Of all the Trykers I have ever met, my uncle was by far the biggest. Of course, this greatness wasn't simply the fact of his height, which was actually modest as is normal for our folk. In fact his stature was even insignificant if we compared it to his inseparable friend Zhuangi. No, it was more from his largeness of spirit and his unrivalled powers of deduction. My uncle is, and will remain the hero of my childhood; his tales and deeds will always echo down my peaceful nights. Moreover, there is not a single place on Atys which does not hold fond memories of him...

But all great Homins have to begin one day, even when they were unknown and unheralded for their skills. Uncle Mac'leaffy was no exception to this, and he too had to show to the world what he was capable of. So began his very first investigation: the Affair of the Devious Mektoub.

In those days Mac'leaffy Roner was very young and his vision of the world was still limited to Fairhaven and its surrounding area.

"Why should we roam far when our own landscape holds so much detail and so many mysteries to solve?"

Thus were his words to everybody who vainly tried to goad him into a sense of adventure.

"Each mote of dust has his own history and somebody has to listen to all their tales"

Was his only reply. He had a passion for the infinitely small, for everything that was at the limit of the visible, unthought-of of by most Homins. This had meant that throughout his adolescence he had been a rather lonely figure, not having yet met his great friend Zhuangi; and only the notorious Tepsen and his crazy theories seemed occasionally to awake his curiosity. As for his love of justice, it might as well not have existed, because everybody who knew him before the affair dismissed him as an idle dreamer, who did not fulfill his role in Tryker society...

All was due to change on the stormy day of Thermis when this story starts. The sky had been overcast all day and the air had slowly become leaden with humidity. Each second dragged longer and more heavily then the one before, and everyone was praying for the anticipated thunderstorm to break... The weather being the ally of the patient Tryker, the thunderstorm crashed into action at the end of the afternoon. The wind tore across the lakes as the lightening scrawled yellow over the dark skies and all sensible Trykers took to their homes to sit out the storm. Mac'leaffy Roner, however, was determined not to miss the free fireworks.

After some hours, the washed out skies cleared and people filed out into the streets to enjoy the fresh cool air. The red sun was low in the sky as night fell over the now calm waters, when a sudden rumour animated the capital into agitated life. A stable boy had begun shouting and crying that he had lost valuable animals when the storm was raging over the city. Speculation and theory sprang from every corner,

The Mektoub Affair had begun….

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