The first thing they did was to call China, to get more intel. She, herself, had no access to files of English citizens that had no criminal record but she promised to spread the word and have someone contact them, within the hour.
So, they waited for any call, quietly sitting on a bench outside of Diamond Irie's house. She was taking care of Nuce, after their rough questioning techniques, and was probably giving him food. The whole thing had left an empty feeling in Valkyrie's stomach.
"Are you alright?" Skulduggery suddenly asked through the silence.
She blinked at him. "Yeah? Why?"
He turned his head questioningly. "Well…"
Valkyrie raised a brow at the hesitation. "Well, what?"
Skulduggery sighed. "Well, this current job is very much related to some events in your life, which you have just recently returned from. So, I'm asking, because after seeing Nuce like that, I would assume you would be doing… pretty awful."
She snorted at him. "Do you want me to feel awful?"
"Of course, not," he said, immediately. "It's about the principle."
Valkyrie mustered him for a moment, then frowned in a less confused and more skeptical way. "What are you saying?"
He sighed again and folded his hands, to lean his skull against it, as if he was reconsidering a problematic conversation. She just watched and waited. Eventually, Skulduggery raised his head again to look at her, but kept his hands up to gesticulate with. "I am saying, you have been back for almost two months now, this is our third case and, so far, you seem very…"
"Very…?" Valkyrie probed.
"Very normal," Skulduggery decided. "Very you. Very you, ten years ago. Very you that didn't seal her True Name and get taken over by it, that didn't watch herself destroy a city, and that didn't then disappear to America for six years. Very you, without problems or memories or any kind of reaction to all of this."
She had felt her stomach drop slowly along to his words and now she was just looking at him quietly.
He seemed to take that as an invitation to keep going. "Look, do not misunderstand me, I want you to be alright. But you shouldn't be. You should be going crazy, at least a little bit. Which makes me assume that, either, you are very good at suppressing all of this, or we have some kind of other, Darquesse-related issue waiting in the shadows. Which, this time, we have got to be prepared for."
Valkyrie looked on the ground, still just feeling empty.
"Or, maybe, option number three; you just found a really good therapist in the States?"
She shook her head.
"Are you pretending to be okay or are you actually feeling okay?" Skulduggery wanted to know.
Valkyrie shrugged, mostly in order to avoid the question.
Skulduggery was quiet now.
Valkyrie finally managed to look up and muster him. "What do you think is wrong me?"
"Nothing is wrong with you," he immediately insisted, "you're dealing with this the best you can..." Suddenly, he was interrupted by his own ringtone. Skulduggery groaned in quiet frustration, but pulled out his phone anyway, checking on the unknown number.
"Probably important," she said.
Skulduggery hesitated but picked up, turned on the speaker, and held his phone out between them.
"Good evening," said a smooth, male voice. "I hear, you are looking for info on Nuce?"
Skulduggery nodded contently. "We are. How are you related?"
"I know him personally. I will vouch for anything, he says," replied the man. Curiously, he spoke with no accent. No accent of any kind; only nondescript, international, standard English.
"And how are you related to the Irish Sanctuary?" Valkyrie asked.
"I work there, that's all you need to know. I am sure, Miss Sorrows will back my word."
They exchanged a look, but continued on.
"What information do you have for us?" Skulduggery asked.
"His full name is Nuce Evans," the man replied. "He is twenty-one and an adept, capable of triggering detonations with his hands, which he, himself, is immune to. However, as dangerous as that sounds, I assure you; he wouldn't hurt a fly."
"Any enemies to speak of?" Valkyrie probed.
"Nah-ah," negated the stranger, "like I said; Nuce's the nicest dude you'll meet. A bit of a hothead, maybe, but generally peaceful. I couldn't imagine anyone holding a grudge that big against him."
"Where did he learn his discipline?" Skulduggery asked.
"Nowhere," the man said. "He is a Neoteric."
"Sorry, a what?" Valkyrie asked before he could continue.
"A Neoteric," Skulduggery echoed, "is, essentially, a Mage that discovered their discipline after their Surge. Oftentimes, they need to teach themselves to use their magic."
"Like Fletcher?" She suggested.
"For example, however, he did have access to literature about Teleportation..."
"Which Nuce does not," the voice on the phone agreeably interjected. "His parents were both Elementals and that is what he trained in, for his entire childhood. But then, he had his Surge and, suddenly… boom, he went off. Literally."
