Prologue

Within the dark confines of a walk-in closet, Ina'nis Ninomae was in a tight situation. In that hot, stifling darkness, her face seemed to glow bright red. Amelia Watson, the girl that she had admired from the moment they met, embraced her tightly from the front. That embrace buried Ina's face in the blonde's bountiful bosom, making their hearts race. Sweat dripped from Ina's brow and slid down onto the fabric of Ame's white dress shirt - causing the detective to nearly moan.

Then, from behind, Ina felt another embrace tighten around her waist. This time, it was from the chambermaid Gawr Gura who burst into her life - and Ame's - like a summertime storm. Despite this, Gura's breaths gently kissed the skin of her back as the chambermaid's nose and mouth got snagged under the top of Ina's pajamas. Ina was already fighting hard to stay quiet when Gura trembled and pressed her face into Ina's back.

Ina wanted to scream in embarrassment and squeal with delight at the same time, but the three of them forced themselves to stay quiet. After all, through the downward-slanted wooden grills of the closet door, a pair of shadows lurked in the room - too close for comfort.

So, trapped between joy and terror, Ina wondered how exactly she got into this mess!

AlterMyth

Teutonic Shadows

Sixteenth Scene: The Girl In The Mirror

One night ago, in the large, wood-floored ballroom of the RMS Teutonic, the reception for Captain Morrison's banquet was underway. About two dozen guests - high profile passengers from the First-Class 'Saloon' section of the boat - were gathered there and flocked around the well-dressed troupe of the Lowry Expedition. The three spoiled brats basked in the attention at the heart of the room while their six bodyguards patrolled the room and watched from the corners.

On the other hand, the two-girl team of the Watson Expedition languished far from the spotlight - with only their chambermaid Gura attending to them. Ina normally didn't bother to think about her well-armed, well-funded and well-loved opponents, but being stuck in a ballroom with them for half an hour forced them into her frame of mind. It left a bitterness in her mouth that wouldn't go away - and the growing delay of the banquet didn't help in the slightest.

Aside from the Lowry Expedition guards, another cadre of souls wore tuxedos and loomed around the ballroom too. Gura told Ina and Ame that they were direct reports of First Mate Chadwick who usually kept to themselves and their stations. Their cold stares and imposing figures made Ina squirm - and even the six Lowry guards avoided eye contact with them too.

Not sure what else to do, Ina washed away her anxiety and the lingering bitterness in her mouth with some fruit punch. She downed one glass - then two. Before long, she was demanding that Gura serve her another.

"Whoa there, pardner…!" Gura warned with her thick Southern drawl, "That's your third glass. You know this punch has alcohol, right? Top shelf stuff too!"

"A-alcohol!?" Ina gasped in shock. She turned to Gura and hoped that she was lying, but the chambermaid held up the now-empty bottle of booze.

"I don't know how to read this stuff…" Gura admitted, "But it's nice and tasty!"

Ina looked at the bottle and saw the image of a blue-haired girl with Far Eastern writing on the label. She was able to read the label and recognize what it was.

'Yukihana Seishu'

Japanese rice wine. 'Sake'. It was the same kind that her father 'Papa'nis' kept hidden in their Ottawa home for special occasions.

"Ayy…" Ame piped up with concern, "Ina - didn't you say that you couldn't hold your alcohol well?"

Ina's cheeks flushed red and she nodded bashfully. All of the sudden, the fruit punch that she had chugged down was starting to weigh down on her. So, she set down her glass and excused herself.

"I'll… be back. I have an, um... emergency librarian meeting." Ina gave the two a bow and scurried out of the reception area in a hurry.

Gura tilted her head and wondered out loud, "Librarian meeting!? Are we having a convention or something?"

Ame leaned over to Gura and whispered to her.

"Ohh…!" Gura hummed, "Is that what that means?"

Ame and Gura soon fell out of earshot and Ina marched toward the nearest restroom to do her business.

Inside the restroom, Ina got her affairs in order quickly and meticulously washed her hands. Finally away from the Lowry Expedition and the ominous tuxedo-clad staff, she heaved a sigh of relief. Her eyes then turned to her reflection in the ornate mirror of the restroom.

