"Perhaps we ought to leave - Luke, Aurora." The man paused before adding one last name to the list. "Emmy." He suspected that Emmy's story wasn't the whole truth, but he wasn't going to say so in front of everyone - especially not Descole. Not only was that ungentlemanly, but would only cause more trouble.
Emmy gave a quiet sigh of relief when she heard her name. She was just glad to not have to explain herself - or rather, glad not to have to lie her way out again. She followed on after the professor and Luke. Thankfully she had been living out of her suitcase ever since she arrived on the Bostonius so she could just pick everything up and leave the place as soon as possible. The sooner the better.
Aurora was the last to leave the room. Walking through the doorway, she stopped and turned around. While she couldn't see his face, she could sense that the cloaked man was feeling more than just anger. A feeling that somewhere there was a little bit of sadness in him - or maybe that was just her hope. "Professor Sycamore..." she whispered somewhat mournfully, almost inaudible, lowering her head as she too left the room.
Descole stood and watched as they left. He had heard Aurora murmur Sycamore's name - his name - as she left.
Why? Why did she have to make him question his identity again? After they had cleared, he continued to stare at the door. There was no hope left for Desmond Sycamore. None whatsoever.
Before he could allow his thoughts to take over his mind completely, Descole slammed the door shut. Trust Layton to side with Emmy without even questioning what she said, he thought. He should have known that Layton would never have taken the side of the man who nearly killed him. He should have known that from the very beginning.
He assumed that Raymond would show Layton out, although to be truthful, the he wasn't really fussed about whether the butler did it or not. Perhaps he should have been.
Luckily for Layton, Mossinia had a hotel that they could stop at overnight. The walk there was mostly silent. Layton walked at a leisurely pace with Luke at his side, with the boy turning around every now and again to point things out to Aurora: a flock of birds flying, a butterfly settling onto a flower, bees flying from plant to plant . When he turned around to give her a flower, the professor just gave him a supportive smile. Emmy was the one who trailed along at the back behind Aurora. It felt rather lonely.
"Look Aurora! Look at the sunset!" Luke exclaimed, looking out of the window of the hotel room. Aurora - joined by the professor - walked over to look. The gorgeous orange sky was beautiful and calming, and as they watched the clouds drift across the sky, they saw the silhouette of the Bostonius flying off over the horizon.
The sight reminded Layton that he needed to discuss with Emmy what had happened earlier. "I'm just going to speak to Emmy." he informed Luke and Aurora, before leaving. The room that Emmy and Aurora were to be sharing was just opposite Layton and Luke's. The professor gave the door a light knock.
"Emmy?"
Emmy's eyes darted up to the door. She was always slightly on edge after being in contact with her uncle. "Professor?" The woman hesitated a little. "Come in." She called back, her fingers digging into the pillow that sat upright on her lap. She had been dreading this, but had memorised what she was going to say - now she only had to say it.
As he walked in, Emmy noticed that Layton had his serious face on - the one that he always had when he was confronting someone. "Hello," He said calmly, sitting himself down in the armchair in the corner of the room. "We haven't seen you all evening, are you alright?
"I'm fine.." Emmy answered unconvincingly, "I was just thinking about what happened." This would surely lead him to ask about it.
"Emmy, I'd like you to tell me the truth now about what you were doing with the Azran eggs."
Bronev was planning something important right now. Whatever happened, she couldn't get found out. Emmy pulled the pillow closer to her chest. She cared a lot about Layton and Luke but her loyalties lay with her uncle. "I was looking for proof." She answered, adding to the list of the lies that she had told him today. "I knew you'd need evidence and didn't want to say anything without being absolutely sure."
"Mm?" The professor hummed, waiting to see what else she said. This story was adding up a lot more than the other one, and Emmy was a lot less on edge than before. He still didn't quite understand why the young woman was so worried earlier.
"When I found the mask I knew that I needed to take the eggs too - they weren't safe with Descole!" she continued with determination. "I started to gather them but before I could, he came in and found me."
"Hm. That still doesn't explain the fake egg." the professor said, running his hand along the rim of his hat.
"I was just getting to that bit." Emmy assured. "I found two replicas in one of his other drawers, I was going to use them so that I could swap the others."
"D-Do you think Profes- Descole will try to kidnap me?" Aurora asked. The Azran girl's hand was by her mouth, muffling her speech, and she spoke with evident nervousness. Luke had just explained to her about Ambrosia and how Descole had kidnapped many young women to put memories into and Aurora felt shaken by the very idea. She had shared a home with this man for a few months now, how did she not suspect anything herself?
"No, Emmy won't let anything bad happen to you in the night and neither will I." Luke reassured her. "She isn't a heavy sleeper, unlike the professor, so if anything happens she will be awake to help you."
Aurora gave the boy a smile, and his cheeks flushed pink. "Thank you Luke. You're such a great friend." Of course, until today the same could have been said about Professor Sycamore.