The joke surprised her a bit, amidst all of these facts, and Valkyrie pressed her lips tight, forcing down the smile.
"I will admit; he has no control over his discipline, whatsoever. The issue lies in the intricacies of keeping the energy output small. But blowing up an entire Sanctuary? I just don't see how or why he would do that."
"We believe, someone has been using his True Name," Valkyrie informed him.
There was heavy silence on the other side of the line. She could almost feel the shock through the phone.
However, when the man spoke again, his voice sounded no different than before. "Where did they get it from?"
She shook her head, even if, naturally, he couldn't see that. "We don't know."
"What do you know about the perpetrators?"
"Nothing, either. But we can tell that they knew, exactly, what to tell him, not to talk about."
"Meaning, they had time to prepare." concluded the male voice.
Valkyrie exchanged another look with Skulduggery, both content with the tempo of the conversation.
"Could they have had access to the Book of Names?" He asked on.
"They could have, sure," Skulduggery confirmed, "however, that must have happened over a decade ago."
"We broke it," Valkyrie said.
"So, that is either a very patient or a very lazy jackass," said the man, then there was a tense sigh. "That's also great because our dear Sanctuary used to love covering up True Name leaks. If anyone got a peek at that book, they would have brushed it under the carpet, years ago."
"Well, it sounds like you're a resourceful man," Valkyrie said, cocking her head at the phone. "I'm sure you could figure it out."
There was a smirk in his voice. "Is that an order, Detective?"
"I will try a yes," she replied.
"Aye, Ma'am," he said and the phone gave a click, as the line was interrupted.
Valkyrie saw Skulduggery watching her and she raised an eyebrow at him. "Wouldn't have expected Nuce to be the type of guy to have spy friends."
"I'm sure China tells them to keep an eye on people with abilities like causing Sanctuary-destroying explosions."
She nodded agreeingly. "Makes sense."
Skulduggery paused and seemed to be thinking over the situation. "What is your impression of Irie?" He then wanted to know.
She shrugged. "She seems nice. Why?"
He thought for a second, then shook his head. "Call Fletcher, we need to take a look at the site."
Valkyrie pulled her phone out and dialed him.
"Yeah?" Fletcher simply asked, when he picked up. In the background was the noise of a construction and of many people talking.
"Hey, Fletch," she smiled. "Could you take us to the crater in fifteen? From the same spot as before?"
"Can do," he replied and hung up.
They went to inform Irie about the new revelations and she had nodded calmly along and then, returned to Nuce to tell him that his friend had called. And so, the two of them headed back to Valkyrie's car, to meet at the rendezvous point, got out, and had him teleport them all to an elevated spot with a view over the destroyed building.
"Damn," Valkyrie said, at the sight.
"Damn, indeed," Fletcher agreed.
They stared at the crater. It had a very interesting shape, as if the explosion had not thrown the building apart, but rather destroyed the matter around, making it dust at the center, but huge pieces of debris around the edges. And from up here, it almost looked like a bullseye. Although it was a bit off, as if Nuce had ventured too deep, estimating the center of the building to be further in, than it had been.
"How could he have done that?" Valkyrie asked. "He barely started practicing, two years ago."
"It only confirms our theory," Skulduggery said drily, "he had access directly to the Source."
"How?" Fletcher asked worriedly.
"I remember the security department was in the center of the building?" Skulduggery asked, instead of replying to the question.
He nodded. "Yeah, pretty much right in the middle."
Valkyrie frowned and squinted her eyes at the spot. The rubble was at a size, where it would have battered anyone to death, who had been standing underneath; 'underneath' meaning, inside of the building. And even after that, who could just climb out of that heavy of a debris, Valkyrie pondered. Also, since Nuce triggered detonations with flash fire, rather than pressure, there must have been an entire wall of fire rolling through the hallways, probably melting any biological matter like human flesh.
"How on earth did she survive that?" Valkyrie asked, staggered.
"Who?" Fletcher asked but was ignored once again.
Skulduggery shook his head. "I have no idea." He turned to Fletcher. "Is someone down there that would have any knowledge of the Sanctuary employees?"
"Yep." He grabbed for their arms.
They appeared behind a group of people that were managing the process of salvaging the site and transporting the injured. When they approached, a couple of them turned.
