It was already afternoon when they left the tavern. They decided to leave the groceries in the storage; despite not being very heavy, weight was weight, and walking around with fabric bags was always a nuisance. Sypha waited on her own for Isobel to show up on her way to the kitchen and signed at her to come closer. The girl looked from one side to another and decided to do it.
"What's up, ma'am?", she asked, sounding curious.
"I want to ask you a thing", Sypha kneeled to talk to her, "First, I'd like to tell you something. We were the ones that slayed the gargoyle, actually."
"Really?", Isobel spoke louder, but Sypha told her to be quiet.
"Really. The whole town knows about it. But what I want is, don't telly anybody about what you told us on the table."
"Is it dangerous?"
"Yes", she put her hand on the girl's shoulder, "I might need to come back later. Can I?"
Isobel nodded and Sypha smiled at her.
"I'll come on my own. My friends can be kind of… Scary", she reminded the people's uneasiness upon seeing Alucard and laughed. No wonder, "If you know something more, promise you're going to tell me?"
"I promise. And my lips are sealed."
"I'm counting on you, right? Be careful."
Sypha turned around the building to the front, where Trevor and Alucard waited for her in silence, watching the time that passed.
"Done. Let's head to the town hall", she called them.
"I think they might recall me there", Trevor put his hands in his pockets and started walking behind her, "If the mayor is the same pious geezer, or his son, they sure do."
"What if we went for another worker?", suggested Alucard, "Just show us who's who."
Arriving downtown, Trevor barred them with an arm when leaving an alley and whispered for them to look discreetly. Sypha could see a young man in a cassock, about the same age as they were, full of papers in his arms and talking to an old, shriveled lady. That's the priest.
"He helped us with the gargoyle", she recalled.
"He's the grandson of the mayor, and he's going to recognize us now, poking our noses on the disappearance of one of his relatives", Trevor said, low-spirited, "What a mediocre little brat."
"And this problem of yours, is it personal?", Alucard asked.
"Pretty much."
Alucard frowned with a cunning smile and walked back in the alley:
"It's actually not that hard to deal with his kind."
Little by little, he changed his own features, clothes, and hair color; he took a ribbon from the jacket and used it to tie his hair on a low ponytail. In the end, Alucard was dressed as a nob and smelling like roses, as if he was just out of the dressing table.
"Sypha, do you have any paper on you?", he requested.
"I have…", she checked her pockets, "...Half a sheet."
"That'll be enough."
He got it and put his hand over the piece of paper, that increased in side, gained waves of handwriting and a convincing wax stamp. He got closer from the end of the alley and pointed:
"He has lots of paper inside that Bible. Not many people know how to read in a town like this."
"So, he's headed…", Sypha thought out loud.
"...Exactly where we want him to go", Trevor finished.
They waited until the market was more crowded and Alucard showed up at the square with a fake booklet, choosing a spot where the other two could see him. He glanced at them and made a head gesture.
"What does he want?", Trevor frowned.
"Let's try and get closer."
They went along with a passing wagon with hay to sit around the fountain; Alucard did not stop them, so they stayed. Trevor looked around the stands and bought a dried fig to munch with some spare change. As he intended to sit, he noticed the old lady talking to the priest was about to leave, and Alucard's calculated moves towards him, leaving to the same narrow street besides the church.
"Let's go", Sypha muttered.
Trevor complied, and she followed him until a cart full of barrels. They did not see the intentional bump, but they both heard the dozens of paper sheets falling to the ground and Alucard's fake apologies.
"Can I help you pick up your notes, sir?"
"It would be much appreciated, thank you", What a snob. Sypha smirked.
When Alucard crouched to make a pile out of the spread sheets, the priest looked at a noisy pigeon's nest that dirtied the church's roof. It was a proper moment for Alucard to plant Sypha's paper there, as if he wanted nothing of it. He stood with the pile and handed it to the priest.
"Here they are, sir. I must apologize again."
"Thanks", he seemed to care very little, and to bother a lot, turning his back, "May God be with you."
Alucard noticed their moves and spotted them behind the barrels with a surprised smile.
"What's so funny?", Trevor asked, monotone.
