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[Lord of the Mysteries] For the Ones We Left Behind 6/15 (5810 words)
Title: For the Ones We Left Behind 6/15
Fandom: Lord of the Mysteries
Character/Pairing(s): Audrey Hall, Leonard Mitchell, Melissa Moretti, Benson Moretti, Klein Moretti, Xio Derecha, Fors Wall
Rating: PG-13
Warning: none?
Summary: MI9 catches Benson Moretti, and end up with more than they expect.
Audrey Hall had everything under control.
Really, she did! Despite MI9 on one side and an unknown surprise on the other, with two civilians caught up in-between and both Mr. Star and Mr. World injured while Miss Judgement and Miss Magician both already worn, Audrey had full faith in their ability to get out of this situation just fine.
She and Mr. Star rushed with Melissa through the streets after Susie just minutes ago, with a speed motivated by Mr. Fool sending them an impression of Miss Magician’s fear and anxiety. That impression was the reason why Mr. Star needed little convincing to pull the majority of the ground floor of MI9 into a dream, even as Audrey dealt out mental cues to the crowd outside the main doors to disperse and look away as the three of them entered.
It was the gentlest solution, as well as the quickest.
And then Mr. Star went ahead while Audrey stayed with Melissa to calm the girl who witnessed some very strange events because they didn’t have the time to explain things to her anymore.
When Fors and Xio appeared dragging along Melissa’s uninjured brother, Audrey thought that now they would just concentrate on getting out without drawing too much attention. If all went well, then she could linger back a bit and hypnotise those who had seen Fors and Xio’s faces so that they all escaped with little to no trouble.
It wasn’t that Audrey was fully naive to how things could go wrong, but she was very comfortable knowing that Mr. Fool was likely watching them.
Praise Mr. Fool, she thought reverently as Melissa and her brother embraced.
But then Xio was attacked by a Sealed Artefact, and Audrey’s heart dropped when she saw what it could do.
Information! It revealed their information! And worse yet, it revealed the Tarot Club! With multiple organisations already searching for the followers of the Fool, their god informed them more than once to keep their own cards a secret when possible, if only for their own safety.
Audrey had yet to drop her own card on a mission, understanding that she wasn’t yet powerful enough to protect her family should she be exposed. She also found herself fiercely protective of her secret place in the Tarot Club and of their Monday meetings. Mr. World was their contact with the outside world, which was fitting with his title as the Fool’s Blessed.
But the rest of them…
They were all steadily growing in power and experience, but they couldn’t yet deal with situations the way Mr. World could.
As the sheet which revealed secrets flew back toward the group of MI9, Audrey was the one who noticed as Mr. World and Mr. Star melted from the ground upward, revealing their injured states.
An ability to do with spirits? She recalled Mr. Star mentioned before that he had command over several spirits, but it was a skill that needed time to adapt to, as different spirits held different abilities.
“I’ve broken the confinement,” Mr. Star muttered to her, wincing as he held his ribs gingerly. “But it won’t last long. We need to leave their territory to use teleportation skills.”
It made sense, since MI9 was full of those of the Arbiter pathway. They would have plenty of rules active to hinder opponents in their own building.
As Audrey urged the Moretti siblings along, Melissa’s hand caught onto her forearm tightly.
“Miss Audrey, what is going on?” The young woman demanded, eyes bright with a burning fear and curiosity. “This is— I already knew we’re doing something we’re not supposed to do, but—”
“Later,” Audrey coaxed, leading her and her brother toward the door.
And then they were surrounded as people rushed in from the front doors, and once again she felt shocked when she realised that— Audrey knew those people.
They were not close, but the men who rushed into the MI9 building were her family’s guards, usually seen around her father and brother.
Just what were they—?
“Miss Audrey!” One of them, a young man (a new hire to look after the estate after the break of war when her father worried that the poor and desperate might attack the nobles in the middle of the night), called out to her with joy.
Oh no, Audrey despaired. Were they… specifically there for her?
She had— well, it wasn’t the first time Audrey hadn’t gone home on time, and although she was scolded time and again by her parents, they never tried to chase her down before, claiming worry but understanding that sometimes she tended to be distracted by other people and things. After all, Audrey was now an adult and had her own circle of contacts.
Another guard, an older and more experienced one, immediately shut the young man up as he looked to Audrey for direction, eyes solemn in understanding of a situation that was out of his control.
She took a split second to contemplate her choices before she called out to them, “Help! We came to look for my friend’s brother and now they won’t let us go!”
There was no point in pretending they hadn’t seen her or that she hadn’t seen them, and attempting to erase her presence from their minds would take too much time while the Tarot Club was being chased down by MI9. They had to leave the building as soon as possible, and this was only a boon to her.
Of course, the downside of this was that MI9 would know Audrey Hall was seen with a known member of the Tarot Club, but she could excuse her presence as Melissa’s support.
It was a bitter feeling, to immediately understand how to manipulate a situation to her advantage.
The men reacted to her words immediately, taking in the large and suited members of MI9 also in the lobby with them, all with dark looks on their faces, while Audrey’s group consisted of many frightened women and injured men.
They hollered threats and raised weapons, although Minister Amyrius did not look in the least bit threatened. None of the guards dared to shoot, knowing who their opponent was, but MI9 did not have the same hesitation.
As Minister of Defense Amyrius raised a hand to point at their group, Mr. World pushed Miss Magician behind himself and scowled deeply, reaching for a baton shoved through a belt loop with his uninjured arm.
“Gehrman Sparrow.” Amyrius directed, and the sheet in the hands of his subordinates writhed for a moment before it flew toward Mr. World with a dazzling speed, leaving Mr. World to swing the baton as if he could take down the sheet with it, and take a step back in surprise.
Audrey didn’t have the time to weigh her decision as she leapt forward to grab onto Mr. World and twist so that the two of them switched places.
It was only afterward that she realised what she did— her family’s guards were there in full view, as well as top MI9 officials.
With both Mr. World and Mr. Star’s sudden appearance in the lobby, neither of them had seen what the sheet could do.
Audrey Hall just wanted to be powerful enough to protect her family, and in order to do that, she had to hide her power from her family.
She wanted to stay in the extraordinary world under the protection of the kind Mr. Fool, and so she had to hide her association with the Tarot Club.
The white sheet wrapped around her person before she could even let go of the grip she had on Mr. World’s shoulder, blocking her view of him and all the other people whose eyes went wide with shock.
Audrey Hall, the sheet projected as it tightened around her and swirled above her head. She couldn’t see it this time, but she could imagine it the same as Xio’s experience. Third child of Earl Hall.
Audrey didn’t know if it was purely reaction or a subconsciously calculated risk, but Mr. World had so many secrets that he protected very fiercely. She recalled his scattered and panicked thoughts in the Hall of Truth, and how she inadvertently learned something there that she hypnotised herself into forgetting. He was Mr. Fool’s Blessed, and thus there was a chance he would have been protected from the Sealed Artefact, but if it did work…
She would rather deal with the consequences of her actions than the consequences of her inactions.
