CHAPTER EIGHT: The Myth

The sweltering air, beginning to cool for the evening, smelled strongly of laundry detergent and hot metal. The sun wouldn't set for another good two hours, and heat haze rose from the asphalt like spirits. The laundromat at which Annette had asked to meet seemed to be popular; he'd had trouble finding a spot to park in the rear lot. She's probably near the front entrance, Felix thought, one hand in his pocket.

He'd gotten halfway along the side of the building when it happened again.

The breeze blew, carrying with it the salty smell of the ocean and a sound-a humming, or a chant maybe. This time his mind didn't blank away into nothingness, but rather felt melted, like the ends of his reasoning were frayed and beginning to droop. His feet slowed, then stopped, and the voice filled his senses, threatening to overtake him and plunge him into insensibility the way glaciers plunge into arctic water. No, Felix thought, shaking his head like a dog shaking off water. Not again! Breathe.

As much as something deep inside told him to run, something else equally deep commanded him to stay, to listen...to unfold.

Open, the music bid him. Obey.

The humming was like the sea heard through a conch shell, or waves become voice-something old and powerful, terrible and beautiful all at once.

And familiar…? He'd heard this before, and not just the other day on the way to Bottle Beach. He'd heard it...in a dream or when half asleep. Or maybe he'd always known this tune and had simply misplaced it for a while, like a favorite mug forgotten in the back of the cabinet. It sucked at his edges, pulling him down, down, down.

"No!" He grunted aloud, putting a hand to his head. "Stop!"

It stopped, cut off mid-note.

Felix blinked, lowering his hand and looking around warily. The sun was still shining, the air still smelled of soap, and his feet were light once more. From inside the laundromat he could just barely hear chatter, the whir of laundry machines, and a popular song playing on the overhead radio. He flipped around, searching the parking lot from which he'd just come and finding it as empty of life as it had been three minutes earlier. "What the hell?" He said loudly, hoping to draw out whoever had been making the sound.

A few heads popped around the corner of the building, concerned expressions on their faces. Among them was Annette, who trotted toward him as soon as she recognized him. "Detective! What are you doing?"

He reached out, grasping her shoulders. "Did you hear something just now?"

"Yeah, I heard you swearing."

"Not that," he said. "Did you hear something else?"

"Like what?"

"Like…" How could he make this sound not ridiculous? "Like a voice...from the ocean."

Annette stared at him. "A voice from the...ocean? Talking?"

"No. Singing."

"Like the music coming from inside the laundromat?"

He tensed, shaking her a little without meaning to. "No! Not like that at all. Like it was…" He then realized what he was doing and released her, stepping back with his hands up. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to manhandle you. Forgive me."

"I-I'm fine," Annette said, acknowledging his apology. "You didn't hurt me."

"No, it's not fine. I know better, I just...maybe this place is getting to me."

Annette watched him mumble to himself, an odd expression crossing her face. "How did it make you feel? The song, I mean."

Felix hesitated. "Don't laugh if I tell you."

"I won't."

"It was...like it was...ugh." He crossed his arms, uncomfortable. "Why am I saying this…? It was like it was...calling me." After a moment he glanced at Annette, expecting to see her holding in giggles.

Her face, however, was as serious as his own. "Calling you? Or calling anyone who could hear?"

"As if I would know the difference," He said, peeved at the situation and at himself most of all. "Don't make a face like that. You look like you're about to call mental health services. I'm talking nonsense. I'm from Faerghus; it's too hot here for me."

Annette didn't reply right away. She walked to the other corner of the building and peered behind it, then squinted to see through the shrubbery and into the back lot of the post office. After she'd satisfied herself, she came back to Felix and put a hand on his arm. "Are you still okay to tour or should we postpone?"

"No. I'm fine." Felix took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly. Maybe a tour would knock the cobwebs out of his brains. "Where to?"

