Chapter Five: Clues

Note: I'm getting the feeling that this chapter, as well as a few in the near future, are going to be dialogue heavy. I know that the story is progressing rather slowly, but I really want to set the mood and establish the setting as the plot becomes more complicated, and well...I don't really know how to do that without those dialogue-laden scenes. Also, I hope Pearl doesn't appear too OOC. The older Pearl needed to be a bit more "abrasive" than the younger one to fit the purposes of the story, but not so much so, I think, that it mars her character. And to those who have been waiting, thanks for putting up with my procrastination/writer's block!

Edgeworth slumped over, his hands grasping tightly at his hair. He was incensed. He should have seen this coming…somehow.

"Klavier…" he mumbled, his voice rising in a crescendo. "I can't believe it...what an absolute idiot! I should have known!"

"Mr. Edgeworth?" Pearl asked timidly.

"I...I know," he sighed. "I'm just...so pissed off at myself. I'm the one who told Klavier about channeling in the first place. Well, he actually came to me a few years back suggesting that I help him make an appointment with the Feys so that they could channel Kristoph." He swallowed. "Goddammit, I should have known he was going to try it without my approval sooner or later, but why now, so much later? It doesn't seem to make sense."

"To be perfectly honest with you...Klavier had asked for a channeling quite a while ago," said Pearl. She fidgeted. "Taking into account the accidents that can occur while channeling, we've been extremely careful about who we grant requests to. Think about what happened with Dr. Grey and with Dahlia and Mystic Maya those years back. We realized it was becoming a problem to just allow whoever came into Kurain to be able to channel whichever dead relative/associate they pleased. So...we instituted a system where we check into the backgrounds of those who want to meet with a channeler. The process can take a long time, and since we have so many applicants, it may even take years to complete the background checks. I think that's what happened with Klavier."

"Yes...as a prosecutor, he'd undoubtedly have a lot of connections that needed to be looked into," murmured Edgeworth. "...Still," he continued, slamming his hand against the arm of the couch. "I can't believe...I can't believe he still went through with it. And what for?"

"I don't know, Mr. Edgeworth," sighed Pearl. "But whatever the case, it was worth the wait. We told him it might take a while to process his request, but he said he didn't care. And knowing Kristoph Gavin's nature, we needed to take the utmost precautions in preparing and performing the ceremony. That alone can take months."

Edgeworth was becoming frustrated. "So, even knowing what a dangerous and unstable spirit Kristoph Gavin was going to be, you still went ahead with the channeling? I don't care how many precautions or so-called background checks you had to make, Pearl, that's just plain madness."

"Please don't lump me in with the people who agreed to it, Mr. Edgeworth," said Pearl somewhat defensively. There was a gleam in her eyes that Edgeworth hadn't noticed before. Was it just him, or did she sound...defiant? "I didn't agree with it at first either. But you haven't been here in the past few years. You haven't seen how times have changed. Ever since the incident at Hazakura Temple, we haven't had a single problem with a channeling. Not one. It took some talking on her part, but I was eventually convinced of Mystic Maya's abilities to handle the channeling of Kristoph Gavin. And...and there were other precautions taken with Klavier Gavin's request as well."

"Like what?" asked Edgeworth, narrowing his eyes.

"Well...during the channeling itself, other members of the Fey household were there to serve as 'safety nets,' you might say. They would perform the Spirit Severing technique if something went wrong during the channeling. This had never been done before, since traditionally only the spirit medium and the client are supposed to be in the chamber together."

"Well, obviously something went wrong," Edgeworth said, clapping his hands together as if to make his point. He was becoming frustrated by what he saw as the Fey clan's lack of judgment in the matter. He didn't blame Pearl, of course, but something just didn't sound right about the whole situation.

"Yes..." said the young acolyte, looking down at her feet. "We...they did so much. They made sure that everything was in its proper place, that the spiritual atmosphere was right, that Mystic Maya was properly refreshed before performing the channeling. Everything appeared normal, and it didn't seem like this would be anything more than a regular channeling. We just...never expected a spirit this strong."

Grunting, Edgeworth sifted through his briefcase for his notepad. "Kristoph was no slouch, even when he was alive, that's for sure. Seemed rotten to the core, even before the whole fiasco with Wright being disbarred."

Pearl smirked. "You weren't exactly a paragon of justice before you went up against Mr. Nick."

Edgeworth yanked the cap off of his pen, scribbling some preliminary notes on the yellow paper. Yes, there was certainly something a little more perky and confident about Pearl Fey. Granted, she was a great deal older than when he had last seen her, but she seemed almost overly sure of herself, as if there was something beneath the surface that, if jostled, would upset the whole facade.

"Pearl...it's been years. I've come to terms with how I was back then. I was young, and quite arrogant. Wright did teach me something, as reluctant as I was to admit it." He sighed. "However, it seems as if the Fey clan still hasn't learned what a precarious thing spirit channeling can be."

