striked out of some sinister list. He enlisted the aid of a promising young assassin, a man caled Allyster Lazarus, and both came to an agreement on the contract. But first, Munizen needed the freedom to move freely, without his brethren coming to put a stop to his plan... And so, both of them devised to fake Munizen's death, as a macabre overture to the string of contracts.

Rueben taught Allyster much about bureaucracy, about the habits of each of the members of the council, of the places they frequented. Over the year and a half spent taking down the conspirators, he became somewhat of a mentor to the younger man, albeith their paths have been extremely different in life. After the last murder was complete and the contract had been fulfilled, Rueben chose to take his own life and destroy his body through fire, taking with him the final evidence that could condemn Allyster as the perpetrator of the murders.

In retrospect, perhaps the investigation was stumped by the fact the Eidolon was not one, but two people - A hand wielding a blade... And the cunning mind directing it.

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