She still looked skeptical, but put it aside as she spoke. "If you're feeling up to it, I thought we could go for a little hike. There's a trail head near here that takes you to a nice spot overlooking the harbor. What do you think?"

Physical exercise. Even better to clear his mind. "Fine by me."

"Great!" She patted the straps of the small backpack she was wearing. "I got some water bottles out of the drink machine in the laundromat, so we should be all set. Follow me!"

Felix followed her as bidden, but when she turned her back he put a hand to his head again. The song from earlier was still knocking around the corners of his brain; a faint echo that refused to fade.

—

"Anyway, Almyra sent a hundred tons of wyvern-eye quartz as a symbol of peace, and that's why the town square has those elaborate flagstones that form the symbol of Seiros. You can see they're starting to wear down from people walking on them all the time, and the council still has a whole store room of quartz left, so they're planning to...huff...renovate them in the next five years or so." Annette's voice was becoming strained as she walked. "Supposedly even the Almyran royal family might come to commemorate the armistice, which would be...huff...pretty cool." She stopped, leaning over to rest her hands on her knees. "Give me a minute."

Felix, who had taken the backpack from her a mile back, pulled out her water bottle and offered it to her. "What sort of tour guide can't hike her own tour without nearly keeling over every eight hundred meters?"

Annette snapped her head up to glare at him, snatching the water from his hand. "I can do this just fine! You try hiking while simultaneously telling the history of the Almyran-Fodlan conflict! I'm working my brain AND my muscles!" She drank deeply, gasping at the end. "I'm doing this for you, so be a little more grateful!"

"I'm paying you, aren't I? Don't act like this is out of the kindness of your heart," Felix argued back.

Annette narrowed her eyes, thrusting the water back at him. "Fine. We'll go back."

"What? That's ridiculous."

"So you're saying you want to go on? Sounded like you weren't enjoying yourself."

"I'm having the time of my life," Felix replied, his voice as flat as cardboard.

"...now we're definitely going back."

Felix caught her sleeve as she marched past him. "Come on, you said we're nearly there."

She turned back, lips pursed. "Can I rest as often as I need?"

"Fine. I won't complain any more."

"Well. Alright then." She tipped her nose up, walking past him to continue on the trail. "It's not my fault I have noodle legs!"

"How is that not your fault? Exercise them more!"

"I'm trying! How about you encourage me instead of critique?"

Felix snorted. "Encouraging you would only make space for more excuses."

"Excuse me?" She shrilled. "You better watch yourself or I'll put chili powder in your next coffee."

"...that sounds delicious, actually."

"Arsenic, then."

"You realize I'm still a police officer, right?"

"I was kidding! Ugh...shut up, Annie!"

Felix smiled at her back. This was...fun.

—

The banter ended when they emerged from the wooded trail onto the top of a large rock outcropping that jutted out over the ocean. A strong wind blew and Felix braced his feet, leaning into it and the strong smell of brine it brought. Annette was panting again, but she gestured him towards the edge. "This way! There's a great spot to sit right over here."

He followed her over a rock ridge and was surprised to see a little natural shelf near the tip of the cliff-close enough that their toes could dangle off the edge but far enough back to be safe. "Are you sure it holds enough weight?"

The look she gave him suggested that he was an idiot. "Of course it holds weight. During the Firefly Festival fireworks there's always, like, a hundred people up here." She sat down and patted the rock beside her. "Sit!"

Felix wished he hadn't worn his weapons; they made it difficult to find a comfortable position in which to sit. He settled for sitting criss-cross, which was fine by him as the thought of dangling any part of his body off the edge made him lightheaded. Once he'd arranged himself, he looked-really looked-out into the ocean for the first time. The shimmering of the waves in the dwindling light was hypnotic, and he felt the same way he felt when he looked at the stars-like he suddenly remembered that the world was big and he was so, so small.

"You like it?" Annette asked, grinning at the way he'd lapsed into silence. "Worth the climb, right? Just wait until the sun starts to set. That's when this entire sky looks like it's on fire."

