Angus has the file on Mr. Kravitz spread along the dining table, idly eating a bowl of soup his mother had prepared for him earlier. It's long since gone cold, but he sips at it either way. His focus is on the files in front of him, trying to figure out where the priest of the Raven Queen had come from.
His only lead so far is the apparent siblings the file has him listed under: Keats, Edward, and Lydia. He only comes into a paper trail ten years ago, an exact year after the youngest triplet, Keats; otherwise, it's like the man didn't even exist at all, not even in pictures. When Angus had called him, some otherworldly voice had been crying that exact name— perhaps he'd interrupted a ritual that connected him to the other side? He'd definitely have to ask if he could get him in contact with the victims to understand more about the circumstances of their deaths.
Maybe he could ask him to reach Taako.
Angus quickly shoves that thought out of his mind; diviners and those like Mr. Kravitz were too unreliable in murder or missing person cases. Usually, the spirit in question could never be found, like they had never reached the other side at all. That was always an unpleasant thing to think about, though.
Instead, his mind wanders over to Mr. Hallwinter and his bots. How the odd-looking one seemed so distressed that he couldn't understand it, that he couldn't recognize it. He'd never seen a bot react like that, outside of defective jailbreaks. Usually, those tended to commit murder, but all it had done was shake him. Maybe—?
"Angus?" his mother, Lucretia, called gently from the entryway. "It's almost midnight, and you have school tomorrow. It's time to go to bed."
Angus jumped, then apologized, gathering up his files as Davenport, the gnome bot they took care of, cleared the rest of the table. His mind still swam with questions about the day's events as he walked through the grand halls of his grandfather's— no, his mansion now. He'd left it all to him, and not his mother, who refused follow in her own mother's footsteps and fell in love with a commoner.
She never talked about it, or who his father was, but he had read it in her journals: his father was a man named Magnus— no relation to the Burnsides family in the Undercity— who died in the Relic War years ago. He was a brave man, a reckless man, who lead the charge that ultimately ended the war, though the history books never spoke about him for some reason. Nobody really like talking about the war— too many people died lusting for holy artifacts that were ultimately destroyed because of their power. Of course, some people said that some still existed, used in the technology today.
Angus's teachers laughed when he'd brought that up with them— Lucretia simply refused to talk about it.
"A penny for your thoughts, Ango?" Lucretia asked as the climbed the stairs up to his room. "I hear you had an eventful day."
He worried his lip. "I'm… worried. About Mr. Hallwinter."
"And why's that."
"... What if he can't fix Davenport?"
She hummed. "Is that really what's on your mind?"
"I mean, sorta."
"I have the utmost faith in him. Magnus and Julia say he's the best there is. He's sure to crack the code."
"And if he doesn't?"
"Then we find someone else. And so on. We will figure out what is going on with these new bots, I promise you, Angus."
They stopped in front of his door. Angus turned towards his mother, studying her face. "You… know more than you're telling me, don't you?"
Lucretia frowned. He hated when she frowned— she looked older than she really was when she did. "Angus…"
"No, ma'am," Angus squeaked, puffing out his chest. "I'm done with the lies, starting now. Your journals are mostly blacked out— what aren't you telling me?"
She paled, her frown quickly turning into surprise and rage. "You— you went through my journals?!"
"There's so much you don't tell me!" he yelled. He felt like a child throwing a fit, but he couldn't help it. He was sick of the lies, the going behind his back. He was her only son, even if he hadn't been in his life until after grandpa died; he deserved to know what she knew! "How can I help you if you all keep me in the dark?!"
Lucretia balked a bit, but didn't back down. "You're too young to understand right now, Angus," she said in a quiet, but stern voice. "Someday, when you're older, I'll explain everything."
"You said that before! I am older, and I can understand!" he screamed, tears pricking at his eyes. "... Why don't you trust me?"
"Oh, darling, no…" She stepped forward, arms outstretched, but he backed away, glaring up at her. "It's… it's not that I don't trust you…"
"Then tell me everything."
Lucretia swallowed, looking in his expression for any sign that maybe he didn't want to hear it, but she could find none. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes.
"Maybe… Maybe we should sit down. It's a long story. And it begins ten years ago."