Sequence four Manipulator of the Spectator pathway, the sheet revealed to the shock of the MI9 members and the confusion of her family’s guards. Member of the Psychology Alchemists. Tarot Club’s Justice card.
Audrey Hall raised her chin proudly underneath the tight threads of the white sheet.
—
Klein didn’t see who it was that sounded the alarm, but moments after Miss Justice’s information was revealed there was the ringing of a piercing alarm through the lobby of MI9, responding to the shock on Admiral Amyrius’s face as he realised he was facing another demigod.
It sank in at that moment that the man hadn’t realised ‘Gehrman’ was actually a sequence three, even if it was merely the historical projection of a sequence three with no spiritual powers to work with, therefore stoppering all his abilities.
Yet the only person he could blame for this disaster was himself, for not having seen this coming. Klein never thought he would be attacked by an object that could reveal secrets, or that Miss Audrey would push him out of the way.
Was that why his spiritual intuition hadn’t warned him in time? Because he was saved, and the target became someone else?
Behind him, Benson and Melissa were making noises of distress, surrounded on both sides by people who were more than willing to fight and spill blood, and witnessing a Sealed Artefact at work. In front of him, Miss Audrey was wrapped in the white sheet like a death shroud, even if she stood with her head held high in a way Klein was sure he wouldn’t have been able to do in her position.
His shock only lasted a moment before he reached for her alongside Leonard, and the both of them moved to cover her figure from the others as they grabbed at the squirming sheet that kept trying to slip through their fingers.
“What is this,” Leonard kept repeating under his breath in a panic, seeing that particular Sealed Artefact at work for the first time. His voice was shaking, terrified of having his secrets revealed. He was the only one of them who came with his features covered this time, having learned his lesson from Liveseyd.
It didn’t matter what that sheet was, Klein thought grimly with a false sense of calm. All that mattered was that he destroyed it.
And the sheet kept slipping through his fingers, and they didn’t have time for this!
“Cover her,” Klein said in a low voice to Leonard, who nodded in acknowledgement. Fors heard them and moved in close as well, while Xio stood next to Benson and Melissa to guard them.
At the edge of his thoughts, Klein couldn’t help but be proud of the way the Tarot Club was moving. They all…
Reaching out in one smooth movement with his non-dominant arm, Klein transferred the baton he was holding to Xio while pulling the sword from her belt, and then held the chilling Wintry Blade above his head and slashed down, trusting in his own precision even as the men at the door screamed at him to stop.
Miss Audrey, on the other hand, met his eyes calmly and waited without the slightest panic.
Klein cut at the sheet, but the threads didn’t break even for the blade, although the fluttering of the sheet and information being projected slowly froze in place under the effects of the Wintery Blade.
That would have to be good enough for now— surrounded as they were, they had to get everyone out first, and then deal with the consequences of Miss Audrey’s— sacrifice of secrets. The others around them weren’t going to stay in shock for much longer, and Admiral Amyrius was strong enough to stop them once he recovered from his sense of caution.
An exposed Spectator demigod was no match for an experienced Arbiter demigod.
So the first thing they had to do was leave the building to escape the established rules in place, and then Klein could reach into the historical void for Creeping Hunger and teleport everyone away, even if that would drain the last of Miss Fors’s energy. That last resort was the very reason he fought earlier without using any abilities at all.
Summoning Creeping Hunger would be less draining than her teleporting them away as a group, and he’d be able to—
In the mere moments after the ring of the alarm, a fierce crackling of energy manifested into the room, signalling the arrival of a high-sequencer through use of a mystical item.
Seeing this, Xio reached over to grab at Fors, and then scrambled to pull Leymano’s Travels out from Fors’s pocket, flipping through the pages urgently.
Finding what she was looking for, Xio looked triumphant for a moment with a hand over the page before the room around them started to distort and blur, melting away at the edges to distract from Audrey’s information as the air grew heavy under layered illusions.
Good choice, Klein thought and nodded inwardly, familiar with the spell he inputted into the book. It wouldn’t last for long, and he tugged at Leonard to get his attention, wordlessly conveying his intention.
Leonard nodded back, and between them and Fors, they made a dash for the door through the group of men, with Xio bringing up the rear as she pushed Melissa and Benson in front of her.
The illusion wouldn’t last long, but the panic it brought to those unfamiliar with Beyonder powers gave them the room to charge through, and to disorient the MI9 members behind them.
Too quickly, the storm of energy formed into a person, and a powerful female voice rang out just as Klein pushed the door and ensured Audrey and Leonard got out, before grabbing onto a startled Melissa’s arm as she stumbled by the entrance.
“This place will have the mysteries weakened and the real strengthened!”
The swirling and melting room quickly righted itself, and Klein himself nearly stumbled as his own form took on a lightness that made him feel nearly incorporeal. A sequence three! Klein’s eyes darted to see a familiar figure in a dark gown, and their eyes met for a brief moment.
Georgina Augustus gave a dark smile when she recognised him.
Quickly, Klein all but threw his sister out the building before shoving Benson alongside Xio as well when he protested. His movements felt sluggish under the law, like his limbs were made of jelly held together by elastic bands.
“Go,” he told Xio once more as she passed him, and he passed her blade back to her and moved to step out after her when—
“Historical projections are not allowed here!”
And then he was above the grey fog.
—
Melissa Moretti didn’t understand what was going on!
What started as a normal day turned into a nightmare with news that Benson had been taken, and then became stranger as Miss Audrey insisted on helping her, and she met Mr. Mitchell once more (Melissa tried hard not to think of it has an ill omen, to meet Mr. Mitchell once on one of the worst days of her life, and again on another day that could potentially be—), and perhaps she had been too hasty and emotional in her judgments during the air raid, but…
Now people were appearing from thin air and objects were moving on their own and she felt caught up in a whirlwind as strangers ushered her around and others started fighting, and by the goddess, she just wanted to go home!
And was that Gehrman Sparrow? She read about him in the papers, from him being an adventurer and pirate hunter to being wanted by the Storm Church— she just barely caught it, but there was something strange about his expression in the moment he glanced at her, and it was something strangely familiar, except then the moment was gone as he threw her out the door from danger.
And then he just disappeared into thin air right in front of her eyes!
Outside the building, the streets were mostly empty thanks to the air raid, and eerily quiet except for the handful of surprised men who had been standing guard at the door— they looked like part of the group who charged in.
“Who—?”
At this point, the brunette lady that joined their group straightened up, expression drawn tight as she called out, “Everybody hold on!”
Melissa barely had time to react, she was already holding tightly onto Benson, when she felt hands on her shoulders to pull her and Benson forward, and then a tight pressure all around her, and a brilliant swirl of colours she couldn’t escape even when she closed her eyes.
Like the feeling of a hallway elongating the longer she stared at it, or the colours of a painting mixing and deepening, Melissa and Benson stumbled along as they were dragged and pushed, and she suppressed her instinct to scream.
Was this any better? Was this any safer?
They just got out of a situation with men who certainly had guns if not other weapons, yet this felt even more dangerous!
