The Paladin's Shadow; The Face of the Enemy Revealed

Credits; Petra, Zink,

The only upside to crime in as magically saturated a place as the arcane academy was that it was very easy to make the hall ways simply bend around the scene and divert bystanders away from it.  The only people who could find it were, as cliche as it felt, those who already knew where it was. 
The downside of course was that there were too many random spells and enchantments muddling up the atmosphere and enough people had died in the school over the course of its existance that there was no way of even magically determining cause of death.  Not that it was hard to tell of course, something had eaten large portions of the poor woman.  Shad had been able to help the investigations team seperate out the constituent bits and assembled it into more or less a human form, although far more less than more.  After the blood had been collected for testing and cataloging, they had begun to examine the body. 
Which left the unpleasant business of witness interviews.  Her mother had already given a statement and left quietly.  Everyone had relaxed noticeably as soon as she was gone.  Petra couldn't blame them; they probably saw death regularly, but rarely did she stick around with the body.  Shad had given his statement first, but he was lingering to render medical knowledge to the investigations team.  He didn't seem bothered by the death, but then again he was a hard man to read.  It was rather impressive to watch him assisting the professionals though. 

"Miss Zinksfeld, could you try and pay attention?"
"Oh, sorry.  Could you repeat the question?"
"Did you know the victim, Miss Abernum?"
"I met her once.  She was the Chief Hall Monitor.  Wouldn't that make her your boss?"
"When did you meet her?"
"After class, she informed me that I had broken certain rules."
"And how did you react?"
"I think I blew her off to be perfectly frank with you.  But that was back in the first week of school and I barely remember any of it.  Haven't spoken to her since."
"You are a first year teacher here, correct?"
"Yes."
"Are you aware that Miss Abernum filed a report advising that you be released?"
"She did?  That...all due respect to the dead, had I known I would not have felt nearly so bad about finding her dead."
"I see.  So how would you describe the scene when you came upon it?"
"Blood and tissues everywhere, My mother was leaned over the body, I think she must have come soon afterward because the blood had splattered onto her a bit."
"I see.  Well, thank you for your time.'
"I'm not a suspect am I?"
"Well, the healer vouches that you were with him when he heard the scream.  Unless you know ways of causing people to be eaten while having conversations, then your alibi will do for now."
"Gee, I feel so reassured."
"If I were you, I'd head home and get some rest.  This is a pretty gruesome scene and I doubt you'll want to stay here until we solve the case."
He was right.  If Shad wasn't still over there helping she would have left in a heart beat.  But somehow she didn't feel right just leaving him there without trying to help a bit herself.  It was probably just some sort of competitive thing. 
"Is there any way I can help?"
"Don't suppose you know of any spells that can pull the magical records from the hall?  In theory it should tell us exactly who did it.  Its just that nobody can get any one enchantment out of the place."
"Miss Abernum wasn't a mage by chance?"
"She was actually."
Petra cracked her knuckles.  Truth be told nobody could have pulled the records without a lot of work, years most likely.  However, since she was a mage there would be evidence of any fight, transfer of power, or at the very least she could pull time of death and final mental state.  She flicked a piece of chalk into her hand and took one of the vials of blood.  A small pattern was all that was needed in order to get the bare minimum, but with a slight modification her father had taught her she could actually access the dead woman's memories.  She finished making the slight leaf pattern on the third branch and stepped back. 
"Just to warn you, this is probably going to be rather unpleasant."
"What is?"
A roar of power tore through the hall, consuming the entire vial.  A vision, as though seen through Miss Abernum's dying eyes, leapt into the air and lingered.  A deep, blood red obscured the entire image, but even through it they could make out ring after ring of razor teeth within a great maw.  It was a creature of waking nightmare, the shadow's of Nieldic legend.  It was a Chori-Sada.