"Is this a bad time? Am I interrupting you two?"
Anna looked between Robin and Sumia, sat at opposite sides of the room, her head poking out of the door.
"No, it's fine," Robin said from his bed, his sheets piled behind him in a messy hill of white cloth. "We were just having a nice chat."
"I'll pull out a chair for you, Anna," Sumia said, curled up on Robin's desk. "You just make yourself at home."
A loud scraping sound rumbled in Robin's ears as he watched Sumia pull out a chair next to her from under the desk. Before she could drag it out fully, the chair slipped out of her hands and crashed to the floor.
"Gods, can't you even pull out a chair without slipping up?" Robin said.
"I'm sorry! My hands get sweaty when I get nervous!"
"Nervous? I'm just going to talk to her!"
"You're just going to talk?"
"Yes! What did you think I was going to do, use dark magic to pull the answers out of her head?"
"..."
Robin scowled in annoyance. "Seriously?"
"Well, I don't know how you do things. Isn't there some kind of magic you use to read minds?"
"No, where did you hear that? Gods, I can't believe you."
"I'll just..."
Anna stepped between the two before they could go on, stooping down to pick up the chair on the floor. She set down the chair in the middle of the room, and she slid her legs around the back of the chair, crossing her arms over the top.
"So, what is it you two needed me for?" she asked, switching her gaze between the two of them.
Sumia and Robin glanced at each other, if only to glare daggers at the other one more time, before they turned to Anna. From behind her, Sumia pulled out the journal. She flipped through it, stopping at the page with a small sketch on it of a woman, her hair tied back behind her.
Keeping it in Anna's view, she held up the journal and pointed to the sketch. "Do you know this girl?"
Anna leaned in, her eyes narrowing as she peered closely at the face.
"Luna Jacobs?" she said, slowly nodding her head. "Yes, I remember her. Such a shame she up and vanished. I liked her. She was always so efficient. Now I always find at least one broken item whenever I ask for a delivery."
"What did you send her to do?" Robin asked.
"Oh, I sent her to pick up a stock of concoctions from a cousin of mine. Chrom's the most accident-prone boss I've ever worked with, so I'm always running low on those. Not that I'm complaining, but I keep telling him he really needs to be more careful with himself."
"A cousin in Guillotine Gutter?" Sumia said. "That seems like a horrible place for a merchant to stay."
"It is, but that cousin of mine's always been a real cheapskate."
Robin gave her a sideways look. "Couldn't the same be said for you?"
"Yeah, I won't deny that," Anna said, waving her hand, "but this cousin is on a different level. She lives in Guillotine Gutter, in case you forgot. Why do you think I sent Luna here to meet with her instead of going there myself? She didn't show the next time I sent someone over!"
"That doesn't sound good," Sumia said.
Anna chuckled. "You don't know the half of it, hun'."
"Could you give us a name, at least? It'd be a great help in finding Luna if we could talk to this cousin of yours," Robin said.
"I don't think her name would be of any help. My family doesn't have the biggest variety of names."
"Every little bit helps," Sumia said. "Could you tell us her first name, so we'd know what to call her?"
"Anna."
"What about her last name?" Robin asked, taking out his notebook and writing it down.
"Anna."
Both Sumia and Robin stopped what they were doing to stare at Anna.
Robin spoke what was on both of their minds. "Your cousin is named Anna Anna?"
"Anna Anna Anna, actually. All the girls in my family are named that."
"All the girls in your family are named Anna Anna Anna?"
"Ridiculous, I know, but it's a family tradition. They don't even change it when they get married!"
"Is your name Anna Anna Anna?"
"Nope. I changed it. It goes against the family law, but don't we all break a few laws every now and then?"
Robin put a hand over his face. "No one does that."
"Gaius does it," Sumia said.
"We make an exception for Gaius."
"So you can make an exception for Gaius, but what about me?"
"Gaius is a contributing member of the Shepherds."
"And don't think I contribute?"
"I'm not saying you don't contribute, I just focus on the more important people."
"So you can hex them to bend to your will, right?"
"Do you two need a room?" Anna shut both of them up in an instant, and their glares fell on her instead. Somehow, she missed the clear signal, and she added, "I'll be willing to rent out my room to you two for the low, low price of–"
"We don't need a room," Robin hissed. "Just... do you have anything that could help us? Some identifying features? Any connections? A location?"
