undergrounds | Every single holiday, a head in a box

"That is really disconcerting," Sirius says, point at the box as he comes into the office. He's thankful that the head's not out, given he saw enough of it when it was dropped off, but the knowledge that it's that there. Being a head. In a box. Is not a thought he is fond of entertaining.

"So what's the plan?"

Faolan raises his eyebrows slightly, glancing down at the box before looking back at Sirius himself and just shrugs. What else is he supposed to do with the thing? It's evidence, part of the investigation, and they need it on hand if they want to do any more investigating of the physical object itself. It might be a clue, or several for that matter. Although the fact that it's a decapitated head and it's sitting in a box on the floor in his office... Yeah. It is rather disconcerting.

"We've been tasked with solving the mystery of the head in the post," Faolan says, leaning forward over his desk and sighing slightly. "I figured we'd call in whoever we could to get what they could from this, and then go from there. I mean. It's a head in a box. Sent to our benefactor. That's really all we know to start with at least."

"So who sent it, and why, basically? Well, they must not like him very much. That or it's a warning."

At least, those are Sirius's initial observations. Although some of them might be derived from books and movies he's seen, not having a lot of experience with conducting investigations. And the exact reasoning eludes him at the moment.

"Don't suppose our benefactor had any ideas?"

Faolan shakes his head. "He does and he doesn't. Insofar as he is a member of the fae royalty, and therefore it could have pretty much have been anyone. Anyone mad at the fae, anyone mad at the court, or anyone who's taken offense to him personally..." He heaves out a sigh. "It's a pretty long list if you put it all together. With a decent amount of overlap, to be true."

Sirius echoes the sigh. That doesn't make it easy and he's not even sure how to start crossing people off that list.

"Pretty much anyone is right, though there have to be some people in that group not interested in cutting off heads."

Sorting through that would probably take some time as well.

"He did at least give us the identity of our victim," Faolan confirms. "Which should help us to narrow some things down. I'm hoping that anyone with extra abilities might be able to see what they can...pick up from the evidence itself, as it were."

The evidence of course being the head itself as well as the box that it had been sent in. Faolan may have newly budding special abilities, but they're definitely not going to aid in this investigation. "Perhaps if we were able to find a way to trace them somehow..."

Sirius glances at the box and grimaces slightly. There's probably still a few things lingering around that he might be able to pick up, but the idea of smelling a severed head to get a scent was just not a pleasant one.

"That's a good place to start, yeah," he says, before sighing. "I might be able to trace something."

Faolan glances at the box then back at Sirius dubiously. "Trace?" he asks, because it has to be done. Especially with the way that the other man has responded, whatever he has in mind, he doesn't seem to be excited about doing it. Not that he supposes anyone would be excited dealing with some poor woman's decapitated head, but this is different. So it seems, anyway.

Sirius taps the side of his nose.

"I have a fairly decent sense of smell. If there's magic, or some other strong scent. I might be able to track it down."

It would just mean smelling the head, which was equal parts disgusting to him and rather awkward as well.

The look on Faolan's face pretty much says it all, but he supposes that if Sirius believes he can pick anything up like that, than who is he to hold him back from it. He won't be the one sniffing the head, after all. In fact, he's been doing all that he can to keep from doing pretty much exactly that. Smelling the thing in any way. He'd wondered how long he'd be able to keep it in his office before it had really started to smell. He hopes he doesn't have to find out.

"If you'd like," he says, motioning towards the box itself. "It's all yours..."

It's still gross. And disconcerting. And a whole host of other things that Sirius doesn't even want to consider. Ideally, he'll only have to do this once, get a read on the scent and then let his nose do the rest of the work. And so, shoving aside the rational part of his brain that is screaming "it's a severed head", he leans forward and takes a few sniffs of the box, and the head.

"God that's disgusting" he says, pulling away and rubbing his nose. "But I definitely smelled magic."

Faolan raises his eyebrows again. "Any sort of specific kind of magic?" he wonders. Maybe it's the magic that killed her -- although from the look of it, if it was magic that did the deed, it was rudimentary at best. More likely whatever he smells could be who did it? Unless he's smelling the magic from the woman herself. But that wouldn't still be lingering, would it? Not after being dead for as long as she had been. Maybe there was some sort of preservative spell on the thing. Maybe Sirius doesn't even know the answer. But he has to ask regardless.

"My nose isn't that specific, unfortunately, and I don't really want to get that close again."

Mostly because of sanitary reasons, since that was definitely not. Although he does let it sit for a bit, trying to think.

"Although, there might have also been some spices or herbs as well?"

Faolan nods slightly. It isn't a lot more than they knew before, but it's more than they'd have had if Sirius hadn't tried.

"For the preservation maybe?" he wonders aloud. "Unless the specific herbs maybe have some sort of meaning..." He doubts it though. He doubts that whoever was sending the message would have done so in the choice of herbs they'd have included. The severed head was message enough in and of itself, after all. The question was, who? And of what?

"The preservation thing does make sense. I couldn't even begin to guess at a meaning."

Sirius had made a career about, generally, not meddling in the affairs of witches.

"It's a distinctive scent, however, so I should recognize it if I'm wandering around town."

Every single holiday, a head in a box

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