And now for something completely different

Prologue: A bad night for murder

Rain swept down the folds of her wax jacket like a hundred gushing streams snaking across the face of a dull brown hill. She pulled the hood further over her head, but this did little to stop the from splashing her face, driven near horizontal as it was by the blustery gale.

"A bad night to be out" she murmured to herself, words quickly blown away by the howl of another gust of rain soaked wind, "not that I would willingly choose any night for murder".

She left the slippery cobbles of the winding road, exchanging the risk of a broken ankle in a slip for the surety of a mud caked ankle on the unpaved path that led through the trees at the edge of the hamlet.

Away from the gas lamps the only light came from a meagre moon through the canopy of withered old oaks. This did not constrain her pace, the well worn route familiar to her by now. Ducking under a gnarled and weather-beaten branch she left the mud path for a rocky descent into a small quarry and long abandoned mine head. Here she paused, rain still lashing down, a drip down her back causing a moment's shiver. The quarry was lit around its perimeter by a series of brass lamps, each hung from a slender wooden stave.

Then

Then she was no longer alone.

It was not that the old man suddenly appeared in a puff of smoke. Or that he had emerged from some hidden spot. Rather it was as if she had simply forgotten he was stood in front of her, but now she had remembered.

"How do, Siaf" the woman nodded as she spoke, causing a trickle of rainwater from her hood to fall down her face.

"Greetings Ms Magdalena" the man smiled, what few teeth remained in his mouth we stained a pale blue. Magdalena could not decide if the smile was warranted by her bedraggled appearance, or some unspoken joke the man had remembered. Siaf was a man of dark humour and dark arts.

"You are here with murder on your mind" Siaf stated, although the accusation did not seem to outwardly alter his disposition.

"That I am" Magdalena calmly replied.

"I had been forewarned of your intentions"

"Then you will have also been told of my conviction" rain continued to pitter-patter on her face as she said this. By contrast Siaf appeared dry, despite the downpour. Maybe that trick was the source of his humour Magdelana mused.

"Did you not predict that I would oppose your desire?" Siaf asked, smile starting to fade.

"I make no predictions Siaf, that is your realm. I am a person of business, business that this evening calls for murder" she shifted her weight from one leg to another as she said this, trying to stamp some life back into her extremities as the cold fabric of her breaches let in a spreading chill.

"And we must conduct our business now?"

Magdalena nodded, rain water again flicked across her face "Unless you have any last words?"

Siaf paused, thought for a moment then said "No, I do not believe I do"

"I had always thought men of your pursuit enjoyed an incantation or some other ritual?"

"Ah, I take your meaning. No Magdalena, I am unconventional in my methods. If we have business to be done, then let it be so" with this he bowed his head and place a hand on the chest of his deep red tunic.

"It is so" Magdalena said simply, also bowing her head, but keeping her arms at her sides, water dripping from clenched fists.

Siaf moved the hand on his chest to a pocket inside the tunic. It came back out clutching a long thin blade, glinting in the pale lamplight. In a flash of movement he had plunged it into Magdalena's chest, the woman slumping to her knees in response.

"T'is a grim night for murder" Siaf spoke quietly

"There never is a good time" gurgled Magdalena with her last breath.

Her last breath, that is to say, in that particular body.