One man, with light brown hair and square glasses, separated himself from the mass and came towards them. "Detectives, thank you for coming. Any ideas yet, what could have happened here?"
Skulduggery nodded. "We believe, the person responsible for triggering the detonation was being controlled through their True Name."
"Like Myron Stray?" Asked Fletcher.
He nodded to him. "Almost exactly like Myron Stray."
"Goodness," sighed the Sanctuary employee. "How terrible."
"However, we do not have any leads yet, as to who the perpetrators are and how they had access to the name," Skulduggery added.
"Well, we would love to help you, but all of the files are destroyed. And it will take some time to fully recover the backups." The man said apologetically.
"We have another question for you." Valkyrie redirected. "Diamond Irie. She works here?"
He nodded. "Yes, she is our specialist for secure transports. Both people and things, that is."
"Does she have any ability or device, to protect herself from a detonation like this?" Skulduggery asked.
"Oh, yes," nodded the employee with conviction, "Miss Irie is virtually indestructible. Which makes her ideal for personal protection. However, the details of her abilities I'm not at liberty to tell you, I'm afraid."
He then frowned. "Is she a suspect?"
"Would that surprise you?" Skulduggery asked.
He snorted. "Absolutely."
"Then, I will say no, for now."
The employee looked up in professional interest. "Anything else I can help with?"
They shook their heads. "Thank you."
He gave them a slightly stressed smile and hurried back to his colleagues.
"Is she a suspect?" Fletcher probed.
"Not according to our sources," Skulduggery said, "but the secrecy around her discipline is definitely intriguing."
"We could just ask her," Valkyrie suggested.
He nodded and turned to Fletcher. "Can you take us back?"
"Sure," he shrugged and teleported them and then disappeared again, to go back to whatever his actual job was, currently.
They made their way back again, getting into the car, Skulduggery driving, this time. But about five minutes in, Valkyrie's phone rang. She picked up on the dashboard.
It was Irie and she was breathing heavily. "Sorry, guys," she gasped, "I lost him."
Valkyrie frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I think…" Another gasp. "I assume; he had orders to return. He blew me up and ran."
She groaned and let her head drop back against the neck-piece of the seat.
"Are you alright?" Skulduggery asked.
"Yeah," Irie breathed. "He just caught me off-guard."
"We're there in about ten minutes." Valkyrie told her.
"'Til then," she replied and hung up.
Skulduggery sped the car up a bit, and they made the trip back in ten minutes. When they arrived by the house and rang the bell, the door opened almost immediately.
Valkyrie could see Irie move away from the door while pulling it open, then quickly returning to a mirror on the hallway wall. She was putting a medical strip over a cut on her jaw, which had some small but nasty burns on it.
Meanwhile, she talked, although kept her jaw as steady as possible. "They are already scouting the entire area for him. I told them to stay inconspicuous, so let's hope they know how to do that… That was pretty horrific. Can't phrase to you the look on his face."
"And there were no signs?" Skulduggery asked.
Irie shook her head a tiny bit, before taking her hands down and looking at them. "He was mostly calm, ate something… But he must have waited for me to turn my back for a moment. And I only noticed when he was already right behind me. So, I turned around and he had his hand up. Just snapped his fingers though so, the bang was pretty tiny in comparison."
"What, exactly, about your discipline, is it, that lets you survive something like that?" Skulduggery asked.
She smiled lightly. "It makes my body extremely tough and durable, but only for a certain period of time."
Skulduggery nodded. "You are a Shapeshifter."
Irie smiled wider at him, looking very pleased with his conclusion. "I am."
"You transform into diamond," he added.
Valkyrie raised her eyebrows at imagining that.
She grinned. "What tipped you off? Was it the name? It's always the name. I should have really thought that one through better…"
"Why the secrecy?" Valkyrie asked.
Irie exhaled and put a hand on her hip, looking at them with a tilted head. "Because us three have something in common." She moved a posing hand. "We're one of a kind."
Skulduggery nodded a questioning chin at her. "Currently, or ever?"
She shrugged. "How to ever know? There are stories, of course. But if you can trust the scientific sources; ever."
"Are you a Neoteric?" Valkyrie asked, glad to have learned a fitting word.
She smiled again and nodded. "Yes, however, I have learned to use magic by the usual training standards."