They enjoyed the lull of the ocean for a few minutes, then Felix sighed, breaking the comfortable silence. "What's wrong?" Annette asked.

Felix ran his tongue along the backs of his teeth, wondering how much he could say. It occurred to him that he could use this to start a conversation and get information out of her, which was the entire reason he was here in the first place. "Don't you feel small when you look at the ocean like this?"

Annette turned her head back to the ocean, pondering. "Yeah. I do."

"It makes me wonder...how am I going to find Ashe Ubert out there in this enormous world? It's my job. My purpose. But nothing makes sense."

Annette scratched at the rock surface, loosening a tuft of moss. "What'll you do if you don't find him?"

"I…" Felix stopped, clenching his fists. "That's not an option."

Annette didn't reply, but stared out as if she were helping him look for Ashe among the waves. The wind blew again, bobbling the rings in her hair. "I wish I could help," she finally said.

Her glum expression made Felix wish he hadn't mentioned Ubert at all, but he pressed forward. "Actually, there's something you can do for me." When she looked at him, confused, he looked away. "Remember when I stopped you from telling me about Garreg Mach's mermaid myths? Could you tell me now?"

"Now? Like, right now?"

"We still have a few minutes until the sun starts to set."

"Right. Uh…" Annette also crossed her legs, turning a bit towards her lone audience member. "Actually, oral storytelling is my worst one. My shadow puppets are better…"

"I thought singing was your worst."

"That-don't even start!" She took a deep breath, and when her eyes opened, she was someone else. "Long ago, when Sothis and her children still walked among us, a fishing village off the coast of Adrestia secretly gathered a small force against the Goddess herself. It wasn't fair, they felt, that humans were subservient to the Nabateans, the Children of the Goddess, simply because they had been born mortal. Why should the circumstances of one's birth determine who ruled and who served?

Fighting against the Nabateans was an impossibility, for they were numerous and possessed divine strength. To engage in frank combat would be suicide, and the village was too clever for that. Instead, they watched Sothis, year after year, and found that she had become indolent after many centuries as Goddess.

None had dared challenge her in all her years in Fodlan, so little by little she dropped her guard. Under the bright stars she would openly walk and sup among the people, without even an escort to guard her. Her arrogance would be her undoing, the village agreed, and so they gathered a small force, training them in the arts of disguise, silence, and the swift dealing of death.

Decades passed, yet they bided their time. The trained assassins became old and passed on their knowledge to new generations, who further honed the skills they'd learned. The village hid their existence as carefully as peerless treasure, for they knew that if they were to be discovered, the village and its people would all surely meet their ends.

One day it was announced that the Goddess would tour the coastlines, collecting taxes as she went. When she came to the fishing village, the assassins laid a trap in the form of a magnificent feast. They brought her the best of the season's catch, and the finest fruits of the field...but they drugged her wine with a powerful sedative and poison. No poison could kill the Goddess, of course, but if it slowed her for even one second, it would fulfill its purpose!

She ate and drank and danced the night away, but when her feet began to stumble with weariness, the village attacked. The twelve best assassins fell upon her at once, each using a different weapon and a different tactic to pierce her holy heart and end her reign."

Annette closed her eyes in sorrow. "They were fools. Fools to think the machinations of humankind could conquer the Progenitor God herself. She slaughtered her attackers with ease, staining the banquet tables green with bile and rending bone from flesh. Then she turned her rage on the unarmed villagers.

When she'd sated her fury and soaked herself in blood, her children rounded up the few survivors and made them kneel at her feet. There, Sothis cursed them. 'Cursed are you, and forever shall you be cursed!'" Annette's voice rose, and goosebumps textured Felix's skin. "She cast them into the ocean, and when they hit the water, their legs fused into the tails of fish, and gills tore out of their necks. They had wished to end the immortals, so Sothis cursed them with immortality themselves-but only through bloodshed. The new merpeople could live forever...by eating the heart of a human while the blood was still warm.

