Three || Confluence

The edge of evening was visible on the horizon, and Mira was starting to get worried.

She had spent the afternoon making preparations for actual dinner – a celebratory demi-feast, in honor of Klaus' safe return – and helping Rue get himself settled in Mrs. Cartha's inn. Between that and spending some personal time catching up with Klaus, she had completely lost track of the day– and the fact that Elena was late coming home.

The island was not dangerous – there were a few predators out in the woods, but they were mostly nocturnal or crepuscular, and generally avoided the main paths through the forest. Elena had been busying herself exploring the forest or visiting Mel for the last couple of months, and Mira had not felt the need to supervise her closely after a short while. They had made an arrangement that had worked out perfectly: be back around mid-afternoon, before the sun is past the wall.

The sun was well past the wall.

Mira sent another look out the window. It was darkening within the town; the wall blocked the last hour or so of proper sunlight and plunged the town itself into a warm darkness before actual nightfall. Looking across the street she could see the lanterns flickering on in outside of the houses and businesses, and the major street lights were not far behind in blossoming into flame. She saw the large lanterns that flanked the forest-facing door suddenly ignite, and her chest tightened.

She returned to the kitchen, walking a little too fast. Klaus, reading through a few papers at the dinner table, heard the unusual rhythm of her steps and looked up.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Elena should have been back by now," she said. "She never stays out this late. What if something happened?"

Klaus started to say something reassuring, but found himself unable to formulate words. He had been away from the house for quite some time, and this particular routine – Elena wandering on her own during the day – was still an alien concept to him. And if Mira was worried, then he had no doubt he had good reason to be worried. Slowly, he pushed the chair away from the table and braced himself to stand.

"Don't worry about dinner," he said. "We should go have a look before it gets too dark out. We can grab a few people, form a search party... Graham is in town this time of year, right?" He shifted his weight, reaching for his cane. "Davis, Tonio, Jargen– I bet Annette would insist on coming with him– Rue would also help, I'm sure–"

"Sit down," Mira snapped, and Klaus stopped dead with what he was doing. "You're not going wandering in the middle of the woods with your leg like that." She looked toward the door, her eyes sliding toward the outfitted belt that she had left sitting on the couch. "I'll gather a few people and we'll have a look– oh, Rue, excellent timing!"

Rue stood in the doorframe, a little surprised by the greeting. "What's going on?" he asked.

Mira frowned. "Elena hasn't come home yet."

He was confused for a moment, but something visibly clicked in his head and he stiffened. "Your daughter?"

"Yes," Mira said. "I was hoping to ask for your help looking for her. She never came back from the forest..."

"Of course," he said. "Is there anything I should be aware of out there? Monsters, or...?"

Klaus made his way alongside Mira. "The tigers, probably," he said. "They do their hunting at night. There aren't too many of them, but..."

"I understand." Rue's gaze turned to the side and settled on Mira's belt. His expression changed, concern hardening into determination, and he reached for the belt– specifically, the short sword tightly sheathed to the side. He pulled it a few inches out of the sheath, his gaze raking over the powerfully sharp blade. "Can I–"

"Oh, here! Here, here, this is my house!"

Rue stumbled back and shoved the door fully open, and in his place there appeared a young girl running full-tilt into the house. Mira whirled to face her and caught her mid-stride in a hug.

"Elena!" she cried, setting the girl back down. "We were just about to go looking for you."

Behind her, tentatively, Rue slid the sword's blade back into sheath and tossed it lightly on the couch.

"I'm sorry," Elena said. "I was out over by the ruins–"

"The ruins I told you not go near," Mira said.

"Um... right." Elena shrank back slightly, her face burning red. "I just... I got a little turned around, I went to the ruins so I could figure out where I was better." She was waiting for Mira to say something, but when Mira remained silent Elena continued. "While I was looking around I thought I saw something, and then, well, I'm not sure what happened but I kind of got trapped there."

"How did you get trapped?"

"A column fell," another voice interjected. "Dunno how long she was in there, but I managed to get her out."