Her cheeks weren't red in the slightest, Ina thought. Her dolled up image looked perfectly fine - even without having to retouch her face powder. She knew that she held her liquor quite well. As the daughter of a Far Eastern consul, she was a veteran of many official functions in Ottawa where drinks were served. A few cups of sake-spiked punch wasn't going to bring her down anytime soon.

The true reason she told Ame that she couldn't hold her liquor was because she was afraid of baring her true self to others. She had read plenty of books that detailed the uncanny ability of removing one's inhibitions - and the aspiring librarian had a dignified image that she was determined to keep.

Still, Ina felt that her defenses were a notch lower. The fruit punch breached her walls just enough for her honest thoughts to threaten to overflow.

Ina looked at her reflection again and regarded her light makeup and her periwinkle dress closely. She was alone in the room, she reminded herself - so she decided to indulge and peek into the breach.

She then laid a gloved hand on the frame of the mirror and looked into her own dark purple eyes. Memories of the tender moments she spent with her gracious host Ame - and the many times that the detective laid her life and reputation on the line for her sake - resurfaced in her mind.

The alcohol then spurred her to hold her gloved hands close to her heart and squeal in the empty restroom, "Oh, Ame! If only you knew!"

Enamored by her thoughts, Ina stroked the mirror frame lovingly again and mused sweet nothings that she would have been too embarrassed to say otherwise. A spell of playfulness took hold of her heart and she whispered with a sultry voice.

"Oya oya… such a cute little detective made her way over here. What are you doing on the RMS Teutonic, hmm?"

A devilish smirk then formed on Ina's lips as she was engrossed in her own performance. Images of the cute chambermaid Gura invaded her mind too, appearing suddenly like a thief in the night.

" Humu humu… I guess the chambermaid is cute too~" Ina admitted to no one in particular, "Good eye, detective. Good eye."

"Oooh~!" A seemingly disembodied voice seemed to comment on Ina's words with rising excitement, "Hey, hey - what do you like about m- I mean, t-the chambermaid?"

"The chambermaid?" Ina took a moment to think, "Well… she's a better cook than I thought. A bit of an airhead - but that's part of her charm. Looks-wise, her hair is actually pretty smooth and her skin is silky. Her hairclips are pretty cute - and her eyes! They're almost as pretty as Ame's!"

"Hee-yaaaa~!" The voice seemed to grow smug and excited, "You think my eyes are as pretty as Ame's!?"

Ina was just about to agree when she realized that the voice wasn't disembodied at all. She wasn't alone in the mirror - or the restroom - anymore either. Standing beside her was the bubbly figure of the chambermaid Gura who was blushing from ear to ear. Ina's face, on the other hand, went paler than powder.

"W-wah! H-h-how long h-have you b-been there!?"

Gura wiggled her eyebrows and teasingly repeated Ina's words, "Since the ' Humu humu ~!'"

Ina covered her face with her hands. She wanted to disappear.

"Hey, don't worry about it, Miss Ina. I appreciate the compliment." Gura proudly reassured, "Plus, you're way prettier than little ol' me. You dress real nice! Your peeweewinkul dress matches your accessories - plus those gloves of yours are dangerously good! You've got the eye of a fashion designer, y'know that?"

Ina regarded herself in the mirror and hummed. She remembered just how much time she took planning her clothes for the banquet. So far, the only ones who had complemented her was Ame - and now Gura. So, Ina patted Gura's head with her gloved hands.

" Humu humu . Thanks, Gura. But the word you were thinking of was 'periwinkle'. That word you said just now was sketchy."

"Ehehe~" Gura savored Ina's headpat, practically beaming with delight.

Seeing Gura brightening up from her touch, Ina couldn't help but smile. She finally saw why Ame was drawn to the chambermaid - and how they became friends so quickly. Aside from that, she quietly admitted again that Gura was indeed cute.

"Oh by the way!" Gura started with a bright smile, "The banquet just started. I came here to fetch ya!"

"Is that so…?" Ina nodded, "Shall we get going, then?"

With that, the librarian let Gura guide her back to the banquet hall.

