A couple days had passed since Vera decided to take a time out. While there were barely any news concerning her dreams and that strange prophecy, Hamish managed to learn a new spell that would help Vera cope with her sickness. He had to cast it more throughout a week, once a day, so that her symptoms were finally weak enough for her to return to work.
And when she opened the door to her office it was no surprise to find stacks of papers piled on top of it. After all, there was barely a person alive who could keep up with her when it came to work. Not just the insane task of managing a whole university full with young adults controlled by hormones. No, it was the fact that she was basically working three jobs at the same time. No wonder Kepler had left her office in such a mess. Although she had to give Bitsy some credit. She would have imagined it to be much worse than this.
"Welcome back chancellor." A sweet voice said from behind her. "I'm glad you're feeling better." It was her secretary Sophia. A young and ambitious woman. She had been working for Vera for about five years now and the chancellor had grown rather fond of her.
"Please don't get sick ever again. That woman who was your substitute was quite a, excuse my language, pain in the ass." Vera couldn't suppress a giggle at the thought of the council member arguing with the secretary. Sophia didn't look threatening or anything, but oh boy, only a fool would dare challenge her. There weren't many people aside from Hamish, who got to see Vera show emotions like that. But with Sophia she could always be open about her feelings. Well, as open as possible while also keeping everything regarding the order a secret.
"Don't worry, I have absolutely no intention of making this a habit." With a nod she entered her office completely, ending the brief conversation. After all, her desk was full of work to be done, so she shouldn't waste any time. No matter how much she felt like chatting a little.
But her focus did not stay on the papers in front of her for too long. About an hour after her arrival, a rather aggressive knock sounded from the door. And she didn't even have time to ask the person inside, before the door swung open and a man entered. "Chancellor Stone." He spoke, looking straight at her. "Detective Hayashi, it has been a while. To what do I owe the pleasure, this time?"
Her day could not have started worse. She was still feeling a little weak, had tons of paperwork in front of her and now her favorite annoying detective was standing in front of her, not exactly looking very friendly. No, she was absolutely not in the mood to deal with him, so whatever he wanted, Vera hoped it would be over quick.
"I suppose you are aware of the recent disappearances?" He raised a brow and Vera did not like, where this was going. She couldn't help but stare at him questioningly while raising a brow. "Or maybe not it seems."
She motioned for him to sit down and once he did, started to explain. "I was sick these past days. Well, actually it was more like two weeks. I suppose my substitute didn't want me to worry about anything other than my health. She knows how much of a workaholic I can be, especially when it comes to the well being of my students. Wether you believe me or not, I care a lot about what happens to them."
And it wasn't just Bitsy. Surely Hamish and Gabrielle must have heard about those disappearances too. And they chose not to tell her anything about it so that she could focus on getting better. But this was Belgrave. People didn't just disappear for no reason. Vera already had so many ideas what could have happened, who could have responsible. Was it maybe Praxis? Were they back? It has been a while since their leaders were destroyed so it wouldn't be a surprise if they finally got a new one, ready to strike again.
"Today is my first day back. And as you can see I still have a lot of things to catch up on. There is probably something about this case of yours in this pile here, but since you are here now, why not fill me in?"
He nodded and took a closer look at her. She still looked rather pale and even through her makeup it was clear she wasn't sleeping well. The bags under her eyes were telling of that. And if he wasn't mistaken, she had lost some weight. Actually not just some, a lot of it. She had always had a slim figure, but this was far more than just being slim. He silently wondered what kind of sickness she had and why she was working already if she still hadn't recovered completely.
"Well, I hope you're feeling up for work again. After all, this job is rather stressful and you wouldn't want to relapse." Was it concern she was hearing in his voice? It certainly sounded like he was worried but his mask was a perfect match to her own emotionless facade. She never really knew what that man was thinking.
"Oh I'm good. This is nothing. I have much worse. " Was all she could answer him, hoping he wouldn't start asking any questions about that. Thankfully he didn't. Instead he decided to start telling her, what has happened in her absence.
"Alright, over the past weeks a lot of young people have vanished. seven of them to be exact. The last two were students from this university. Their roommates had notified the police after they tried telling you. I suppose it was your substitute who had sent them away saying, and I quote 'They must have been too weak to handle the stress that comes with an elite university. They probably just ran away, maybe back to their parents. Nothing important to bother me with.' So you can imaging when I heard about this, I just had to come here immediately.
Vera could strangle Elizabeth right now. That woman knew how much she cared about those students. And still Bitsy pretended like this was all just a game. She really had to talk to her to prevent things like this in the future.
"Have any of the missing people reappeared?" She asked, while some more scenarios came to her mind. "Well..." He started and for a moment she thought a flicker of emotion went through his eyes. "The first five, yes. They're all dead. Two of them with their throats cut, one was gutted and the other two had their rib cages bashed in among some other broken bones." Somehow Vera had not expected him to go into detail like that. It would have been enough to state, that they were dead. But instead he wanted her to see how severe this situation was.
"I see. And how do you suppose I can help you? Apparently this does not just concern Belgrave University. Although I hope that my students will return safely. Who knows, maybe Kepler was right and they just ran away. What were their names by the way?"
Of course she knew why he came to her. He would have to ask around, question friends and the roommates of the missing kids. Still, she needed him to say it, needed to hear the words. Although she didn't want to. A police investigation on campus was not on her list of things she wished for. The reputation of the university had gotten worse throughout the past years with more and more deaths.
