"What. What did you say?"

Sara was sure she didn't hear him well, her mother connected? She definitely did not hear him clearly. Or maybe he's the one mistaken.

Alexander sighed, that seemed to be all he did since early that morning. He put his hand inside his green tunic and brought out what looked like a note, a white note barely the size of his palm holding it out to her, "Here take a look at it."

She looked at him like he had grown two heads, "How does this answer my question as to how m-my m-mother is connected-d?" She choked as she said the words, unable to stop herself from stuttering, she thought by now she would be immune to things like this. I guess not.

"Just take a look at it please, it was found on all the victims." He prompted.

She dropped Cece back to the floor who wasted no time in scurrying away, that traitor. Sara reached out taking the note from his hand, she could hear the fast beating of her heart and this time it wasn't due to her one-sided attraction to Alexander, she would know after all it was her heart. But as to why her heart picked its pace, she couldn't tell, it was just a note besides.

The note had creases, probably due to it being folded continuously in his inner shirt. She unfolded the note and looked at it, at first the words weren't clear but then after a little while, her eyes could make out the words,

Under the full moon, with bleeding hearts the dark will rise..

Tears stung her eyes as they came close to pouring out, at that moment she thought it possible for her heart to break, could it be? She felt her legs shaking like they couldn't bear her weight anymore, fortunately she was close to the table and used it for support. The beating of her heart intensified, threatening to come out of its cage, surely it couldn't be?

No,no no, it can't be.

The words written were not what bothered her, it was the handwriting, when was the last time she saw those handwritings. Why was a note with her mother's handwriting found on the victims body.

Sara looked up at Alexander desperately wishing this was a sham, one of his cruel jokes , but even as the thought crossed her mind she knew it wasn't a joke, it was real hard proof, could it mean what she thought? No her mother couldn't be alive, she was dead, she saw her body with her two eyes. She looked at the note again, this was really her mother's handwriting. She would know, after years of reading her mother's cryptic words in her elegant and delicate handwriting while they played a game of Find, where she had to follow some notes her mother wrote to find an object she would hide. Finding those objects with only clues from the notes were the highlight of her day. The same curves and crosses and dots, she knew it wasn't forged, maybe a sixth sense or some sort of connection but somehow she didn't think it was forged.

"From the look on your face, I can tell you recognize the handwriting belongs to your mother." She sat back down, she didn't think her legs could carry her again even with the support of the table.

"How did they know who the handwriting belonged to?" Her mother may have been the leader of the brotherhood but she was sure they wouldn't recognize the writing at first glance the way she did. She was her mother's daughter, she didn't need to look twice to recognize her writing.

"At first we didn't know, we tried to make several connections but none fit the writings on the note, we were about to give up until-" He paused bringing out something else from his shirt and placed it on her hands.

"-Until we noticed this in the carved out chest of the victims, we thought she was the killer but that's just impossible since well- you know," He scratched his mass of dark curls, clearly not comfortable with talking about her mother. "You'll know more if you just agree to come with me."

She looked at the item placed on her palm, it was a silver pendant; a crescent moon shaped pendant with the engraved word the brotherhood.

A long forgotten memory flashed before her.

"Dearie, come sit with me. Don't just stand there."

Sara walked into her mother's chambers where she sat on a huge four-poster bed. The brown tapestries hanging on the wall were embroidered with images of a kingdom surrounded by expanse of forests, the royal symbol of Silva. The room was richly adorned with rich colours of green and dirt brown and the floor finely polished, befitting the only cousin to the king.

Sara came to sit beside her mother, she was a splitting image of hers with her red curls and grey eyes that could pass for a stormy cloud in the sky.

"What is that mama?" Sara asked pointing to an object in her mother's hands.

"This?" Her mom raised the object in her hand revealing a silver pendant the shape of a crescent moon, Sara was enamoured, she had never seen anything so beautiful, it glinted in the moonlight.

"Is an heirloom." Her mother continued, "passed from your great -grand mother to your grand father and then to me, soon enough it'd be passed down to you. That is when you take over leadership of the brotherhood."

The pendant was placed in her hands and Sara noticed the engraved words ' the brotherhood'.

Sara didn't know what an heirloom meant but she knew she couldn't wait till it was hers.

*"*'*"*'*

The iciness of the lake chilled her to the bones, yet Sara didn't try to leave the lake, covered by the thick trees with their branching leaves, the moonlight could only illuminate so much. Her mind was in a frenzy, everything she thought she had left behind had all come back to haunt her and drag her to the depths of the abyss.

Alexander had left though reluctantly after he had exhausted all ways to convince her to go back to Silva. He had left rather disappointed that she didn't falter in her decision despite the supposed involvement of her mother. Little did he know she was actually considering it.

Sara was sure fate was trying to play a cruel game on her, why couldn't she just be left alone? Why did she have to be dragged into something that didn't concern her, whether her dead mother was involved or not? Why did she have to go back to Silva? Why was the killer trying to impersonate her mother?

She had asked Alexander, after a rather painful memory of the heirloom, how they got their hands on the items dropped with the bodies. Even though he wasn't supposed to tell her as her stand on things had not been confirmed, he still informed her that one of the members of the guild who worked with the royal coroner had swiped them when the royal coroner took the bodies for inspection. So it seemed the royal family and the rest of Silva's people were not aware of the items dropped. In their minds, it was a normal serial killing but it was more than that. She still didn't know why the royal family was suspected of the killings but she didn't for once believe it. They're not killers.

Sara couldn't ignore the fact that this wasn't normal. Why were notes with her mother's handwriting and with a rather cryptic message found on all the bodies? And how possible was it for the royal coroner to not notice it before it was collected? The heirloom of the secret guild, a symbol of leadership passed from her great grand mother the founder of the guild, was also found on all the bodies which she found weird, there was only supposed to be one heirloom since it was crafted by her great grand mother of course, there were no replicas or imitations, it was a secret heirloom just like the guild. Her mother was supposed to be the only one with the knowledge of it's crafting but she was dead.

Sara remembered removing the necklace from her mother's dead body, she had handed it to her mother's right hand, passing down her automatic leadership to her. So how did several heirlooms, exact replicas end up in all the bodies?

These thoughts plagued her mind even as she waddled out of the water and went back to the warmth of her cottage fully dressed. Cece the traitor who had abandoned her, perked up as she entered her bedroom, she stroked her fur and sat at the edge of her bed. She knew she would never be at peace after all Alexander told her, not that she was ever really in peace.

Sara removed the note and heirloom from the pocket of her pants, looking at it to see that it was exactly the same, nothing changed. She stayed there looking at it deeply, there was only one way for her to get the answers to all her questions and know what was going on. Even though she swore never to return, it was the only way to get answers.

She had to go back to Silva. Right into the den of serial murder. But first, she had to roast her dead rabbit.