Contractbound

He had woken up earlier this morning; at least his consciousness did, because Valentine woke him up. He saw Valentine using his new power and how he pranked an innocent couple in the street. He felt bad for the couple, but he must admit that it was funny.

He was washing his face when he heard the bell rang. He quickly put on his contact lenses, got out, and open the door for his visitor. It was just like his divination predicted; he would get a visitor in the afternoon.

He switched on the light and opened the door: it was a fat man with a beer belly. He looked sleepy and restless. Graham let the man in and they sat down.

"h.e.l.lo, sir. I"m detective Graham Hymes. How can I help you?" he asked politely while observing the man.

The man"s lips were dry and he covered his eyes with his forearm when he entered the room. He seemed to be sensitive to light. He also ma.s.saged his temples from time to time. Graham came to the conclusion that the man was hungover. He probably didn"t get enough sleep last night either.

"I heard you are a great detective." the man said honestly.

The corner of Graham"s lips rose.

"Last night I lost my wallet. I couldn"t find it anywhere this morning. I don"t need the money inside; I need my doc.u.ments." the man said anxiously.

"First, tell me who you are," he asked.

"I"m so sorry. I was too worried I forgot that. My name is Egbert Visser. I"m an accountant." he said, still with nervousness in his tone.

"Alright. Mr. Visser, where did you lose it? Tell me what happened." Graham said slowly to calm his client down.

"I don"t remember. I was very drunk last night, but I went to a bar with a bunch of other coworkers. I walked home with a friend. He was sober. He said there was a suspicious man walking towards us."

Graham"s attention was piqued. He asked, "Tell me more about the man."

"I don"t really know. In fact, I didn"t remember seeing him. My friend only told me he was wearing a mask when I phoned him earlier. Do you also think he might have stolen my wallet?"

Graham was thinking for a while.

"It"s possible. Did he b.u.mp into you?"

"No. I didn"t feel anyone b.u.mping into me. Even if I was drunk, I should have been able to remember something like that... right?" he said not really confidently.

"Probably." Graham rubbed his chin, and said, "Now, please describe your wallet in detail."

"It is a leather wallet. Brown. That"s the color. I don"t know how much money is inside. I don"t remember how much I spent last night. But there should be some money left. There are cards, including my ident.i.ty card."

Graham noted down the description in his notebook.

"I"ll start working right away. Come back here in three hours," he said a.s.suringly.

He then took out a blank card and handed it over to Mr. Visser.

"Leave your landline number here," he said, and then added, "The commission fee will depend on the difficulty of the mission."

Egbert Visser nodded in acknowledgment and scribbled his landline number on the card and gave it back to Graham.

"In three hours?" he asked with hopeful eyes.

Graham nodded. He then sent the man outside and closed the door behind him.

"Val, the suspicious man sounds like someone who tried to steal my wallet. I"ll use my divination to find both the wallet and that man."

Graham took out nine votive candles and set them up for the ritual. He turned off his office light and sat in silence. He lit the candles one by one, moving in a spiral. Once the candles were lit, he concentrated and repeated the questions in his heart.

"Where is Egbert Visser"s wallet?"

The room got darker and darker, with only the flames flickering in the dark. The surrounding area became quiet. After a while, a blurry image started to surface on the burning flame. Graham focused on the image with his eye power activated.

It was the image of an alley. There was a brown leather wallet just lying on the ground next to a dumpster. There were a lot of broken bottles nearby. After a while, the image got even more blurred and eventually disappeared. In its place, the blurry image of a street with a lot of trees surfaced.

Graham recognized the street. That was the very street he lived on; Tuinstraat. He closed his eyes and opened them again quickly. The image on the flame had disappeared. The put out the fires and put the candles away.

"Val, the wallet is closer than we thought. But it"s disappointing that the thief doesn"t have it anymore."

Graham got ready to head out. He wore his favorite trench coat, which had been washed and cleaned, and a pair of gloves. Nowadays he always wore a pair of gloves since he never knew when he would stumble upon a crime scene. He also brought Valentine"s knife.

