Chapter Eight:
"Another murder on Holly's side," said Artemis before he took a bite of roast beef. Yum. "She'll be coming topside tomorrow."
"Really," said Butler, absent mindedly. He was focusing on Aspen. "Eat your vegetables, Aspen. They're good for you."
"He's dead for Pete's sake, Butler," said Artemis, thoroughly irritated at being ignored because of a nine year old ghost. "Focus!"
"I'm not dead," snapped Aspen. Reluctantly, he took a tiny bite of broccoli before returning to tearing apart his roast beef. It was like watching a school of invisible piranhas tear apart their prey during a feeding frenzy.
"Could you not point that out?" asked Butler. "It upsets him when you say that."
"He's dead," said Artemis hotly. "D-E-A-D. Dead. He needs to realize that. Let's focus here on the case. Opal Koboi was the target of the Satanist's last attack. How is he able to get to the Lower Elements, if he's human? Or maybe he's a fairy? It would seem more likely since the fairies have the technology to go back and forth. I suggested that the Lower Elements be put on lock down. If the fairy were caught by human officials, there's no telling what could happen next."
"You guys know about fairies?" asked Aspen. "My brother was always going on and on about them. Can't remember what about but I remember him using words like 'LEP' and stuff."
"He knows?" Butler, Johan and Artemis asked at the same time.
"Yeah. So does Esmeralda. And Esmeralda's mom. And her dad. And her brother. And her older sister. Her little brother is such a pain. He's always asking stupid questions and following me around."
"You're memory must be coming back. Let's focus here," said Artemis. "You can't remember anything about what was said about the People?"
"Well, Esmeralda told me never to talk about the People but since you already know about them, I guess I can talk about them with you. She also said that the People lived underground and that there are different species of them and that there are centaurs and elves and dwarves and recently demons. She also said that her family has known about the People for generations. Her family tree is huge or something. I told her to prune it if it was so big but she only laughed. Anyways, she said that her family went back all the way to when the fairies went into hiding. They secretly helped the People without anyone being the wiser. Maybe a few fairies knew about them but not a lot. Her family isn't mad. They travel a lot and they know a lot about magic."
"You mean her family is nomadic," corrected Artemis absent-mindedly. "This…is an interesting development. It's possible that someone from Esmeralda's family is the Satanist."
"No," said Aspen indignantly. "She practices white magic. You're not allowed to kill anyone if you use white magic. She does healing and other stuff like that. Whoever's doing the killing is probably a black magic user."
"Did your brother Quill practice magic?" asked Artemis.
"Yes," said Aspen. "He learned everything he knows from Esmeralda."
"What do you remember about your brother? What was he like?"
"I wouldn't know that much about him, even if I could remember," said Aspen quietly.
"Why?" asked Butler. Johan was just sitting in his seat and watching the entire scene as if it were a movie on Starz and randomly shoveled food into his mouth. Roast beef and potatoes…yum.
"I was in an orphanage while Quill wandered around on the streets. I wanted to come with him but he said I would only be in the way. He wasn't quite the same after Momma died. I was two when it happened. A man had shot her on her way home from the grocery. Quill took care of me for a while before dumping me off at an orphanage. He was always telling me that the world was a dark and cruel place and that he would find a way to fix it."
"How did he plan on doing that?" asked Artemis.
"I remember he did have a plan," said Aspen slowly. "It sounded great. No more bad men in the world. Everyone would be nice to everyone. He told me stories about Utopia. That's what he called his new world. Utopia. I thought it was a stupid name."
"So then he can't possibly be the Satanist?" Artemis' voice was quiet.
"Nope," said Aspen proudly. "My brother's a good guy. My brother wouldn't like the Satanist at all. He was all for justice but he didn't like killing. Me and him, through thick and thin."