"You two following me here", he fixed the jacket's cufflinks, "Well, it's there. I'll keep the camouflage for now."
"And what do we do now?", Trevor went on.
"We wait. In half an hour, give me directions to the town hall."
"Let's go to the other tavern, then. It won't hurt."
"Where are we going?", Sypha gave him a dirty look and crossed her arms.
"Do you have a better idea?"
"Did you make a decision already?", interrupted Alucard.
"Yes", Trevor pulled her by the hand.
Out of the two taverns there were in Sohodol, they chose to stop by the one that accommodated them the night after the gargoyle hunt, out of gratitude. The staff could recall them and served them well, and both of the owners were very look-alike brothers. What is Isobel doing right now, though? Sypha smiled at nobody behind a mug of beer.
Alucard left them in the tavern when it was already time. Trevor told him how to get to the town hall; passing by the church, he gave it a peek to check if there was any trace of the priest. He must be in the town hall, as expected. The building was not any bigger than a large stone house, with two arcs by the entrance before the doors and a guard dressed in an old uniform standing by one of the pillars, cleaning his nails with a pocket knife.
"Excuse me, sir, is the priest here?", Alucard had the friendliest tone he could manage.
"He is", the guard gazed at him, weirded out, and slowly put away the pocket knife, "I'll go tell him you're here."
"Oh, there's no need for it. He might be waiting for me."
The man cared very little and signed that he entered the hall. Inside it, Alucard looked around. It's a pretty quiet day here. He turned into a corridor, then to its parallel one; despite not being a monumental building, the town hall had quite a lot of rooms and a counterintuitive design. How would he find the priest? Alucard closed his eyes and meditated. The sound of a quill… He walked blindly, running a hand on the wall. It comes from here. He stopped in front of the door and knocked to hear a tired "come in".
"Oh", the priest looked at him over his seeing glasses with no esteem, "What brings you here, sir?"
"I'm deeply sorry to bother you again, but I believe one of my documents ended up among yours when I bumped into you, sir", Alucard scratched his head with a gloved hand, "Could I possibly check to see if I can find it? It is nowhere to be seen in my luggage."
"I demand that you don't take long", the priest picked up the papers inside the Bible by a corner of the table and handed it to Alucard, "There's lots of work to do."
"I sure can figure", Right, time to act. He started flipping sheets after the false document, "I'm just passing by the town, I'm leaving tomorrow. But what I've heard here is intriguing to say the least."
The priest stared at him the same way and did not answer.
"I'm sorry if it's too much of an intrusion, but I had to ask around until someone of the people told me you were temporarily replacing the registrar. I couldn't just lose my service order like that."
"And who else would know how to write in this place stuck in time?", the priest changed from a paper to another and tidied his glasses, "He's my second cousin, the registrar. We're a big family."
"What in the world happened to him?"
"Heaven knows", he sighed, "He wasn't fond of hunting, but he would go for walks at night, just like a madman would do. Maybe he got lost, or had the bad luck to run into a wolf?"
"I see you might hold a grudge against him."
"It's not like that", the priest dipped the quill into ink and signed a book, "One who sees a lantern in twilight won't even mind it, even amongst the people. It was always him. Or it is. It's not like he passed away."
"I understand", Alucard went back and forth with the pile of paper, "Was there a gentleman with him?"
"Yes, a friend from his seminarian days. They exchange letters whenever they can. Believe me, two well-educated men in this backwater. I don't know what was that sir doing here besides paying a visit, though."
"Here it is, thank goodness", Alucard picked up Sypha's undercover shopping list, "Thank you very much for the patience, sir."
"God be with you, again."
When Alucard left the labyrinth of rooms, he noticed the guard snoozing. He passed by him without a notice and walked the reverse way to the tavern.
The tavern's door opened, and, in an unpretentious turn of a head, Trevor saw Alucard coming in, still in disguise with the illusionary outfit and the false hair color. Polished and refined, he was a stranger in the chaos of the tavern, where people drank, ate and talked with as much crudeness and noise as possible.
