Once again, dawn loomed over the horizon. Shining over Amanises, who was eating a small sandwich while sipping on hot tea over on the small counter.
Sitting on a round stool and overlooking the entire living room, her gaze, that was fixated on the window before, moved towards the opening door of the shared bedroom.
She saw Daly come over with a loud yawn while stretching her arms, before fluttering them and taking a seat face-to-face with Amanises.
The munching woman leaned back and grabbed a nearby plate on the other counter—it was another sandwich she prepared beforehand.
"The coffee is right there." She pointed to a place not any further.
Daly grabbed both and started chewing, occasionally taking a sip.
"You've been busy lately. Want to hang out today after you're done with the Moretti?"
Amanises was thoughtful for a second before shrugging.
"Sure, that is if nothing unexpected happens, of course." She agreed. These past few days have taken years off her lifespan, and it still wasn't done, sadly.
Just this and then I can relax.
***
Iron Cross Street, Tingen City, Awwa County.
Two sets of footsteps marched forward, occasionally stepping on dirty puddles lying on the street.
Vendors shouting their goods, loud chatter of the locals—everything became even more loud in Amanises's ears.
The pair of two Arcanists ended up in a small terrace in a place people mostly called Middle Iron Cross Street—as it was slightly better off then the Lower Street.
"We're here."
Knock knock! Leonard Mitchell kept knocking on the door, yet no one answered. He pressed on the doorknob and realized that it was already open.
Creeak! The apartment door opened slowly, a lubrication for the hinges was long overdue.
Amanises stood behind him, catching sight of the run-down apartment.
It only had two beds stacked on top of each other, a wooden desk with an oil lamp that looked too expensive to be laying there, and extending metal tubes all over giving it the familiar, steampunk look that houses in Loan have.
It was dark, thick covers laid over the small window, blocking any sunlight.
With her enhanced night vision, Amanises saw the hidden corner of the bed. There, a small girl was cowering on the mattress.
She had black hair and a thin face, likely due to a light degree of malnourishment, however her skin was pale but clean as if the girl was still trying to keep up appearances despite the depressing way she felt.
"Who are you?" Her voice was soft but high pitched, characteristic for a girl her age. From her faint and controlled tone, it was clear that she was slightly afraid.
The romantic poet flipped his hair and introduced himself. "Leonard Mitchell, you've met me before."
She nodded. "I remember.
"Last time you came here with a few men and searched this place over and over, but couldn't do anything."
"Yes, that's correct. However, this time I brought in an expert."
An expert? Do not put false hope into the girl! I'll never be able to live it down if I somehow fail! She wanted to retort, but swallowed her words and put on a reassuring smile.
"I'm here to uncover the secrets behind Mr Moretti's suicide." She tilted her head. "What's your name, young lady?"
The girl shifted her gaze to the woman who pushed Leonard away, doe eyes staring at the unfamiliar face.
"Melissa."
Amanises continued to smile. "Well Melissa, may I take a look around?"
The girl nodded, not moving from her spot. "His desk is over there." She pointed at the only piece of furniture besides the bed and cabinet.
Amanises took a closer look at the wooden table, she could still see stains of blood that haven't been cleaned up properly.
Point blank at the temple. Must've made quite the mess.
She trailed her fingers over it, feeling each little crevice.
Then, her hand moved to the small stack of books. She noticed that many of them are copies to which the originals could be found in the Khoy University library.
He really was studying diligently. Although most are borrowed, I can even see small notes made by the scholar.
She inspected them one by one, most of them—if not all, being history themed.
But Amanises noticed that one of the books wasn't recognizable, so she picked it up feeling the cheap leather cover.
"That's his notebook. Policemen have spun it left and right but no one could figure out anything wrong."
She started reading some of the entries.
He writes about his university life, his friends and teachers. Most of these things are noted down to not be forgotten...
She flipped over some more pages, each one containing relatively the same content, it looked like he was passionate about the Forth Epoch.
Reaching some newer entries, her fingers felt rough torn paper.
"There are some pages missing, have they been found?"
"No, we suspect that he burned them." Leonard shook his head.
She turned her gaze back on the diary, continuing to read some more, not recognizing anything off.
Until she reached the last page.
"Everyone will die, including me."
How ominous.
She closed the diary and kept it in her hand.
"Can I hold it for a second? I want to try something."
Melissa raised her eyes in question. "What will you try?"
"I want to divine his memories."
Although Leonard received her request the day before, he was still confused about her method.
Will she try the same method as with Azik Eggers? No—that time it was a dream revelation...
Leonard felt that the woman became more and more suspicious as time passed.
"Yes. I want to try dream divination and possibly find the missing contents."
"Possibly? There's no guarantee?" Asked Melissa with her hope slowly dissipating.
"There's always the possibility of a high level being involved. If that happens, someone like me could die just by thinking about it." She explained herself.
"Alright. It's still worth a try." Nodded the Moretti sibling.
"Could I lay down on the bed?"
Melissa got up from her corner spot and sat on the desk's wooden chair, turning it around to gaze at the bed.
Amanises walked by and laid herself flat on it, keeping the diary to her chest.
Following standard divination procedures, she repeated the statement of: "The diary's missing pages." seven times over, to make it seem more real.
Slowly, her eyes closed and she fell into a deep sleep with the help of Cogitation.
Above the River of Souls, Amanises looked around at the dark expanse. She could still feel the phantom of the diary in her hands.
"This was incredibly close to Klein Moretti, keeping his thoughts and experiences. It should work."
She closed her eyes and focused on the diary, gradually feeling a pull in a direction on the river.