All the while, she hoped that she could one day be brave enough to be as honest as Ame and Gura - even without help from alcohol.

Seventeenth Scene - The Skipper's Supper

When Ina was ushered into the banquet hall by Gura, the rest of the two dozen guests were already seated. A small army of servers was rushing to bring out an assortment of appetizers, wines and spirits. That army moved back and forth through the banquet hall - a small yet cozy room illuminated by wall-mounted lamps and a cast iron hearth that crackled under the ever-present portrait of Queen Victoria. Across the Queen's portrait was a fresco depicting a triumphant Poseidon wielding a trident in the midst of a storm.

Ina briefly noticed Gura steal a glance of the fresco, but she never got the chance to see what sort of expression the chambermaid made. Before she could see anything, the chambermaid showed her to her seat beside Ame. Gura sat Ina down and then promptly excused herself to join her colleagues in the delayed dinner service.

Ame turned towards her and whispered, "Did the 'meeting' go okay?"

Ina chuckled and gave Ame a thumbs up.

Just as Ina had settled into her seat, however, the lively din of the room fell silent. Even the servers who were frantically trying to make up for lost time stopped in their tracks. All eyes in the banquet hall turned towards the front door. Ame and Ina followed suit.

There, they found the tall, imposing figure of First Mate Chadwick holding the door open.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Chadwick proudly announced, "I present to you our skipper - Captain James Morrison, Esquire!"

An old, dignified gentleman stepped into the room with a slow but graceful gait. He had a balding head of white hair, a well-trimmed, short boxed beard and pale skin wrinkled by age, sun and sea. The captain wore a smart, peaked cap that bore the insignia of the RMS Teutonic, a double breasted coat with gold-trimmed pauldrons and matching slacks. All the while, he firmly held a long walked cane to balance his slightly hunched body.

The guests stood up from their seats and the waitstaff stopped whatever it was they were doing. Then, Ina watched them all vigorously applaud the captain as he crossed through the room to the head of the table. Ina eventually did the same, but her applause was halfhearted. After all, she wasn't familiar with who Captain Morrison was and what he had done - aside from taking the helm of the Teutonic for the voyage.

Chadwick took the Captain's hat and coat and then helped him sit down. That signalled the rest of the guests to follow suit. The delayed dinner service also continued once more and the captain addressed the guests with his strong and deep, albeit raspy voice.

"I apologize for the delay. Miss Chadwick and I had urgent matters to attend to on the bridge. Technology can be a curious, fickle thing. That said, welcome once again to the RMS Teutonic - pride of the White Star Line. We encountered rough waters sailing out of Portsmouth, but rest assured! I anticipate smooth sailing all the way to your final destination - Bordeaux en belle France ."

While the Captain spoke, Ina watched Chadwick quietly bring out a box of cigars, matches and a small brass guillotine. She saw Chadwick dutifully snip off the head of a cigar, light it with a match and offer it to the Captain.

Captain Morrison puffed his cigar slowly, illuminating his aged face with the embers before he blew out a plume of smoke.

"So please relax. Eat, drink and be merry! Enjoy the Teutonic's amenities to the fullest." The Captain continued his slow and measured spiel with another puff of his cigar, "You only live once, after all. Aye. You live only once."

Something about the way the Captain spoke and the words he chose didn't sit well with Ina. She had listened to more than her fair share of wise old men and women speaking with hifalutin vocabularies at official functions in Ottawa, but Captain Morrison seemed to emanate an ominous aura that Ina couldn't quite put to words - an aura that only she seemed to be able to sense in that room.

When the main course was finally served, Ina couldn't work up much of an appetite and she ate much slower than she normally would. Later on, when the plates were finally cleared from the long dining table, the Captain's dark brown eyes scanned the room from left to right. Ina squirmed when the Captain's eyes turned towards her and Ame. The Captain then wore a kindly smile.

"Before we have our dessert, I would like to honour our distinguished guests on this voyage to Bordeaux - brave young ladies who are searching for the great Phoenix in service to Her Majesty the Queen! Please rise so that you may be recognized for your adventurous spirits."