Trevor had Sypha under his arm, intoxicated like it was rare for her to do, and gently squeezed her shoulder to change her focus from the food to the tavern's entrance. Alucard kneeled besides the table to talk to them, what sounded like a whisper among the uproar:
"Pay and let's go. We'd better talk in private."
"There's no need to pay", Trevor hiccuped, "We saved Sohodol, remember? It isn't a fortune you have every day."
Alucard was about to reprehend him when they got up and waved at one of the siblings that owned the tavern, that answered with a broad smile. Trevor kissed Sypha on the face, and instead of blushing or losing her manners, she laughed freely. How I love it when you cross the line. On the way, they told Alucard of Trevor's disaster try on juggling with three apples while he undid the camouflage in order to return to the other tavern. Alucard looked like he forced himself to laugh and left Trevor with a question mark. Was it that serious in the town hall?
They rented an upstairs bedroom with the unpleasant lady keeper, putting more coins on her hands.
"Two bedrooms?", she inquired, with the same bad face as before, untouched by the cash.
"Only one is fine, thanks", Sypha answered, and then she was pulled by her waist for a hug.
"Climb the stairs, it's open", the owner stared at them, head to toe, "I'll go get the keys."
Trevor ran upstairs after Sypha, as if they were two kids, but deeply intrigued with Alucard's talk. When they entered the bedroom, it had a humble double bed, a chest, a table, and a chair.
"Only one bedroom is alright?", Trevor frowned and asked Alucard, "You'll have to sleep on the floor or the like."
"It doesn't matter. It's just so that we have a private space", he closed the door, "Also, it's better that we pay only one fee."
Sypha dove into the mattress and said:
"Wow, the bed is a thousand times softer than the other tavern's."
"And the keeper is a thousand times grumpier", Trevor laughed and laid down by her side, his arms behind his head.
There were knocks on the door. Speak of the devil. The keeper brought them the groceries and the key, and left without saying a word. After she was gone, Alucard locked the bedroom, closed the windows, and sat by the bed end.
"I talked to the snob in the town hall", he began, looked from one to another, "One of the missing men is his second cousin. The registrar, I mean. The other one is a registrar's friend, from his seminarian days, but the priest knew nothing of the reasons of the visitor. There are great chances that the gargoyle shenanigans in the forest was of their doing."
"Why do you say?", Trevor also sat on the bed, with his torso on the frame.
"The registrar has the habit of walking at night, to the point the people in the farms would see him with a lantern and not attack him. It sounds pretty suspicious to me", Alucard sighed, "If you match it with what Isobel told us, I believe they are involved in the gargoyle thing, and that they are dealing with what they shouldn't."
"What do you mean?", Sypha asked.
"The burglar, according to Isobel, saw them leave and they never came back, also there were strange things in the house."
"So we investigate the house", Trevor scratched his beard.
"It's in the plans", Alucard agreed.
"I just knew there was a plan."
"Whatever", Alucard rubbed his face with his hand, "We'll see what's in the house. Plus, if Isobel is telling us the truth, we might be dealing with occultists."
"It's the kind of thing an occultist would do, indeed", Trevor looked at the closed window, thinking, "What are the odds they burned the gargoyle on a cardinal point for some crazy reason, and then they went to another cardinal point?"
"Maybe to draw attention… Or to dismiss where they are", Sypha suggested.
"And what are the odds the dandy priest is involved?", Trevor slouched on the bed.
"It's possible. They didn't seem very much shocked with what happened", Alucard analyzed, "But let's not invest much thought onto that idea before we check the house."
"So, we both go when it's night?", Trevor asked, "Sypha stays and talks to the little girl about the jail thing. There are still about two hours until it gets dark, and I'd love a nap right here where I am."
"I agree with the plan", Sypha laid together.
"It's fine, I guess", Alucard proceeded to the chair with a botany book he put in the luggage for whatever reason, "I'll wake you up with a bucket of water when it's time."
"Yeah, you will", Trevor closed his eyes.
Sypha's awakening was a result of the noise down in the tavern mixed with the senseless dream she had. She could still feel relaxed from the afternoon drinks. During his sleep, Trevor turned himself with the stomach up and a tranquil face. Sypha yawned and stretched herself; when she rested her hand on the bed again, she touched a shoulder and had a short scare. Alucard also opened his eyes, lying with his hands crossed over his chest.
