October 23

Council of Six Headquarters

11:15 AM

Deirdre Brigit

All things considered, it didn't take us as long as I was fearing to finally find someone else we knew. Mr. Morix was standing in the hallway on the floor below Judge Diaphan, and he was speaking with Mukuro while wearing a heavy frown across his features. I couldn't say I was surprised that he looked so upset given the circumstances, and I wished there was something any of us could do to make this easier for him. Unfortunately, that was out of the cards until all of this was over and he could finally rest again.

Mukuro was the first of the two to notice that we had arrived, and Mr. Morix looked up slowly to follow her lead. "Hey there, you guys!" Mukuro greeted with a smile that felt unnaturally bright given the circumstances. "We were wondering when someone was going to show up from your agency."

"We've been here for a while, as a matter of fact," Yuri told her. "We've been looking around elsewhere in the building, so we're only just now getting to talk to you despite being here for a few hours now. What about you, Mukuro? Are you helping out with this case?"

Mukuro faltered, and Mr. Morix winced to himself. "Well... I'm actually helping with a ew of the smaller parts of this investigation," Mukuro admitted. "Aiden is helping me out too. He's doing a lot to pitch in when it comes to searching for our... Missing person." She plastered on another fake smile at those words, and I knew she was trying her best to avoid talking about this with everything she had. How could she want to talk about it? Somebody had gone missing, and that was difficult to battle with, especially if she was trying to lead the search for them.

"What about you then?" Lily questioned. "If you're not helping out with that search for information, then what are you doing?"

"I'm going to be on guard duty for Chrysalis. She's been getting into a lot of trouble over the course of the last day, and since she's going to be the first witness in tomorrow's trial, somebody has to make sure she stays safe," Mukuro answered. "She wanted someone that she knew to be there with her, so I wound up being elected to take over. Right now, she's being questioned by a few other people though, so we're not able to go in yet."

"That's why you're here, isn't it, Mr. Morix?" I asked of my boss even though I already knew the answer. His relationship with Chrysalis was hardly a secret within the agency, and he was incredibly defensive over her. If anyone was going to come running to the crime scene after hearing about the murder, it would have been him.

"Yeah," Mr. Morix replied simply, though I could tell he wasn't in much of a talking mood. He looked completely exhausted, and I could only assume that he had been here for much of the night. "She said that she was going out for a meeting with Judge Diaphan last night, and the next I heard from her, it was hours later and she was saying that she needed help."

"That was probably after the murder took place," I concluded with a small nod before I focused my full attention on him again. "What can you tell us about the crime? You must have figured out at least something while you were here."

"Something along those lines," Mr. Morix murmured with a small shake of his head. "I wanted to be awake when Chrysalis came back last night, so I stayed awake to wait for an answer from her about what was going on. It started to get longer and longer though, and she hadn't left the building she was set to meet Judge Diaphan in... This building. I was worried, but before I could come here to talk to her about it or pick her up, she said that she needed my help over the phone. She just told me at the time that something bad had happened, and that was all I really needed to know."

"Do you know if she saw the body before she called you?" Yuri inquired. "I feel like that's a pretty important part of all this, but it would make sense too if she didn't see the victim. I mean, if she was here for that long, then she must have known something was wrong for other reasons too."

"She was calling me because she had been taken by someone after she arrived. She had lost consciousness at some point and was worried about it. After calling the police, she wound up calling me and saying that I had to come and help her figure out what was going on," Mr. Morix answered. "From there, the police arrived on the scene, and I learned that Pieter had been called to come and see what was happening too. He stumbled onto the body and was arrested accordingly."

"Did you hear about the situation with Pieter being called here?" Lily asked. "We heard that he was called to the crime scene by someone else and had no choice but to come and investigate after hearing somebody he cared about what was in danger."

"Yes, I did... Though I can't say I know who would have called him or why they wanted to do that," Mr. Morix sighed. "I don't understand a lot of things about this case. Judge Diaphan said that she didn't send out the letters, and that means it was all a ruse by the culprit. If that's the case though, then what exactly happened here last night? Chrysalis and Ghastly haven't been able to fill in any of the major details that we've been looking for."

"And that means the one person who might be able to help us out here is Niamh... Who is currently missing and has been out of the picture since last night," Mukuro finished for him. "We're still trying our best to figure out where she went, but it's a much slower process than we would have liked. I don't know if it's a hostage situation or if she wound up getting lost in the shuffle, but... I'm really hoping that she's around here somewhere."