As her final act of rage, she instilled in them a hunger...a gnawing, biting hunger for flesh. One by one they succumbed, and tales rose across the years...whispers that monsters lurked in the waters. Monsters that drank blood, and would steal the beating hearts of the unwary. Yet in their sorrow they sing, and as they sing...they make humans their slaves the way they refused to be enslaved to the Nabateans." Annette dropped her voice to an eerie whisper. "Garreg Mach has the highest number of mermaid attacks of any town or city across Fodlan...dozens of victims missing their hearts. Check the records. That's why the Council banned drinking on the beach at night. It's better to have your wits about you when you're near the water after dark...after all, legend says that if you hear them sing, you've been marked as a victim. Their songs will slowly wear away your mind until you can not resist-until you are completely enthralled.

Then...late at night...you'll dream of the ocean. A dream of waves and sand...but you'll awaken to find yourself wading into the water. Cold, wet hands will emerge, taking hold of your ankles and wrists and….THEN THEY GET YOU!" Annette screamed the last part at Felix, holding her hands up like monster claws.

Felix yelped, jerking backwards and smacking his head sharply on the rock shelf. Annette broke into raucous laughter, bending over and holding her stomach as she hooted. "Are...are you okay?" She asked in between peals of laughter.

Felix rubbed his sore head, checking his fingers for blood and finding none. Watching Annette lose herself laughing at him hurt more than headbutting the rock had, and that was no small statement. He opened his mouth to chide her, but she broke into fresh giggles and he shut it again with a snap. "Are you done?" He finally asked when her mirth had petered to a trickle.

"Ah...I'm sorry…" She swiped at her eyes. "No, no, honestly...I didn't think you'd jump like that, I...usually it's the kids that…" The giggles returned and she puffed her cheeks out in an effort to keep them in. "I'm not laughing at you, really, I'm...oh, no, I am laughing at you, I can't lie."

Again lost for words, Felix stewed silently. After a moment he felt a small warmth on his head and looked up to see that Annette had reached out to touch the place where he'd wounded himself, an apologetic look on her face. She'd stopped laughing and now looked penitent, which was possibly worse. "Don't make that face," he said gruffly, shooing her hand away. "It was a good story. I was...very into it. Obviously."

"You don't like scary things either, do you?" She asked. "Just like me."

"Nonsense. I was startled, not scared."

A mischievous smile bloomed on her face. "So what does scare you? Death?"

"Excuse me?" Felix scowled at her. "Would I be in this line of work if I feared death?"

"Public speaking, then."

"No."

"Spiders."

"That's idiotic."

"Heights?"

He gave her a withering look. "Is that the best you can do?"

"Not scared of heights at all? What if I pushed you off this cliff right now?"

"You must be joking."

Her expression had lapsed into blankness. "What if I was dangerous? I could have anything in my bag and you wouldn't know it. We're up here all alone. No one could hear you and you barely know anything about me. Doesn't that scare you?"

Felix's first instinct was to scoff. Annette was a small woman, no matter how large her apparent confidence. She posed no threat to him, and very little threat to anything larger than a cave cricket.

His second instinct, upon realizing how serious her face had remained, was to scoff even louder. "Please allow me to deconstruct your delusions," he said, simmering down to a smirk. "First of all, I frisked your bag when I took it from you the first time you stopped to rest on the way up here. If you had brought a weapon, you would have become closely acquainted with my handcuffs. Second, in no world would I or could I possibly fear you, who is roughly as frightening as an unripe avocado."

Annette gaped in outrage. "Avocado?"

"In truth," Felix continued over her. "The only thing that inspires the slightest amount of fear in me as regards you is your absolute unsubstantiated bravery in a situation like this."

"A situation like this? What is that supposed to mean?"

"What is that supp-" Felix put a hand to his head. This woman was almost certainly not dangerous, but she was almost certainly a fool, which was its own type of danger. "I am a man at least six inches taller than you."

"And…?"

