*Introduction*

Welcome to Wyndrah! Wyndrah is a fantasy world created by Xenobia, and she has written extensively in her world. Xenobia’s stories in Wyndrah mostly feature a period of time that’s roughly equivalent to the real-world early Renaissance, with the dawning of exploration and science, but she has also started stories in modern Wyndrah, which is equivalent to our modern world but with some enhancements. Wyndrah is a realm of magic, of men, and of lashran. If you ever visit Wyndrah and a lashran approaches you, don’t be fooled! At first a lashran might appear to be human, but they’re actually quite different, and they live considerably longer lives. Because of their long lives, their fertility is limited, and so men outnumber lashran on the face of Wyndrah. The biggest difference between men and lashran is that there aren’t any lashran females – well, at least there didn’t used to be any, but that’s a whole different story. Lashran are male, but they still have gender differences: They’re divided into sires and lifebearers. Lashran look much like humans, except that their skin has a characteristic sheen to it and usually have a golden bronze tone , and sires have slit pupils and pointed ear tips. Also, the lifebearers, as you might guess from their name, can bear life.  If you dislike mpreg even in a non-human species, you probably should skip this story. In modern Wyndrah, there are some female lashran, but they’re quite rare, and to date, there has not yet been a female lashran who can bear children. 

This is a story set in modern Wyndrah, with a cast of original characters that I’ve created. Xenobia has kindly agreed to let others play in her world. I hope you enjoy the story and go read Xenobia's originals! You'll find her over at AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/users/Xenobia/

I've also written two Wyndrah stories in collaboration, but since I'm not in contact with my co-authoress anymore, I can't post them here without permission. Please head over to AO3 as well for them:

The Velvet Shadow: http://archiveofourown.org/works/719214

Chasing the Light: http://archiveofourown.org/works/719266

The following story is connected to them, but you don't have to read them to understand it.

Secrets
Part 1

Private investigator Sheldon leaned back in his well-worn leather seat and put his feet on the office desk.

A few minutes ago he had finished his last job, telling his current client, a rich club owner, who was trying to discredit him. It had taken a lot of asking around, bribing certain people and exerting mild threads over other certain people, but in the end Sheldon had managed to procure the damning evidence. In his line of work he had faced more difficult challenges, of course, but not too much. And his payment had been sweetened with a bonus, so all the running around had been worth it.

But now Sheldon wanted to celebrate his success. He had uncorked a nice bottle of old whiskey that he had saved for special occasions and now sipped carefully at his glass to savor every mouthful.

After finishing his drink he would close up his office and go home for twelve, maybe more hours of undisturbed sleep. When working on a case, Sheldon simply forgot the basic need to sleep, focussing solely on his work. That might have been one of the reasons why he was the damn best private investigator in Valkyrie Falls. If something or someone needed to be found, he was the guy you asked.

Of course his fee wasn't exactly cheap, but his track record of solved cases was unrivalled. Therefore, Sheldon was never shy of clients. Most of them, however, didn't have any challenging cases. He usually took them anyway, but when men came to him to find out if their wives cheated on them, Sheldon send them away. He had some standards, after all, and  if those guys needed an investigator to find out something glaringly obvious like that, it was absolutely hopeless anyway.

Sheldon took the last sip of his whiskey and tried not to close his eyes. If he did, he would fall asleep right here, and as comfortable as his seat was, the bed at home was the better choice. Just five more minutes or so, and he would get up…

A sharp knock on the door woke Sheldon from his slight doze. He needed a moment to clear the haziness of his vision, but then he looked at his watch. In exactly five minutes his business hours would be over. Someone wanted to cut it close.

"Damn, can't this wait until tomorrow?" Sheldon grumbled, getting up from his seat and straightening out his tie. If this was just another miserable sod with a cheating wife…
He grabbed the handle and yanked the door open, ready to tell his late visitor to come back tomorrow - or never, for that matter.

The person standing on his threshold was clearly no cheating husband and no bored wife needing incriminating evidence back from the apartment of her lover who now blackmailed her. It was a lashran, like Sheldon himself, but there any similarities ended. The private investigator wasn't that tall for a sire, but towered over the petite lifebearer nevertheless. And whereas Sheldon was dark-haired and dark-eyed due to his human grandmother, the stranger practically glowed in the dim light of the hallway. He had almost white-blonde curls, tumbling over his shoulders, and a very fair complexion for a lashran, which told of a parent being human. The eyes, a startling shade of turquoise, were shadowed and red-rimmed.