"Sorry, I didn't see you", she said.
"No problem", he raised half his body and sat on the bed, "I didn't warn you I was going to lie down as well."
"It must be evening already."
"Do I pick up the bucket?"
"If I can't wake Trevor up, yeah", she laughed.
Sypha shook him by the shoulder and called him. He opened his eyes a bit and he pulled her in for a kiss.
"Good morning, darling", his voice was raspy, "Is it time?"
"It is. You just escaped another bath."
"Which is a shame", Alucard stood.
Trevor also jumped out of bed, and Sypha went for the luggage to find her cloak. She wore it over Alucard's borrowed clothes, instead of her usual ones. She took a moment to look outside through a slit of the half-open window, and the street was dark and empty.
"There is no one around. Go, you two, and I'll wait for Isobel", she closed the window again.
Sypha saw Trevor take two of the bedroom's candles and put them into his pants' pockets. They kissed goodbye, a kiss that was short on shame and time, before they went downstairs.
"We meet in the back later. Correct?", she unlocked the door.
"Yes, ma'am", agreed Trevor.
She watched them leave and waved, sitting herself by the counter with the hood up on her head. There was no server; neither the keeper, nor Isobel. Sypha left through the front door and the street was as deserted as seeing from upstairs. She turned around the building not to find a single soul. Where might she be? Half an hour went by when only the cranky woman showed up to pick up mugs and dishes. Sypha decided to go back to the bedroom. There, at least, she would have silence and a book. She opened the window to air out the place and admired the starry sky. When she reached for another candle to light, it was when she saw her.
"Isobel!", Sypha called, just loud enough in the silence.
The girl did not answer. Sypha left the bedroom again and climbed down the stairs tantivy to meet her. When she left through the front door, Isobel had crossed the street and looked at an owl on the neighboring roof. Sypha called her again; she heard it and turned on a scare.
"Isobel, it's me", Sypha crossed the street as well.
The girl took steps backwards until she sprinted on the streets of Sohodol. Dammit, what's going on? Sypha followed her.
"Is it this one?"
They were standing before the loft, which was in pretty bad shape. The window of the first floor was open to the dead of the night, while all of the others on the street were closed to protect from the cold.
"Yes", Alucard tidied up the jacket, "A sniff was enough earlier. It smells like dried blood."
"So please, don't lick the floor. Be my guest and climb it first."
"I should let you climb on your own", he gave Trevor a mean look.
Alucard gave the surroundings a last check, just to be sure, and turned into his bat form. The flight up to the window could be smoother if not for the cold wind. Already inside, he turned back and glanced at the moon, not in its full state, but giving away enough light. Trevor started his climb by the pane of a window on the ground floor, stretched his hand for a decoration on the wall and made himself stable. When he reached for a next stone, he lost balance and had himself hanging by an arm.
"Sludge", he whispered to complain.
"I'm cheering for you", Alucard observed him with a sarcastic smile while he lit up one of the candles that Trevor handed him along the way.
Just a bit more and Trevor could stretch his hand to be pulled inside the house, and he was heavier than Alucard expected.
"You should've left this massive cloak in the bedroom, don't you think? Don't take advantage of my good will."
"Come on", Trevor snorted, "Wait, how did you light this thing? I have the flint on me."
Alucard snapped his fingers to create a small flame:
"I was never exceptional with fire, but it's enough to light things up."
"Very handy. And what do we have here?", Trevor closed the window, which had a busted lock.
Alucard raised the candle to see several other candles on branch lights, transparent jars with animal parts, indecipherable coal drawings and scribbles on the walls, spread books of all sizes, both open and closed, and said blood stain on the floor.
"It's human blood. No, I don't need to taste it to know that", he rebutted and started to rummage through the piles of books.
"And here we have a whole reason for a crippled burglar. What a beautiful room", Trevor walked around, "We should look for something that takes us to the… Lousy occultists."
"Indeed, low class ones. Check this out."