Ophelia Lowry and her goons stood up from their seats and Ame followed suit. Ina, however, was stunned by the sudden call.

"C'mon Ina. Don't be shy." Ame offered her hand and reassured with a smile.

Ina bashfully took Ame's hand and finally rose up from her chair. The guests in the banquet hall and the servers then applauded the five young women. Chadwick and the Captain too applauded them, but that only made her feel uneasy yet again.

While the ladies of the dueling expeditions were being acknowledged, Chadwick and the Captain invited them to share the details about their journey. Ophelia Lowry proudly obliged - rehashing the main points of Ina's presentation to the Occidental College board. Ina sighed and quietly thanked Lowry for saving her the trouble of repeating herself for the n-th time. However, she couldn't help but notice how keenly Chadwick and the Captain listened to the watered-down lecture.

By the time the dinner banquet ended, Ina was left with more questions than answers - and those questions followed her into her room.

Eighteenth Scene - Whispers from the Void

Ina and Ame took turns washing off their makeup in the small shared lavatory in their section of the Cabin-class halls and then changed into their soft pajamas to get ready for bed. When Ina switched off the electric lamp above their room and laid down on her bed, she thought that sleep would come quickly like it always did. However, she had an unusually hard time falling asleep.

Ina's eyes looked up to the silver moon through the window as it peeked at her from behind the clouds. She racked her mind under the moonlight and looked back to the Captain's words during the banquet - searching for patterns as if she were assessing a particularly tough and ancient tome in a forgotten library.

Half an hour of fruitless labor later, Ina surrendered. At that point, she just let her eyes follow the nighttime clouds as they sailed through the dark sky and counted them like cloudy sheep. Then her eyelids finally grew heavy.

Ina fell asleep in the blink of an eye and sank deep into the darkness of the eye of her mind. She felt her entire body descending gently into the black canvass of her dreamscape. Slowly but surely, her body transformed - taking on the form of the sketch that she made in her favorite sketchpad.

Wings sprouted from behind her waist and a bright golden halo formed over her head, illuminating the void. A golden tiara of stars crowned her head and her side bangs became irresistibly squishy and orange. The hair on the top of her head seemed to form a flap that wiggled as if it had a life of its own - and her left canine tooth became more pronounced like a fang.

Ina regarded herself in the void and admired the amalgam of the many sketches in her sketchpad fused with her being. As she was admiring her transfiguration a mysterious yet familiar presence shifted around in the darkness just beyond her reach.

"It's you again…" Ina spoke with a frown forming on her lips.

The presence didn't answer her. Instead, it coalesced into grey smoke that traced faint lines through the void as it flew around her. This was unusual, she thought. That presence often appeared in her dreams in London for brief periods of time and disappeared as quickly as it came.

This time, the smoky presence remained in the void and drew wisps of light from Ina's bright halo. The wisps of light soon formed a trail that cut cleanly through the darkness of the void. Then, the smoky presence whirled around - as if it were urging Ina to follow it.

Not knowing what else to do, Ina obliged.

As Ina carried on through the path, the trail of light gradually intensified but remained gentle enough for her eyes. Before she knew it, Ina was walking through those halls and she followed the smoky presence.

The smoky presence shifted once more and slowly coalesced into the rough shape of a slender, black-haired lady who was only slightly taller than her. This lady walked briskly, so Ina struggled to keep up with her.

Ina had to play catch up a few paces behind, so she only managed to see the lady's strong shoulders, her long yet fashionable traveling coat from the latest turn-of-the-century French fashion and ornate Italian shoes that only someone with the checkbook of Ophelia Lowry would have been able to best.

Aside from that, Ina did catch glimpses of the temples of glasses resting on top of the lady's ears. Those temples, however, seemed to be made of a material that even the well-read Ina couldn't seem to recognize.

While Ina was racking her brains over the material of the lady's glasses, the lady stopped in her tracks. It was one of the doors in the Second-Class 'Cabin' section of the Teutonic, clearly marked by a wooden number plate nailed to the frame.

Room 88.

When the lady laid her hand on the doorknob, a bright light burst out from behind the door and blinded Ina. She was forced to shield her eyes from the intense while the lady stepped inside. Soon enough, the bright light whisked Ina away from the eye of her mind.

