Contractbound

He got up and went to get the candles. When he opened the drawer, he saw nine candles inside.

"There are nine here. Grab all of them?" he asked, making sure he wouldn"t make a mistake.

"Yes, dear."

They were white, votive candles with a diameter of around five centimeters. They seemed to have been used before because he noticed the wicks were black. Graham had some difficulty carrying all the nine fat candles in his hands, so he held them in his chest with both arms. He asked her in curiosity, "What are these for?"

She asked back, seriously, "What do you know about divination?"

"Nothing, really. I don"t know anything about it. Are we going to do divination to find my guy? Does such a thing work?" he answered and asked back. He gave the candles to Paim, dropping all of them on the table in front of her. It was an old-looking wooden table, with intricate patterns adorning it. His sharp eyes noticed wax remains on the table, indicating it had been used before in a similar fashion.

"We are. Just trust me, dear. What we are going to do today is fire divination by candles. You will need to wear the ring; it plays a vital role in deciding whether you"ll get your answer or not." she said, still with her soft voice. She put back the parchment after memorizing the pattern inside.

"Val, what do you think of this? I don"t really believe in magic, but let"s keep an open mind," whispered Graham. He then wore the ring on his right ring finger.

Suddenly, his body felt warm, despite the cold night. It felt as if he was on a tropical beach, and it was a sunny afternoon. He also felt like his mind had never been that clear before; he could process thoughts faster, and there was some knowledge entering his mind; knowledge he didn"t know before. He couldn"t get anything out of it, though, as if they were a locked part of his brain. However, he also heard faint murmurs in the distance, but he couldn"t make out what they were saying.

"It"s best not to wear the ring too long; bad things might happen. Let"s finish this quickly," said Paim.

She took nine candles and set them up in a seemingly random formation. There was a row of four candles at the back, three in the middle row, with each candle positioned between the candles on the back row. Two candles were in the front row, on each corner, forming an open rectangle. Then it struck him: the candles were in the same formation as the circles on the pattern on the ring!

"Is there any reason to set the candles in this formation?" asked Graham while sitting down again next to her.

"I will explain to you later, dear. It"s also easier that way. We"re short on time, after all."

She lit the candle one by one with a match that she had prepared, starting from the top left corner all the way to the middle right corner, forming an inverted six. She then gestured Graham to be very quiet. The flames burned bigger and bigger with each pa.s.sing second, consuming the noise in the room. Even the grandfather"s clock couldn"t be heard. The room grew colder and colder as if the heat was sucked in by the candles. Graham didn"t feel the cold, however, since he was wearing the ornate ring. The flames burned in unison, and Graham stared intently at the burning flames.

Seconds pa.s.sed, the room grew colder, and Graham"s consciousness seemed to fade as if he was hypnotized. Slowly, a faint image seemed to appear within the roaring candle flames. It was of an old looking building. And then the image changed to that of a river. The image stayed still for some time before it suddenly became the image of a man that looked like Graham with his eyes gouged out, red blood flowing from the empty eye sockets. There was a blurred figure before him, that of a giant man with long hair and long beard, burning flames for eyes. Screams of pain and agony filled Graham"s ears before he suddenly snapped back to reality. It was Paim who pulled his body back.

"Don"t stare at the fire for too long. Bad things will happen. Five minutes should be the limit" she warned him.

"Shouldn"t you have said that before? How much time has pa.s.sed? It didn"t feel that long."

"Seven minutes."

"Wow, it sure felt really short back there. I was sure it wasn"t even two minutes long. So, tell me, what was that about?" he asked with genuine curiosity.

"We just borrowed the power of the Fire Divination Deity to do fire divination by candle flames. It was safer than using bigger fire like a bonfire, but the results would be more vague. Normal people won"t get any results doing this, but you are wearing that ring," she pointed at the ornate ring, "and I"m not exactly a normal person. Now tell me, dear, what did you see?" she suddenly became talkative, but her voice was as soft as ever, with no hint of malice in it.

"I saw an old building, and then it changed to a river..." he paused, taking a deep breath, "after a while, I saw myself with my eyes gouged out, and a blurry figure standing before me."

"The building and the river should be a clue to the man you"re looking for. As for the second image, it seems to be about the future."

Shock struck Graham, "You mean I"ll die like that?!"

"No, no, no. Don"t you worry, dear. It"s not about death. The image we see through fire divination is not a concrete one. It is symbolic-- it is up to us to interpret it. And I can a.s.sure you you won"t die like that, if anything, it should be a good sign." she smiled gently. "Now, take off the ring. We don"t want anything else to happen to you."

He nodded and took off the ring. He then dropped the ring to the inside of his shirt. Suddenly, the room became cold again, and he felt it. "So what about the ring? What is it exactly? Why do I feel warm when I"m wearing it?"

"I don"t know who made it, but after seeing what happened, it seemed that my initial a.s.sumption was correct. That ring was made from the remains of someone who had made a contract with the Fire Divination Deity. That"s why wearing the ring lets you borrow His power, including the warmth that you felt."

"What remains? What contract? And you said Fire Divination Deity, what exactly is that?" he bombarded her with questions.

"Those are questions for another day. Come back to me after you have found the person you"re looking for. Now go. I need to close the store for the day." she politely kicked him out.

"I"ll remember your promise, and don"t forget I"ve paid two whole guilders for the information." said Graham as he was walking out of the store, "Thank you for your help."

