"Three at Tinera and two at Nerebe, right? Ok, just these five people for us, right?" Chriral asked Arith, who was sitting behind the front desk. Arith looked like he would fell asleep at any moment, after all It was pretty early in the morning.
Chriral's working partner Kelar was standing beside Chiral looking over the documents for five of those people. Kelar's medium-length hair was a mess that day, and he didn't even bring his neckplates.
Arith had been working for a long time without much break. He replied, "Yes, these five. In Tinera, the barn man, the unconscious woman, and the robbed man. And at the Nerebe—" stopping a bit, he pointed at the papers Kelar was holding, "you got better information about them in those papers than I do."
Looking at Chriral, Kelar, his working partner, said, "Please, let's go now. I have to leave early."
"Yes, let's go." Chriral replied.
Stopping them, Arith replied in a cracked voice, "Don't forget to bring some ice salt for me."
"Already done with yours?" Kelar asked.
"Makriva was supposed to work now. Working for too long." Arith replied as if he didn't want to talk at all.
"Didn't his sister go missing?" Kelar asked in a sympathetic tone.
"Yes, two days ago. That's why I can't really say anything about it. Also Dhrikita, I might have to do her shift as well." Stopping a bit, Arith continued, "You guys go before it's too bright outside. Kelar's husband is eagerly waiting for him."
Chriral noticed Kelar glared at Arith across the desk between them, maybe a little bit too much, and Arith just looked away from that. At least Arith was used to that by then.
Dragging Kelar along, Chriral came out of the watch tower.
___
Tinera was on Tri-e-Kar road, situated to the north of the watch tower. They used the crescent-shaped metal plates wrapped around their limbs to glide through the road quicker.
Reaching Tinera, they first went to the front desk lady. Even though they were Pariras, it took quite a long time because of the people gathered around the desk.
There were two spots at the desk; one was empty. Only one lady was handling all of the people. Her eyes seemed heavy, like they might close on their own at any moment, as though she could fall asleep.
They had been here multiple times before, sometimes to gather information about unidentified persons, sometimes to bring an injured person there, or even to get treated there themselves in emergencies.
___
After finding out who was in the most stable condition, they decided to start with the barn man.
An adult man was lying on a metal-framed bed. The sheet of the bed was actually cleaner than what anyone would expect in that place. Some curtains were hanging around him to give him some privacy. The bed was at the side of a large hall. The man's right hand was hanging at the side of the bed to keep it stabilized.
First introducing himself, Chriral asked the man's name.
In a surprisingly clear and joyful tone, the man replied, "Geren Govera."
Pointing at Kelar, Geren continued, "Who is that rough-looking guy?"
The name Geren was pretty unconventional at that time; names like that used to be common before. The only time Chriral had encountered any name like that was in much older reports from Parira.
Chriral was about to say the name of his work partner, but Kelar stepped forward and replied, "I am Kelar. We are here to find out about your hand situation, Geren."
"It was a wolf, I think? It was hard to see inside the dark barn. But — but because of that, I got a pretty good place to live in for a while." Geren replied with a wide smile.
With a little hesitation, Chriral asked, contemplating whether he should ask or not, "Do you mean this Tinera?"
"What else? Better than the vanet barn at least. Much better than those vanet streets." Geren was still joyful, but the last bit seemed more like an act than actual joy.
Chriral knew all that very well, about the living situation especially around the Kar roads. But their information gathering had to go on, so he asked, "Sorry to hear that. That wasn't a wolf. Can you continue with the incident from the night of the attack? Maybe you remember something else?"
Hearing that, the joyful man sounded a little terrified. Stopping in between, the man replied, "I thought it was a wolf, from the growling. But the silhouette was like some boxes stacked together.
Those weren't the barn boxes then...
I lost all my senses from the moment I saw it growling, so I am not so sure now."
From the investigations they had found, the teeth marks were blunt compared to those of animals, and only a minimal number of animals were killed each time.
"Anything else do you remember?" Chriral asked in a calmer voice than before.
Geren shook his head.
Kelar said to Geren, "If you remember or find out anything else, come to the Parira watch tower."
After taking some general information about Geren, they left him alone. Most of that talking was done by Kelar; he was better at handling those kinds of situations.
