"This was whole, the last time I was here." He reached the fort's remains. A dark hand moved to touch the support pillar. It creaked but did not give way. He waded into the ashes, crouching to look closely.

"And?" Sometimes getting an answer out of him was like pulling teeth, as the old saying went.

He glanced to her before looking back at his task. Fingers sifted ash. "He was here. I knew he was about and I knew he had been hiding from me. And somehow he knew, and he burned this."

Georgia was staring at his back. She hadn't noticed the handle of the blade sticking out from his pants at the small of his back. Had he come to this place to kill" "Did he burn it to make a point to you?" She spoke to him but she was still looking at the weapon.

"He did it because he knew I would find traces of him. What other way to burn what was than by fire?"

"So you are too late?" She hadn't gone further, but waited on the perimeter, arms crossed over her chest to keep some warmth alive, now that they had stopped moving.

"I seem to always be too late." Murmured. He rose and carefully looked about. His blade had been ready to taste blood. Then again, it had been thirsty for years. He lowered at another place, nearer to the back.

She said nothing for a long while as he searched. "Can't you just let it go, Julien" At least for now" You had such a nice night at Anya's, you said."

"I did not tell you I had a good time." It was a correction, nothing more.

"So you're saying you had a bad time?"

"No. But you assume."

She laughed, and then glanced around as if the sound would call forth things that harmed. "Ok, I am choosing to believe you had a good time. Besides, you like her, don't you?"

"I do." He wasn't sure why Georgia was asking this now, and he wished she would be silent, and thusly was only halfway listening. "You like her as well." Sounding distracted.

"Probably most people do." She was quiet another long moment, her mind disappearing into the void where memories toiled. It seems like she thought of her mother at the oddest times. Something about the bones of the fort, maybe.

"Julien?" She asked it quietly, leaning back against the naked timber of the burned out fort, watching him where he crouched in the wreckage. Her mind was full of loss in this desolate place.

He didn't look at her as he replied. "What?"

"I had" a friend in the Inn. She overheard the commotion with that seer, Ella, and her husband. I'd mentioned meeting Tim and Anya and my friend remembers Anya saying something about losing her babies. Is that true?" She almost didn't ask it, because she knew he wouldn't like it but would be honor-bound to be truthful. She was fascinated by loss, in her own way.

He was quiet a long moment and then turned to look at her, frowning. "If she said it, it is true. I do not want to speak of it. It is her grief and close to her heart." He turned back to the ashes, but whatever had been there had been lost. No trace. He frowned still and rose to his feet, like a shadow taking another form.

(From live RP with the lovely Anya. Taken place after leaving the inn after partaking in impromptu snowball-throwing)

Knowing he was a tracker, Anya went through the part of town where plenty of people walked, her prints lost in the crowd. She backed herself into an alley trying to hide from him. Moving further back, she slipped into the snow that was deeper in the alley, about ten blocks from the Inn. Standing up, she went to brush the snow off and smelled something rotting. Turning around, her scream echoed like a woman in deep pain.

The Native had been following well enough. There were small clues here or there that showed her passing. His steps had started to slow when he thought he was closer. When the cry rang out, his head snapped to the side. He quickly located it and was off again. It wasn't long before he appeared, eyes moving to pick her out. "Anya! What is it?"

She backed away from the alley with blood on her gloves and turned into Julien. What she saw was to horrific to even speak it.

He put an arm around her for a moment, the free hand moving to wrap around her wrist. He looked at the blood on her glove and then gently set her aside, moving over to where the snow was discolored, dark and blotchy in the darkness of the evening.

It took but a moment for his long strides to take him into that snow. He stopped short of the darkness. He crouched down to look, brows furrowed. It didn't take long for him to realize what it was. Blood. He frowned and rose, moving a bit further. It was then that he realized what he was looking at.

It was not just one body. Indeed, it wasn't even two. The body parts that were there were too different- shapes, skin colors, stages of decomposition- to be the same. The one thing that was clear was the fact that it they were all women. The delicacy of bones, the almond-shaped curve of nails, told the story.

They had been cut with something rough, enough to hew bones that stuck out like broken sticks and to rip tender flesh. Further back there might be more, might be another clue, but at the moment he was staring at this find, at the blood that had seeped into the snow, and the brighter scarlet of a fresher kill that still clung on top.