"Didn't you just say no one could hear us up here? I'm even wearing a weapons belt! For the love of Seiros, I'm not alone with you, you're alone with me. How are you not the one who is scared?"

Annette stared at him for a moment, his words rankling in her head. Felix watched her face, expecting to see shadows of fear emerge as she realized the position she'd put herself in, but none came. "I'm not afraid of you," she said solidly. "You have no reason to hurt me."

"People do horrible things every day for no reason. Believe me, I've seen it."

"But not you. You're a good person on the inside."

"You know nothing about me except what I've shown you, and that could all be lies." As a matter of fact, most of it was lies. Even now he was using her for information because she was weak minded.

She pressed her lips together. "Maybe. But I don't think so. Besides, Mercy said you have a good heart. She has...intuition about that sort of thing."

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," Felix said flatly. Sothis' sandals, he thought, watching her open her mouth to argue with him again. She really is an idiot. Her lack of a sense of self-preservation irked him far more than it ought. "We're leaving."

Her face was mutinous, but she bit back what she'd been about to say. "...at least look at the sunset. It's why I brought you here in the first place. You can't write about it in your stupid article if you didn't see it."

"...fine." Felix turned to look at the horizon, though he'd just found out that she had a faint dimple on one side of her face when she pouted, and he was very curious as to whether the other side matched. His breath caught, however, when he raised his eyes to see a brilliant vermilion sky before him. The place where the sky touched the ocean was like the heart of a fire that faded as it spread, blending into dusky violet at its edges. Waves and swells in the water captured cast-off light, turning into molten gold and then scattering that light into twinkles that blazed and died all in an instant.

The spectacle enraptured him to the point that he didn't notice Annette was staring at him until she made a small noise of satisfaction. "Well, what do you say? Worth the hike, right?"

He nodded once. "Yeah. This view is...incredible."

"I thought so, too." She turned back to the sunset, wrapping her arms around her knees. "Pictures don't do it justice."

Once the shadows had begun to darken around them, Felix stood, stretching out the soreness from sitting on rock. "We'd better go. It's already going to be dark by the time we take the hike back down."

"Oh! Right!" Annette also stood, looking up at the rising moon. "I brought a flashlight, just in case."

"I have one in my belt as well." Felix shouldered the bag, making for the treeline. "Watch your step." When she didn't reply, he started to wonder if she was still angry about the avocado remark from earlier. "Hey, you," he said, turning back to look at her.

"What?"

"You did a good job with this one. I liked it."

She'd been focused on carefully picking across the rocks, but his words jerked her head up in surprise. "Hah? Whoa…!" She'd misstepped in her shock, and she pitched to the side, dangerously close to the overlook's edge.

"Hey…!" Felix jerked forward, dropping the bag and reaching for her sleeve. His fingers just missed the hem of the fabric, but he grabbed her arm instead, yanking her away from the edge. She yelped and the two tumbled into a heap, which Felix stopped from slipping further by wedging his foot against a nearby sapling. "Didn't I just get finished telling you to watch your step?" He growled when he'd caught his breath.

Annette apologized in between gasping breaths. She'd landed mostly on top of him, and he'd wrapped an arm around her torso, using his body as a barrier between her and the rock face."I'm sorry...I'm sorry…! I...bah!" She realized their position and tried to push away from his chest with both hands, forcing air out of his lungs in a grunt.

"Stop squirming," Felix instructed, looking over his shoulder to gauge their distance from danger. "Crawl to your left and use my shoulders to get back up on the plateau. I can't catch you if you slip from here."

"I'm really, really sorry…" Annette shifted her weight, biting her lip in concentration. "L-let go of my waist!"

"I'll let go when you have a grip on the rock. Can't you go any faster?"

Annette's face was already red from the fall, but it was getting redder by the moment. "I'm trying not to knee you in delicate places! Look, I'm gonna move this way-"

"Grab that shelf right there. No, to the left."

"That's going to be too slippery; there's no place to hook my fingers-"

"Just try!"