The voice was female, but spoke in a somewhat lower tone that made it sound almost boyish. It was also coming from just beyond the door frame; Rue stepped fully into the house to let the new speaker come in behind him. The girl did so without further invitation, appearing fully in the warm light of the house. She must have been in her mid-teens and was just shy of being as tall as Rue, although her hair – long, fine, and strawberry blond, pulled into a pair of oversized pigtails – made her seem younger.

Mira looked past Elena to the newcomer, then stood up fully. "I take it you got her out?"

"She did," Elena said quickly. "This is my friend, Mint."

Mint raised her hand. "Hey."

Klaus leaned out from the kitchen and looked around. "My, it's getting crowded in here."

"Daddy!"

Elena charged him next, and he barely had time to catch her before she bowled him over. He laughed and carefully adjusted himself. "Elena, careful! Your dad's getting old for that."

Mira looked over her shoulder and nodded approvingly. "That's not very nice of you to get lost on the day your father comes home."

Elena didn't say anything. Klaus hugged her back, then uneasily pulled himself back to his feet. "Come on to the table," he said. "You tell me about your adventure and I'll tell you about mine."

"Okay!"

Elena took off past Klaus, and he was not far behind her. They both disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Mira, Mint, and Rue in the forward room. Rue had slid into the couch to give the girls more room; however organized the good in that room were, it was still overcrowded for three people.

"Tell me what happened, please," Mira said.

"S'nothing major," Mint began. "I guess a column collapsed or something while she was looking around those old ruins. I got her out and brought her home." She said with a nonchalance that suggested there was more to the story and she was just waiting to get it out, but Mira chose to ignore it.

"Well, thank you for that," she said. "I wouldn't have thought to look over there until– thank you." Mira looked the girl up and down, then said, "I don't believe I've seen you here before."

Mint shrugged. "Just passing through," she said.

"I see." She indicated the kitchen. "We'll be settling down for dinner soon. Would you like to join us?"

"Ah, no," Mint said. "But I'm actually looking for somebody, if you can help me find him."

"Of course."

"Name's Klaus Adler. I see him name all over academic papers about ateliers and magicians and Relic and... that kind of stuff. Guess he lives out here?" She frowned. "Why're you laughing?"

Mira pressed her fist against her mouth, swallowing her chuckle. "I'm sorry," she said. "Just– you have impeccable timing. He just returned to town this morning."

Mint perked up. "Oh yeah? Where can I find him?"

Mira nodded back into the kitchen. "At the table," she said, "waiting for dinner."

Mint craned her neck to look around Mira. "That's...?"

Mira smiled, her eyes still laughing. "Would you like to reconsider my offer?"

Mint did.

She almost felt dizzy from the string of good fortune she was encountering; all she had wanted to do out on this island was find Klaus, pick his brain about anything he might be able to offer her, and then propel herself with that information into a new direction. She'd expected that it wouldn't really be easy to do, but had a few ideas for how she could surreptitiously prize the information out of him and use it for herself.

But now here she was, standing in his house, with the bonus of having him in her debt since she had saved his daughter. The odds of all of this working out so beautifully were staggering, and yet here she was. Everything to follow would be a simple task.

Mira bustled off to the kitchen to attend to dinner. Mint almost followed her, but stopped short when she suddenly recognized the other person who had been in the room. He was sitting on the couch, idly listening to the conversation that had just ended, and Mint regarded him through narrowed eyes.

"You've been quiet," she said.

He shrugged. "I didn't have anything to add."

"You part of this happy family?" But the instant she asked, she realized how unlikely it was; none of his colors or proportions lined up with the family seated in the other room.

He took the question in stride, though. "No. I've been working with Doctor Adler for a couple of months, is all."

She cocked an eyebrow. "How's that? Like, an assistant?"

"Something like that."

A little knot of ice formed in the pit of her stomach, and she looked at him more carefully and suddenly it crystallized.

Everything she had learned about Klaus suggested that he was in the racket because he was dedicated purely to pursuit of knowledge. He ran around scouting out ruins and ateliers, collecting artifacts and writing papers about the nature of Relics because he was fascinated by the science and the magic, the implications on anthropology, the advancement of information itself. It was a pure and almost admirable (if utterly wasted) dedication to the craft, and Mint had assumed that somebody who merely wanted to study the things would run no danger of wanting to use them personally.