"Robert Miles and Susan Thompson." Immediately faces appeared inside her head. "Oh." She said and for a moment her facade dropped. "Robert has been here for three years now. He would never break under school pressure. Quite contrary, he was just starting out as a TA." The boy was in fact very committed to his education. When he came here, he was chosen as a Neophyte and shown quite some promise. But there were two legacies that year who somehow managed to get in, despite lacking some qualities. Vera was sure that they somehow had gotten help from their parents, but she hadn't been able to prove it and so she had to accept the whole situation.
"Susan Thompsen, she is new, quite young. Apparently she was labeled a genius in her old school and skipped two classes. Her grades are impeccable. I can't imagine her to run away." With the last words her voice turned into a whisper. Susan had all the qualities of joining the order. Actually Vera had already chosen her as a neophyte, only she hadn't received a rose yet.
Of course it could have been a coincident that both were suitable for the order. But then again, with everything that had happened lately, with Praxis still roaming around in the unknown, this could quite possibly be an attack on her secret club. She definitely would have to look into it. Maybe a tracking spell. She made a mental note to call Hamish as soon as the detective left her alone.
Detective Hayashi was indeed surprised that the woman in front of him knew exactly who the two missing kids were. Did she keep track like that of all her students? Or did she just happen to know those two a little better because of the circumstances surrounding them. Anyways, he had a job to do and so did she. "I am going to ask your students some questions. I hope you don't mind." She shook her head and stood up. "Shall I show you to their rooms?"
As she was standing in front of him he noticed once again, how much weight she had lost. He was kind of worried that she was back at work already. Maybe another week would have been good for her. But it wasn't his place to tell her what to do, so he kept quiet about it. Instead he followed her silently, as she led him to the rooms of the two missing kids.
Hamish had just finished teaching a class, when his phone rang. It was lunch break now, so as he saw Veras name on the display, he thought she would give him a food order. Instead she sounded a little angry as she whisper-yelled at him. It was a mystery to him, how somebody could whisper and still make it sound like yelling. But Vera had mastered that skill completely. And now he was on his way to her temple office, since she had ordered him there.
He nearly ran the last meters, which came in quite handy. Because the moment he stepped through the doors he saw her swaying and basically jumped to her side, catching her just in time. "Are you ok? Come on, you need to sit down. " While he led her to the chair, he used one hand to close the doors with a wave. Currently there was no one else in the temple, but they still shouldn't take any risks.
Once she was seated her eyes darted up at him, still a little mad but also full of exhaustion. "What is it? What have I done? If it is about the research, I am sorry we haven't found anything yet." But she just shook her head and once she was sure her words would not be slurred, she answered him, not whisper-yelling this time.
"Why didn't you tell me about the missing students? Detective Hayashi came to visit me today and I had absolutely no idea about anything he had told me. These are two very bright students we are talking about here. Both possible Order members. This could be an attack on us and you didn't tell me." He could hear the hurt in her voice. Hamish knew how much Vera cared about her students. It was one of the things that originally drew him towards her, the constant need to protect and save everybody, not just her precious Acolytes, Medicums and Magistrati.
"I'm sorry, but you were barely able to leave the bed until recently. Also Kepler had things handled here. If I or any of the other wolves had dared to do anything, without your supervision-" He didn't finish the sentence, but she knew how it could have ended. Slowly she narrowed her gaze, till it was locked on the items displayed on the desk in front of her. "I suppose our peaceful days are over. We need to find those kids."
His eyes followed hers and he knew what she was proposing. "A tracking spell. When did you get these things?" She looked up at him again. "When I showed the Detective to their rooms so he could look around. When he wasn't looking I took them. Thought we should start sa soon as possible." He nodded at that. "So, tell me what I need to do."
After talking it through they decided to get Jack on board as well. He was the only other person who knew about Veras lack of magic and therefore the only person not questioning, why she didn't perform the incantation herself. They chose to split up. Hamish was to find Robert and Jack was focusing on Susan, but soon their paths crossed again, going in the same direction. Apparently they must have been taken by the same person, or people, whoever the kidnapper was.
"How is she?" Jack finally asked after they had been following the trail in silence. "She doesn't look good. Apparently whatever sickness she had is still affecting her." To Hamish's surprise Jack sounded genuinely concerned. "Well, she's Vera, you know. Too stubborn to be held back by some kind of sickness." But the older knight knew, that wasn't all Jack was talking about. He wanted to know how she was coping with her loss of magic. Still he chose to leave his answer as it was and the younger man didn't go into it any further.
As the sun was setting down and their surroundings became awfully dark, the trail ended. It wasn't that they didn't try, the magic trail just disappeared into thin air, in the middle of a pitch black forest. "So, according to the spell they should be here, like, right here in front of us." But there was no one to be seen anywhere. Neither could they hear anything. It was just them, nothing else. "Yeah, do you hear that?" Hamish asked and Jack just shook his head. "Exactly, nothing. No owls, no other animals that would be up at night, not even the wind." And to accentuate his words he held up a finger, as if he was feeling the wind. But there was not the slightest breeze.
"Now that is not exactly normal. We should go back, tell Vera about this. Maybe she has a clue what this could mean." They agreed on that. Whatever was going on here, it was too dangerous going on alone. They would definitely return to this place, but with some backup and some light. Hamish had a bad feeling and somehow he thought, this might not even be related to Praxis. That strange prophecy maybe. And if that was the case, he would have to find the two sisters it was talking about. And he had to find them fast.