"I can tell you where she usually sets up shop in Ylisstol. Though I'm not sure that would help since the two who came before you already looked through it."
"Where?"
"I believe there's a tavern called the 'Blonde Beserker' in the area. If you search the alleyway leading behind it, you should find a shop at the end. That's where she stays whenever she stays in the city."
"Got it." Robin closed his journal with a click, and his pen disappeared back into his pocket as he got to his feet.
"Thank you for your help," Sumia said, giving Anna an earnest smile as Robin walked past her. "It's very appreciated."
"Anything for my favorite tactician and... stable girl."
"She said it."
"Hey!"
"Just be sure to say Anna helped crack the case, and we can call it even. I'll take any publicity I can get."
"I'll... see what I can do," Sumia said. She turned to Robin, but she found the door already swinging shut.
Robin hadn't even got two steps away from the door when he heard it creak open again.
"Wait up!" Sumia said, and she stepped in line beside him. "I was still talking to her."
"We don't have time for niceties," Robin said. "We have a girl to find, remember?"
"Oh. I guess you're right."
A sigh escaped his lips. They continued walking for a bit longer, passing a few servants down the hall.
"Can I see the log?" Robin said after a while.
Sumia opened it instead, flipping to the page for Luna Jacobs. "What do you want to know?"
"I asked for the log," Robin said, letting a flash of irritation show on his face. "I need to see if it has what I want to know."
He reached over for it, but Sumia pulled it away.
"You already have your notebook," she replied. "Can you let me do something for once?"
He opened his mouth to protest. He thought better of it, though, and his mouth snapped closed again.
It's just the case log, he said to himself. At least it's nothing important, so it's better to just let her have this one.
"Tell me what Sully wrote down for possible suspects. I'll see if we can narrow our job down just a little."
"The only thing that's written down is a gang that lives in the area called 'the Red Herrings'."
"Does it say why they might have taken her? Any motives?"
"It just says... crime things? I think that means things any criminal would do to a young lady, like murder them. Or worse."
That was it? Surely there would be more. "Anything else?"
"Not really."
"Are you sure you aren't missing anything? Are there any notes in the margin?"
Sumia glanced to the side, like she wasn't sure if she could tell him. "Well, it does say here that she had no enemies, no conflicting interests like an affair, and that there should be no reason why anyone would want to kidnap her. That's all I can tell you."
Scowling, Robin looked over her shoulder. To his disappointment, that really was all there was for her to say.
"Then I suppose we better see if we can find anything new at the shop," he said.
When they arrived, the shop was empty. Darkness gathered in the unlit corners like clumps of dirt, and dust scaled the walls from the floor to the ceiling, one big tapestry of white and grey. Nothing looked worn and cracked, so it hadn't been empty for too long, but it had been some time since anyone had set foot inside. Or cleaned the walls, at the very least.
As Sumia stepped inside behind Robin, a cobweb hanging by the doorway caught her hair. She squeaked, combing through her hair with her slim fingers to pull it out. The webbing just latched onto her hands, so she swiped against a wall to brush it off. She shook her hand one more time, just for good measure, and once she was satisfied with it, she walked back through the door.
Only for her face to squish against the door. Sumia fell to the ground with a yelp, and the door creaked back open, revealing Robin looking at her, his hand on the doorknob.
"I'm sorry, I forgot you were there."
"It's no problem," Sumia replied, rubbing her nose as she stepped through the door.
Once she was inside, Robin shut the door behind her. She glanced around at the empty shop, dust gathered over the countertop she assumed the merchant would usually be trying to sell her items over. Without anyone trying to shove some cheap bathing soap in her face, seeing the counter left a haunted feeling in her chest.
"This feels so wrong," she muttered.
"You're right," Robin said. "If I was here on my own, I wouldn't have to worry about rubbing elbows with anyone."
"I meant seeing the shop so empty. But yes, that too."
"I could probably finish searching this place much faster if I had to solve this case alone."
"I don't doubt that. You could probably use your dark mind-control magic to scan this entire place in a few seconds."
"Wha–" Robin's eyes narrowed, and he leveled a glare at her. "I keep telling you, there's no such thing."
"If you say so."
"Just stay out of my way."