"We're going to have to proceed with as much caution as possible regardless of the circumstances," I murmured to myself. "There's a lot for us to work through right now, and I'm not entirely looking forward to it. The culprit probably did something to Prosecutor Wood to take her out of the picture for the time being, but I wouldn't know where to start with unraveling what exactly happened."

"Sora's been beside herself ever since she arrived here," Mr. Morix said softly. "I tried to keep her calm for as long as possible, but that didn't end up working out the way we would have liked, I'm afraid. She wound up walking out to get some air and hasn't come back in since. I heard she was pacing around in the front of the building for at least an hour, maybe more."

"What about the chief prosecutor? He's got to be around here somewhere if he had something to do with all of this," Lily said. "I mean, he was here at the scene of the crime. Why wouldn't he be in the area?"

"As far as I'm aware, he's trying to lead the investigation to find his daughter right now. He couldn't just sit still, and after an interrogation, the police realized that he doesn't know much of anything when it comes to the truth behind this case. He was let go to do whatever he wanted after that, and from there... Well, I think you can figure out how that ended. He's been trying to find her ever since," Mr. Morix answered. "If anyone is going to be able to find her, it would be Ghastly. I have complete faith in him to be able to pull this off. I'm still a bit worried, but..."

"I suppose it comes with the territory," Yuri finished for him with a loose shrug. "I have a quick question for you though, Mr. Morix, if you don't mind." He perked up at that, and Yuri crossed her arms with a heavy frown. "Where in the world have you been? I know you were here, but I was texting you for at least the last hour, and you haven't been picking up."

"My phone died soon after I got here last night. I usually charge it overnight, and I didn't think I was going to need to charge it while I was out," Mr. Morix answered. "How was I supposed to know that I was going to come here and not leave for the rest of the night and following day? I think Chrysalis' phone died not long ago too. She's been here for over twelve hours with no way of recharging her phone, and I haven't been able to bring myself to leave to go get us portable chargers to fix that problem."

"That makes a lot of sense... Bad circumstances and all that," Yuri concluded to herself. "On that note, I think we should try to talk to Chrysalis when we get the chance. She might be able to fill in a few gaps in this case."

"She's still being questioned right now though," Mukuro frowned. "We're going to have to wait until everyone else is done talking to her. I don't want to get in the way of that when the trial is being held tomorrow and we're running short on time as it is."

As if on cue, the door to a nearby room swung open, and a few police officers walked out. Mr. Morix watched them go before he retreated into the room. I could only imagine that was where Chrysalis was waiting, and sure enough, when we followed him inside, there she was. Chrysalis was sitting on a bench in what appeared to be a waiting area of some kind, and she rubbed at her eyes with the heel of her hand. She looked completely exhausted, not that I could blame her. I doubted she had gotten much sleep the night before.

"Chrysalis," Mr. Morix stared, and she looked up with a heavy yawn. She barely seemed to be able to keep her eyes open, but her gaze still softened at the sound of her brother's voice. "I hope you don't mind the company."

Chrysalis looked over everyone who was here before shaking her head. "Not at all," she replied softly. "I just hope you're okay with me not being able to answer many of your questions."

"That's... Not a great way to open a conversation," I heard Yuri mutter under her breath before shaking it off and refocusing herself. "Anything you can tell us will be helpful to figuring out the truth behind this case."

Chrysalis shrugged. "I don't think I'll be able to share much with you just because of the basis of this case, but I'll do what I can," she told us. "What exactly do you want to hear first?"

"What happened after you got that letter that told you to come here?" Lily asked. She was clearly trying to make this fast so that Chrysalis could go back to trying to catch her breath after the disaster of the last twenty-four hours.

"You're already pretty caught up on the case, I see," Chrysalis remarked offhandedly. "I received a note asking to meet Judge Diaphan here to talk about the Emsthorpe case. Well, it didn't say that specifically for the sake of safety, I can only imagine. After all, the assassins are dangerous people, and I assumed she didn't want to chance anything. Since I've been... Out of commission for a while now, I thought this would be for the best to figure out what was going on."