"How about your parents?" Skulduggery asked.
Irie lifted a jaunty shoulder. "No comment."
Hm, Valkyrie thought to herself, she wondered if they were mortals. Intrigued, she looked at her. "Could we see that?"
"What, Shapeshifting?" Irie asked.
Valkyrie nodded.
She sniffed amusedly and lifted her hand, and it suddenly turned transparent.
Valkyrie blinked.
Irie's hand was not entirely transparent; it was slightly milky and therefore a bit opaque. In fact, as she looked longer, she realized that it could not be transparent, if only the skin had been transformed, meaning that her entire hand must have been in that state.
Yet, the surface, which had just been her skin, was perfectly smooth and reflective, copying the curves of her fingers, but in straight lines. Lines that connected around the knuckles and dips, that became uneven triangles, and pentagons, and hexagons, and icosagons, as if someone had cut a huge piece of diamond into the shape of her hand. As Irie begun to tilt her stiff hand side-to-side, it reflected the light around the clusters; glittered with sharp bursts of color and mirrored the ceiling light wherever the flat, polished areas were larger.
"I can't move it in this state," Irie elaborated, as they stared in awe. And indeed, Valkyrie noticed that only her unshifted wrist was allowing her to twist her hand. "If I want to move, while I'm shifted, I need to release certain parts of my body, and protect other specific areas and layers."
"It sounds like that requires medical expertise," Skulduggery noted.
Irie smiled and the transformation receded, as she let her arm hang. "It does. I have certain medical training. But it becomes a very much intuitive task, after a while. Exceedingly harder, I would say, is refining the purity level."
"I'll assume; that's not just important for vanity reasons?" He asked ironically.
She smirked and pointed a flat hand at him. "You tell me."
"My guess is; the more crystalized carbon and the less biological mass, the harder the material gets."
"Beautiful," she nodded, "and, also, for vanity reasons."
Valkyrie snorted.
"Alright, but we do have more important things to discuss. Do we have any ideas about what his next step could be?"
She shook her head. "No, but we should assume that any larger monument, with significance to the Sanctuary, is in danger."
Irie breathed out frustratedly. "They really did have a lucky find with Nuce, that's for sure. They might spot him out there, but I don't think we should rely on that."
"Agreed," said Skulduggery, "we should look into the files of who had access to the Book of Names."
"At least two of us should stay on Nuce," Valkyrie said.
He opened his jaw and his phone rang. Skulduggery faltered, pulled it out, and glared at the screen as if he were intending to punish it for the disturbance. Yet, all he did was pick up the call. "Yes?"
A male voice responded, and he turned on the speaker of the phone.
"Found him. Ready to reap the benefits of my wonderous work?"
"Hey, Nuce's friend," said Irie.
"Hi, Miss," he replied. "Your man is Haugert Wells, scientific researcher for magic that controls the mind. He was arrested for accessing the Book of Names, about twenty years ago. And get this; Wells was also an assistant during the process of making the book inaccessible. Although, I couldn't find out when exactly that was."
"But he would have known how to bypass the security measures," Skulduggery followed.
"Which is, precisely, what they arrested him for, back then. He was caught but, as we can see; he got to read the names of the youngest mages."
"And Nuce was one year old, then." Valkyrie threw in.
"Exactly. Wells, eventually, was transferred to a prison in England, because he is a British citizen. But neither the Irish, nor the British, were ever able to get him to tell them which names he knew and of whom," the spy explained on.
"So, we are assuming that he is organizing this from prison?" Irie asked.
Skulduggery shook his head. "The punishment for accessing the Book of Names was twenty years in prison, at the time."
"And that would be correct," said the voice on the phone. "Wells was released a couple of months ago."
"Great," grumbled Valkyrie, "and because they could never get the names from him, the Sanctuary had no idea who would be in danger."
"They could have kept an eye on the walking bomb, though..." Irie commented critically.
There was a frustrated but remorseful sigh on the other side of the line. "They did," the spy said, "but the guy they hired for that messed up."
"Right..." Irie nodded with empathetic understanding.
Valkyrie looked at Skulduggery. "How clean, exactly, would have been their process of trying to get these names from him?"
"Oh, definitely torture," the spy replied before him, "I'm following your train of thought, girl, and it tells me, the Irish Sanctuary should look out for blond tourists.