Her transfigurations came undone - and the groggy dreamer awakened.

Nineteenth Scene - The Librarian's Case

Ina woke up that morning with a sour face. The light of the late morning sun flooded into their room through the circular window, causing her to wince and turn to her side. From there, she saw her pajama-clad companion, Ame, sitting at their room's table while munching on a piece of toast. The detective occasionally took sips of a small cup of tea as she thumbed through a folded sheet of paper.

Ame noticed Ina stirring in her bed and flashed her a smile.

"Morning, Ina!" The detective greeted warmly, "Gura came by with breakfast - and I bought the morning newspaper from her too! Just 99 pence!"

"Morning newspaper…? On a boat?" Ina sat upright and rubbed her eyes, "We didn't make any stops did we?"

"They print this newspaper on board, apparently." Ame explained cheerfully, "The ship gets news the latest by wireless telegraph and the staff type it out for passengers like this. This technology stuff's pretty neat!"

"Is that so…?" Ina hummed. She peeled herself off of her bed, joined Ame at the table and read the headline out loud, "'Distress call from Atlantic Ocean - Portsmouth Squadron sorties posthaste'."

"Kinda scary, right? Even Gura was fretting about it for some reason, actually." Ame mused and took another sip of tea, "Well - if the Royal Navy's on the case, they should be able to resolve the issue… whatever it is."

" Humu humu ." Ina agreed. She picked up a piece of toast and sleepily nibbled on it.

Then, the strange dream that she had resurfaced in her thoughts. Images of the door to Room 88 - paired with the Captain's cryptic speeches - floated around in her mind and spurred her to action. Those thoughts wouldn't give her any peace. So she set down her barely eaten toast and excused herself.

"I, uh… have an emergency librarian meeting." Ina spoke hesitantly.

"Alright… but don't take too long." Ame lowered her newspaper and urged, "Your coffee's gonna get cold."

Ina nodded, slipped into some summer sandals and stepped out of the room. She closed the door behind her and regarded the number tag nailed to the frame.

"Room 57…" Ina whispered beneath her breath. Her eyes then turned towards the long hallway of the Cabin section and she whispered again, "That means it should be down here."

The apprentice librarian took a deep breath and slowly walked down the hallway. Her eyes swept from left to right as the numbers nailed to the doors that she passed by gradually rose. All the while, she avoided the staff of the RMS Teutonic and the other passengers.

She wore uncomfortable smiles and lowered her head like a potted plant to try and blend with the wallpaper of the Cabin-class halls. Once the coast was clear, she would then continue her slow crawl of a journey. Despite her steady pace, Ina's heart seemed to beat harder and faster against her chest with each door that she passed by.

"84… 85… 86… 87…" Ina read the door numbers with rising tension and anticipation, "And then…! Huh…?"

When Ina reached the door to Room 88, she saw that the number plate of the door had been removed. Only the holes where the nails of the number plate once were remained. Everything else was just as she remembered in her dream.

This was the room where the elusive black-haired woman walked into. There was no doubt in Ina's mind.

However, when Ina tried to open the door, the knob wouldn't budge. It was locked!

Ina heaved a sigh and then rubbed her chin, wondering what she should do next. That was when two pairs of footsteps suddenly reached her ears. The librarian's face grew pale and sweat formed on her brow. Her hands trembled at her sides as she turned around in abject fear - afraid that she had been caught doing something that she shouldn't have.

That was when she heard Gura's cute voice greet her.

"Hewwo Inaaaa~!"

From across the hall, the chambermaid clad in her cleaning uniform waved to her with a feather duster in hand.

"Gura…?" Ina's heart nearly stopped. Her eyes then turned to the other pair of footsteps and added, "Ame too…?"

Ina's detective partner approached from the other hallway. She had already slipped out of her pajamas and was wearing her usual tan traveling coat and hat.

"You didn't come back to finish your breakfast, so I thought something happened to you." The detective explained, scratching the back of her head with concern, "I asked Gura to help me look for you - and I even brought my doctor's bag too."

