Standing at the head of Saint George Stone Bridge with the cat in his arms, watching the snow fall from the sky, Shade truly did not know what to say.
The coroner's three addresses were all quite far apart. "Magician Xiao En," whom Shade had already visited, was roughly in the southeast of Moon Bay City, while "Sir Donald," whom he visited that morning, lived in the northeast of the city.
The Bloodkin "Sir Donald" did not actually possess a noble title. The form of address "Sir" recognized both his social standing and his dual doctorates in political science and history, so either "Mr." or "Sir" was acceptable. Mr. Albert had likewise only given Shade Sir Donald's work address: Moon Bay City's Political Economy College.
When Shade found Sir Donald at this city's most renowned institution of higher learning, the middle-aged man with a little bat symbol floating above his head and gold-rimmed glasses was comforting a crying woman alongside several colleagues.
Upon hearing that someone had come looking for him, he temporarily bade his colleagues farewell and stepped out of the office, where he saw a young man with a dog perched on his shoulder:
"Hello, um. Did you need something from me?"
Shade withdrew his gaze from the symbol above the man's head:
"Yes, Mr. Albert sent me."
Only after confirming that no one was in the corridor, and that the only sound nearby was the woman sobbing inside the office, did Shade briefly explain about the prostitute's corpse and the drained blood.
Like the magician, Sir Donald immediately suspected that some ill-mannered member of the Same Race from elsewhere had committed the crime. Hearing Shade say that the Five Gods Church was investigating Bloodkin throughout the city, he frowned in irritation:
"This really is troublesome. Everyone normally