Sumia didn't argue, and they went their separate ways. Robin went over to the shelves around the back wall, while Sumia walked over to the counter. She bent over to inspect the wooden surface, checking for any strange markings that might give away a secret hiding place.
In these kinds of stories, there was always a secret compartment where some piece of critical evidence was stashed away, she thought. I just need to find where it is, which shouldn't be too hard since they're always around important places like the countertop.
As she swept her eyes over the dust, she noticed that there was a trail clear of dust over the wood. Her eyes swept over it, going off the counter and onto the floor, before it ended in a small crack in the wall.
Rat prints in the dust? I wish rats were the only thing I had to worry about here.
Rats were much easier to deal with than a suspicious partner who she was pretty sure was hiding some dark secret. Chrom wouldn't be happy if she sent a cat at his tactician, so her hands were tied there.
From the crack, she scanned over the wall behind the counter for anything suspicious. Everything seemed fine to her. That was until she saw a patch in the wall much brighter than the rest. This part of the wall wasn't as dusty, and it stood out like Donnel standing in the middle of a fancy ball. She remembered the dusty rat prints on the counter, and an idea struck her.
A grin broke out on her face. She had found something, and, since Robin still looked busy with the shelves, she had found something before Robin.
Excitement bubbled in her chest, and she leaned over the counter to reach the section of the wall. Her fingers dug into a crack between the dust, a crack so small she would have missed it if not for the dust around its border. She pulled it open, and as the secret door moved aside, it revealed a few papers scattered inside.
Sumia grabbed the papers without a second thought. Straightening them against the dusty countertop, she held it up in front of her face, and she started to read.
She hadn't even finished the first sentence when she heard something hit the floor with a thud. It was probably her jaw, quickly followed by any happy thoughts she had.
"Oh gods," she said, her voice thin, almost unable to come out of her mouth.
Her reaction didn't go unnoticed. "What have you found?" Robin said, poking his head over her shoulder. For the first time, she detected a note of concern. Concern for her. Maybe he wasn't heartless after all.
At least, not as heartless as... whatever this was. This... this was the most horrible, most disgusting combination of words ever assembled on a single page. It was like someone had vomited all their hate and anger on a sheet of paper, before taking a fork and trying to paint an image out of whatever it was they spewed on the paper like it could be salvaged into something any person would ever want to look at. And the worst part was that it was all aimed at her.
Well, not her specifically. Just anything with breasts and the ability to bear children.
Robin seemed to share her shock as well, from the way his eyes widened as they scrolled over the top sheet.
"I-I didn't know people like this still existed," he said, and he sent her a worried glance. She was thankful for that, feeling on the verge of vomiting herself.
"Neither did I," she said, and, closing her eyes, she folded the paper. She crumpled it up into a ball, before she shoved it into Robin so she would never have to see it again. How someone could have so much hatred inside them, she never wanted to know.
Their first big clue and she was already feeling sick. The characters in stories like these always came across more gruesome things, so if she couldn't handle this, maybe she wasn't cut out for this.
No. I'm not going to back out now. What would Chrom think of me?
"So, is that where you found it?"
Robin's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She blinked, and she saw that he was pointing toward the open hatch on the wall that she'd discovered.
When she nodded, Robin frowned. "Since the owner of this shop was a woman, unless she had problems with herself, I think it's safe to say that this wasn't hers. Someone else must have put that there." He pushed the hatch closed, and as he did, he took a moment to look over it. "The dust has been disturbed recently, so they must have been here not too long ago. The original owner isn't here, so whoever made this must have been here in her place. Maybe they're even the ones who kidnapped Luna."
"I think they kidnapped Anna's cousin, too." At Robin's frown, she added, "I mean, Anna said that when she sent someone after Luna, there was no one home. These things are always connected, right?"
"Life isn't like a novel, you know that? I don't know all that much about solving crimes, but even I know that sometimes, coincidences are just coincidences."
"Then do you think you could ask if anyone else has gone missing in the area. To prove me wrong."
Robin smirked, already reverting to how he had been before. "There's not going to be anyone else, I'll tell you that right now."
Christmas things made this chapter late. Should really get some sleep, but I just had to finish this. Don't be me, kids.
Felt like a few of the things came on too strongly, like any time I tried to be subtle it was about as obvious as a duck in a wild goose chase, and about as graceful as a horse sliding over ice.
Think of this as my Christmas present to you all. Ho ho ho.