"That's right," I murmured to myself. The Oracle project had been placed on hiatus over the course of the last few months. As long as the Emsthorpe assassins were at large, Mr. Morix wanted to keep Chrysalis out of trouble, and that meant letting Oracle fall to the wayside until it was safe enough to pick it up again. This was probably her best chance to find out more about the assassins, especially after months of hiatus. How could she resist something like that?

"When I got here, I started to look around for Judge Diaphan. I figured she had to be around here somewhere even if I didn't see her right away. Unfortunately for me, the building is huge, and I didn't really know where I was going," Chrysalis admitted with a frown, and I could tell by the glare in her eyes that she despised having to admit weakness this way even if it could hardly be considered a 'weakness' in the first place.

"Did you know there were other people here?" Yuri asked her. "The chief prosecutor and Niamh were both in the building too. Did you happen to run into them at any point?"

"No. I was completely unaware of them being in the building," Chrysalis answered with a shake of her head. "I thought I was here on my own. I didn't realize other people had been here until morning came and the letters were brought up during the investigation."

"You weren't just searching the building the entire night though, right? You must have done something else over that time too," Lily interjected. "As big as this building is, the idea that you could explore this place for the entire night."

"That's where we run into a bit of a problem," Chrysalis confessed, choosing her words carefully as she winced. "I don't remember a lot of what happened last night."

"You don't remember?" I echoed.

"No. I remember walking in and trying to figure out where Judge Diaphan was, but after that, everything started to get hazy. I have no idea what happened after that, but I wound up falling asleep at some point. Well, I don't think I fell asleep necessarily. I think it would be more accurate to say that I was knocked unconscious," Chrysalis frowned. "When I came to, it was morning, and I had no idea what was going on. I called the police since I knew something else had gone on, and then I called Cotoli. From there, the body was discovered, and I learned that Pieter had arrived at some point over the course of the night."

"And that was what ultimately led to him being arrested," I finished for her with a frown. "Did you realize anybody was dead at first?"

"No... Not at first," Chrysalis answered. "I was too afraid to go much of anywhere. I was too tired to bother looking around too. I knew I was safe in the room I had woken up in, so I decided to stay there. I didn't want to risk running into anyone when I left, so I waited until there were other people to help me."

"You don't know what happened over the course of the night, but there must have been at least two other people here," Lily concluded. "You were here along with Chief Prosecutor Bespoke and Prosecutor Wood. By the time the night ended, Prosecutor Wood was gone and Chief Prosecutor Bespoke had left, running into no trouble and deciding his time was better spent elsewhere. At some point, the victim was killed, and someone else murdered them. Nobody knows what happened though since the criminal was gone by the time morning came and the police arrived to investigate the crime scene."

"I'm willing to guess that the one who killed the victim was the same person who ran off with Niamh after the crime took place," Mukuro chimed in. "I feel like that has to line up. Maybe it's just a coincidence that the criminal and Niamh weren't here when morning came, but... I don't think it's that simple."

"It's a sensible conclusion to come to," Mr. Morix agreed. He let out a heavy sigh and shook his head. "I can't figure out what could have happened with all of this though. I don't know why everything happened the way it did last night."

I could tell he was trying to dance around the subject of Oracle without saying it outright, so I decided to take the weight off his shoulders. "Judge Diaphan seems to know," I told him, and both Mr. Morix and Chrysalis stared at me with overwhelming horror in their eyes. "She believes the Emsthorpe assassins did this to ensure the greatest threats to their plans were taken out of the picture."

"That's the common theory among the people investigating the case," Mukruo confirmed with a nod. "It's going to be a while before we can say that for sure though. I mean, the trial is tomorrow, and it feels like there's still so much we don't know when it comes to this case..."

"I don't know what the prosecution is going to want to hear from me when I get on the stand tomorrow," Chrysalis muttered darkly. "It's not like I'm going to be able to say much when I was unconscious for most of the night and don't remember anything. Don't ask how I wound up that way or who else was here. It's not going to help anything since I don't remember a single detail past maybe eleven last night."

"We'll just have to see where this takes us in the trial then... I guess," Yuri shrugged loosely. "We'll wait until then and hope the prosecution has figured out something else that could help us."

"The case against Pieter is much stronger than it has any right to be, if you ask me," Mukuro sighed. "The crime took place in the middle of the night, and not many people would have been up and about at that time. He was found here where we know something bad happened, and he was the only person who could have committed the crime as far as the police are concerned. We're going to have to find something perfect in order to take the heat off his back."