As hard-boiled as Sheldon was, the sight of this obviously distressed and very pretty young lifebearer moved him. "What can I do for you?" he asked, taking on the most gentle tone he was capable of.

"Mr. Sheldon? May I speak with you? I know it's late, but it's very important." The stranger's voice was soft and sweet.

Sheldon nodded. "Please come in."

His late visitor practically sneaked in, making no sound at all. He was wearing a dark coat and a hat that was supposed to hide that brilliant hair, but it was not very effective. Sheldon almost smiled when he thought of those old black and white crime movies he had loved as a kid. The investigator always got late visits from a mysterious, blond beauty trying to hide their identity at the beginning of the movie.

Sheldon closed the door behind the young lifebearer. "Please take a seat, Mr…"

The late visitor sat down on a chair opposite Sheldons's desk. "Just call me C," he said, telling Sheldon at once that the young man's identity was important. But his reputation forbid him any prying. If Sheldon's client wanted to stay anonymous for the time being, he had every right to be.

"Then Cee it is. What can I do for you?" Sheldon leaned against his office desk and crossed his arms in front of his chest. In that position he dwarfed Cee even more, but Sheldon had learned during the years that a slightly intimidated client was easier to work with.

Those sad, turquoise eyes looked up at him. "I want you to find my son. He's been missing for a week now."

A nasty little voice inside Sheldon's head made a disappointing sound, but he quickly shoved it away. This was business, damn it, and he was just tired.

"Can you tell me more about it?" Sheldon asked. "Where was he last seen? Has the police any clues?"

Cee shook his head. "Fyn was playing with his dog in our garden. It's very large, and there's a high wall with an alarm system attached to it. The police found out that the alarm system had been damaged in the way professional housebreakers work. There were no clues at all. I… I let my son out of sight for maybe half an hour. And his dog is a very big one, trained to protect him. When I went back into the garden to call Fyn inside the house for dinner… he was gone." Cee quickly rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath. "The dog had been shot with a tranquillizer dart."

"Any ransom demands yet?"

"No! I… well, my mate is very wealthy, and we'd be able to pay any sum, but there hasn't been any demand! And the police has all but given up!" Cee's voice broke, and he tried to fight back the tears that were threatening to overflow his eyes.

Sheldon considered everything he had heard so far. Now that sounded like a challenge. He had solved some kidnapping cases before, so it wasn't new territory. The lack of any ransom demands was alarming, but he was confident that he would find those bastards who had kidnapped the child.

Finally he nodded. "All right, I'll help you. But at first I need a picture of your son and every relevant information about him."

Cee took a little photo out of his pocket and gave it to Sheldon. It showed a miniature version of Cee with shorter hair and some freckles. The little boy was hugging a huge cinnamon-colored retriever dog and smiled broadly, showing a cute tooth gap where a baby tooth was missing. "Fyn is a lifebearer, four years old and about three feet tall. And he has a permanent splint on his right lower leg because of a badly healed fracture. He… fell down the stairs two years ago. Therefore he can't run very fast and is limping."

The shadow that flew over Cee's face told Sheldon that there was something more about the child's injury than he was telling. But for the moment it was a vital information Sheldon stored away in his mind for later. He put the picture on his desk and turned to Cee again. This time he tried to strike a less intimidating pose.

"I also need your real name, I'm afraid," he said carefully. "If it's not about ransom money, maybe someone has a grudge against you or your mate."

But Cee shook his head vigorously, curls flying around his face. "No. I'm sorry, but no. This is too delicate a matter."

Sheldon's expression darkened. "Excuse me, but you're not making this any easier for me. I have to investigate your family and your background to find any clues about Fyn's whereabouts. Of course you could yet receive a ransom demand, or some plain housebreaker panicked and took the boy with him. But those are only two possibilities. I have to investigate all of them. If you want me to find the kid, you need to trust me."

For a few moment silence reigned. Cee finally looked up at Sheldon, visibly struggling with himself. "Mr. Sheldon, can you swear to me not to tell anybody under any circumstances how you came to know the things I'm about to tell you?"

"Of course. I'm bound to professional discretion like a physician or a lawyer," Sheldon answered solemnly.

His visitor took another deep breath. "All right. My mate's name is Aravin Holden."

"Holden? As in Holden Hotels?"

"Yes. My mate manages the Valkyrie Falls branch."

Sheldon raised an eyebrow. The Holden hotel chain was one of the biggest on this continent, catering to the rich and famous. The investigator had set foot in one of their luxurious establishments one or two times, and the employees has looked at him as if he were a stray dog. Cee had a "wealthy mate" indeed.

