Chapter 44 – Leads and Traces

Rose was the first to arrive. She stepped through the door of the back salon, the lush red curls of her illusion falling over her shoulders, and stopped abruptly when she saw Madame Dolorosa lying on the couch, looking shaken and exhausted.

“What happened?” Rose was immediately at Madame Dolorosa’s side.

“There was a break-in last night,” said Madame Dolorosa. “Lily has already taken care of me. I’m fine.”

“You don’t look like you’re fine.”

“Please don’t worry about me, Rose, I-“

Then Violet arrived just a few moments later, her gaze darting alarmedly between Madame Dolorosa, Lily, and Rose. And then Daisy, the youngest, came in right after, the color draining from her face.

“Oh Martyr,” Daisy whispered, pressing her hand to her mouth. “Oh Martyr, Madame-“

“Daisy.” Madame Dolorosa’s voice cut through the rising panic. “Breathe. I’m alive, and I’ll still be alive tomorrow. Sit down.”

Daisy sat down.

Valentina took over, and she did so with a matter-of-factness that surprised herself a bit. She knew the administrative side of the business because she had been helping Madame Dolorosa with the books regularly for months now, and she knew who was expected that evening, which girls were assigned to which clients, and what the schedule looked like.

“Listen,” she said, and four pairs of eyes turned to her. “Madame needs rest. Please take over my two clients tonight, Rose and Violet. Rose, you’ll take Master Wilbermore, because he knows you too, and he’s easygoing anyway. Violet, you’ll take the wine merchant from Five Ashes. He likes it tender and wants someone to listen to him a little afterward, nothing more.”

Rose and Violet nodded.

“Daisy, you go to Gretta and the doorman. Tell them that tonight, only those on the list and personally known will be admitted. No exceptions and no surprise guests, no newcomers, no matter what they offer. If anyone comes that no one knows, they’ll be turned away. After that, just take care of your clients as usual.”

“Yes, sure, I’ll be quick!” Daisy was pale, but she had composed herself, stood up and hurried over to Gretta.

“And I,” said Valentina, “will take care of everything else. I’ll greet the customers, keep an eye on the schedule, the payment and check on Madame regularly.”

Madame Dolorosa watched Valentina from her bench with a warm expression. “Lily,” she said with a catch in their voice, “how good it is that I asked you to come in early today.”

“Pure coincidence,” said Valentina.

“There’s no such thing as coincidence, sweetheart. There’s only good timing and bad timing.”

Rose paused briefly before changing and placed her hand on Valentina’s shoulder. “We can do this,” she said.

~

The evening went on, and it went well.

The customers who came in that evening didn’t notice anything unusual, except that Lily was greeting them at the door instead of Madame Dolorosa. Valentina explained with a warm smile that Madame wasn’t feeling well tonight, and none of the men asked any questions. Most of them liked Lily, and they didn’t come here to ask questions anyway.

Master Wilbermore, who was a regular and could never decide between Lily and Rose anyway, seemed perfectly content to have Rose instead tonight. The wine merchant from Five Ashes took a little longer to warm up to Violet, but toward the end of the evening, Valentina heard his laughter through the door and knew everything was all right.

Between clients, Valentina went to the back to check on Madame Dolorosa. The first time, Dolorosa tried to sit up, though tired, and worked with one hand on the quarterly statements, which had actually been the reason for Valentina’s early arrival. Valentina scolded her. The second time, she had set the book aside and closed her eyes, and Valentina covered her with a woolen blanket she found in the dressing room. The third time, Dolorosa was awake, sitting up a little straighter again and drinking water in small sips.

Valentina checked the arm. The Ard pattern was holding, and the swelling was going down. The fracture would heal completely, far faster than without treatment, but she would have to rest the arm for at least another week.

Late in the evening, after the last customer had left and the front door had been locked, Madame Dolorosa called the girls together.

She was now sitting upright, and her voice was still a little hoarse but firm. “Thank you,” she said. “Every single one of you. Rose and Violet, for your flexibility, and you too, Daisy, for maintaining your composure so well. And Lily…” She held out her hand, and Valentina took it. Dolorosa’s grip was firm. “Lily. Without you, I might not have come through this night so unscathed.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” said Valentina.

“No, but I have to repay you for your Distilled Essence.” Madame Dolorosa didn’t let go of her hand. “You used your entire bottle for me. I don’t want you to go home without Essence and definitely not tonight. Rose, please fetch a bottle from my stash in the study. The one with the green seal, please.”

Rose disappeared and returned with a bottle of high-quality Distilled Essence and Madame Dolorosa pressed it into Valentina’s hand, holding her hand tightly for a moment again.

“Take it, please, I insist.”

Valentina took the bottle. “Thank you.”

~

Valentina had deactivated the illusion on her way to Greta’s shop, was herself again and walked quickly through the dark streets of Bridgewater.

Instead of taking the direct route along Mill Gate Road, she took a detour, heading first toward Bread Gate Road.

The bottle of Distilled Essence in her pocket was reassuring, but the truth was that she didn’t know who she was even supposed to protect herself from. A man wearing a Padavese mask and speaking in a distorted voice, using unknown patterns… what kind of opponent even was that?