The boy was different, though. Now that she was looking at him, his calm demeanor was an almost palpable front; his shoulders were a little too stiff, his bearing a little too rigid, the edges of his eyes a little too dark, his whole look just a little too ragged. It was subtle – if Mint didn't recognize the symptoms in herself, she probably wouldn't have noticed anything about him – but it seemed obvious to her that he had been associated with Klaus for the exact same reason she had tried to.

A threat, then.

Mint was abruptly shaken from reverie when the boy held out his hand to her, open-palm, and gave her a tired half-smile. "Rue Artema," he said.

She shook off her confusion and took his hand, shook. "Mint," she said simply. When they broke contact, she regarded him carefully again, and an errant question tickled the back of her mind. There was something...

"Come on," Mira said, sticking her head through the open doorway. "Dinner's ready."

Rue nodded to Mint to let her go first, and she did, slipping into the next room. She checked the seating arrangement to see if she could bury herself surreptitiously somewhere near Klaus – for pleasant dinner conversation, of course – but Elena was sitting across from him and Mira next to him and the other two chairs had been somewhat haphazardly pulled up at the far end of the table. She took the one closest to him, anyway, and as soon as she sat down her plate and bowl and glass were quickly populated by food as Mira made her rounds.

She figured she could segue into the conversation, but before she had a chance he was actually speaking directly to her. "Mint," he said. "Elena tells me you can perform magic?"

She grinned and directed her attention to her fingernails, the perfect picture of faux humility. "I dabble," she said serenely.

"Not many people just dabble," Rue said, pulling into the last remaining chair. "That's no small accomplishment."

Mint flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Yeah, well, not many people are me." And much as she liked to have her abilities acknowledged, this was not a conversation that she necessarily wanted to have; there were more pressing concerns. She turned her attention back to Klaus. "I've been looking for you."

"I get that sometimes," he said. "Mira, do we have any tea?"

She made a little noise of frustration and shook her head. "No, sorry. I meant to go to the market today."

"Pity."

Mint felt the edges of her fingernails digging into her skin.

"Right, yeah," she said, trying to keep her impatience reigned in. "Anyway, I've seen your name come up a lot in relation to Relic research, and–"

"Of course," he interjected. "My old papers, I assume. Or work colleagues."

"Yeah." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rue looking in her direction. She ignored him. "Lots of fun stuff. You ever go anywhere with that?"

"You mean, did I ever find a proper, functioning Relic?"

"Or an idea of where one might be."

He took a sip from his glass, set it back down, and said, "Not a one."

For a moment, Mint was silent. Then, with a little less fervor; "You mean... you never found any Relics or you don't have any clues."

"Both." He leaned forward, bringing his eyes level with Mint's. "I've been away for several months following a rather circuitous trail of information. I only got back to town this morning. This expedition was the result of a culmination of most of the knowledge I have gained over the course of my studies. I found a great deal of things. But no Relics. And no further indication of any."

Mint's shoulders fell. "Nothing?"

"It's been a thousand years since Relics were produced," Klaus said. "We've found many of them, and learned of the destruction of many more, and exhausted the power of several we've already found. Of the Relics we know exist, there aren't many left to be unearthed, and for all the searching that's been done over the years only two or three were ever found that weren't mentioned in the old records. I'm sure there are some still out there, but when I left on my trip I was under no delusions that it was anything more than a long shot."

Mint gritted her teeth, but held her tongue. Frustrating, to say the least, but if she had to have all of her hopes dashed – again – then at least it had happened quickly.

"But you found papers," Rue said. "There might be something in them."

"Of course," Klaus said. "There is plenty left to be discovered." He looked back to Mint. "But if you were hoping I could draw you a map to a Relic, I'm afraid I simply can't."

She snorted. "Right. Of course."

Silence fell for a few minutes, the gathering concentrating on the meal, when suddenly Mira spoke up.

"Elena... what did you say you were doing at the ruins?"

Elena looked up. "Oh, um... I got kind of turned around, out the forest? But I saw the ruins were nearby so I headed over to them and figure out where I was trying to go."

Mira leaned over, nodding slightly, her spoon clicking against the edge of her plate. "I see," she said. "So how did you wind up trapped inside something?"