"I-is that so?" Ina stammered. This time, she found herself unable to find the right words to say.

An uneasy pause lingered in the empty hallway before Ina gathered the courage to speak again.

"Say, Gura." Ina shifted the topic, "Would you happen to know who is staying in Room 88? Or maybe who is servicing it?"

Gura shook her head and apologized.

"Miss Chadwick didn't have cleaning staff assigned to this part of the Cabin-class section." The chambermaid answered honestly, "Nobody really comes around here. We don't have any guests here either. But Miss Chadwick's staff does regular patrols in these parts every fifteen minutes."

Ina rubbed her chin and started to pace around - mimicking the way that Ame gathered her thoughts before a major exam. The librarian's eyes then wandered from Ame's doctor's bag to Gura's shark-patterned hairpins - then to the locked door of Room 88.

Suddenly, the bell of a small wall-mounted clock rang - marking the half hour. Ina then joined her hands together and her dark purple eyes brightened up like lightbulbs.

"In that case… I don't have time to explain, but… may I borrow your hairpins, Gura?" Ina asked with an eager smile. She then turned to Ame as well and added, "And may I borrow your stethoscope too, Ame?"

"Huh…!?" Gura gasped with shock, "What in the world are you planning to do?"

"I'm going to pick the lock of this door." Ina explained plainly, raising up her pointer finger as if she was giving a presentation in the Occidental College, "I have read many books about the methods used by Mr. Harry Houdini. I'm sure that I can replicate his processes… theoretically."

Ina's theoretical claim about theoretical lockpicking knowledge didn't sit well with Gura at all. After all, she knew that snooping around like this would put her in hot water with Miss Chadwick. The chambermaid was about to outright refuse Ina's request when a playful smirk formed on Ame's lips. The detective popped open her doctor's bag and handed her stethoscope to Ina - no questions asked.

"You're just going to let her do as she wants, Ame!?" Gura squeaked in protest, "Miss Chadwick's guards are going to come by here soon, you dummies!"

"It's not everyday that Ina has her heart set on something like this. I'm sure she has a good reason." Ame grinned, "And besides - I don't mind going on a little adventure!"

Ina looked at the hesitant Gura and saw a reflection of herself from when she was still in London - afraid of losing her job at Dr. Watson's medical practice. Knowing this, she reached out to Gura with a warm smile and reassured her with tender, wholehearted words.

"Don't worry about it, Gura. Trust me."

Gura puffed up her cheeks in protest, but she lost the will to fight just as quickly. After all, the look in Ina's eyes told her that she had already made up her mind. So, the chambermaid carefully took off one of her hairpins and reluctantly handed it to Ina.

"Thanks, Gura." Ina nodded graciously.

Now armed with Gura's hairpin and Ame's stethoscope, Ina began to pick the lock of the door to Room 88. Ame folded her arms and leaned against the walls while she watched one end of the hallway. Gura, on the other hand, fidgeted around and twirled her hair as she watched the other.

Soon enough, Ina heard a series of clicks through the stethoscope and the door was unlocked! Ina's face brightened up - but she didn't have time to celebrate.

Footsteps echoed and shadows shifted from Gura's side of the hallway and the chambermaid gasped.

"G-guys!" Gura panicked, "What do we do!?"

Ina opened the door to Room 88 and promptly dragged Ame and Gura inside. She closed and locked the door behind them and then scanned through the mysterious locked room. All the while, the footsteps from the halls grew louder and louder. Then, she heard the jingle of a heavy keyring swaying from side to side.

The patrol wasn't stopping at any of the other rooms, Ina realized. It was going straight for Room 88 - and Ina knew that they needed to hide.

But where!?

The room was just like Ame's and Ina's cabin, but it was in a state of disarray. The light of the noontime sun shining through the small circular window showed them the extent of the damage. The mattresses of the two beds had been turned over while the rest of the furniture was either broken or missing. It looked like the whole place had been ransacked some time ago.

The footsteps drew closer again and prodded Ina to think harder. Gura covered her mouth and her face went pale. Ame, on the other hand, popped open the holster at her hip and seriously considered drawing her gun.

