Throne Of Steam

A luxurious gramophone sat atop a side wooden table, its details were painted gold, glistening as the rays of light shone upon it. A soft melody could be heard, a new piece composed by an ascending imperial musician that soothed the nerves from those present in the room.

"So, the two of you are saying that - both of you were attacked at the same time Madam Cecile was murdered?" The church inspector spoke as he wrote in an old notebook with a long feather, the sound of scratching against the paper.

The young pair of hunters exchanged glances with one another. Garett felt slightly apprehensive in the presence of the deacon, he sat there while anxiously brushing his hands against each other.

"Yes, Mr. Irwin, that"s indeed the case." Alice was acting totally different from the normal, inching forward she lifted the teacup from the central table and took a sip, her bright red hair falling on her shoulders. "We"ve been attacked by something with the ability to create illusion; apparently the attacker objective was just to distract us, as a shot from Garett"s firearm was enough to shatter the said illusion."

"Sadly, the attacker had already met his objectives." Irwin raised his left hand and pressed against his round gla.s.ses before resting the feather at the inkpot and reclining at the chair. "I"ll not complain about the misuse of church"s funds, as it put the two of you closer to the incident; but I will need more details about the occurrence."

"Well… At least we got away with that…" Garett mused to himself, glad that something good came from all the recent misfortune.

"Mr. Irwin, if you want us to continue with the investigations, we would need the church to send reinforcements. As we aren"t prepared to deal with an illusionist." Alice pressed while creasing her eyebrows.

"Yes, of course, I"ve already taken that into account. After I return I"ll send someone… Appropriately equipped to handle the situation." Irwin nodded while closing the thick notebook, his tone instantly turning more severe "I was also sent here to investigate the report about a fire that took place nearby."

"Are you not going to ask? Do you just intend to stare at us and wait for an answer?" Garett felt the veins in his head throbbing as his lips twitched under the pressure emanating from the inspector.

"About that…" Alice proceeded to explain the happenings of the investigation.

…

"So… The two of you were already thinking of asking for reinforcements?"

"Yes, sir. That"s indeed the case." Garett acquiesced. For some reason, he felt his nerves tighten under Irwin"s scrutiny.

"The boy, named Vincent is missing. It seems he is vital to your investigations, so it"s highly important that you find him."

"About the boy…"

"Yes, it was never reported that the Almirs had a child." Irwin took a sip from the hot tea before continuing "As it is, the boy is a mystery. We were also not able to find Mr. Eddison, not even to inform him of his wife"s pa.s.sing."

"So bothe and the kid are missing... Do you think they were kidnapped?" Alice chipped in, presenting her views of the situation.

"It"s a possibility, it"s your duty to uncover the truth, after all." He stood up after looking at the clock. "Reinforcements should arrive tomorrow at the latest."

He grabbed the notebook from the table and stopped the gramophone before nodding to the pair of young hunters.

"The punishment for setting fire into private property will be given after the end of your current mission, do no think that I forgot about it." He sternly reminded and made way to the door.

"You know that we needed to do that in order to survive, fight?" Garett complained inwardly, without having the courage to voice his thoughts to the inspector.

"Yes, sir." Alice refrained from commenting and slightly bowed to the inspector to await his leave.

The inspector closed the door behind him, leaving the pair of young hunters alone in the room.

"Humph." Alice snorted after some time had pa.s.sed in silence, her face portraying the unhappiness she felt!

"So… Now what?" Garett voiced after things had calmed down, feeling highly uncertain of how you proceed with the investigation.

"I don"t know. Maybe we wait for the arrival of the reinforcements."

"Yeah… That would be safer, but what do we do about Vincent"s disappearance?" He asked with apprehension, as he couldn"t think of any lead to follow.

"You talked with him yesterday, right? At the dining hall, maybe we should begin from there."

"Do we wait for them to arrive before continuing with the investigation?"

"Yes, that would be for the best." She took one last sip to finish the tea and stood up, stretching her arms upward in order to shake the numbness from her body. "At least we got away with some things. I"ll go change and then go to the hall for lunch, I suggest you do the same."

"Yeah… How long do you think it"ll take for the reinforcements to arrive?"

"Well, it"s not like the church is far from here… And they should place priority into something related to the Almir Family, so even if there"s a bureaucratic delay… They should be here tomorrow at the latest." She paused right after and glanced at him as if looking for the words to say next "You did pretty good there... Different from the other recruits I"ve been tasked with."

"This is your way of complimenting someone? Couldn"t you come up with anything better!?" Garett felt a sudden urge to retort against Alice; even if she had good intentions on complimenting him, the way she did it amounted to nothing!

"T-Thank you…" He stammered back with clenched teeth, forcefully holding back the urges.

Nodding to herself, she left with quick steps, not bothering to look behind or wait for him to accompany her. Garett reclined in the chair to appreciate the room"s cozy atmosphere and peace, half afraid of the thousands of inquiries that would inevitably be presented to him by the dozens of guests and attendants inhabiting the hotel.

"What is the connection? Vincent said they were fleeing… But the Whistler had knowledge of the presence of two hunters in the hotel and was even smart enough to prevent us from interfering with his objectives…" Garett mused internally while looking through the windows, letting the shiny rays of light rest on his body.

He believed that Vincent, while intrinsically connected to everything, wasn"t the real problem. Being followed, it was very plausible to a.s.sume that the family was being constantly monitored, while Garett couldn"t fathom the means used to do bypa.s.s the security arrangements Madam Cecile had surely put into place, this was the only way for the a.s.sailants to know of his presence in the hotel.

"Even if this case is clearly connected to the supernatural phenomenon we dealt with yesterday, we only came into contact with the firefighters… An artifact like the lens is very uncommon, and only veterans on the same patamar as the Keeper can forge something like that…" Even in the entire city, the number of people capable of forging something like that could be counted with one hand! While it was possible that there was someone with a similar ability out there, the chances were close to none!

"Thinking about that… I need to investigate the place with the lens. But there are just too many people around for me to do that inconspicuously..." He mumbled to himself and took out his pocket watch, inspecting the time that had pa.s.sed. "I should get going, Alice is not going to like if I"m late."

He took a deep breath before standing and leaving the room slowly in the direction of the dining hall.

…

"You want to use the artifact to inspect the crime scene?" Alice mumbled while mincing on a sizeable chunk of meat, eliciting glaring looks from some of the other guests.

"Yeah, we couldn"t do that before because of all the attention, but the incident caused most of the guests to leave the hotel; if we talk with the management, they should be more understanding." Already accustomed to Alice"s behavior, Garett only shook his head and continued to explain before focusing again on his plate. "Besides, it would be better if we had something to show when reinforcements arrived."

"Yeah… That"s true." Alice nodded a little absentmindedly, "That means more contribution points too…"

"This woman! I don"t know why she wants so much those contribution points, but she"s really adamant about them…" Garett felt his lips twitching, it was like Alice never learned the lesson! It was already the third time that she let her judgment be clouded over some points!

"Well… As it"s in accordance with what I want, I"ll let it slide…" He nodded to himself and dropped the subject, focusing solely on savoring the expensive meal in front of him.