"Good morning," Layton said, sitting down at the breakfast table with a cup of tea and a newspaper. "Luke, Emmy, Aurora, Professor- oh." He stopped, noticing that Sycamore wasn't wearing his glasses. It was very rare to see the man without them on - in fact, this was the first time. "It is very unusual to see you without your glasses, professor." Layton said. What was it with those eyes? He thought. There was something about them...
"A-Ah, yes..." Sycamore choked out. Prior to Layton entering he hadn't spoken to anyone since he had awoken. "I ah- managed to break them this morning, I don't think that I was fully awake when I attempted to put them on." He said with a slight chuckle.
"Mm? Ah, right..." Layton responded. While it seemed rather odd, he had no reason to question what the man had said - yet. "So, did everyone sleep well?" He asked politely, as he opened the paper to a news story in the middle. It was met with a rather awkward silence.
Emmy quickly turned to Aurora to make sure that the Azran girl said nothing, while Luke continued to slurp up his bowl of cereal as if he hadn't heard a thing.
Emmy coughed, looking directly at Sycamore, as a cue for him to answer Layton's question. He looked back that he had no choice but to so himself. "Well, I can't say it was the best night's sleep I've ever had." he said uncomfortably, taking a sip of his tea. As he looked over the brim of the cup, he noticed Luke's gaze on him. He was surprised that the boy - or Emmy, or Aurora - hadn't mentioned anything about the events that took place earlier in the morning. "I think it was the rain that kept me awake. I must have forgotten to close my window properly." He added on quickly, covering his mouth.
He was feeling rather annoyed at the state he had got himself into while the other man was asleep. Right now he needed to be focusing on his own goal, and he was not going to let self-pity stand in the way of it.
Layton lay his newspaper down on the table, and the accusing stares stopped instantly. "That's a pity." The poor man must have had an awful nights sleep judging from his tired eyes and edgy manner. "Personally I found that I had a very comfortable night."
Emmy stood up and put her empty bowl on the side. "Well at least one of us did." she said with a laugh, speaking in her usual cheery tone to minimise the suspicion. She found it was much easier to do this to the professor than to Luke.
"Oh, you didn't sleep well either Emmy?" Layton said, beginning to realise that he was a heavier sleeper than he first thought. The woman nodded.
"The rain keeping you up too, hm?" Sycamore asked, clasping his hands and regaining the ability to talk naturally.
The woman folded her arms from behind Layton and narrowed her eyes at the other professor. "Yes, the rain was very loud last night. Very... uncharacteristic for this time of year." She said, choosing her words carefully to work up 'Sycamore' without Layton noticing.
The man huffed at her comment and went to adjust his glasses but then remembered that he had broken them, and instead moved his hand down to his tie. "So shall we get going then? We agreed to meet with Umid at half past."He wasn't sure what Emmy was trying to achieve, but if she wasn't planning on doing something she would have told Layton by now. Unless, that is, Layton already knew and was pretending to be oblivious like he did in Monte Dor. Either way, Desmond decided that it would be a good idea to keep an extra close watch on her just in case. He knew that Luke had told her everything.
"Oh, are these your friends coming this way?"
Umid turned around. "Ah yes, this is them, here." he said, greeting the group with a smile.
"I should leave you to it then." The girl said. "Best of luck."
"Another friend of yours, Umid?" Sycamore said as the girl walked off, her straight, ashy blond hair swaying in the wind. The boy just grinned meekly.
"It doesn't look like anything's changed since last time." Umid said. They had all been expecting the gate to have changed in some way; evidently this was not the case.
"Some change undoubtedly occurred. If we open the gate as the inscriptions tell us to, perhaps all will become clear."
Layton stepped forward to solve the puzzle on the gate. Soon after he had solved it, there was a rumbling and as the gate opened, water gushed out and flowed into the town.
The group followed the river down to the hill, which now had a passageway that led inside.
"The water's flowed all the way down here!" Luke said in awe as he followed the others into the hill. Until now, the boy hadn't thought much about what had happened with Sycamore - despite the fact that he was so worried about it earlier. He just followed along, knowing that Emmy knew what she was doing and wouldn't let them get hurt.
"Well we have solved the mystery of the sleeping illness and made an incredible discovery. But we are still no closer to finding the egg..." Desmond said after helping Umid's mother wake up.
Emmy gave Sycamore a look of suspicion. She could not quite tell what it was, but since Luke had pointed him out as Descole, every time he spoke about the Azran there was something he would do that would just remind her of the masked man. She was almost certain that it was him.
Just then, Mehri burst into the room.
"Ah! Here you are - I thought you'd be here with Umid. "
"Hello again... Mehri was it?" Layton said with a smile to the girl.
"Yep! I told Gran about what you did, and she wants to give you our phoenix egg." The girl giggled. "What is she like?"
"That's the egg you were looking for, isn't it?" Umid added. "Go on, the Keeper should be waiting for you at the temple."
On the way up to the temple, Emmy stopped. It was time to put her plan into action.
"Hey professor, look at this!" She said, pointing to a large yellow flower. Both professors went over to have a look. "I need to take a photo of this." The woman reached for where she normally kept her camera - but it wasn't there. She continued to feel around to make the point that she had lost it before telling them: "I think I left it in the Bostonius."
Both Layton Sycamore detected the slight exaggeration in Emmy's actions, but while Layton thought it was for comedic effect, Sycamore grew suspicious - it seemed planned.
"I'm just going to pop back and get it if that is okay - you can all carry on without me." She said, starting to walk back.
"I will come with you, Emmy." Sycamore offered, even though he knew she would decline the offer.
"It isn't that far - I can manage, professor!" She called over her shoulder, continuing to walk.
"It should be fine." Layton said reassuringly. "She is very capable."
Sorry that not too much happened in this chapter, I just needed something to join bits together since I felt like skipping until they had been told about the egg was too big a leap forward.