Geren had once had a decent home and used to live with his niece. Later they both moved to Shrastin for better living arrangements and treatment for his niece, whose condition slowly deteriorated and eventually ended in her death from a genetic disease. Thankfully, or not, Geren was just a carrier of it. Because of that, he had never tried to build a family. After spending all his sha at Shrastin, he came back to Nanadayaka with almost nothing.
While talking about these things, Geren wasn't particularly joyful as before, nor sad. It was almost nothing, just words coming out of him. As unfortunate it was, he wasn't the only one with similar situation. They had to do their job at that moment, they had to move on.
___
Later they went to talk with the unconscious lady. She was lying on the bed, her head wrapped with fabric. Beneath it, some of the atlrea of her neck and face was burnt. None of her hair was visible. Her eyes were closed. A man there was checking on her.
When both Pariras went into the closure, the man said, "She went unconscious again. If she stabilizes, I will call you two."
"Is her condition too severe? Do you have any other information about her?" Chriral asked, standing close to the bed.
"Yes, actually. She is Shereka. She couldn't remember anything else.
And she was repeating a name, 'Neef'." the man said, pausing between sentences.
Kelar chimed in, "Neef, as in the book Neef?"
Chriral looked at him and asked, "Which book? Since when do you read books?"
"Yours, reluctantly. And no, I don't read. You don't have to read to know about things." Kelar replied snarkily.
The man who was looking after Shereka cleared his throat and said, "I will call you over when she is awake."
"Yes, ok. Any information about her family? Maybe for better treatment?" Kelar asked the man.
"Looking for them is your job. Please look for them." the man replied.
"Yes, yes." Chriral replied, took his work partner, and got out of the closure.
***
It was past midday. Dhrikita was sitting at the front desk, leaning forward and looking outside. Dhrikita had come to the watch tower not long after Kelar and Chriral left in the morning. One reason was that she needed to keep her mind off the situation with missing Viriya, and the other was that Arith had been working for almost a whole day continuously.
The night before, she and Makriva had been planning to go out somewhere. Viriya hadn't returned from the university that day. Makriva's mother was at home; his father was on night guard duty at the train stand. Late at night, Makriva's mother came to the watch tower to inform Makriva about Viriya, and with some Pariras, she left the watch tower.
Dhrikita had gone home well before all of that and found out about it the next morning.
When Kelar and Chriral came back to the watch tower, she noticed that the left sleeve of Kelar's trench coat was ripped along its seam.
Dhrikita asked, pointing at the ripped cloth, "What happened there?"
"The second person at the Nerebe..." Kelar replied.
Chriral added, "I was questioning the last person on the list. He was a bit too mentally compromised. More than the first person at Nerebe, at least."
"Well, go change that ripped coat." Dhrikita said to Kelar, then continued, "And Chriral, give me those." pointing at the papers Chriral was holding.
The person at the front desk usually kept any identification documents in a nearby cabinet, which they had to organise from time to time to keep track.
When going through the names to sort them, she first checked the injured homeless man's file, Geren, mainly because of the dying farm animals situation. But she stopped reading halfway through his life story, because she already had personal stress about Viriya and didn't want to go over Geren's unfortunate life details. She then stored the file of the robbed man from Tinera.
The last file from Tinera was about an unconscious lady, information about whom she had come across on the same day they were discussing going out.
The Pariras hadn't gathered much information about her, but the lady's name was Shereka. She had been saying a name, Neef. And she had worked at the university.
She was writing note about informing the university about her. While writing the details she remembered at the same day Viriya went missing, a lady from Tinera came to report about an unconscious lady, Shereka.
If she had worked at the university and had been injured on the same day Viriya went missing, was there any connection between them? If that was true, why hadn't she been looked for? What about her family?
Quickly sorting the files, she looked up who else was working on Viriya's disappearance. Makriva's father and mother were on that. She couldn't leave the watch tower to inform them, Makriva wasn't there yet, and Arith had just left a few moments before. If either of Makriva's parents came in, she could inform them then.
She decided to go to Chriral. She gave him the file of Shereka and asked him to hand it over to another Parira who was working on Viriya's disappearance.
Then she kept waiting, hoping Makriva's mother or father would come in, while thinking over everything in Shereka's file.