The day that followed gave Zacharias the time to thoroughly ponder on the events that happened in the last few days. This led to him questioning why the Storyteller would let such a fearsome fate befall his own daughter. He felt that he had to ask the man himself, and so made a visit to the audience room that night.
As he approached the single room building though, he noticed someone coming out, so he slowly shifted his body into the shadows. The person walked out into the moonlight, and Zacharias could see the backside of Darklaw.
She stopped a few feet away from the door she walked out of and said aloud, "…What a foolish man. You…will know soon enough. Soon you will see the advent of a new story. And you will pay for all of your mistakes…"
Once she was done she started to stroll off, and that's when Zacharias began his monologue.
"Huh…? The advent of a new story? I wonder…What could she be planning?" he pondered aloud. "It's true. Strange things have been occurring within the story…the Storyteller making Espella Cantabella, his own daughter, a witch…and Karena…Why would he write such things…?" – he narrowed his eyes at the shrinking figure of the High Inquisitor – "Something is not right…Should I investigate further…?" He didn't have much time to think on it, so he followed her out of the town walls and into the forest…
As he trailed her deeper and deeper into the forestry it was getting harder to keep her in his sights, because a fog had started to affect his vision. Soon after, he lost her.
"Blast this thick fog!" he muttered under his breath as he stopped to take in his surroundings. "I cannot see a thing!"
Despite this unexpected hindrance, he charged ahead in the direction he last saw her, and after a few more minutes, he came to a break in the fog. Instantly he ducked down into the bushes, as he now found he was gazing at what seemed like a small village. But there weren't people dwelling in this village, at least, they had the same general shape as a person.
Everything on the person was covered by a deep purple hooded cloak and dress, with black eye shaped accents down the front, on the hood, and on the cape part over the shoulders. Around their necks was a talisman-like silver eye shaped symbol that was strung on brown twine. Some of their hoods were just covering their faces, while others had some sort of breathing apparatus peeking out of them.
Zacharias observed these peculiar characters for a minute, before coming to the conclusion that he must disguise himself to find the woman he was tailing, and to learn more. Lucky for him, one of the figures was washing spare robes and hanging them up to dry nearby.
He crept closer to the area, waited until the figure withdrew, and ran out to grab one of the largest robes he could find. He then fled back to the bushes and slipped it on.
"It fits nicely over my suit of armor." Zacharias commented aloud before he noticed his hands. "But my gauntlets shall certainly give me away if I leave them on."
He then removed them and attached them to his armor before slipping on his hood and stepping out into the village. He only took a few steps out of the bushes when one of the villagers approached him.
"Hey where have you been all this time?" they asked with urgency.
Zacharias froze in his tracks, and was speechless, unsure of what exactly to say that wouldn't give him away.
But the figure standing before him went ahead and continued, "Come on, you don't remember? You're needed over at the Great Witch's room right now! She's asked for you specifically."
'The Great Witch?! Could it be…?' he thought with shock before he said quickly in a low voice, "O-Of course! I…forgot."
"Oh…Well I need to head back." The cloaked figure stated in response. "We'll head over there together."
Zacharias followed him silently him through the village, over the river, and finally to the large house at the end of the path. It seemed like someone could live in it, but instead the inside was some sort of laboratory, with multiple large cauldrons filled with some kind of potion. Zacharias wrinkled his nose at the smell of the room, as it was quite unnatural to him. He almost stopped there, but his escort kept going, so he followed until they came to a stop at the large doors on the other side of the room.
"Alright here you are." The cloaked figure said. "In you go then." He opened the door and Zacharias slowly walked in.
Standing within was an even more peculiar character than the cloaked figures. She stood quite tall, but that might have been because of the two purple and black diamond patterned hennins* that sat on the left and right sides of her head. They were decorated with gold points at the ends, and opaque sheets of lavender cloth hung from them and were attached to her back. She wore a black dress that covered her whole body. It had a collar that went up to just under her chin, bell sleeves, and peeking out from under these and the bottom of her dress was also purple fabric. She wore pinkish red ribbon around her neck that was tied in a bow, and a chain around her waist that hung almost a foot above the hem. Her face was pale and her lips were painted a dusky dark purple, but the top half of her face was covered by a large gold mask in the shape of the same eyeball that adorned her followers' robes. Curious enough, this woman wore the same gold clawed gauntlets that Darklaw usually wears…
"Are you truly the Great Witch?" Zacharias asked with skepticism and determination.
"Yes, but you are not who I asked for. Really some of my subjects do not have the discerning eye…" she replied. "Who are you really…?"
The knight hesitated for a moment, before he pulled off the hood.
"Well, if it isn't the good Inquisitor himself!" the witch continued with a generally surprised tone in her voice. "What brings you all the way out here to my domain…?"
"I shall be asking the questions here, Witch." Zacharias took a step forward. "If you are the Great Witch like these…people say, then does that make you Bezella?"
She said nothing, but just smirked in response.
"Answer me!" Zacharias was starting to get a little angry at her silence. "Are you the one framing Espella?" – he paused with difficulty – "Did you…harm Karena…?"
The witch's smile only grew wider as she still remained silent. The knight's anger also grew, as his hand moved to rest on the hilt of his sword.
"If you do not start answering my questions, I am afraid I shall have to-."
The Great Witch then quickly uttered one word that Zacharias couldn't quite catch, as he lost consciousness and fell to the ground…
About an hour later, he found himself disguised once more and staring at the two people he believed to be dead with surprise.
'This cannot be!' he thought while he watched Professor Layton and Maya figure out the mystery of the room in disarray and the witch's disappearance. 'How is this possible?! Does this mean that Karena could be…?'
Suddenly he had to wake himself from his thoughts, as the clever Professor had found out who had seen the Great Witch last. "It would appear that you are not quite the same as the other Shades present in this room." He announced as he turned to face the cloaked Inquisitor, who only "humped" in reply. "The one who was in the room with the Great Witch…was you was it not?"
Zacharias was silent for a moment before he said, "Impressive work, Sir Top Hat…" He then pulled off his hood once more to show that he was the odd one out.
Maya exclaimed with disbelief and surprise. "What are you doing here?!"
"The Great Witch's visitor was in fact, you…Inquisitor Barnham." Layton announced confidently.
* A hennin is a cone shaped hat, usually with a piece of cloth attached to the tip and draped down. Pretty much what some princesses are depicted as wearing.
And here we are on the threshold to yet another dialogue chapter. At this point in time, there probably won't be any more than two more of these, so hold tight.
I also want to announce that in most cases the story goes on in my head, but I want to go on and write these extra stories and share them with you. So I'm probably going to wait until everything has been sorted in this story before I start on the extra stuff, so that way I don't spoil you guys. They'll just be little one-shots or ficlets of things that were original ideas, and even happenings before the story and after. All that time until it starts will give me time to think of a title for these extras too, and I won't be opposed to suggestions either.
Just wanted to let you guys know what I'm thinking about because I'm so excited to get started on it!