Melissa squeezed her eyes shut from fear the first several steps, but then changed her mind and moved to stare around her in wide-eyed fascination when she realised closing her eyes wouldn’t change the situation.
The world around her was both dull and blurred, yet bright and rich with life. She felt like there were movements she could barely perceive, and spots in her vision that bloomed and faded away before she could turn to look at it.
She was certain there were eyes staring at her, even if she couldn’t see it.
There were blind spots in her vision, even when she gave everything as thorough a look as she possibly could. As her feet stumbled along the path she was being led down, Melissa craned her head around to look at the writhing colours and blurred world.
There was something missing, she just knew it. Like she was partially blind and needed glasses to see, but instead was left to squint without comprehending.
As suddenly as she entered the strange space, she exited it and could breathe the cool night air once more, damp in the late spring evening.
….Damp?
Spring or not, the air of Backlund tended to leave little to be desired, and the mire of pollution left her lungs adjusting to the smoke and smog until it felt normal and fresh air a strange delicacy.
“Fors!” The short blonde lady called out as the brunette woman collapsed onto her knees, gasping for breath.
It was dark outside to the shock of her eyes, the air cold and wet, and Melissa could feel grass and soft soil underneath her shoes, the twilight barely able to illuminate the mere silhouettes of those around her.
It was too dark, even, as there were always some lights inside the city. Now, she could just make out trees and woods beyond, with even the sky blanketed in the darkness of clouds.
Both she and Benson were quiet as the others scurried around, confirming that they were out of the city and away from the supposed enemy.
At the centre of them all, Miss Audrey was still wrapped in the white sheet, the brightness of it almost glowing in the dark as if illuminated from within. The material was still fluttering in an invisible breeze, still warped above her head and transmitting information that Melissa couldn’t understand how she was reading.
A series of information about Miss Audrey that felt too personal and rather invasive, and Melissa turned her eyes away from the only bit of brightness in the area, only to catch the attention of her brother.
Benson’s clothing was rumpled, his hair a mess from his usual slicked back style, and he had a manic look in his eyes indicating he had gone through even more than she did today.
“What were you thinking, charging in like that?” He asked her, tone quiet even as they huddled together in the corner of the group of strangers, clinging to each other.
“What was I supposed to do?” She demanded back, voice barely above a whisper as her eyes darted around the group to see if they were paying attention to them.
Luckily enough, they weren’t.
Or perhaps unluckily enough, because even though Melissa managed to find Benson now, they were both now lost and stranded with these strangers, and more than that, there were people after them!
“Wait at home,” Benson fussed. “Contact the police!”
“Unfortunately, Mr. Moretti,” it was Miss Audrey’s voice that cut in, and Melissa looked up to see she managed to escape the sheet, which was now squirming in the hands of the other and shorter blonde lady whose head was down in prayer. Miss Audrey looked as unruffled as ever, beautiful and calm. “They attempted to find Melissa at your home first. And the police can do very little against MI9.”
“MI9?” Melissa echoed, dread weighing down her stomach as she started to grasp just how large the problem was. Her hands fisted against Benson’s clothes, as if she could prevent him from being taken away again if she just clung hard enough. “Why would MI9 do this?”
“That’s what I’d like to find out,” Miss Audrey informed them gently.
Behind them, Mr. Mitchell was doing something as well that Melissa couldn’t make out, muttering to himself before he crouched to where the brunette lady was sitting and said something in a low voice to her. Next to them, the blonde lady was… Melissa must have missed something, because the sheet was gone!
Benson squeezed Melissa’s arms once more before letting go, taking a step back to push down the wrinkles of his suit before reaching up and twitching his fingers to find his hat gone. He smoothed back his hair instead, posture embarrassed at being so unkempt in front of a lady.
“I have to ask,” Miss Audrey continued, politely ignoring the small movements, “if you know why MI9 targeted you, Mr. Moretti?”
The murmuring of conversation around them grew quiet as the other three listened in.
“I…”
Melissa watched her brother closely in the dark, close enough she could see the tension of his jaw as he thought back.
“...They said something about a necklace,” he said, discomforted. He pressed down on the lapels of his suit in thought. “I didn’t understand, but… in the end, the man concluded that I knew nothing.”
“A necklace?” Both Melissa and Audrey echoed, while Melissa let go of Benson to reach up to her chest subconsciously.
Miss Audrey’s bright green eyes caught the movement. “Do you know what they mean, Melissa?”
Melissa glanced up at Benson, who only gave her a soft look and a smile, nodding. She thought for a moment, and then said, “Yes. I have one, too.”
The same necklace, the ones that Klein gave them. They were ugly and off-putting to Melissa, but since it was a keepsake from her deceased brother, she wore it every day. They had too little left from Klein, and the scratches carved into the silver were reminders of him.
Melissa pulled the chain until the pendant came out from underneath her collar, warmed by her body heat. It could barely be seen in the dark until Mr. Mitchell came close to them and lit a match.
She didn’t take the necklace off, but also didn’t back away when Miss Audrey leaned in closer to study it, a delicate frown on her face under the light of the match.
“It’s… familiar,” the lady said absentmindedly.
“It’s a basic protection charm,” Mr. Mitchell said, a hand on his chin. “Not common, but not powerful, either. Nothing that should draw the attention of MI9, unless… where did you get it?”
Melissa and Benson exchanged a glance, and Melissa stayed silent.
Away from them, the short blonde lady gathered a few twigs off the mud and threw them into a pile, striking a match to ignite a fire and give them a little bit more light, even if the twigs let off a great amount of smoke from how damp they were. She sat on a large rock next to the brunette lady who had her head down between her knees, looking ill.
With the light, Melissa could see more of their surroundings. It looked like they were in the middle of a forest, although not at all sides, seeing as there were what looked like the ruins of an old mansion across an empty field on one side, one that looked dilapidated and run down.
Distantly, she could hear what could be gunfire. It didn’t sound like anyone from the city, as the sounds came routinely and rather consistently.
“He… said something about that,” Benson said quietly as the others examined the pendant. He shook his head. “The man who interrogated me— Amyrius?”
“He’s the Minister of Defense,” Miss Audrey volunteered. “If he was the one who took you, then he must have thought you were a threat to national security.”
She raised her hands before Melissa could protest.
“I’m not saying what he did was correct. But that was likely his reason.”
Benson’s frown was more pronounced. “He said.. I’m sorry, Miss Hall, but I’m afraid I don’t understand what’s going on. I don’t know most of you— I don’t understand how I even know your name—”
Miss Audrey’s smile grew a bit stiff, but her demeanour remained gentle. She leaned back from Melissa and raised a hand to her chest to introduce herself, “You must have seen my information, so you know my name. But even if that weren’t the case, I work with Melissa at the Loen Charity Bursary Foundation and we have run into each other several times.”
“And,” Melissa spoke up, grabbing Benson’s attention. “We know Mr. Mitchell.”
Mr. Mitchell, the man who once worked with Klein, looked uncomfortable, even as he agreed and reintroduced himself, “Leonard Mitchell. We’ve met.”