Elena tilted her head, briefly confused, and then suddenly jolted upright. "Oh! Oh, right, I forgot!" She reached down to the hem of her dress and un-knotted the edge. When she returned back to table level, she held out her hands. "I saw this pressed up near the big face statue!"

Mira leaned across the table and plucked it from Elena's hands. She settled back into her seat, turning the thing over a few times, then held it out so she could get a better look. The thing Elena had picked up was coated in a thick green patina and still partially covered in obscuring dirt, but Mira ran her thumb across the surface, revealing a glimmer of bronze. She turned it over and showcased the shape of it; it was oblong, ending in a dull point on one side while the other ended flat but flared out into two thin projections, each a half-circle that didn't quite meet the other side, reinforced by thin spokes linking them back to the main body of the thing.

Klaus slowly, gently laid his fork on the table and reached up for the object. He took it from Mira and looked at it carefully, adjusting his glasses to see better. He looked back to Elena.

"You got this from the... ruins?" he asked. "Cadomon's laboratory?"

Elena nodded. "It's pretty, isn't it? I think something was knocking things over back there, 'cuz it was pressed up in this big crack next to the face that I don't remember seeing before."

Klaus bit his lip, then looked down the table. "Hand this to Rue," he said, and Mira passed it down. Rue took it and turned it over a few times, using his napkin to try and clear away a bit more of the dirt.

"What are you thinking?" he asked.

"I'm not..." Klaus hesitated. "Not entirely sure. Do you feel anything from it?"

Feel anything? Mint wondered.

Rue closed his eyes and concentrated on the thing, and after a few seconds nodded slowly. "Yeah," he said. "There's something here." He looked up and focused on Mint, then flipped the thing around to her. "You dabble in magic," he said. "I bet you can tell better than I can."

She accepted it and understood immediately what he meant. The object was alive, warm knots of energy twisted up under its surface; and, more powerfully, held within it. There was a web of magic constricted its insides, and within that web she felt the core of a powerful spell throbbing against her palm.

"Oh yeah," she said. "This has some kind of spell woven into it." She frowned. "It's locked, though."

"It's a key," Klaus breathed, and inhaled sharply. "My god. It's the key to the library."

Everyone except Mira stared at him.

"The... library?" Mint asked.

"Yes, the–" He shook his head. "Give that here, please, I need to check for an insignia." Mint handed it back over the table to him, and he took it from her with more force than she had expected. He flipped it back over, rubbed away some of the grime, froze.

Rue rose from his seat to get a better look at what Klaus was doing. "Sir?" he said gently. "What is it?"

"I'm going to have to have a better look at it," he said. "Have to clean it up properly. But I think..." He looked up. "Rue, meet me tomorrow morning, eight o' clock. Mira, if you'd like to come..."

"Somebody has to provide adult supervision," she said. She tried to be cavalier about it, but there was no hiding the hint of excitement in her voice.

"Of course." Now he looked to Mint. "I hate to impose, but your magic may be beneficial once we're inside. I would like to ask for your assistance."

She almost moved to say 'no' on principle, but stopped herself short. Granted, she had absolutely no idea what Klaus was talking about, but if they were holding a key – and judging by the way the magic had been woven, Mint was almost certain of it – that meant whoever had crafted it was very interested in keeping something safe. Or hidden. Hidden and safe.

So, after a few seconds of contemplation, Mint responded.

"Yeah, sure."

"Excellent," he said, and without another word shoved himself out of his seat and away from the table, making his way to the room in the back.

Mira leaned over her chair, calling back to him; "Do you want the rest of your dinner?"

"I'll be right back!" he called, already sounding distant and muffled.

Mira looked at the clock hanging on the wall. "I give him two hours before he notices he's still hungry," she said. "Maybe three."

Mint frowned. "He could have at least explained what he was talking about."

"Don't press it," Rue said. "He'll tell us what we need to know tomorrow. Tonight..."

"Tonight he's off in his own little world," Mira said. She sighed, but she was still smiling. "Hasn't been back a day."

Elena looked between the three of them, the hint of a smile tugging at her lips. "I made Dad happy, huh?"

Mira closed her eyes and smiled. "Very."