As soon as he got out, he folded his arms tight again because the night was very cold.

"Val, I.. I... dammit it"s cold!" he shivered. "I would have never thought we would use magic to finish our commission." he emphasized the word magic, "let"s get home first and think about the images we just saw later."

"Anyway, should we wear the ring? It made us warmer back there." he pondered for a moment before deciding against it, "Nah, she said bad things can happen if I wear it too long."

He increased his walking pace. It was later in the night, so a lot of shady characters would be out and about, so he didn"t forget to limp a little, as to stay in character. As he was walking past the people in the street hoping for them to ignore him, he kept his arms folded tight against his chest, a bit lower to his stomach, so he could feel his belongings without looking too conspicuous.

The moon was shining brightly. It was the middle of the month, and the full moon was in the sky. The streets below were lit by the moonlight. The trees on each side of the street cast their shadows, and night insects could be heard chirping. It was a beautiful night, but he had no time to enjoy it. Graham walked out of Oosteindestraat and kept walking until he got back to Tuinstraat. One would know that they were on Tuinstraat because the trees got denser like it was a forest street. There were also flowers and shrubbery. It was the street with the most residential area. It was pretty popular for workers and other middle-cla.s.s people since rent was not that high.

Graham entered the old apartment building once more and headed upstairs to room 23. He unlocked the door and locked it from inside. At his office, he went to his coat stand and took his hickory-colored trilby that he had hung there along with his coat earlier and wore it. He then went to the kitchen and grabbed the chocolate bar that he had almost finished. He went to his bedroom and ate the remaining chocolate pieces.

In the dark bedroom, he sat quietly, wearing his trilby and eating his chocolate. The bedroom was clean and all the stuff was neatly placed. The clothes were all folded and arranged inside the wardrobe. Besides clothes, he also had a wide array of disguise items, like a wig, fake mustache and beard, different kinds of gla.s.ses, hats, and coats. His favorite was still the hickory colored trilby that he bought years ago when he was still in university studying criminology.

"Val, remember when we bought this hat? It was a fashion statement years ago. Many criminology students had one, albeit with different colors. It was a sign of status; a display of coolness. The guys thought they looked cla.s.sic, like detectives from various literature. I was one of them. I bought one. And many years later it is still with me, accompanying me solving cases. Just like you, Val." he reminisced.

"Now, Val, let"s go over the clues we have. Ruben"s son, Fabien, disappeared last night after calling his house asking for help. He sounded to be in a hurry." he thought for a while. "We didn"t even know where he called from. The only clue was this ring." he took out the ring from under his shirt.

"Now, if we hadn"t gone through the supernatural way, how would we have gathered clues from this ring? I would have tried to find out how it had come to Fabien"s possession, maybe through the ring maker. And from there, we could probably find more clues to his whereabouts. However, who knows how long it would take me to find the ring maker. n.o.body seems to know."

He took a deep breath, "But instead, we got helped by an old lady from an antique store. I still cannot believe what I saw a hundred percent, but there are many inexplicable things in this world. And it is now our only clue. We can only go forward. On top of that, time is pressing; if I don"t find Fabien within 72 hours, the police will take action. If they find him first, I won"t get my commission money."

"I think the event is like this: Fabien somehow got a hold of this ring, which then put him in trouble. There must be someone or even a group behind this ring, a.s.suming Paim"s words are trustworthy-- a ring with special power would be desirable by many people. So this someone or group, let"s go with a group, since it"s more likely. Only one person is unlikely to scare Fabien to make him go into hiding. Now, based on the images we saw, he seemed to have been hiding in an old-looking building near a river. Why couldn"t the divination just give us the exact address, it would make things easier." he complained.

"We need a map." Graham got up, went to his office, and switched on the light. There, he went to a shelf full of doc.u.ments and files and took a map of the city from it. He unrolled the map that was drawn on a piece of think paper on his office desk. The desk was neatly arranged as well, so he had a lot of s.p.a.ce for the map.

"Let"s see. There are two rivers running through this city: Vecht River and Amstel River. Vecht River flows through the west part of Sloten, starting from the south all the way to the north. It is unlikely to be the river in the image because West Sloten is mostly full of new buildings. That"s where the commercial areas are. Amstel River, on the other hand, cuts diagonally through East Sloten, including Oosteinde area. That one is more likely; there are a lot of old, abandoned buildings there."

Graham sighed in relief, "I think we"re getting closer, Val. Tomorrow, let"s walk along Amstel to find old buildings. It might take a lot of stamina, so I"ll let you do it."

He rolled the map and put it back on the shelf where he took it from. He then turned off the light and went to his bedroom. He took out all the things under his shirt and placed them on top of the table next to his bed. He got undressed and took a shower, washing off the sweat from his body before finally lying down in bed.

"Val, there is still that last image that we saw from the divination, with me having my eyes gouged out. She said it was a good sign, but wouldn"t people die if their eyes were gouged out like that? Maybe not if they got medical a.s.sistance immediately. But it"s still unsettling. What do you think will happen to us, Val? I hope everything will be alright. There are still many questions I want to ask her too. I will go back there after I find Fabien. She"s made a promise, after all. And most importantly, I still have one more chocolate bar in the fridge; I don"t want to die before eating it."

Graham"s breathing became slow and regular; he had fallen asleep.