“Yes.” Benson wasn’t often so terse with people, but that memory had not been a kind one. Still, he was a good man, and he gave Mr. Mitchell a greeting in return. “I would say well met, Mr. Mitchell, but it seems to be a poorly situation.”
Miss Audrey didn’t wait further before she turned her body and gestured with an arm and a smile. “The ladies here are my friends.”
“Yes,” and this time Benson brightened, “they’re the ones who rescued me. I’m very thankful, but afraid I, ah, only caught one name and that was perhaps not the best situation either…”
“Xio Derecha,” the shorter blonde lady introduced herself, and Melissa also remembered the name and information she gleaned from that strange white sheet earlier. “There’s no need to thank me, Mr. Moretti. I only did what was right. You should have been released the moment MI9 understood you were merely a civilian caught up in their paranoia.”
The brunette lady looked up, pale against the light of the small fire. She still looked rather ill, but the moment of rest did wonders as she spoke up hesitantly, “Are we doing introductions now? Is it that part of the night?”
Xio patted her on the back soothingly and looked at them. “She’s Fors Wall, and she’s not feeling very well right now.”
“The Fors Wall?” Benson asked in surprise. Melissa recognised the name, but not intimately. “I have coworkers who are adamant fans of your work!”
Oh, Melissa thought. The writer. But then she startled. The writer? What was a writer doing in this situation?
…Then again, what were any of them doing in this situation?
“It seems you all know me,” Benson said, pressing his hands against his suit lapels again nervously. “Or my sister Melissa?”
“I called Xio and Fors for a favour,” Miss Audrey admitted. “Miss Xio is an undercover investigator, and she had ties to MI9… before this.”
Xio shook her head. “I was an informant, but I didn’t know they were doing something like this…”
“Maybe they aren’t?” Fors suggested. She rubbed at her cheek, and looked around them with bright eyes. “How long can we stay here?”
“Where is ‘here’?” Melissa asked back.
“Until you recover, or until we get a response,” Miss Audrey told her mysteriously, and Melissa inwardly huffed as she realised that her question was completely overlooked. “A few minutes should be fine.”
“Alright.” Fors Wall shook a hand in Melissa’s direction. “He asked about the necklace, right? Maybe he suspected something— if you were a completely ordinary civilian, it’d be difficult for you to get a protection charm, but not impossible. Anyone can get one by accident. There must have been something else about the charm that drew his attention, and that might have been why you were taken— and if it’s that special, they wouldn’t consider you as ordinary, either.”
Benson pressed against his chest where the necklace used to be, frowning. “...I didn’t get it back from them.”
“It is a protection charm,” Melissa admitted. “But it’s completely ordinary. There’s nothing strange about it at all, not like everything that happened today!”
Miss Audrey was studying the held necklace again, and this time her expression was contemplative.
“There’s an anti-divination spell woven in it as well,” she said. “It’s not strong, so it’s hardly noticeable, but it works surprisingly well. You would be invisible to certain scans. Maybe that’s what happened?”
“Divination isn’t real,” Melissa said with slight exasperation, and she saw Mr. Mitchell wince slightly. She could only spread her hands and proclaim, “Too many things today didn’t make any sense! But I believe in science, and in things that can be seen with my eyes. Surely our government officials wouldn’t interrogate anyone just because they believe in supernatural suspicions, would they?”
At that statement, both Miss Wall and Mr. Mitchell had strange looks on their faces.
“And Gehrman Sparrow!” Benson exclaimed, as if suddenly remembering now that they were safe enough to stop and discuss things. His tone was more wondrous than Melissa’s low panic. “Was he really the infamous bounty hunter? What did he come to Loen for?”
Melissa took on a thoughtful look. While she didn’t often read fictional stories and therefore the name Fors Walls wasn’t too familiar for her, she did read newspapers on the regular and thought that Gehrman Sparrow was an interesting individual, although she never imagined meeting him.
His world felt far too different from her own, and not only in distance.
But more than Gehrman Sparrow—
“What really happened back there?” Melissa asked. “Where are we now? How did we manage to get here? Are those people still after us? Earlier, what did you mean by how ‘long’ we could stay? Does this mean people are already after us? Why? And this necklace— why would they be after a trinket like this? It’s just a silly thing my brother made years ago!”
Miss Audrey’s eyes darted to her. “Mr. Moretti made this?”
At the same time, Mr. Mitchell exclaimed, “Klein made this?”
Melissa turned her attention toward Mr. Mitchell, feeling a stone in her chest. “He did. He made one for Benson and one for me. He said it was a protection charm back then, and I thought— it’s just a silly thing, isn’t it? But he made it, so of course I would wear it. Of course we’d both wear it.”
Mr. Mitchell stayed quiet for a long second, until Miss Audrey dared to interrupt the silence.
“Klein?”
Melissa just shook her head, unwilling to explain. She thought her heart would pound out of her chest. Perhaps her brain was on fire. Perhaps she was going crazy.
Mr. Mitchell’s gaze turned between her and Benson, who also stayed quiet, looking away. After an awkward minute, he turned his attention to Miss Audrey to explain, “Their brother, Klein Moretti. He’s— gone now.”
Audrey covered her mouth with a gloved hand. “Oh. I apologise for asking…”
“Your brother was a Beyonder?” Fors asked delicately.
Benson’s voice sounded as frustrated as Melissa felt. “That’s what the man— Amyrius, asked as well! He said things about Klein— a night hawk? But Klein worked at a security company, and even then it wasn’t for long. Before that he was a university student, and studied to be a professor! He’d barely graduated for a summer before—”
His voice cut off sharply, and Melissa squeezed Benson’s hand.
“I— apologise.” Benson said after a moment of silence. He cleared his throat. “It appears I haven’t… processed today very well.”
“That’s entirely understandable, Mr. Moretti,” Audrey reassured him.
Benson moved a step to lean his weight against a nearby tree, and brought a hand up to cover his eyes for a moment. Melissa gazed down at her shoes as her brother calmed his thoughts.
“If anything, Mr. Mitchell may know more.” Benson said. “I knew next to nothing about Klein’s work, other than that he cooperated with the police. The pay was suspiciously high, but Klein always laughed that off and I just didn’t want to ask so long as everything was legal. Amyrius said it made sense, but I don’t see how anything makes sense. It’s just a necklace, isn’t it? Klein was just a historical consultant for a security company, wasn’t he?”
All eyes turned to Mr. Mitchell this time, and his eyes grew round as he backed up a step, hands up at chest height as if in surrender.
“I—” he scratched at his cheek, and gave a stiff smile. “I really don’t think I should be the one explaining…”
“I didn’t push for information in case it was classified,” Benson said. “But surely now we deserve to know. If what happened today has anything to do with Klein’s death…”
If anything, Mr. Mitchell looked more panicked.
“Can I— can I get a minute to think about how to explain?” He asked, and Melissa gave him a harder stare. It was only then that she noticed Miss Fors and Miss Xio were giving him strange stares as well, as if they figured something out from what Benson said.
Benson gave a slow nod.
“I’ve been waiting years to know what happened. A minute won’t be much longer.”