"I know for a fact that he wouldn't do this," Chrysalis frowned. "Pieter wouldn't kill anyone, and he didn't even know the victim. I don't know how you could kill someone you didn't know at all... Well, I guess the Emsthorpe assassins would be willing to do that, but the victim of this case is such a mystery that we can't even work backward to find a reason for them to strike during all of this."

"Beyond that, if we assume that the killer of this case was the same one who took Niamh, it wouldn't make any sense for him to be here while she's not," Yuri pointed out. "I guess there's an argument to be made for the fact that they could be separate parties, but why in the world would that be the case? I guess that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to answering questions about this case, but..."

"We'll figure it out eventually," Lily finished for her. "That's our only option at this point. We'll get there with time. We just need to stay focused."

Before anyone could chime in again, my phone began to vibrate in my pocket. Chrysalis raised an eyebrow in my direction, and I pulled the device out before smiling at the sight of the name. "Victoria," I told the others. I answered the call and pressed the button to put her on speaker. "Hello?"

"Hey, Deirdre," Victoria said from the other end of the call. "I'm going to head over to the headquarters building again soon. Felicity and Sky aren't going to be part of the group taking the case to court. I hope that's okay."

"What happened?" Yuri asked. "I thought they were with you down at the detention center."

"They were, but they decided to step away from the case. Sky told us something dark from the past, and he and Felicity decided they needed a bit of time to work through it on their own outside of the courtroom, so they left. I'm going to be heading back to meet with the rest of you guys soon, and when I do, I'll be able to catch you up on everything that's been going on here," Victoria explained.

"I guess Sky finally told her then,"Lily murmured as she looked off to the side. I nodded to myself. Judge Diaphan had told us earlier about the incident years ago that had taken place with the Amaya family, and I could certainly understand why Sky had wanted to keep it hidden. He had even sworn Lily and Pieter to secrecy about it to make sure Felicity didn't find out until the time was right. I was glad the truth was out int he open now though. I didn't want Sky to feel obligated to bottle up something so important for any longer than he already had.

"Yeah... And she's still processing all of it," Victoria said, and I could hear the frown in her voice even without seeing her face. "They're doing better than they were though, so I'm going to consider it a step in the right direction."

"I agree," I nodded. "I don't think you need to come here though. I think we've found just about everything that's going to be able to help us with the trial tomorrow."

"I didn't expect to hear that," Victoria admitted after a beat of silence. "Have you heard any updates about Prosecutor Wood? Do we know where she's been since last night?"

"Not yet," Mr. Morix chimed in with a shake of his head. "The police are working on it, and if any new information comes out, we'll likely be the first people to hear about it. Until then, all we can do is be patient."

"Oh, Mr. Morix! I'm glad to hear you're okay," Victoria replied. "I was a bit worried when you didn't show up to work today or tell us what was going on... Though I guess it makes sense that you would be down at the scene of the crime given what we know about the case."

"I'm here too," Chrysalis chimed in as she crossed her arms. "And the investigation is going about as smoothly as you would expect... And by that, I mean it's been an absolute disaster from start to finish. We've still got a lot to uncover before this is going to start making sense."

"Do you have anything to share with us about what happened last night?" Victoria asked. "I assume you're going to be testifying about the case, so..."

"I don't remember a thing. Somebody knocked me unconscious after I got here, and I was blacked out all night," Chrysalis answered. "I don't know what I'm going to say when I get up on the stand, but it's not as if we have many other options for witnesses at this point. We're in a really bad spot all around."

"I... Can't say I'm surprised," Victoria sighed. "Still, if you don't think there's a point to me coming there to talk to you guys, I can just head back to the agency. We can talk about our strategy for the trial when I get back. I guess the trial is going to be the four of us since nobody else is going to be available to pitch in."

"That sounds like a plan," Lily smiled with a nod. "We'll see you then, Victoria."

"Talk to you later," Victoria replied before she pressed the end call button on her end. I tucked my phone away after turning it off.

"You should go back to the agency to meet with her," Mr. Morix suggested. "Chrysalis is stuck here for the rest of the day as far as I can tell, and I'm going to stay here for her and Sora. I think they both could use the support right now, especially since we have no idea when we're going to find Niamh and bring her back home."

