Wendy loved staying over at her uncle's house. Next to her parents, he was the member of her family that she was the closest to. When she was little he would always take her to places like the park or the movies. When she was older he would sometimes allow her to come with him to work at the history museum where he'd show her all the most exciting exhibits and then buy her a little toy from the gift shop. In the evenings after dinner he would fix her an ice cream sundae and let her stay up for as long as she wanted. She had many fond memories with him and when she told him about her goal to find information about the three items she claimed to have found in her attic, he was more than happy to help.
He examined the razor, flask, and ring she had brought carefully but unfortunately he couldn't figure out how far they dated back to or where they had been made. But he would not give up, the next morning he took her to the museum and had the items looked over by the museum's top antiquarian, Mr. Walter Howard.
"Well what do you think?" Mystogan asked as his colleague studied the artifacts. He then pulled out a file from his drawer and went through a few papers.
"I couldn't find anything on the ring except that it's dated back all the way to the 1800's but I think I may know who owned this razor and flask." He pulled out a slip of paper and read what was typed on it. "Here it is, the owner is George Basile. Born July 7th 1862. Died November 1886 at age 24."
"What else does it say about him?" Wendy asked before pulling out her notebook and writing down what he said.
"Let's see." He continued to read on. "He was the second son and youngest child of Frank and Theresa Basile. He was born and spent his childhood in Italy but he later moved to England where he worked as a foreman for wealthy landowner Charles Nightshade. But about a year before his death he moved with his employer's family to Magnolia America where he passed."
"How did he die?"
"Beaten to death by a riot that was started in prison."
"Prison? You mean he went to jail?"
"Yep. That's how I was able to look him up. His file was in the records of all the criminals who served time in this state's prison. Says right here he was arrested and sentenced to life."
"What for?"
"No one really knows but if it was for life then it must've been murder or something."
"That doesn't sound like something Natsu would do." Wendy thought to herself. "I know he's crazy but he wouldn't do something like murder or worse than that. Would he?"
"Anything about what his personality was like?" She asked.
"Well the file says he was often described as no gentleman and was considered by many a scoundrel with no manners or decency. Others said he could see through hypocrisy and self-delusion, horrifying people by cutting down their egos and illusions with agility and pleasure. He was an alcoholic but apparently could hold his liquor better than most and acted crass to almost everyone save for his master and the master's family."
"Sounds like Natsu." Wendy thought. "But then again maybe it was a mistake. Perhaps this was someone else who just happened to have the same brand of razor and flask."
"He had also been known to sneak into the servant's bathhouse and spy on the maids."
"Never mind. That's him alright." Wendy thought.
"That's all I can tell you about him sweetie. It doesn't say anything else."
"Do you have any pictures of him?"
"Not at the moment but maybe I could find something and send it to you later."
"Okay what about this." She showed him a photograph of her house. "Know anything about this house?"
"As a matter of fact I do. That house was built by Charles Nightshade, Mr. Basile's employer. He built it for when he moved to America with his family."
"Know the reason why for that?"
"If memory serves me right it was for his son. Mr. Nightshade's son was getting married and his father decided it would be best if he started a new life in a more free country but something happened and it led to that house being closed up and abandoned until real estate decided to remodel it for living conditions."
"Why was it abandoned?"
"I don't know. I don't know anything else on that subject."
"Do you know if there's anyone here who can tell me more about the house's history? Or maybe something about this ring?"
"I know of a jeweler who might be able to tell you something about the ring, his shop is just down the road from here. As for the house I can't help you there."
"Thanks anyway."
Mystogan and Wendy went to get some lunch after that and then they went to see the jeweler that was recommended.
"This is remarkable." He had told them. "I haven't seen a ring like this in quite some time. One hundred percent pure antique silver platinum encrusted with a rare blue diamond and love knots engraved on the band. It's worth a great deal."
"Blue diamond?" Mystogan said. "I have never heard of that. Are you sure it's a diamond?"
"Positive."
"Any idea who it belonged to?" Wendy asked.
He went to the back of the store and pulled out a large book which had pictures of various rings. He flipped through the pages until he found the one with a picture that matched the ring she brought and proceeded to read the description.
"This ring is the only one of it's kind. There's never been one made like it in years."
"But it's a wedding ring, doesn't it have a match?"
"Yes. The second one has no diamond but the material and engravings are the same. Both rings were paid to be specially designed by Charles Nightshade. He found the blue diamond while helping his employees mine on the land he owned. He noticed the shade of blue bore an astonishing resemblance to the blue eyes of his fiance at the time Alison Banning, so he had the diamond added to her ring."
"Do you have the other ring?" Wendy said.
"No. Both were bought by Charles Nightshade and never seen or heard from again."
"Anything else?"
"Nope that's all it says here."
With that said and done, Wendy wrote down what the jeweler said in her notebook and she headed home with her uncle.
"I'm sorry you weren't able to get all the answers you wanted Wendy." Mystogan said while driving back to her house.
"That's okay. At least I got something." She replied as she looked over her notes. "But nothing I found out seems to add up to anything."
"History is always messy and a lot of things don't seem to add up but in the end they do. You just need to know how to put all the pieces together."
"Well I everything I've found out seems to point to this Charles Nightshade person. If I could learn more about him then maybe it'll lead me to something."
"What is it exactly you're trying to figure out?"
"I want to know who previously owned my house."
"You did find out. It was Charles Nightshade."
"But I also wanna know why that house was abandoned. What exactly happened in it that led to it being closed up."
"If I may ask why do you want to know all that?"
"It's for a school project. We're supposed to do a report on people who previously lived in Magnolia way back in the last century. I figured that I could do it on the people who lived in my house but for some strange reason there's absolutely nothing in my town that has any recorded information about that house's history."
"Odd but I'm sure that if you look up the Nightshade family you'll find something."
"I hope so." She said before looking back at her notes.
She had a very good idea that this George Basile was definitely who Natsu was in life. However she felt that it would be best not to confirm it completely until she at least saw a picture of the man. Mr. Howard said that he would try to find one and send it to her. She only hoped that he would remember to do so.
An hour later they made it back to Mystogan's house and went inside to get started on dinner. Unaware that something had followed them or rather followed her all the way from the In-Between to Edolas.