A/N: ...I should look over this again. I tried editing at 3am and I'm not sure it went well.
Previous || Next
Fandom: Lord of the Mysteries
Character/Pairing(s): Audrey Hall, Leonard Mitchell, Melissa Moretti, Benson Moretti, Klein Moretti, Xio Derecha, Fors Wall
Rating: PG-13
Warning: none?
Summary: MI9 catches Benson Moretti, and end up with more than they expect.
Audrey Hall had everything under control.
Really, she did! Despite MI9 on one side and an unknown surprise on the other, with two civilians caught up in-between and both Mr. Star and Mr. World injured while Miss Judgement and Miss Magician both already worn, Audrey had full faith in their ability to get out of this situation just fine.
She and Mr. Star rushed with Melissa through the streets after Susie just minutes ago, with a speed motivated by Mr. Fool sending them an impression of Miss Magician’s fear and anxiety. That impression was the reason why Mr. Star needed little convincing to pull the majority of the ground floor of MI9 into a dream, even as Audrey dealt out mental cues to the crowd outside the main doors to disperse and look away as the three of them entered.
It was the gentlest solution, as well as the quickest.
And then Mr. Star went ahead while Audrey stayed with Melissa to calm the girl who witnessed some very strange events because they didn’t have the time to explain things to her anymore.
When Fors and Xio appeared dragging along Melissa’s uninjured brother, Audrey thought that now they would just concentrate on getting out without drawing too much attention. If all went well, then she could linger back a bit and hypnotise those who had seen Fors and Xio’s faces so that they all escaped with little to no trouble.
It wasn’t that Audrey was fully naive to how things could go wrong, but she was very comfortable knowing that Mr. Fool was likely watching them.
Praise Mr. Fool, she thought reverently as Melissa and her brother embraced.
But then Xio was attacked by a Sealed Artefact, and Audrey’s heart dropped when she saw what it could do.
Information! It revealed their information! And worse yet, it revealed the Tarot Club! With multiple organisations already searching for the followers of the Fool, their god informed them more than once to keep their own cards a secret when possible, if only for their own safety.
Audrey had yet to drop her own card on a mission, understanding that she wasn’t yet powerful enough to protect her family should she be exposed. She also found herself fiercely protective of her secret place in the Tarot Club and of their Monday meetings. Mr. World was their contact with the outside world, which was fitting with his title as the Fool’s Blessed.
But the rest of them…
They were all steadily growing in power and experience, but they couldn’t yet deal with situations the way Mr. World could.
As the sheet which revealed secrets flew back toward the group of MI9, Audrey was the one who noticed as Mr. World and Mr. Star melted from the ground upward, revealing their injured states.
An ability to do with spirits? She recalled Mr. Star mentioned before that he had command over several spirits, but it was a skill that needed time to adapt to, as different spirits held different abilities.
“I’ve broken the confinement,” Mr. Star muttered to her, wincing as he held his ribs gingerly. “But it won’t last long. We need to leave their territory to use teleportation skills.”
It made sense, since MI9 was full of those of the Arbiter pathway. They would have plenty of rules active to hinder opponents in their own building.
As Audrey urged the Moretti siblings along, Melissa’s hand caught onto her forearm tightly.
“Miss Audrey, what is going on?” The young woman demanded, eyes bright with a burning fear and curiosity. “This is— I already knew we’re doing something we’re not supposed to do, but—”
“Later,” Audrey coaxed, leading her and her brother toward the door.
And then they were surrounded as people rushed in from the front doors, and once again she felt shocked when she realised that— Audrey knew those people.
They were not close, but the men who rushed into the MI9 building were her family’s guards, usually seen around her father and brother.
Just what were they—?
“Miss Audrey!” One of them, a young man (a new hire to look after the estate after the break of war when her father worried that the poor and desperate might attack the nobles in the middle of the night), called out to her with joy.
Oh no, Audrey despaired. Were they… specifically there for her?
She had— well, it wasn’t the first time Audrey hadn’t gone home on time, and although she was scolded time and again by her parents, they never tried to chase her down before, claiming worry but understanding that sometimes she tended to be distracted by other people and things. After all, Audrey was now an adult and had her own circle of contacts.
Another guard, an older and more experienced one, immediately shut the young man up as he looked to Audrey for direction, eyes solemn in understanding of a situation that was out of his control.
She took a split second to contemplate her choices before she called out to them, “Help! We came to look for my friend’s brother and now they won’t let us go!”
There was no point in pretending they hadn’t seen her or that she hadn’t seen them, and attempting to erase her presence from their minds would take too much time while the Tarot Club was being chased down by MI9. They had to leave the building as soon as possible, and this was only a boon to her.
Of course, the downside of this was that MI9 would know Audrey Hall was seen with a known member of the Tarot Club, but she could excuse her presence as Melissa’s support.
It was a bitter feeling, to immediately understand how to manipulate a situation to her advantage.
The men reacted to her words immediately, taking in the large and suited members of MI9 also in the lobby with them, all with dark looks on their faces, while Audrey’s group consisted of many frightened women and injured men.
They hollered threats and raised weapons, although Minister Amyrius did not look in the least bit threatened. None of the guards dared to shoot, knowing who their opponent was, but MI9 did not have the same hesitation.
As Minister of Defense Amyrius raised a hand to point at their group, Mr. World pushed Miss Magician behind himself and scowled deeply, reaching for a baton shoved through a belt loop with his uninjured arm.
“Gehrman Sparrow.” Amyrius directed, and the sheet in the hands of his subordinates writhed for a moment before it flew toward Mr. World with a dazzling speed, leaving Mr. World to swing the baton as if he could take down the sheet with it, and take a step back in surprise.
Audrey didn’t have the time to weigh her decision as she leapt forward to grab onto Mr. World and twist so that the two of them switched places.
It was only afterward that she realised what she did— her family’s guards were there in full view, as well as top MI9 officials.
With both Mr. World and Mr. Star’s sudden appearance in the lobby, neither of them had seen what the sheet could do.
Audrey Hall just wanted to be powerful enough to protect her family, and in order to do that, she had to hide her power from her family.
She wanted to stay in the extraordinary world under the protection of the kind Mr. Fool, and so she had to hide her association with the Tarot Club.
The white sheet wrapped around her person before she could even let go of the grip she had on Mr. World’s shoulder, blocking her view of him and all the other people whose eyes went wide with shock.
Audrey Hall, the sheet projected as it tightened around her and swirled above her head. She couldn’t see it this time, but she could imagine it the same as Xio’s experience. Third child of Earl Hall.
Audrey didn’t know if it was purely reaction or a subconsciously calculated risk, but Mr. World had so many secrets that he protected very fiercely. She recalled his scattered and panicked thoughts in the Hall of Truth, and how she inadvertently learned something there that she hypnotised herself into forgetting. He was Mr. Fool’s Blessed, and thus there was a chance he would have been protected from the Sealed Artefact, but if it did work…
She would rather deal with the consequences of her actions than the consequences of her inactions.