She turned around and followed said direction, walking steadily on the waters.
It didn't take long before she saw a young man. Dressed in a white shirt and black trousers, Klein Moretti was slowly striding, half covered by the river waters.
Similar to how she did with Azik, Amanises moved closer until she was right in his face, shoved her hand in his chest and pulled at the sparkling star.
Instantly, her vision went complete blank, taking away her senses along with it.
***
Light came through the window, but failed to shine over his eyes. Still, Klein, who was quite tired from burning the midnight oil last night, willed himself out of bed.
I have to go to Welch's place. Why couldn't he choose to meet with us later?
Welch, his quite well-off friend, invited him and Naya, another friend, over.
The man was known to be an early bird, he usually gets up at six in the morning to revise his previous lectures.
This time, he claimed to have found an interesting relic that necessitated deciphering.
It might be worth it. But I still would've preferred getting some more sleep...
Klein was lost in his thoughts while getting dressed. Meanwhile, the door opened and in walked Melissa, holding a tray of rye bread and two plates of mashed potatoes.
This wasn't exactly the best breakfast, but considering their stance, the possibility of the potatoes having salt made him salivate.
"Klein, are you leaving soon?"
"Yes, please be at school on time." He instructed his sister. "Benson said he will come home later."
"Alright." She nodded while trying to take a bite out of the hardened bread. "Stay safe out."
"Same goes for you."
Klein quickly finished his breakfast and entered the communal bathroom, styling his hair in the broken mirror, to make himself look at least presentable.
I hope Welch will offer me something to take home...
His thoughts trailed off, as Klein saw himself in the mirror. His reflection slowly stretching and contracting.
W-what? Who am I?
That question broke her out of the daze.
Amanises patted down the white shirt, stretching the collar to get rid of wrinkles, and arranged the short hair, giving it a side part.
Welch McGovern, the one who brought the notebook.
She closed her eyes and fast-forwarded the memory, skipping it to when Klein was already in Welch's home, on his sofa, with Naya at his side.
The brunette woman leaned forward and spoke. "Where did you find the notebook?"
"A kind lad sold it to me for cheap. If only he knew the real value, he would've asked for more!"
Not like you can't afford it. Lampooned Amanises inwardly, Welch spoke like he almost understood the sorry condition of his friend.
"Come here and see it for yourself. Although I can't read it, the way it's written tells that the contents are far beyond interesting! The system is tailored to make it unreadable!"
As Welch opened the notebook for them to see, Amanises closed her eyes and fast-forwarded some more, ending up in front of Klein's study desk. Diary opened before her.
She started writing with the running ink, murmuring the contents in the meantime.
19th June
The notebook's symbols are incredibly composed. Yet there are almost no differences between the same characters written by the person. As if he knew them from birth.
20th June
Today, Welch said that the symbols in the notebook correspond to the ones from Emperor Roselle's secret records. He took out a copied page and, by comparison, they were incredibly similar!
Some characters even matched!
Naya said that the notebook might've also belonged to Roselle at some point, but the way the symbols were written was different.
One had clearer strokes and smaller writing, fitting more on the page. While the other—bigger and messier as if he had forgotten his own system.
Well, the page we got was just a copy, so it's unsure if that was the actual way Emperor Roselle actually wrote.
21st June
...
22nd June
...
...
…
With each entry, her mind spiraled—writing had never felt so cumbersome and maddening before.
25th June
We reached the last page, the writing turned erratic and unrecognizable, we can hardly identify any of the previous symbols.
26th June
Am I hearing things?
Her own strokes along the paper became strange, as if mirroring the characters in the notebook.
27th June
He is talking to me. He is yelling at me. I don't know what language he is speaking.
I can recognize some Jotun from the ancient ravings.
He is asking: Why? Why? Why me?
***
That's where the diary ended.
Amanises could hear faint whispers, like the same ones that assaulted her years each time she was brought above the gray fog.
With her control over the memories, she tried to turn them down.
But it was pointless.
Badump! Badump!
Her heartbeat became louder and louder, as if her heart had been torn out of her chest and held to her ear.
From the back of her mind, the whispers were turning louder, more pronounced.
As per what Klein had said, she also couldn't understand anything. Only because of the repetition did she understand that the whispers actually meant something.
Slowly, they turned to Jotun, yelling:
Why? Why? Why? Why?
WHY ME?!
Klein's voice also started going in her years, layered over the whispers, narrating his own thoughts.
"I don't understand who that being is.
"Why is it yelling? What happened to it? Why is it clawing at my mind?
His own voice became another one of the mind-shattering ravings.
"I got up from my desk and took a look in the mirror."
The reflection was of a young man, but it shifted, contracting as if drawn by a mad painter.
It blinked on and off, changing into multiple people, but at some point it turned into a dark shadow, stretching on the other side—becoming bigger, more imposing.
It slowly took shape. An almost regular shape.
A man with messy long hair, and a pair of tall wolf-like ears extended from the top of his head.
Shadowy tentacles threatened to spill over the shattered mirror's frame.
A pair of glowing yellow eyes stared back.
Inhuman.
Mad.
Klein Moretti's voice dropped down to a whisper, trembling from crippling fear.
"He is looking at me."
Amanises lost control of all motions, being forced to watch as Klein made his way back from his desk and taking out a revolver.
With shocked eyes and trembling lips, he tore the diary pages apart one by one, rolling them into a ball and throwing them into the fire of the small stove.
He sat back down at his desk, gun in one hand with the pen in the other.
His strokes were shaky, but still wrote the final sentence.
After he was done, Klein slowly looked up.
"I've seen something I shouldn't have..."
Bang!