Anya moved out of the way after a few moments. She hadn't expected to see all of that, all of the blood, and what she thought was body parts. She was not normally sick to her stomach, but seeing human remains scattered over the snow covered blood, it churned inside out. Seeing Julien press further in, she tried to tell him no, but the words lodged in her throat.

Bones sticking of truncated flesh, it looked more like a pieced butcher shop than an alley corner. "Julien, take care please." Calling after him, because she could not bring herself to get any closer.

Julien held a hand back to her, to show that he heard her. He stepped carefully. Not so much because it was grisly, but because he didn't want to disturb anything. He bent down again, looking close, eyes picking out differences. One arm, to his left, was almost as white as the snow. The cold had kept down much decomposition, but it still couldn't have been that old. There was only a light covering of snow on the limb. The blood beneath it was dark, but the rich color of a copious amount, a lacquered stain.

To the right, a leg from the knee down, perhaps Hispanic or Native, as his own. It was half buried in the snow, just the anterior part, toes with flesh peeling back. There was no blood. He sniffed and turned to look at Anya. "There are at least four bodies here, Anya?"

"Ella told me there was a murderer. I knew it, but this." The witch's words echoing. "We need to call the guard...or watch. Julien, be careful."

"I am fine, Anya." He looked a moment longer, picking out other small details. He frowned still and then finally stood. It was a cemetery for remains, forgotten and by the wayside. "This is unlike anything I have seen" this is overkill. Done with extreme rage." He turned to look at her again. "At least one woman was murdered here" the other parts, they came from somewhere else. Were dumped here."

Rage" "Julien, I need to tell Ella. She had visions of bodies and then me there. I know she's been hunting someone." Staying where she was, he could look at the blood; she'd not be able to get it out of her head.

He nodded and moved over to her. He put his hands up to her face and cupped it, looking down into her eyes, so that she would have somewhere to focus on. She was understandably shaken by what she had stumbled upon. "You must be careful. Where is Ella" Do you want me to take you to her?"

"I do not know. Brantee...told me that Ella was found in the cemetery after a ...dark dream...her vision. Made me promise to wait at the Inn until someone came for me. I did. I know Ella's visions are true, but I also know Gabby is sick in her head." Anya wasn't used to calling Gabriella, Ella. She wanted to be called Ella, but Gabby always slipped.

He nodded. "Who was supposed to come for you?"

"I don't know, she said someone would. I thought either Gabby or her husband, someone that knew what is going on. I thought maybe Brantee was worried over nothing." Now" Anya was convinced it was something more.

"Who is Brantee?" he asked of her.

"The Mouse, she is a woman Ella looks after. She's a fragile thing, she's a" " How to explain it. "Empath. You know this word" She is also a kindred, a beast who feeds on blood. Some how Ella has managed to lock the beast away from taking control of little Brantee." Brantee was not a little girl, but it seemed like it to everyone who has met her.

He nodded. He knew what an empath was. "It sounds as if they knew this would happen, and it was not idle visions. We must pay attention to these things, they could save a life." He brushed her hair back slightly. "We should alert the Guard, and then I will accompany you wherever you might go. I do not want you out alone."

"I.." Anya looked down and leaned in for a moment. "I thought Gabriella was wrong. I doubted my friend." To her, that was treason and treachery. "How could I have? I know she is sick, but this.." This was bad.

He was quiet a moment, dark fingers against a pale temple and blonde locks. "She would forgive you. And now you will heed her warnings and listen more closely. Perhaps it is good, in the middle of all this bad."

"I do not know." She didn't. After a few moments of peace, they had to get to the guard. They told what they had stumbled upon, any the observations that Julien had been able to make by the meager light and not much time. After speaking with the guard, they sent a contingent out to retrieve the bodies, and Anya and Julien were thanked and sent on their way.

Leaving the station, she walked silently with Julien. "I will ask the brothers to make sure I am not left alone. I will put upon you Julien. I am sorry that all of this happened." Finally said as they reached the Nest.

He paused at the door, turning to look at her. "You are not putting upon me, Anya. Please realize that. I am helping you because I want to."