Sequence four Manipulator of the Spectator pathway, the sheet revealed to the shock of the MI9 members and the confusion of her family’s guards. Member of the Psychology Alchemists. Tarot Club’s Justice card.
Audrey Hall raised her chin proudly underneath the tight threads of the white sheet.
—
Klein didn’t see who it was that sounded the alarm, but moments after Miss Justice’s information was revealed there was the ringing of a piercing alarm through the lobby of MI9, responding to the shock on Admiral Amyrius’s face as he realised he was facing another demigod.
It sank in at that moment that the man hadn’t realised ‘Gehrman’ was actually a sequence three, even if it was merely the historical projection of a sequence three with no spiritual powers to work with, therefore stoppering all his abilities.
Yet the only person he could blame for this disaster was himself, for not having seen this coming. Klein never thought he would be attacked by an object that could reveal secrets, or that Miss Audrey would push him out of the way.
Was that why his spiritual intuition hadn’t warned him in time? Because he was saved, and the target became someone else?
Behind him, Benson and Melissa were making noises of distress, surrounded on both sides by people who were more than willing to fight and spill blood, and witnessing a Sealed Artefact at work. In front of him, Miss Audrey was wrapped in the white sheet like a death shroud, even if she stood with her head held high in a way Klein was sure he wouldn’t have been able to do in her position.
His shock only lasted a moment before he reached for her alongside Leonard, and the both of them moved to cover her figure from the others as they grabbed at the squirming sheet that kept trying to slip through their fingers.
“What is this,” Leonard kept repeating under his breath in a panic, seeing that particular Sealed Artefact at work for the first time. His voice was shaking, terrified of having his secrets revealed. He was the only one of them who came with his features covered this time, having learned his lesson from Liveseyd.
It didn’t matter what that sheet was, Klein thought grimly with a false sense of calm. All that mattered was that he destroyed it.
And the sheet kept slipping through his fingers, and they didn’t have time for this!
“Cover her,” Klein said in a low voice to Leonard, who nodded in acknowledgement. Fors heard them and moved in close as well, while Xio stood next to Benson and Melissa to guard them.
At the edge of his thoughts, Klein couldn’t help but be proud of the way the Tarot Club was moving. They all…
Reaching out in one smooth movement with his non-dominant arm, Klein transferred the baton he was holding to Xio while pulling the sword from her belt, and then held the chilling Wintry Blade above his head and slashed down, trusting in his own precision even as the men at the door screamed at him to stop.
Miss Audrey, on the other hand, met his eyes calmly and waited without the slightest panic.
Klein cut at the sheet, but the threads didn’t break even for the blade, although the fluttering of the sheet and information being projected slowly froze in place under the effects of the Wintery Blade.
That would have to be good enough for now— surrounded as they were, they had to get everyone out first, and then deal with the consequences of Miss Audrey’s— sacrifice of secrets. The others around them weren’t going to stay in shock for much longer, and Admiral Amyrius was strong enough to stop them once he recovered from his sense of caution.
An exposed Spectator demigod was no match for an experienced Arbiter demigod.
So the first thing they had to do was leave the building to escape the established rules in place, and then Klein could reach into the historical void for Creeping Hunger and teleport everyone away, even if that would drain the last of Miss Fors’s energy. That last resort was the very reason he fought earlier without using any abilities at all.
Summoning Creeping Hunger would be less draining than her teleporting them away as a group, and he’d be able to—
In the mere moments after the ring of the alarm, a fierce crackling of energy manifested into the room, signalling the arrival of a high-sequencer through use of a mystical item.
Seeing this, Xio reached over to grab at Fors, and then scrambled to pull Leymano’s Travels out from Fors’s pocket, flipping through the pages urgently.
Finding what she was looking for, Xio looked triumphant for a moment with a hand over the page before the room around them started to distort and blur, melting away at the edges to distract from Audrey’s information as the air grew heavy under layered illusions.
Good choice, Klein thought and nodded inwardly, familiar with the spell he inputted into the book. It wouldn’t last for long, and he tugged at Leonard to get his attention, wordlessly conveying his intention.
Leonard nodded back, and between them and Fors, they made a dash for the door through the group of men, with Xio bringing up the rear as she pushed Melissa and Benson in front of her.
The illusion wouldn’t last long, but the panic it brought to those unfamiliar with Beyonder powers gave them the room to charge through, and to disorient the MI9 members behind them.
Too quickly, the storm of energy formed into a person, and a powerful female voice rang out just as Klein pushed the door and ensured Audrey and Leonard got out, before grabbing onto a startled Melissa’s arm as she stumbled by the entrance.
“This place will have the mysteries weakened and the real strengthened!”
The swirling and melting room quickly righted itself, and Klein himself nearly stumbled as his own form took on a lightness that made him feel nearly incorporeal. A sequence three! Klein’s eyes darted to see a familiar figure in a dark gown, and their eyes met for a brief moment.
Georgina Augustus gave a dark smile when she recognised him.
Quickly, Klein all but threw his sister out the building before shoving Benson alongside Xio as well when he protested. His movements felt sluggish under the law, like his limbs were made of jelly held together by elastic bands.
“Go,” he told Xio once more as she passed him, and he passed her blade back to her and moved to step out after her when—
“Historical projections are not allowed here!”
And then he was above the grey fog.
—
Melissa Moretti didn’t understand what was going on!
What started as a normal day turned into a nightmare with news that Benson had been taken, and then became stranger as Miss Audrey insisted on helping her, and she met Mr. Mitchell once more (Melissa tried hard not to think of it has an ill omen, to meet Mr. Mitchell once on one of the worst days of her life, and again on another day that could potentially be—), and perhaps she had been too hasty and emotional in her judgments during the air raid, but…
Now people were appearing from thin air and objects were moving on their own and she felt caught up in a whirlwind as strangers ushered her around and others started fighting, and by the goddess, she just wanted to go home!
And was that Gehrman Sparrow? She read about him in the papers, from him being an adventurer and pirate hunter to being wanted by the Storm Church— she just barely caught it, but there was something strange about his expression in the moment he glanced at her, and it was something strangely familiar, except then the moment was gone as he threw her out the door from danger.
And then he just disappeared into thin air right in front of her eyes!
Outside the building, the streets were mostly empty thanks to the air raid, and eerily quiet except for the handful of surprised men who had been standing guard at the door— they looked like part of the group who charged in.
“Who—?”
At this point, the brunette lady that joined their group straightened up, expression drawn tight as she called out, “Everybody hold on!”
Melissa barely had time to react, she was already holding tightly onto Benson, when she felt hands on her shoulders to pull her and Benson forward, and then a tight pressure all around her, and a brilliant swirl of colours she couldn’t escape even when she closed her eyes.
Like the feeling of a hallway elongating the longer she stared at it, or the colours of a painting mixing and deepening, Melissa and Benson stumbled along as they were dragged and pushed, and she suppressed her instinct to scream.
Was this any better? Was this any safer?
They just got out of a situation with men who certainly had guns if not other weapons, yet this felt even more dangerous!
Melissa squeezed her eyes shut from fear the first several steps, but then changed her mind and moved to stare around her in wide-eyed fascination when she realised closing her eyes wouldn’t change the situation.