After a while, Valentina reached Pinfeather Lane and was almost near her house when suddenly a loud, repulsive noise rang out from the narrow, pitch-black side alley to her left.

Valentina spun around, the vial of Distilled Essence already in her hand, mentally running through the patterns when-

“Haha, girly! Did I scare you?”

An old vagrant with a shaggy beard was leaning against the wall, pissing in a high arc against it, clearly having a royally good time. When he saw Valentina standing before him, eyes wide and ready for a fight, he burst into a toothless, beer-soaked laugh.

Valentina put the bottle back in her pocket and kept walking. Her heart was pounding hard.

The old man’s laughter followed her until she inserted her key into the lock, unlocked the door, stepped inside, and locked it behind her. Then she waited a moment until her pulse had calmed down.

“Just a drunk,” said Vyxara.

“I know.”

“You’re tense.”

“Of course I’m tense.”

“Tense is better than carefree, because we can’t afford to be carefree, but you mustn’t drive yourself crazy either.”

Valentina first climbed the stairs to her study and activated the Sight.

The protective patterns on the walls of her study shimmered untouched, both the conventional ones and the demonic configurations Vyxara had taught her. She let her gaze wander slowly across the floor, to the spot where the iron box containing the Eye of Deceit lay hidden beneath the floorboards. The artifact’s unsettling dissonance was still there.

Everything was just as she had left it. No one had been here.

She dropped the Sight, rubbed her eyes, and climbed the narrow staircase to her bedroom. She undressed, washed herself with the cold water from the jug on the dresser, and lay down in bed. The sheets smelled slightly of Innogen, and Valentina pulled the blanket tighter around herself to breathe in the scent.

“We need to talk, little Weaver,” said Vyxara.

Valentina had only been waiting for this. “I know.”

“Someone with considerable skill and no apparent scruples is searching for the Eye of Deceit in Bridgewater. He’s tracked it back to Dolorosa, and he beat her up to get information. That doesn’t sound like a petty thief or burglar. This person clearly knows what the Eye is and what it can do.”

“And it would be delusional to assume he’ll stop searching, I guess.”

“No, I don’t think he will. Dolorosa was a dead end for him. She told him the truth, that it had been stolen from her, and he apparently believed her, but that means he’ll follow the next lead.”

Valentina stared at the dark ceiling. “The trail leads to Gladder.”

“Right. And from Gladder it leads to Faustus, and from Faustus it leads straight into the chaos at the end of last year, to our little trip to the dungeon of the Illumination, Gladder’s death, and Faustus’s escape.” Vyxara paused, giving Valentina time to let it all sink in. “Anyone who researches this story thoroughly enough will inevitably stumble upon your name, even if it’s unlikely you’ll be directly linked to it. But you were Faustus’s great rival, the one who won the Greystone competition against him. The last person to publicly clash with Faustus before everything escalated.”

“But that doesn’t prove anything, Vyxara.”

“Of course not, but it doesn’t have to. It’s enough to pique someone’s curiosity. And the man with the Padavese mask is obviously someone who pursues his curiosity with great determination.”

Valentina rolled onto her side. “Do you think the figure I saw, the guy in the hood, is the same guy?”

Vyxara thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. The methods don’t quite match up. Whoever overpowered Dolorosa was a skilled Essence Weaver, and the figure in the alley seemed more like a vagrant than someone who possesses such powers and knowledge.”

“Then a henchman, perhaps?”

“Possible. Or someone completely uninvolved. It could also all just be a coincidence, though I don’t really believe that anymore.” A brief hesitation. “But uncovering the identity of that hooded figure isn’t that important right now. Our real problem is that we possess the Eye, and that someone is searching for it who’s willing to break bones to get it.”

Valentina was silent for a moment. “What do you suggest we do?”

“That we finally use the Eye to its full potential. After what he did to Dolorosa, we both know he’s not going to just politely ask you to hand it over, if he finds us.”

“But I’m already learning how to use it.”

“Not fast enough, though. I want you to understand it completely and I want you to be able to master it when it really matters.”

“What about the time distortion and the cumulative effects? Vyxara, I’m a little worried about that… I don’t want to, I don’t know, work with it and then accidentally have a hundred years pass or something.”

“Don’t be dramatic, I wouldn’t let that happen.” The demon sounded patient. “Of course there are a few risks, but the alternative is definitely worse. Compared to that, working carefully with precautions is the lesser evil, trust me.”

“Okay, then we finally need the corrupted Essence from Hobkin’s contacts. I’ll go to him and ask him to speed things up.”

“And afterwards we’ll have to move a little faster through the curriculum than we’d planned.”

“Agreed,” Valentina said quietly.

“Good.”

Vyxara retreated deeper into Valentina’s mind, but Valentina lay awake for a long time, listening to the sounds of the house. Eventually, just before sleep finally overtook her, she remembered with a brief jolt that tomorrow was Friday and she would be meeting with Professor Whitehall in the afternoon to discuss her proposal for her master’s project.

“I really can’t catch a break.”