The alley in his divination was not far from where he lived. He only needed to walk less than thirty minutes to reach it. Graham walked quickly because he didn"t want anyone else to pick up the wallet before he did.

He arrived at the alley twenty-two minutes later despite almost running. He was panting because of exhaustion. After he regained his breath, he entered the alley to start searching for the wallet. Based on the image he saw, it should be next to a dumpster. However, there were a few dumpsters in that alley.

"It smells here, and very messy. Maybe I should manipulate someone to clean this alley up," he complained.

He concentrated for a while to activate his eye power. Once it was active, his sight became ma.s.sively enhanced. He could even see c.o.c.kroaches and rats moving about. He scanned the area with his eyes and his attention was grabbed by a brown leather wallet lying on the ground. He carefully picked it up.

"Val, the money inside is gone. The cards are here though. It seems the thief is only interested in cash." he said after opening the wallet.

There were a lot of cards inside, including one that looked like an ident.i.ty card. There was no money inside the wallet at all. There was also a photo inside; it was of a man and a little girl. The man was Egbert Visser, and the little girl Graham guessed was his daughter.

"Mr. Visser in this photo doesn"t look that much different. This must be a relatively recent one. He looks happy here. His daughter looks like a nice girl too." he said with a slight hint of longing in his voice.

He then put the wallet inside his coat pocket and took out his notebook. He tore out a piece of paper and wrote a statement on it.

"The thief took away Egbert Visser"s money."

He lit the paper on fire and waited for the result. He stood up with his body covering the paper, making sure the wind wouldn"t blow the fire out. The paper burned entirely, confirming his deduction.

"Our suspicion was right. We can divine later where the thief is with this much information, Val. I hope he doesn"t have anti-divination power."

Graham cleaned the ashes from his divination and walked back home. He didn"t want to sweat, so he walked relaxedly. It took him more than thirty minutes to reach home, and in the end, he was still sweaty even though the wind was blowing gently.

He entered the apartment building and got into his office. Graham turned on the light because he didn"t have Valentine"s night vision. He took off his coat after taking out his wallet.

He looked at his watch and said, "Val, we have around one more hour until Mr. Visser comes back. After I divine his whereabouts, we need to switch. You"re much faster."

He then set up the candles again for another divination. He turned off the light and lit the candles one by one, in the same order as he did before. Once they were lit, he concentrated and repeated the questions in his heart.

"Where is the thief that stole Egbert Visser"s money?"

After a while, silence crept to the surrounding area. It became dark. A blurry image started to appear in the flickering flames. It was of an apartment building; one that was very familiar to Graham. It was Vakbond apartment! The blurry image then zoomed in to a room, and through the blurry image, Graham could somehow make out a room number. It was number 24, the room next door!

Graham was slightly shocked, so he couldn"t maintain his focus. The image instantly disappeared and the room turned back to normal. He put out the fires and moved the candles away.

"So, the thief is either Luuk or someone hiding inside his room. No matter which was the case, Luuk must know the thief. Val, switch over." Graham said after processing what he had seen.

He went to his bed and lied down there. After a while, he fell asleep. Shortly after, Valentine got up and prepared himself. He took out his knife that was still inside Graham"s coat. He didn"t want to wear the coat because it was difficult to move in. He instead wore his leather jacket and hid the knife under.

He got out of his room and stood in front of the door to room number 24. He wanted to make preparation before confronting the thief. Since he knew that the thief must chant something before being able to steal his belongings, he planned to ban a certain word.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the word Deity a secret!" he said quietly.

He planned to ban the word "deity" altogether to prevent any chanting, although it would also make him unable to chant. He could then just move out of the area of effect to be able to chant again.

Right after he finished his uttering, he got a stabbing pain in his head. His power had failed. It seemed that he couldn"t ban the word "deity". He then changed his plan.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the word I a secret!"

He got another stabbing headache after finishing his second chat. His power had failed again. He concluded that he could not or was not yet able to ban common chanting words. He didn"t give up, however.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the word steal a secret!"

He thought that since his opponent was a thief, he would need to say the word "steal" in his chant, so he banned that word. This time, there was no stabbing feeling in his head. He had successfully made the word "steal" a secret, and on top of that, he could still freely say a chant.