Alucard picked up one of the books for which he had squinted his eyes to read and Trevor got closer to read the title, laughing with scorn.
"Geez, the biggest charlatan in all of Europe. I've never read any worse."
"I know. And what do you think of this one?", he changed it for another book that was especially beat-up.
"It looks like an old rug. Let's see."
Under the candlelight, Alucard read in a quiet voice: "June Five recev. call do not give info. except to spec. cont…", said the first line of the diary. I can infer what it means, but it doesn't make much sense anyway. Alucard put his hand on his chin. He skipped to a forward page to notice a worse handwriting, and hardly read: "August 21 wait f. answ. done necess. corresp. organ. f…", he stopped. "aut? oct?" He handed it to Trevor.
"Can you tell what's here?", he pointed to the end of the sentence.
"'Aut' as in 'autumn'? 'Oct' as in October? It's October already", Trevor frowned.
"That must be it", Alucard skipped to recent pages.
"October 3 arriv. visit.", said the first entry of the month, "exec. final plan." He flipped to the end of the written pages to find out a ripped out one.
"How convenient", Trevor rolled his eyes.
"Where do you think it is?"
"Either those two took it, or they got rid of it, Did you see any paper on the street?"
"To be honest, I didn't", Alucard closed the book.
"Heaven knows where this thing is. But it must be the key."
They both sighed, hopeless. Alucard put the candle on the table and put away some of the books to reveal a thin sheet spread on the surface, that wa about to roll up without the weight of the paper on top of it. It held a draft of something close to a human face.
"And what is this?", inquired Alucard.
"Besides some crazy stuff?", Trevor thought for a bit, "It depends. I think it's not a mask. The registrar takes walks on the woods, right? He'd better be recognized. There's no reason for it to be a mask.
Trevor mindlessly opened the first drawer of the table, and it contained a real-size wooden replica of the drawing.
"Or maybe it is a mask", Alucard laughed.
She's so fast. Sypha panted. If I didn't want to draw attention, I wasn't very lucky. Running after Isobel seemed endless. The race took them both to the town's bulwark, where there was a crack; it was small enough not to be fixed, but big enough for a kid her size to trespass. Dammit. The girl climbed up to it, quick as a squirrel, and passed through the break. She'll get hurt if I rise up an ice wall.
Sypha propelled herself up with the wind in order to jump over the bulwark, and in her mix of atterrissage and fall, she rolled on the ground and the grass. She lit up a flame on her hands and got up, dusting off the cloak. She saw Isobel's figure in a distance, picking up something from the floor and heading to the dense forest, much slower than before.
"You're not getting away", Sypha smiled.
She jumped with the wind towards Isobel and grabbed her, softening the impulse of both with the same breeze. Sypha sighed of relief. Isobel threw a tantrum and tried to set herself free at every cost, without saying a word, just crying and shouting.
"Chill, it's me. From this afternoon. Don't you remember me?"
Isobel went into an endless crying jag, and Sypha used all the force she had to keep her still.
"Wait", she noticed.
Sypha observed under the flame light the girl's dental arch, noticing a missing teeth among the incisor teeth. There's no blood, so there's no way it happened now.
"You're not Isobel?"
When she heard the name, the girl's cries ceased little by little. She tried to reach for the fire, marvelled, and Sypha took it back.
"Don't touch it. No", she gave her a severe stare, "Or I'll put it out."
Sypha waited patiently until things calmed down. The unknown girl sat on the floor, holding tight onto something.
"What's that with you?", Sypha stretched her hand, "Can you show me?"
The girl flinched.
"Please, I'd really like to see what it is."
She opened her small hand and it showed a blade without a handle, covered on the dull tip with a fabric or a piece of leather.
"You can't keep this. Give it to me", Sypha saw the girl hiding the object, "I don't want you to get hurt."
She tried to get it anyway, and the child started crying all over again. Sypha sighed:
"It's fine, keep it. Just be careful, right? Let's go home."
They held hands, even if the girl did it reluctantly, and she said nothing along the way. Sypha tried to ask her name, where did she leave and how old she was with no success, so she followed alongside her in a similar silence. The girl looked around with fearful eyes, sometimes letting out an incomprehensible sound or two. As they got closer to the tavern, she relaxed and said something Sypha could not pick up either, looking at the girl with questions, more than answers. Well, this is where I found her.