She reached out and grasped it, but the evening mist had risen and her hands were sweaty, so she slipped back down, bringing her nose to nose with Felix. "See?" She said, her voice shrill and her eyes searching for a place to look that wasn't his face. "Augh, this is the worst!"

Felix could feel his own thoughts starting to fly apart, partly out of adrenaline from the danger and partly because this was a situation in which he'd never found himself. Just like with Bernadetta's bathroom stand off before, there were no sections in the academy manual about what to do when a woman was astride you, smelling like citrus and breathing heavily on your neck. Her heart beat furiously through their shirts, pounding against his chest. "T-try again! Use my shoulders as leverage like I said the first time!"

"Okay...uh, here I go again!" She pushed forward, dragging the fabric of her t-shirt over his face. "Got it! Alright, hold on…"

Felix turned his face to the side to avoid the pressure as she pushed herself up. Lemons, he thought as she passed, gritting his teeth and trying to distract himself from the fact that her knee was digging into his ribs, threatening to snap them. This was an old trick his father had taught him to deal with pain-focus on your other senses. Her shirt smells like lemons. Beneath the bright citrus there was a distinct note of salt, like the wind off the sea. Refreshing.

The pressure on his ribs released as she pulled herself onto the plateau, and he dragged in a painful breath, his ribs aching as they expanded. "I'm up!" Annette rolled over above him, reaching toward him. "Take my hand!"

"I don't need your hand," he informed her, using the sapling at his foot to right himself and reach for a divot in the rock. With a grunt, he pulled, making it up onto the flat area with relative ease. "You're lucky I have quick reflexes," he said, inspecting himself for cuts.

"I'm so, so sorry...you surprised me and...oh, your arm is bleeding a little! Right there…" She pointed to a gouge in his forearm that was leaking a small stream of blood.

Felix inspected it, then reached for Annette, grabbing her wrist. "What the...why are your fingernails like razors?" He held her hand up. Just like Dorothea, her nails had been filed into little points which were responsible for the damage on his arm. "Is this some ridiculous fashion you and your coworkers have concocted?"

Annette snatched her hand back, hiding the nails. "It's...ugh...it's for self-defense, okay? You saw the way Ferdinand talked to Dorothea, and there's been others, too. Isn't it natural we'd take precautions?"

Felix shook his head, pushing himself to his feet. Nothing else on his body seemed to be wounded, and a quick scan of Annette showed nothing obviously injured on her, either. The sun was now setting in earnest, and his sweat was giving him a chill. "Get up and let's go. You can use the flashlight you brought to keep you from falling again."

Annette nodded, but when she tried to stand she hissed, sitting back on the ground, hard. "I...I think I twisted my ankle when I slipped. Um...give me a minute." She took a deep breath and bit her cheek as she stood, wincing when she stepped forward. "I'm fine!" She snapped when Felix stepped toward her.

"Don't be a fool. If it's not seriously hurt now it will be by the time we hike the mile and a half back to town."

"Well, there's not like there's any other option!" She smiled bravely, hiding another wince. "Come on, we'll just take it slow."

Felix sighed, then turned away from her and squatted down. "Get on."

"What? No way!"

"Just get on! If we take care of it now, we can avoid it turning into something bad. Can you afford a hospital visit when you tear something from limping over a tree root?"

"No, I...ugh!" She whined softly, torn.

"Fine. I'll leave you here and call for help when I get back to town and find a phone signal. Hope there aren't any coyotes nearby while I'm gone."

"Okay, okay!" Her voice rose an octave in panic, and he heard her limp forward. She gingerly wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning against his back so he could catch her legs and lift her up. "This is so embarrassing…"

He rolled his eyes, slinging the bag back on his shoulder. "Whatever. Don't squirm, and don't stab me with your sword-nails." He started off, pulling his flashlight out of his belt and clicking it on as they passed under the trees. "Who came up with that idea, anyway? Don't rely on fingernails. I'll teach you some damn self-defense if that's what it takes."

