A Shaggy Dog story
It was raining. Too many left dead in the street from the last conflict. The police expect a certain standard of information from witnesses. Sometimes the witnesses are abused, even tortured. She knew it, so did he. That little piece of paper they keep asking for? It was removed by witnesses. Why? If it's discovered to be held by private citizens in the area, it will attract the media, as well as organised crime. So they cut it up into sixteen pieces and hid them well. So, what exactly are they hiding, you ask? Just instructions. Instructions on how to build a funny looking wooden and metal stick with bits of glass.
Years passed. The foxes lived quietly, but the hounds were always after them, catching the scent of a long forgotten mystery. They eventually died of old age in constant fear of opression and retribution; almost paranoid in their own ways. Before they died, they passed the pieces on to a friend within an envelope marked with the words "Open at your own risk." Their friend knew the importance of the letter. A lineage was formed through him to pass the letter onto a friend before it's owner died. It's contents were quickly forgotten and misunderstood. Until it reached a crazy woman.
When she recieved the letter, she quickly opened it. She found a letter with sixteen pieces of paper. The letter read: "We have died. Take the paper, make it whole. Then replicate the revealed design. Avenge our fallen."
After a week, the paper was finally restored. What it showed was bizarre, a knife with a telescopic lens. The paper was dated to the Dark Ages.
"What a pointless weapon," she said with a grimace, then a smirk.