When Sypha pushed the tavern's door, the torches in the hall showed Isobel and her mother in front of the counter, both of them full of beer mugs in their hands. They looked at the entrance with incredulous faces. The keeper crossed the tables full of drunkards in the middle of the hall and grabbed the little girl by an arm with the other hand.
"Where did you find her?", the lady roared at Sypha, "What were you doing with my daughter?"
The whole place stopped talking to see what was going on. Sypha froze in place without an answer. Isobel approached with timid steps after getting rid of the mugs and the duplicate Sypha found on the street left her mother to hug her.
"You know she disappears like that, Mom. I think the miss just did us a favor."
They're twins. Sypha laughed up her sleeve, slightly shocked. Isobel whispered something to her sister, that started looking at the Speaker with far less fear.
"Her name is Izidor", Isobel said, "She doesn't speak. Excuse me, Mom."
The young keeper took her sister to the back of the building, and the mother stopped snorting, apparently ashamed of the agitation. The customers went back to their own conversations and the buzz of the tavern covered up their dialogue.
"Don't cause me any more problems, you three", the woman grumbled.
"I mistook her for Isobel. I'm deeply sorry for any trouble, ma'am."
"Hmph", she called Sypha to a more discreet corner with a hand gesture, and spoke quieter, "Isobel tells the truth. Izidor leaves like that, she hides in the woods, she brings weird things home. How many times, when my husband was alive, I have lost days of labor trying to find her. But God wouldn't give me my daughter if she wasn't to be mine."
Bless her. Sypha smiled with as much sympathy she had and wished:
"I wish the same God will look after your family, ma'am. Izidor was really going into the forest. It's dangerous, isn't it?"
"I don't want to think about it, miss", the woman crossed her arms and looked elsewhere, as if she had never said those words before, "Thanks for bringing my girl back. If I can do something, come tell me."
"Thank you, ma'am."
Sypha left her to the tavern and headed to the back of the building, where Isobel waited for her while she toyed with a small rock with her feet, alone as well.
"Is Izidor alright?", Sypha asked.
"Oh. Hi", she looked at Sypha and scratched her own head, "Actually, I think she hurt an arm. Nothing more than that."
Sypha felt she was to blame. Before she could apologize, Isobel asked:
"I didn't tell you we're twins, right?"
"No, but no problem. It was but a misunderstanding."
"Mom wouldn't let me out of the kitchen, until we missed my sister. She almost always comes back when it's still day, but at night like this, she gets lost", Isobel looked worried, "Well, I think anyone gets lost at night."
They had a laugh together. Sypha kneeled to talk to her:
"Secret, remember?"
"I do", Isobel made a cross with her fingers over her mouth.
"I need to talk to your uncle. He's a guard, isn't he?"
"He is, but I think he's on duty today. Why do you need it?"
"I can't tell you. But, please, ask your mom."
"You aren't letting the burglar out, are you?", Isobel scratched her head.
"No, no way", Sypha laughed.
"I'll go talk to Mom."
"Thank you very much, dear."
Isobel left before her mother called her again, and that was when Trevor and Alucard jumped from the roof. Sypha was startled, since she almost took a step forward.
"You almost gave me a heart attack! Whose idea was this?", she backed off.
"Sorry, darling", Trevor held her, "We heard you getting closer and remembered last minute we weren't supposed to show up."
"Great", she let out, not feeling great, "The news, please."
"The house was a hot mess, a suspicious and bloody hot mess", Alucard enumerated, "Not a clue on where did those screws go. We found a wooden mask… And this."
He gave Sypha the addled book, that she opened to find pages full of dates and abbreviated entries. Interesting.
"I'll read it carefully soon", she closed the book, "I had Isobel talk to her mother on the jail thing. But not without a bit of a muddle."
"What kind of muddle are we talking about?", Trevor frowned.
"Let's climb up to the bedroom, I'll tell you there", she routed them, "Maybe I need a seat."