After the encounter in the nursery, there was little doubt in Dunban's mind that sleep would not come easily this night. Everything he said to Melia replayed over and over in his brain. He didn't regret it, but he was uneasy about waiting for her response. There was no indication of what she would say, how she would answer. And that unnerved him. The unknown, the possibility of a yes or no loomed over him as he strode through the Villa courtyard under the brightly lit moon.
But he knew better than to ruminate over the situation. The ball was no longer in his court; it was out of his hands. What he needed was a distraction to pull his focus. Getting to the bottom of the cause of the black out was a good place to start. It was easy to find a distraction as he teleported down into the Great Hall and weaved his way through the crowd of confused and unnerved High Entia. The Homs man was certain Kiefer would be assembling a team to go and investigate the ether plant. Just as Dunban rounded the corner toward the cabinet chamber, he saw the Homs Entia walking towards him, accompanied by Shalen and Songya.
"We're heading for the ether plant." Kiefer said without introduction.
Dunban nodded and fell into step with them. "Any ideas on what caused the outage?"
"A few."
Dunban waited for Kiefer to explain, but none came. He gave him a side glance. Kiefer's mouth was folded into a grim line, and his eyebrows knitted together. He was worried, which was most certainly not a good sign.
"I fear Jarrack may have done something." Shalen stated as they headed for the shuttle hanger.
"Is such an action in line with his character?" Dunban asked.
"I don't know. I've always thought him to be a reasonable man..."
And yet, when people were at their worst, they were capable of a great many things that normally would be unfitting.
"We'll just have to wait until we can survey the damage."
Without further conversation, the four boarded the shuttle and flew out to the ether plant. It was a quiet night in the Eryth Sea; the winds were still, making it an easy and smooth trip. A half an hour later, the shuttle touched down at the facility. At first glance, nothing seemed out of place. Yellow lights sparkled up and down the towers, indicating their functioning status. All of the towering furnaces hummed; the windmills on the ether towers rotated in sync. There was no apparent damage in sight.
"Spread out. Let's see what we find." Kiefer directed.
They split in four different directions, and Dunban headed to the northeastern portion of the plant. He took a cursory glance at the control pad by the tower, but saw nothing amiss. The panel brightly showed the diagnostics of the tower: everything was performing as normal. He circled around the tower to see if there was any sort of damage. But none was visible; the pristine silvery metal glinted in the golden lights of the ether plant. Carefully, he went to open the control panel on the tower and examined the mass of wires entangled together and connected into the tower's electrical board.
Nothing.
As far as Dunban could tell, this was no evidence of any mechanical or electrical failure. In fact, it appeared that all of the systems seemed to be operating optimally.
"I've got something."
Dunban walked over to where Shalen stood at the plant's central control panel. Her hands were shaking as they moved across the keys. The screen shifted from one frame to another, and another. She stopped after flipping through a few panels and gasped.
"What is it?" Kiefer demanded.
"It...it looks like Jarack's code was used for a system shutdown an hour ago."
Melia was right. Dunban's brow creased. Perhaps Jarrack after all was the saboteur.
"That makes sense with everything we've found. Or "not found" since nothing's broken." Songya shrugged.
"I'm going to take a look around the outer area. See if Jarrack left anything." Dunban headed back towards the helipad and then down the hill, underneath the ether plant. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he scanned the area. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he wanted to be sure there wasn't a piece of evidence missing simply due to carelessness.
As he passed underneath the plant to the other side of the knoll, his eyes caught sight of a strange marking on the outer wall. He took a step and looked closer. It wasn't a stain of ether fluid or irregularity in the metal of the wall. The red shined in the moonlight. It was blood.
"I don't know whose it is."
He whirled around, hand on the knife at his waist. "Tyrea."
"I came here as soon as the power went out."
"What did you find?"
"Nothing but this. Whoever's blood this is lost quite a bit. Not sure if they would still be alive."
His muscles tensed. Was there another dead body out there? Was it Jarrack's? Or someone else?
"Whoever did this covered their tracks. Expertly. We won't find any clues here."
He turned to look at the blood on the wall.
"This was planned. In advance."
"Everything seems to point to that."
"Why would they need to knock out power in the city?"
"That is the question."
"But what did they–" he began as he turned around and stopped. She was gone. Now, he stood alone on the grassy hill, sifting through the thoughts in his mind. An image of Melia came unbidden to him.