The world around her was both dull and blurred, yet bright and rich with life. She felt like there were movements she could barely perceive, and spots in her vision that bloomed and faded away before she could turn to look at it.
She was certain there were eyes staring at her, even if she couldn’t see it.
There were blind spots in her vision, even when she gave everything as thorough a look as she possibly could. As her feet stumbled along the path she was being led down, Melissa craned her head around to look at the writhing colours and blurred world.
There was something missing, she just knew it. Like she was partially blind and needed glasses to see, but instead was left to squint without comprehending.
As suddenly as she entered the strange space, she exited it and could breathe the cool night air once more, damp in the late spring evening.
….Damp?
Spring or not, the air of Backlund tended to leave little to be desired, and the mire of pollution left her lungs adjusting to the smoke and smog until it felt normal and fresh air a strange delicacy.
“Fors!” The short blonde lady called out as the brunette woman collapsed onto her knees, gasping for breath.
It was dark outside to the shock of her eyes, the air cold and wet, and Melissa could feel grass and soft soil underneath her shoes, the twilight barely able to illuminate the mere silhouettes of those around her.
It was too dark, even, as there were always some lights inside the city. Now, she could just make out trees and woods beyond, with even the sky blanketed in the darkness of clouds.
Both she and Benson were quiet as the others scurried around, confirming that they were out of the city and away from the supposed enemy.
At the centre of them all, Miss Audrey was still wrapped in the white sheet, the brightness of it almost glowing in the dark as if illuminated from within. The material was still fluttering in an invisible breeze, still warped above her head and transmitting information that Melissa couldn’t understand how she was reading.
A series of information about Miss Audrey that felt too personal and rather invasive, and Melissa turned her eyes away from the only bit of brightness in the area, only to catch the attention of her brother.
Benson’s clothing was rumpled, his hair a mess from his usual slicked back style, and he had a manic look in his eyes indicating he had gone through even more than she did today.
“What were you thinking, charging in like that?” He asked her, tone quiet even as they huddled together in the corner of the group of strangers, clinging to each other.
“What was I supposed to do?” She demanded back, voice barely above a whisper as her eyes darted around the group to see if they were paying attention to them.
Luckily enough, they weren’t.
Or perhaps unluckily enough, because even though Melissa managed to find Benson now, they were both now lost and stranded with these strangers, and more than that, there were people after them!
“Wait at home,” Benson fussed. “Contact the police!”
“Unfortunately, Mr. Moretti,” it was Miss Audrey’s voice that cut in, and Melissa looked up to see she managed to escape the sheet, which was now squirming in the hands of the other and shorter blonde lady whose head was down in prayer. Miss Audrey looked as unruffled as ever, beautiful and calm. “They attempted to find Melissa at your home first. And the police can do very little against MI9.”
“MI9?” Melissa echoed, dread weighing down her stomach as she started to grasp just how large the problem was. Her hands fisted against Benson’s clothes, as if she could prevent him from being taken away again if she just clung hard enough. “Why would MI9 do this?”
“That’s what I’d like to find out,” Miss Audrey informed them gently.
Behind them, Mr. Mitchell was doing something as well that Melissa couldn’t make out, muttering to himself before he crouched to where the brunette lady was sitting and said something in a low voice to her. Next to them, the blonde lady was… Melissa must have missed something, because the sheet was gone!
Benson squeezed Melissa’s arms once more before letting go, taking a step back to push down the wrinkles of his suit before reaching up and twitching his fingers to find his hat gone. He smoothed back his hair instead, posture embarrassed at being so unkempt in front of a lady.
“I have to ask,” Miss Audrey continued, politely ignoring the small movements, “if you know why MI9 targeted you, Mr. Moretti?”
The murmuring of conversation around them grew quiet as the other three listened in.
“I…”
Melissa watched her brother closely in the dark, close enough she could see the tension of his jaw as he thought back.
“...They said something about a necklace,” he said, discomforted. He pressed down on the lapels of his suit in thought. “I didn’t understand, but… in the end, the man concluded that I knew nothing.”
“A necklace?” Both Melissa and Audrey echoed, while Melissa let go of Benson to reach up to her chest subconsciously.
Miss Audrey’s bright green eyes caught the movement. “Do you know what they mean, Melissa?”
Melissa glanced up at Benson, who only gave her a soft look and a smile, nodding. She thought for a moment, and then said, “Yes. I have one, too.”
The same necklace, the ones that Klein gave them. They were ugly and off-putting to Melissa, but since it was a keepsake from her deceased brother, she wore it every day. They had too little left from Klein, and the scratches carved into the silver were reminders of him.
Melissa pulled the chain until the pendant came out from underneath her collar, warmed by her body heat. It could barely be seen in the dark until Mr. Mitchell came close to them and lit a match.
She didn’t take the necklace off, but also didn’t back away when Miss Audrey leaned in closer to study it, a delicate frown on her face under the light of the match.
“It’s… familiar,” the lady said absentmindedly.
“It’s a basic protection charm,” Mr. Mitchell said, a hand on his chin. “Not common, but not powerful, either. Nothing that should draw the attention of MI9, unless… where did you get it?”
Melissa and Benson exchanged a glance, and Melissa stayed silent.
Away from them, the short blonde lady gathered a few twigs off the mud and threw them into a pile, striking a match to ignite a fire and give them a little bit more light, even if the twigs let off a great amount of smoke from how damp they were. She sat on a large rock next to the brunette lady who had her head down between her knees, looking ill.
With the light, Melissa could see more of their surroundings. It looked like they were in the middle of a forest, although not at all sides, seeing as there were what looked like the ruins of an old mansion across an empty field on one side, one that looked dilapidated and run down.
Distantly, she could hear what could be gunfire. It didn’t sound like anyone from the city, as the sounds came routinely and rather consistently.
“He… said something about that,” Benson said quietly as the others examined the pendant. He shook his head. “The man who interrogated me— Amyrius?”
“He’s the Minister of Defense,” Miss Audrey volunteered. “If he was the one who took you, then he must have thought you were a threat to national security.”
She raised her hands before Melissa could protest.
“I’m not saying what he did was correct. But that was likely his reason.”
Benson’s frown was more pronounced. “He said.. I’m sorry, Miss Hall, but I’m afraid I don’t understand what’s going on. I don’t know most of you— I don’t understand how I even know your name—”
Miss Audrey’s smile grew a bit stiff, but her demeanour remained gentle. She leaned back from Melissa and raised a hand to her chest to introduce herself, “You must have seen my information, so you know my name. But even if that weren’t the case, I work with Melissa at the Loen Charity Bursary Foundation and we have run into each other several times.”
“And,” Melissa spoke up, grabbing Benson’s attention. “We know Mr. Mitchell.”
Mr. Mitchell, the man who once worked with Klein, looked uncomfortable, even as he agreed and reintroduced himself, “Leonard Mitchell. We’ve met.”
“Yes.” Benson wasn’t often so terse with people, but that memory had not been a kind one. Still, he was a good man, and he gave Mr. Mitchell a greeting in return. “I would say well met, Mr. Mitchell, but it seems to be a poorly situation.”