Edgeworth looked up, startled, as Pearl rocketed from her seat, fists clenched at her sides. "Mr. Edgeworth, with all due respect, you don't know the first thing about spirit channeling! The Feys have had to learn to deal with the accidents that may occur! You think we don't understand that?" Her eyes were wide; astonished, Edgeworth tried to calm her down.

"I'm sorry, Pearl, I didn't mean any offense. It's just that, considering the circumstances...someone has already been killed, and Kristoph's spirit is still on the loose! Accepting that accidents can happen is one thing, but being able to handle the consequences is quite another."

Pearl collapsed back into her seat, fresh tears springing to her eyes. "I know, I know. I'm more worried about Mystic Maya than anyone else, Mr. Edgeworth. It's...it's all because I..." She covered her face with her hands, as if she were horrified at what she had just said.

Edgeworth leaned forward urgently. "Pearl, please, you need to tell me everything you know. Surely you realize that, if we're to solve this?"

She shook her head, terrified. "No...it's all because...Mother..."

"Mother?" Edgeworth murmured. He lurched forward, grabbing Pearl gently by the shoulders. "Your mother, Morgan Fey? Morgan Fey is still alive?"

Pearl seemed to realize that she had let too much slip. "I know you want to help Mystic Maya. I'm just...I'm just so ashamed, Mr. Edgeworth!"

He shook his head feverishly. "No, no, it's alright. Just tell me what you know. I'm sure that any information you may have will clear you of any wrongdoing."

A sob escaped from her lips. "I don't know about that."

Edgeworth released her shoulders, incensed. "Goddammit, Pearl!" he shouted. "Please, tell me! Lives may depend on it! Franziska already lost hers!" He immediately felt bad for having snapped at her, but the situation was getting ever tenser, and Edgeworth knew what could happen if important details were left unsaid.

Pearl swallowed hard, tears now coursing freely down her face. "You...you promise? You promise you won't tell Bikini? The police?"

"Yes, yes, I promise! Now, about your mother..."

Pearl inclined her head reluctantly, finally caving in. "I-I received a letter from Mother a week or so before the channeling was to take place. She had quite a strange request - she wanted me to try to convince Mystic Maya to let me channel Kristoph Gavin. At first I thought Mother was just concerned with Mystic Maya's welfare. She knows that...she knows that my spritiual powers are much stronger than Mystic Maya's, even though she is the current master of Kurain."

Edgeworth encouraged her to go on with a nod. His mind was whirring. How complicated could this case possibly get?

"But then I remembered those cases that Mr. Nick worked on at Kurain and here at Hazakura Temple, and I remembered the role my mother had played in them. I was too young to understand back then, but my mother was inextricably linked to those heinous crimes. I came to understand that she didn't wish Mystic Maya well...that what she was requesting of me could only have been an underhanded plot to discredit Mystic Maya's position somehow." She held her chin in her hands, puzzling. "She's always wanted me to be the master. I...I know that. And while she doesn't have much power to enact anything here in Kurain while she's in her holding cell, well...the village has allowed her to continue writing letters to me, assuming she can't do anything else to upset things here. They assume that I'm able to judge anything she may tell me. And they're right. I wouldn't do anything irrational just because she asked me to."

Her eyes were dry now, but she glanced at Edgeworth with such a mixture of pain and sorrow that he gasped slightly. "But Mr. Edgeworth, I love her. Despite everything she's done, she's still my mother."

Poor Pearl, thought Edgeworth, staring at the young acolyte as she tried to gather herself. Trying to reconcile her feelings for her mother can't have been easy all these years...

He patted her on the hand kindly. "It's alright. I know it must be difficult."

"It is," sniffed Pearl. "Especially because I think Mother's advice may have actually helped in this case. If...if only I had channeled Kristoph..."

"What are you saying?" said Edgeworth incredulously. "That you would have been able to control him, and not Maya?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying!" retorted Pearl. "But...you see, I told Mystic Maya about Mother's letter. I told her that, even though her intentions certainly weren't in the right place, she had a point. Mystic Maya knows that my powers are greater than hers. I could have dealt with Kristoph Gavin's spirit without the need for other spirit mediums in the chamber. But she convinced me not to get involved. She would handle the spirit, not me. I...I eventually gave in. And that was her undoing."

"I don't pretend to know what Mother had in mind with my channeling Kristoph Gavin. I assume she thought that I would be able to handle it, that it would show others in Kurain that I could control a restless spirit with ease." She shrugged, at a loss. "And now...it looks like I'm the cause for Mystic Maya's current predicament, and for Ms. von Karma's death." She shuddered, then looked up at Edgeworth with a wild gleam in her eyes. "I shouldn't have given in! I...I should have channeled Kristoph before she did! Oh, Mystic Maya..."

"You're talking nonsense!" scoffed Edgeworth. "You can't say for sure that you would have been able to control Gavin's spirit any more than Maya was able to!"

"But I should have tried anyway, Mr. Edgeworth!"

Edgeworth threw his hands up in the air, exasperated. "Regardless, the 'what if' game is useless now! We simply have to decide what to do with the information we've gathered up to this point." He shuffled his papers, picking out the yellow notepad with his neat handwriting trailing down the page. "Do you know how the investigation is progressing regarding Kristoph's...er, Maya's whereabouts? And what about the witnesses in the chamber?"