His heart clenched.
What danger had been created in the darkness? Could he find it before any harm befell her?
When Dunban arrived back in the city, he went straight towards Melia's quarters. While his intention was to only focus on the discovery he'd made at the ether plant, he needed to see her face. To know that she was safe.
But when he arrived at the suite, it was deserted.
The door was open and a breeze wafted through, causing the open door to drift back and forth. "Melia?"
He stepped into the door frame, and stopped, startled. The room was in shambles. Furniture was overturned, books and papers littered the floor. Drawers were ripped out of the desks and dressers. Someone had come in, looking for something.
But no Melia.
Dunban raced into the bedroom. Sheets were crumpled into a pile next to the bed. More drawers had been pulled from their places. Clothing was strewn across the bed. Without hesitation, he headed into the washroom, but there was no one there. The suite was empty; devoid of all life.
He could feel the knots in his stomach as he stepped out into the hallway.
"Sir Dunban!"
He stopped and turned to see Serenity striding toward him wearing an expression of anxiety. "Where is Melia?"
"I was just coming to find you–"
"Is she alright?"
"Yes, yes. Her guards have removed her to a secret location."
"Why?"
"I'm sure you saw that someone broke into her suite during the black out. She's no longer safe there."
He definitely did not like the sound of that.
"Any leads on who did it?"
Serenity shook her head. "No, none."
"I want to see her. Where is she?"
"Even I don't know that, Sir Dunban. For tonight, she is to be kept in this secret location, in case the intruder decides to return with the hope of confronting Melia."
And possibly kill her.
"Was anything taken?"
Serenity shifted from side to side. Something had been taken. The Homs Entia looked toward the ground and said in a low voice, "I'm not supposed to tell anyone..."
His patience was wearing thin, though he knew Serenity was only doing what she was ordered. "Serenity, I'm not going to share this information unless Melia wishes it. But if I'm to figure out who is responsible, I need to have all of the facts."
Serenity nodded and bit her lip. After a moment, she hesitated and whispered, "The scepter."
"What?"
"The Scepter of Heaven. It's gone."
This was the first he was hearing of this Scepter. The way Serenity talked about it gave him clear indication that this was a very important artifact to the High Entia.
"Why would someone take it?"
"Because if anyone finds out, if the public learn of its disappearance...they could dethrone her."
With Melia gone and Serenity needing to tend to last minute preparations for the re-vote, Dunban was at a loss for resources. He went back to the Villa to find Fiora and Shulk, but they were no where to be seen. They may have been grounded due to the black out, and were flying back from their day surveying. All in all, he had no idea where to begin looking. Frustrated, he went to bed, his mind unable to quiet.
After a sleepless night, he rose early to try and intercept Melia before the election proceedings began, but his efforts were foiled. She was unavailable, already setting the stage for the re-vote. Feeling useless, he accompanied Shulk and Fiora out to their next survey station. But his mind would not rest. Internally, he combed over the little evidence he had in his mind, trying to see if there was a clue he may have missed. But to no avail.
They returned in the afternoon, as the polls closed. Hastily, they made their way to the cabinet chamber, just as the votes were being counted. The room was a flurry of activity; various groups were stationed around the room, going through stacks of votes. Counting and recounting for both accuracy and precision.
Melia was on the opposite side of the room, speaking in a low voice to Serenity. She glanced over at the newcomers and he caught her eye, but she quickly turned back to her assistant. He wanted to know if she was okay. How she was feeling since the break-in, but couldn't see a way to engage her in conversation. But he could see the wandering eyes and the rigidity in her shoulders; she was agitated.
A few hours later, in front of an eager and impatient crowd, Melia stood and announced the winners of the election. Dunban watched her, standing resolute, as if nothing was wrong. He had to hand it to her: she was a good actress when she needed to be. But that didn't surprise him: she had been born to be Empress after all. The cheers from the crowd brought a small smile to her lips, and she invited the winners to come to the stage.
As she stepped off the stage, he watched her disappear into the darkness, followed by James and Elrich. This was a victory for her: the re-vote happened without incident. The People's Council was now an official body. She had every reason to celebrate, but he knew that she would not, could not.
Because the darkness was closing in.
That evening, he headed back to the ether plant, this time with Fiora and Shulk. Clouds filled the sky, though the moon's light peeked through the cover as their shuttle touched down at the ether plant. A small ray of hope; that he missed something previously that could now be discovered.