"...really?"

"Sure. You seem to need it, as prone to disaster as you are."

She huffed, then quietened. "Well...thanks. And, um...thanks for catching me back there."

"It's fine." He focused on the path, stepping over any areas that could make him lose his footing. Dusk settled into dark, and the sounds of night animals and insects rose like a chorus. "Did you tell me the same mermaid story you tell everyone?"

"Yep. Word for word."

"Huh. I thought maybe you were setting me up this whole time."

"What do you mean?"

"Come on. Killer mermaids singing for blood? After that weird shit I heard at the laundromat? You better not be pulling some prank."

"I'm not!" Her voice over his shoulder sounded earnest. "I don't think you really heard singing. You were probably just hearing the music from inside the laundromat."

"I know what I heard, alright?" He stomped on a twig, snapping it. "That's why I thought you were messing with me. This may sound stupid," He braced his teeth against each other, regretting his words already. "But if sirens were real, it's exactly what I'd expect them to sound like. And...for a second it was like I wasn't myself, like I-"

"It's just a story." Annette interrupted him. "Mermaids aren't real."

"I know that! But it's important-someone's using it as a cover for murder," Felix snapped, feeling foolish. "Forget it. If I find out you're pranking me you'll be sorry."

"I'm not-honest!"

Felix grunted in response, wishing he'd said nothing. Other than finally hearing the mermaid myth, this entire evening had been useless. He'd learned nothing about Ashe; he hadn't even really tried. He'd planned on questioning her casually on the way back to town, but now… Annette's feet bounced as he walked, occasionally knocking into nearby obstacles. She squeaked when her injured ankle smacked against a tree trunk. "Sorry," he said, pulling the leg closer to angle the ankle in instead of out. "I wasn't paying attention."

"No, no, it's fine," Annette assured him. "Honestly, I'm just impressed you've been able to go this long with someone on your back."

"You should be. You're heavy."

She gasped, then thumped on his shoulder with her fist. "You-! That's a horrible thing to say!"

"You're noisy, too."

"What?! Put me down, then!"

Felix smiled, hoisting her higher on his back. "Stay still or I'm docking your pay."

She wailed, thumping his shoulder again. "You're the worst! I hate you!"

—

"Who's the lawyer?" Felix asked, staring at Lorenz Gloucester's counsel through the one way window in the interrogation suite.

"Kida Pallardó. Not a big legal name," The officer standing to his right replied, her tone flat. Captain Edelgard had insisted that at least one GMP official accompany Felix and Sylvain through this morning's questioning, and a seasoned officer named Shamir had volunteered to be an observer. Her taciturn silence was by far preferable to Lieutenant von Vestra's disapproving glares, and she seemed to be knowledgeable about a wide variety of topics concerning Garreg Mach. "I looked into his background and found that he mostly deals with low-level felony cases."

Felix made a noise of surprise in his throat. "Gloucester seemed to me like someone who would have gone after the top shark."

"The Gloucesters may be an old family in Leicester, but their appearance of wealth is just that." Shamir shook her head. "They used to have a fortune. Now they're lucky to be able to live comfortably off of the remnants."

"Probably why he's here in the first place. The rich usually have ways of making unwanted people disappear without clumsy moves like written threats and anonymous fear tactics."

Shamir didn't reply. The door behind them opened, flooding the small room with light. "They're ready," Sylvain announced, sticking his head in through the gap. "It's show time."

Felix nodded, turning and picking the Ubert file up off a nearby table. It was heavy...so many leads and nothing to show. Surely Gloucester would turn this case around. He had to; something had to give. Anything.

Ashe Ubert had been missing for thirty-eight days. The chances of him being alive at this point were thinner than the paper on which his missing person posters were printed.

Felix wouldn't be cowed; he had faced worse odds. The goddess of fortune was fickle, but every roll of the dice reset her mood. Perhaps today she'd smile.