"I think all of the witnesses are down at the precinct right now, including Klavier," said Pearl, her voice returning to a more normal timbre. "As for the investigation...Kristoph Gavin is still at large, of course. Gumshoe and some of the other detectives and policemen have set up checkpoints around here, as well as in town, but I don't know how successful they'll be. Bikini and some of the other nuns have been spending hours every day looking through the Kurain library for information on what to do in such circumstances. They haven't found anything substantial yet. But..."

Her voice dropped to a whisper. "If Maya is able to summon up enough spiritual energy, she may be able to send Kristoph's spirit back where it belongs. But...I think a more likely way to free her is the Spirit Severing technique. If I can get close enough to her - to Kristoph - I can perform it."

"Great idea, Ms. Pearl, but how do you propose to do that?" came a strange voice from the entranceway. Edgeworth and Pearl both snapped their heads around to see who had spoken. A young man of about twenty was leaning against the doorframe, clipboard in hand. His arms were crossed, and his shaggy brown hair partly obscured the curious gaze that alighted on Pearl. He strutted over to sit down next to the spirit medium. Edgeworth could tell by the way that Pearl suddenly tucked in her arms and straightened her skirt that she was not completely at ease with this character.

"I didn't know you were here, Magnus," said Pearl uncomfortably.

"Just listening in the doorway," said Magnus, flashing her a bright smile. He glanced over at Edgeworth, who had cleared his throat. Throwing out a hand to shake, Magnus sounded flustered. "Oh! Er, sorry. The name's Magnus. I'm a detective down at the precinct, and I was just passing through again before I head back. I'm doing investigative work on the Gavin case. And you would be...?"

"Miles Edgeworth," said Edgeworth tersely. "We were sort of in the middle of an important discussion, Mr. Magnus."

"Oh, oh of course! Mr. Edgeworth! I heard you were back. You have quite the reputation at the office!" blurted Magnus. "It's no problem, you can continue. I'm just your friendly neighborhood detective. Right, Pearl?"

Even Pearl couldn't pretend to be perky in such a situation. "Um...right."

Edgeworth sighed. He saw the dynamics here. Magnus fancied Pearl, and Pearl wasn't interested in the slightest. Couldn't men take a hint? It didn't help that he appeared to be a sycophant of the worst kind.

Edgeworth grunted, not entirely comfortable with Magnus' presence but willing to deal with it considering the circumstances. "...Fine. I assume you know the details of the case. Pearl suggested using the spirit severing technique to free Maya from Kristoph's control. All we would need to do..." he said, exhaling at this point. "...would be to find Kristoph."

"We don't know what his motive is," said Magnus. "If we knew that, we could lure him into a trap somehow..."

"I suppose we could do that, but that could put someone at an unnecessarily high risk," retorted Edgeworth. "There's got to be another way..."

The door slammed open once again, allowing a blast of cold air to hit the faces of those inside. Sister Bikini hastily closed the large doors behind her, gathering up her habit as she scurried towards the group. "Oh, this is terrible! Just terrible! Mystic Pearl!"

"What's wrong, Sister Bikini?" asked Pearl, standing up. Edgeworth couldn't help but smirk to himself at her sudden action. She was probably glad that something could excuse her from sitting right next to Magnus.

"I've just come back from a meeting with some of the other sisters," gasped Bikini. "It's awful news. I fear they're right." Her face was red from running so far. Pearl clasped the elderly sister's hands in hers, trying to calm her.

"It's alright, Sister Bikni," said Pearl, readjusting her habit. "Tell me, what did they say? Do they have any ideas about how to help Mystic Maya?"

"N-no, I'm afraid not," stammered Bikini. "But they do think that they know why this Kristoph Gavin is acting in such a way. They think they know why his spirit is so powerful, and why it was able to control her so effortlessly."

"Why?" asked Pearl almost breathlessly. Edgeworth and Magnus were both riveted to the spot as well, waiting for Bikini's explanation.

"There have only been a few other such cases, and they all occurred in the medieval ages," said Bikini gravely. "What is happening with Mystic Maya...it may be irreversible."

"What?!" Edgeworth and Pearl cried out in unison. Magnus shifted uneasily in his seat.

"Based on what we've read, I don't think Kristoph Gavin ever intends to be 'spirited out' of Mystic Maya's body," breathed Bikini, "I believe that he wants to keep it...in a way, to make it his own. If no one is able to get to him, then that could very well happen."

Pearl's face went blank. She almost looked like she was going to be sick. Edgeworth's face was blank too, but he was rummaging around in his briefcase for something. His fingers closed around his cell phone, and after quickly dialing a number, he made for the doors. Bikini looked after him helplessly, while Magnus made to get up as well. "Hey...hey, wait! Um, where are you going? Sir?"

Edgeworth looked over his shoulder, almost exasperated, at the young detective. "I'll be outside. I need to call Wright."