That was when Ina's eyes found the sliding door of the walk-in closet at the corner of the room - one of the few things there that was only slightly damaged.

"Inside the closet. Let's go!" Ina urged. She dragged Ame and Gura with her towards the closet door.

"The closet!?" Gura squeaked in protest, "W-we're not gonna fit in there!"

"We're going to have to try." Ina spoke with odd calmness, "Let's go."

With nowhere else to go, Ame, Ina and Gura stuffed themselves into the walk-in closet in that order with all of their things in tow. They struggled to close the closet door but eventually managed to do so. Once they did, Ina found herself sandwiched between the detective and the chambermaid - packed tighter than a tin of sardines.

Stuck in that hot, sultry darkness with these two dorks, Ina normally would have considered to be fortunate. It wasn't everyday that Ina had an excuse to bury her face in the bosom of a busty detective - or feel the tender embrace of an unbearably cute, blushing chambermaid ambushing her from behind. Her excitement, however, was painted with anxiety when the room door was unlocked again with a loud click that echoed even in the closet.

The door creaked open and two pairs of footsteps walked through the threshold. Ina mustered up her willpower to steady her breath and look out through the wooden grills of the closet. Two souls then paced around the room and took a careful look around.

"Are you sure you heard someone come by here?" The voice of Jackie Chadwick asked impatiently, followed by the sound of the heavy keyring being twirled around, "Nobody really comes here anymore - and there's nothing left in this room."

The Chadwick that was speaking there had dropped all pretense of the formal speech that she often spoke with in front of guests. Instead, this Chadwick spoke casually without any filter whatsoever and gave the speechless second soul a scalding tirade.

"Goodness gracious - how do you kids hope to keep up with your boy at this rate? How hard is it to keep watch over this one damn room!? Think you can handle fieldwork? Think you can climb the mountaintop!? Don't kid me! You wouldn't last a day."

While Chadwick was speaking, the foghorn of the Teutonic blew four times in quick succession. The two shadows in the room seemed to turn their heads toward the sound of the horn.

Uneasy silence followed the horn. The air in the room then seemed to turn frigid.

"Gather up the staff." Chadwick then spoke with a serious, businesslike tone, "Tell them it's almost time. You know the drill."

The shadow of the second soul seemed to salute Chadwick's - and the two of them left the room in a hurry. They closed the door behind them and locked it from the outside.

Just what in the world was Miss Jackie Chadwick and her staff up to?

Epilogue

The three girls stuffed in the closet stayed there for a little while longer. They counted their nervous heartbeats for about a minute before they finally wiggled out of the cramped space.

On their way out, however, Ame stumbled and fell back first onto the dusty floor. Ina came tumbling out of the closet and landed on Ame's chest - followed by Gura who fell on Ina's back. When they fell, a thin layer of dust that had caked on the room's carpet was disturbed and came flying all around the room.

The three girls had coughing fits as they slowly peeled themselves off of each other. Gura covered her face and frantically dusted off her uniform. She then pointed to her two guests and lectured them.

"Is that how the two of you bond!? Skinship is one thing - but that was something else! You guys are crazy! I'm losing my marbles just bein' around you two!"

Ame and Ina looked at each other bashfully and stayed silent. After all, the two of them knew that Gura wasn't exactly wrong. The chambermaid then had a look around the ransacked room and shook her head.

"But seriously - what in tarnation went down in here?" Gura rambled, clicking her tongue with displeasure, "It's like Shenandoah River all over again…"

Shenandoah River?

Neither Ame nor Ina dared to ask. Just as Ame was about to ask what possessed Ina to break into this room in the first place, the chambermaid gasped.

"...A!"

One of the wooden panels from inside the closet came undone and fell down onto the dusty floor. Ame and Ina rose up from the rug and joined Gura to look inside the closet.

There, behind the place where the wooden panel once was, they found a small, dark hole that had been carved into the plaster of the walls. From where they stood, however, the three of them saw the outline of some things inside.

Ame squatted down and reached into the darkness and pulled out the items. They were three distinct envelopes.

All of them bore a distinct, triangle-shaped blue wax seal.

Just like Ame's.

To Be Continued