Miss Audrey didn’t wait further before she turned her body and gestured with an arm and a smile. “The ladies here are my friends.”
“Yes,” and this time Benson brightened, “they’re the ones who rescued me. I’m very thankful, but afraid I, ah, only caught one name and that was perhaps not the best situation either…”
“Xio Derecha,” the shorter blonde lady introduced herself, and Melissa also remembered the name and information she gleaned from that strange white sheet earlier. “There’s no need to thank me, Mr. Moretti. I only did what was right. You should have been released the moment MI9 understood you were merely a civilian caught up in their paranoia.”
The brunette lady looked up, pale against the light of the small fire. She still looked rather ill, but the moment of rest did wonders as she spoke up hesitantly, “Are we doing introductions now? Is it that part of the night?”
Xio patted her on the back soothingly and looked at them. “She’s Fors Wall, and she’s not feeling very well right now.”
“The Fors Wall?” Benson asked in surprise. Melissa recognised the name, but not intimately. “I have coworkers who are adamant fans of your work!”
Oh, Melissa thought. The writer. But then she startled. The writer? What was a writer doing in this situation?
…Then again, what were any of them doing in this situation?
“It seems you all know me,” Benson said, pressing his hands against his suit lapels again nervously. “Or my sister Melissa?”
“I called Xio and Fors for a favour,” Miss Audrey admitted. “Miss Xio is an undercover investigator, and she had ties to MI9… before this.”
Xio shook her head. “I was an informant, but I didn’t know they were doing something like this…”
“Maybe they aren’t?” Fors suggested. She rubbed at her cheek, and looked around them with bright eyes. “How long can we stay here?”
“Where is ‘here’?” Melissa asked back.
“Until you recover, or until we get a response,” Miss Audrey told her mysteriously, and Melissa inwardly huffed as she realised that her question was completely overlooked. “A few minutes should be fine.”
“Alright.” Fors Wall shook a hand in Melissa’s direction. “He asked about the necklace, right? Maybe he suspected something— if you were a completely ordinary civilian, it’d be difficult for you to get a protection charm, but not impossible. Anyone can get one by accident. There must have been something else about the charm that drew his attention, and that might have been why you were taken— and if it’s that special, they wouldn’t consider you as ordinary, either.”
Benson pressed against his chest where the necklace used to be, frowning. “...I didn’t get it back from them.”
“It is a protection charm,” Melissa admitted. “But it’s completely ordinary. There’s nothing strange about it at all, not like everything that happened today!”
Miss Audrey was studying the held necklace again, and this time her expression was contemplative.
“There’s an anti-divination spell woven in it as well,” she said. “It’s not strong, so it’s hardly noticeable, but it works surprisingly well. You would be invisible to certain scans. Maybe that’s what happened?”
“Divination isn’t real,” Melissa said with slight exasperation, and she saw Mr. Mitchell wince slightly. She could only spread her hands and proclaim, “Too many things today didn’t make any sense! But I believe in science, and in things that can be seen with my eyes. Surely our government officials wouldn’t interrogate anyone just because they believe in supernatural suspicions, would they?”
At that statement, both Miss Wall and Mr. Mitchell had strange looks on their faces.
“And Gehrman Sparrow!” Benson exclaimed, as if suddenly remembering now that they were safe enough to stop and discuss things. His tone was more wondrous than Melissa’s low panic. “Was he really the infamous bounty hunter? What did he come to Loen for?”
Melissa took on a thoughtful look. While she didn’t often read fictional stories and therefore the name Fors Walls wasn’t too familiar for her, she did read newspapers on the regular and thought that Gehrman Sparrow was an interesting individual, although she never imagined meeting him.
His world felt far too different from her own, and not only in distance.
But more than Gehrman Sparrow—
“What really happened back there?” Melissa asked. “Where are we now? How did we manage to get here? Are those people still after us? Earlier, what did you mean by how ‘long’ we could stay? Does this mean people are already after us? Why? And this necklace— why would they be after a trinket like this? It’s just a silly thing my brother made years ago!”
Miss Audrey’s eyes darted to her. “Mr. Moretti made this?”
At the same time, Mr. Mitchell exclaimed, “Klein made this?”
Melissa turned her attention toward Mr. Mitchell, feeling a stone in her chest. “He did. He made one for Benson and one for me. He said it was a protection charm back then, and I thought— it’s just a silly thing, isn’t it? But he made it, so of course I would wear it. Of course we’d both wear it.”
Mr. Mitchell stayed quiet for a long second, until Miss Audrey dared to interrupt the silence.
“Klein?”
Melissa just shook her head, unwilling to explain. She thought her heart would pound out of her chest. Perhaps her brain was on fire. Perhaps she was going crazy.
Mr. Mitchell’s gaze turned between her and Benson, who also stayed quiet, looking away. After an awkward minute, he turned his attention to Miss Audrey to explain, “Their brother, Klein Moretti. He’s— gone now.”
Audrey covered her mouth with a gloved hand. “Oh. I apologise for asking…”
“Your brother was a Beyonder?” Fors asked delicately.
Benson’s voice sounded as frustrated as Melissa felt. “That’s what the man— Amyrius, asked as well! He said things about Klein— a night hawk? But Klein worked at a security company, and even then it wasn’t for long. Before that he was a university student, and studied to be a professor! He’d barely graduated for a summer before—”
His voice cut off sharply, and Melissa squeezed Benson’s hand.
“I— apologise.” Benson said after a moment of silence. He cleared his throat. “It appears I haven’t… processed today very well.”
“That’s entirely understandable, Mr. Moretti,” Audrey reassured him.
Benson moved a step to lean his weight against a nearby tree, and brought a hand up to cover his eyes for a moment. Melissa gazed down at her shoes as her brother calmed his thoughts.
“If anything, Mr. Mitchell may know more.” Benson said. “I knew next to nothing about Klein’s work, other than that he cooperated with the police. The pay was suspiciously high, but Klein always laughed that off and I just didn’t want to ask so long as everything was legal. Amyrius said it made sense, but I don’t see how anything makes sense. It’s just a necklace, isn’t it? Klein was just a historical consultant for a security company, wasn’t he?”
All eyes turned to Mr. Mitchell this time, and his eyes grew round as he backed up a step, hands up at chest height as if in surrender.
“I—” he scratched at his cheek, and gave a stiff smile. “I really don’t think I should be the one explaining…”
“I didn’t push for information in case it was classified,” Benson said. “But surely now we deserve to know. If what happened today has anything to do with Klein’s death…”
If anything, Mr. Mitchell looked more panicked.
“Can I— can I get a minute to think about how to explain?” He asked, and Melissa gave him a harder stare. It was only then that she noticed Miss Fors and Miss Xio were giving him strange stares as well, as if they figured something out from what Benson said.
Benson gave a slow nod.
“I’ve been waiting years to know what happened. A minute won’t be much longer.”
A/N: ...I should look over this again. I tried editing at 3am and I'm not sure it went well.