"What are we looking for?" Shulk asked as they descended the ramp from their shuttle.
"Anything that would give us a clue as to who was injured and why. Or who was responsible for the black out."
"You don't think it was Jarrack?" Fiora asked.
"I don't want to rule out any possibility."
Silently, they split up and began to comb the floating island. The minutes rolled by as the three scoured the plant and the small wilderness beneath. As Dunban explored the small terrain for a third time, he stopped by the edge, looking down into the depths. There was a small indent in the cliff. In the darkness, he could barely make out a strange shape hunched over. It could be a rock, or just a member of the wildlife, but something in his gut said take a closer look. He tried to shine his flashlight over it, but the light didn't stretch to that depth.
"Fiora! Shulk! Back to the shuttle."
"Did you find something?" Fiora yelled as she jogged over to him, Shulk not far behind.
"I think so."
They boarded the shuttle and took off, rounding the plant and slowly descending. As they neared the indentation, Shulk powered on the lights and shone them on the cliffs edge.
Dunban felt his stomach drop. The shape he had seen was that of a High Entia, bound and gagged.
"Can you get us closer?"
"Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem." Shulk said as he rotated the shuttle so that it was right next to the cliffs edge. Without waiting, Dunban opened the door and jumped onto the cliffs edge.
"Jarrack?"
The High Entia struggled to look up at him. His face was black and blue with brusies. Dried trails of blood ran down the sides of his face, most likely from a wound on the top of his head. Quickly, Dunban pulled the gag from his mouth. Jarrack gasped, and began to cough. Fiora, appearing at Dunban's side, undid the restraints on Jarrack's hands and handed him a canteen of water. Earnestly, Jarrack took it from her and drank, only stopping once to breath. Once the contents were emptied did he take a deep breath and truly register their presence.
"Thank you for rescuing me."
"What happened?" Dunban questioned.
Fiora gave him a sharp look, which he ignored. He wanted answers as quickly as possible.
"I...I'm not sure. I came back to the plant to do some maintanence. Then someone hit me in the back of the head. I came to and I was bound. The person wanted my codes to shut down the plant. I tried not to give it to them but..." he trailed off.
"Did you see your attacker?"
"No."
Dammit!
"But whoever it was used a voice scrambler."
"What's that?" Fiora asked.
"It's a device that can distort the sound of your voice."
"So, that means you probably know who it was. I mean, why else would they want to hide their voice?" She said, looking at her brother.
Dunban nodded. The logic was sound. "Is there anything else you can tell us about the attacker? Did they say why they were doing this? What they were after?"
Jarrack closed his eyes. After a few moments, he shook his head. "No, nothing. But whoever it was was pretty mad. I did hear them say 'she should be the one doing this', or something to that effect."
"Let's get you back to the city to a healer." Fiora said as she and Dunban helped Jarrack to his feet.
She should be the one doing this.
What did that mean? Did that mean that it was a team of two, not just one person working against Melia? And one of them was a woman? That would make sense. One person to turn out the power, the other to steal the scepter. It wasn't a clear clue, but it was one more piece to the puzzle.
That night when he returned to his room in the villa, Dunban could feel the exhaustion weighing down on his shoulders. The lack of sleep the evening before coupled with the stress of the days had taken its toll. It had been a long couple weeks and his instincts told him that they were only going to get longer. And worse. Things always got worse before they got better.
As his head hit the pillow, the Homs felt began to process, once again, the possible identity of the saboteur, or saboteurs as it now seemed. If one of them was female, it could be either Shalen, Songya or Miriall. None of them appeared to have any ill will towards Melia. Nor could he discern any motivation. But before he could dive into the male members of the cabinet, sleep pulled him under, forcing him to rest.
The next morning, Dunban rose, washed and dressed quickly with the intention to find Melia and discuss his findings with her. Just as he was about to leave the suite, he noticed something sticking out from under the door.
Another pamphlet.
His blood went cold. Hesitantly, he reached down to pick it up. His eyes scanned the paper. He clenched his jaw.
The headline screamed: "EMPRESS LOSES SCEPTER. DOES SHE HAVE THE RIGHT TO RULE ANYMORE?"
Dunban crumpled the paper into a ball in his fist, feeling its coarse texture against his palm. Anger flashed through him, hot. He had to figure out who was doing all of this, and fast.
But the damage was done: the truth was out.
And Melia was a walking target.