Valentine rang the bell.

...

It was a Sunday afternoon. Luuk van der Meer didn"t have any cla.s.ses at uni today. He woke up really late after his dangerous activity last night and was just doing nothing. Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

He got up and opened the door. It was Graham Hymes, the detective from next door. Luuk never expected his neighbor to come to visit him, so he was surprised.

"h.e.l.lo, Mr. Detective. How can I help you?" he asked while observing the man in front of him. He looked cold and his gaze felt like he was being pierced layer by layer.

"Can I come in?" the detective said shortly. He seemed to be observing the room through the gap in the door.

"What is it about?" Luuk felt a bit wary.

Just as he said that, the detective pushed the door open. Luuk was fast enough to react, he ran into his room, leaving the dangerous man alone. He heard the sound of the door being closed and locked from inside.

Luuk grabbed a pocket knife and thought of a way to get out of the situation. He then saw the detective and saw that he was carrying a dangerous-looking commando knife. He started chanting right away.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Theft, declare the detective"s knife mine!"

He made a swiping motion with his right hand and the knife that the detective was holding disappeared and reappeared in Luuk"s hand. He didn"t use the word "steal" in his chant at all.

He saw that the detective looked taken aback for a very short time before he suddenly charged at Luuk. Luuk struck him with his knife, but the detective had grabbed a thick book to parry Luuk"s knife attack. He then hit Luuk with the thick book and he managed to make Luuk drop the commando knife. The detective quickly grabbed his knife and chanted in succession.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the word steal no longer a secret!"

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the word knife a secret!"

Luuk heard the whole chant but seeing the detective with a knife again, he started his own chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Theft, declare the detective"s ----- mine!"

His chanting had failed. Luuk panicked. He tried again by modifying the chant.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Theft, declare the detective"s weapon mine!"

He then felt that the chant was successful. He made a swiping motion with his right hand and a thick book appeared in his hand. Since he was not specific with his chant, he got the weapon that the detective had been using most recently. He dropped the book right away, but it was enough time for the detective to make his move.

The detective then stabbed his right thigh and blood spurted from the wound.

"Aaarggghh!!" he screamed in pain.

The detective disarmed him easily after that. Now Luuk had no more chance to run away. His thigh was in great pain and he was losing a lot of blood. He didn"t understand what was going on. He only knew that the man before him was very dangerous. His cold eyes didn"t show any sign of giving mercy. Luuk gave up fighting and started pleading for his life.

"Please don"t kill me. I won"t resist."

He raised both hands and just sat there in pain; his back leaning against the wall.

...

After his target had given up, Valentine got a piece of cloth and wrapped it around the wound that he had inflicted. His goal was not to kill the man; he was just making sure the thief wouldn"t be able to run away. He wrapped the cloth tightly to stop the bleeding. His target had lost quite some blood; the floor was covered in it.

He then looked at Luuk in the eyes and held the knife against his neck.

"Are you the thief that tried to steal from me the other night?"

Luuk, feeling scared, answered honestly, "Yes. It was me. But I didn"t steal anything, so why are you doing this?"

Valentine didn"t answer his question.

"Did you steal a drunken fat man"s wallet last night?"

"Yes, I did. I"m sorry. I threw away the wallet." he said. Cold sweat ran down his neck.

"I"ve found his wallet. Now give me back the money you took from his wallet."

Luuk took out money from his pocket. It was one guilder and twelve pennings.

"I only took this. I swear," he said honestly.

Valentine looked at Luuk and judged that he was telling the truth. He took the money and put it inside his pocket with one hand; the other still held the knife. After he was done, he got up and cleaned the dust off his clothes.

"Thank you for your cooperation. I"ll come back later, so you"d better not go anywhere," he said coldly.

"Oh, I"ll take this as a souvenir." he squatted and took Luuk"s pocket knife that was lying on the floor.

Luuk couldn"t respond. He could only look at his a.s.sailant in confusion and fear. He couldn"t even muster the energy to stand up.

Valentine went to the door and took the keys that were hanging from the lock. He then went out and locked the room from outside, leaving the dumbfounded Luuk inside his room.