[SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG! Life is finally back under control! xD]
There were a couple things all the murders had in common: one, if they grew facial hair, it was always freshly trimmed, complete with fresh clippings by the bodies; two, they all died of poison. A very fancy poison, too, from what she had heard. A poison only the very wealthy could get a hold of.
That is what she heard, at least, and what she sought to investigate that day as part of her own personal training, for today she was being extra gutsy: she had slipped out during the day when she normally only went out at night, and she didn't don her mask--for she would look pretty ridiculous in the full Owl getup in broad daylight! Instead, she used it as an exercise in practicing her magic, and using her gift of illusions, she turned her hair and eyes from pink to brown, vanished her beauty mark, and even gave herself some scruffy facial hair. She had been doing a lot of practicing in front of a mirror, and had even asked Rufus for makeup tips in case of magical failures. But her magic had grown stronger, and she had grown more confident in it, and by the time she snuck out of the house that day...
She looked like a damned handsome young man, if she did say so herself.
She bound her breasts, donned masculine clothes, tied her hair back in a loose tail, and was conscious of the way she walked and moved as Rufus had taught her. No, today she was definitely not Einin; instead, she was Tanin.
Gods. Her alter identities just kept growing.
As she walked through town, confidence in her stride even though her heart hammered in her chest at the craziness of what she was doing, she went over a game plan in her head. There was no rush to get home; her parents were out of town for a couple days, and she had told her maids to let her be for the day. She was good on that front. How to find a mysterious killer, though? She supposed her first step was to ask around.
And it was while she was heading to a tavern that she decided to cut through an alley as a shortcut--
Right as a well-dressed nobleman with a fabulous mustache was walking out.
"Wah!" she yelped, but reacted too late and ran face first into him instead.