"We'll see you at the trial tomorrow then," I concluded. "The same to you, Mukuro. Just be sure to get a bit of rest before then. I don't want you to be exhausted when we have to go to court."

"I'll make sure we sleep," Chrysalis assured me with a hefty yawn. "I was unconscious all night, but I don't feel like I rested at all. As soon as we can leave, I'm getting out of here. That's a promise."

"We'll talk to you tomorrow!" Yuri grinned as she waved to them. "Stay out of trouble until then!" None of them responded verbally, but Chrysalis let out a miserable groan as she rubbed at her eyes, waving with her other hand while I left with Yuri and Lily.

Out in the hallway, I looked to the other two members of the defense team. "Back to the agency then," I concluded, and they both nodded to me. We started down the hallway toward the staircase in silence, our investigation already starting to wear on us from the sheer scope of everything that had happened already. This was going to be a long case. I could just feel it.

We were halfway to the staircase when we noticed a man leaning against the wall nearby. Everything about him was shaded from his pitch black hair to the darkened look in his eyes. He was leaning against the wall with a phone in his hand, and much of his body was swallowed by a massive trench coat. He had an impressive figure beneath it, though I had to strain a bit in order to make out the details.

The man looked up at us when he realized we were there, and Yuri flinched when he suddenly met her gaze. The man didn't let us see any details about what was going through his head, instead simply tightening his grip on his phone. "You must be the defense team," he said simply.

Lily's eyes went wide at his perfect conclusion. "How did you-"

"I come with a piece of advice," the man cut in. His gaze was entirely unreadable, and I couldn't help trying to analyze every detail of his posture to glean any new information I could get my hands on. In the end, I came up short no matter where I looked. "Be as careful as you possibly can during this trial. A dangerous truth looms above this case, and if you're not careful, it could bring about your destruction."

Yuri stared at him for a few beats of silence, her face transitioning rapidly through just about every emotion you could imagine. "You can't just say something like that and not elaborate," she finally settled on saying, her gaze twisting into a glare. "What in the world is dangerous about this case?"

"No matter how you look at it, this murder is a dark one... A betrayal of the highest order," the man went on. "All is under control right now, and all are safe... For the time being. You must not step out of line and risk breaking that peace."

"All are safe..." I echoed. "Are you talking about the girl who was kidnapped?"

The man didn't offer a clear response to that, instead pushing himself away from the wall and shoving his phone into his pocket. "Proceed with as much caution as you can stand," he instructed simply. "This case is a calamity, and it will consume you if you are not cautious."

Before any of us could stop him, the man walked to the stairs and vanished. I stared at him for what felt like an eternity before turning my attention to Lily and Yuri. They looked just as confused as me, not that I was surprised by this. I didn't think I had ever heard such a vague warning, assuming it was even meant to be a warning to begin with. It was difficult to tell with how few details he had yielded to us.

"That... Was strange," Lily eventually concluded. "I have no idea what that was about."

"We didn't even hear his name," Yuri sighed, dragging her hands across her cheeks dramatically. "How are we supposed to ask around for him if we don't even know his name?"

"I don't think we would learn much even if we were able to ask for his name," I said softly. "Call it instinct, but I somehow doubt he was meant to be here in the first place."

"I got the same impression," Lily agreed. "But I guess there's not much we can do about it now. We should head back to the agency and see what we can hear from Victoria. I bet she's going to start pacing a rut in the floor if we don't go back there and try to keep her calm. We all know how she gets when it comes to Pieter."

I nodded my agreement, all too familiar with Victoria and Pieter's strange codependency. "Let's go then," I said. With that, I started for the staircase, following in the same path that the man from before had. He must have moved quickly, because he was completely gone from sight as we descended through the building. We didn't see him even after we left the stairwell and ended up on the bottom floor. He was just... Gone. If that wasn't a sign that he wasn't supposed to be here, then I didn't know what was.

We would have to see if we could find him again when the time was right. Until then, all we could do was hope we survived this trial. Pieter was counting on us, and even though there was still so much outside the lane of our understanding, we had to try to unravel the facts of what really happened last night. If what that man had said was correct, this case was a calamity, and we had no idea how we were meant to work through it.

If only any of us knew just how accurate the idea of 'calamity' really was.

nice

-Digital