And of course this opened up a whole new bunch of reasons for kidnapping the boy. The Holden family was practically a dynasty, priding themselves in building the first inns on this continent in times when lashran were still fighting with swords and humans had been more or less a legend. It was very old money.

Since Sheldon had a mind like a rat's nest, keeping absolutely anything in there that could be even remotely useful some day, he could remember what he had read about the Holden family. Aravin had an older brother, Othric, also a sire, who was the current head of the family and the business. Othric was divorced, and his son, a lifebearer named Sylair, appeared on the tabloids here and there, being a mindless party animal who loved to surround himself with actors and music stars.

Aravin having a mate had never been mentioned in the press, as far as Sheldon recalled.

"All right," Sheldon say finally. "I'll be as careful as possible and start right away tomorrow morning. I'd like you to contact me if there are any news, for example if the kidnappers demand a ransom. You can reach me with his number or the mail address any time." He took a business card from his desk and gave it to Cee.

The lifebearer put it away in his pocket, then he looked at Sheldon with a shaky, sweet smile. "Thank you so much, Mr. Sheldon."

Sheldon found it impossible to be immune to that smile. "I'll do my best to find your child. But I'm afraid I have to insist on a payment up front. The rest of the fee will be due when I have found Fyn."

Once again there was a silent struggle behind Cee's eyes. Finally he murmured, "How much?"

"Three thousand," Sheldon answered.

The lifebearer's eyes widened in surprise when he heard the sum, then Cee began to search his pockets frantically. However, he did not pull out a cash card or a cheque like Sheldon had expected, but a handful of crumpled bills. After a moment of feverish counting, his shoulders sagged. "I… I only have a bit under two thousand with me," he admitted softly.

"No problem. You can transfer the rest of the money to my bank account tomorrow." Who on Wyndrah ran around with so much hard cash in their pockets in a part of the city like this, Sheldon wondered.

But Cee shook his head, now looking mortified. "I… I can't. I… don't have a bank account. I'll be getting my monthly allowance in two weeks, then I can pay you the rest. Would… would that be alright?"

No bank account? Monthly allowance? Sheldon was now clearly perplexed, but he tried to hide it. His client was embarrassed enough. "Well, I can make an exception. But why don't you ask your mate to pay me?"

This time, Cee's voice was barely audible. "He doesn't now I'm here. That's why you must be absolutely discreet."

The investigator couldn't believe his ears. He almost blurted out, "What the hell?", but then he managed to get a hold of himself. Ruffling through his hair, he tried to think of a sensible way to answer to that. He finally asked, "So I take it Mr. Holden doesn't put any faith in private investigators?"

"You could say that," Cee whispered. "I'm sorry, Mr. Sheldon. I'm not trying to weasel out of the payment, and I guarantee you your money. But please start to look for my son right away! I can't bear the thought of him being alone and frightened somewhere…"

Sheldon held up a hand. "It's alright. I said yes, and I'm a man of my word. Now all I need is a way to contact you."

Cee got up from the chair, pulling out a piece of paper with a cell phone number on it. "Here. But don't call, just write a short message. No names. If you want to meet with me, simply write the date and time, and I'll come here. If you find Fyn, just write the word 'safe'."

Sheldon took the paper, not bothering to answer. This got stranger and stranger by the minute. "Thanks. No go home and relax," he said with a smile.

The look he got in return was part relieved, part haunted. "I'll try," Cee replied. "Good night, Mr. Sheldon."

The investigator waited until his mysterious client was gone, then he grabbed an empty folder from the shelf to put the picture and the cell phone number inside. Any need to sleep was gone, and Sheldon felt wide awake. The thrill of the hunt was running through him once again.

He started up his computer and used the search engines to find any further information about the Holden family. Of course he'd have to dig deeper than just the internet, but an overview couldn't hurt. Once again, there was no mentioning of Aravin Holden having a mate or a son.

Sheldon took the picture of little Fyn and gazed at it thoughtfully. "I'll find you, little guy", he said softly, but soon his thoughts wandered back to Cee's beautiful, sad eyes. He really wanted to help the young lifebearer. But it was more than that. His intuition told him that a lot more was going on. His mysterious client hadn't told him even half the truth, of that Sheldon was sure.

But he would find out what it was that Cee was hiding. After all, Sheldon wasn't just any investigator. He was the best. And he always solved his cases.

To be continued...