13. The Sleuth is on the Case
Francesca
I paused in the front foyer of the Scriptorium blinking in the early morning light that streamed through the wide stained glass windows. I hadn’t realized I’d stayed for so long. There were no windows in the Scriptorium to prevent the sun from damaging all of the precious records. I glanced down the street in both directions looking for James and the coach before I remembered that I had said I would walk home – and besides I was leaving many hours later than expected. I stifled a yawn, realizing I’d stayed up all night. It would be nice to have a coach right about now…
I tried to remember why I decided to walk home and shook my head. After a moment, I decided it came down to control. My mother had tightened her grip over my life in the past week and I wanted to break free from her meddling.
With a sigh, I resigned myself to walking home by myself and braced myself for the brisk air outside the revolving door. I was about to step out the door when I glanced down at my clothes. With a frustrated sigh, I turned back and ducked into the bathroom on the first floor of the Scriptorium. I was wearing an elaborate floor-length maroon dress with gold embroidery along the bodice and sleeves. It was one of my favorite dresses but it would mark me as a Magician as clearly as it would if I were to walk down the street with sparks shooting out my fingers. In addition, given the rising tension between magicians and commoners, it would not be wise to make myself a target for the commoners’ hatred and anger.
I sighed again as I realized what I was about to do would probably ruin the dress. Or not, I thought as I remembered a spell I’d come across in an old manuscript a few years ago. It was called a Limited Transfiguration and it would allow me to transform my dress into more appropriate attire while also giving me the opportunity to transform the dress back into its original form. The problem with most Transfiguration spells was that they were permanent – once an object was altered, it could not be returned to its original state.
I quickly set the spell up and cast the spell. “Veranderen aankleden,” I muttered and my dress swirled around me smoothly altering into a clean red frock decorated with yellow flowers and a white apron. I smiled at the change and shook my hair out of its neat bun to fall in loose curls down my back. Effectively disguised I walked out of the alley and started down the road.
I found my route drifting toward the Slavery where Aurora’s twin was being held. It wasn’t exactly out of my way but it wasn’t the most direct route home either. I shrugged and decided to pop in anyway. Turning left at the next street I proceeded to the big grey building at its end and stopped dead. The whole place was in turmoil. Security Magicians were running all over the place yelling to each other. A couple were interviewing a few Slavers. Oh no, I thought, My lead might have just gone down the drain.
“What’s going on here?!” I demanded to a passing Security Magician I knew.
He started forward, startled by my question. “I’m sorry that information is not disclosed to the public at this time…” His rehearsed speech stopped dead as I frowned and crossed my arms across my chest. He blinked rapidly and his jaw dropped as he recognized me. I glanced down at my clothes and began to curse. I was an idiot… I’d changed my dress to avoid drawing attention to myself but had ended up drawing attention to myself anyway when I’d decided to stop here. Suddenly he blinked, recognized me, and started to apologize, “Oh! Francesca, it’s you. I’m sorry! I didn’t recognize you dressed like…”
“Well?” I pressed, ignoring his apologies.
“Oh!” he exclaimed, “Of course! A group of Liberation operatives raided this Slavery late Tuesday evening around 11pm. We suspect an operative in the upper hierarchy of the organization was present due to the infinite number of magical traces found in the cell. All locks and chains were disabled, the Branders destroyed beyond repair and several slaves escaped.”
My heart sank. “Was slave 06392013 one of the ones to escape?” I asked tersely.
He looked down at his sheet. “Yes. Why? Did you want to talk to him?”
“Yes,” I responded but didn’t elaborate.
“Why did you want to talk to him?” Granger asked, breaking character long enough to express inane interest in my interests in a slave.
I hesitated. “No reason,” I lied smoothly, realizing this was the last piece to the puzzle I had been trying to solve earlier. Aurora’s brother was the missing piece… the missing link. Aurora may not have known he was her twin but her contact with him – no matter how brief – would have been enough to imbalance the power of the Elements and most especially Time. I could feel it. The raid happened on Tuesday – the day before my mother asked “Melissa” to clean her rooms. It was the day before everything had started to happen.
“Francesca? Hello? Francesca!” my colleague called snapping me out of my thoughts.
“What!” I snapped.
“Did someone send you to help investigate?”
“Oh. Uh, no.”
“Then why are you here?” he asked.
“I was in the area and when I saw the chaos down here I decided to check it out,” I said, a bit snappishly. Granger’s line of questioning was making me uncomfortable – as though I could somehow be implicated in this raid.
“Wearing that?” he asked incredulously, indicating my clothes.
“Oh yes,” I replied earnestly, lowering my voice to a hiss, “I’m doing some classified investigations for the Senate.” I hoped that would put any suspicions he had to rest but I couldn’t be sure. From what I remembered about this particular guard, he wasn’t especially bright but persistent when he latched onto an idea.
“Oh, ok,” he replied, looking satisfied with my answer and I breathed a sigh of relief.
I nodded curtly and then said I should get going.
“Of course,” he said, “Things to do, people to see, right?”
“Right,” I said with a grimace as I turned around. As I strolled back down the street, I kicked myself for going there without my usual attire. I should have gone home and changed first.
My path drifted again and I realized that I was avoiding going home where my mother could micromanage me. I wondered what I could do with my time that would be an acceptable excuse for taking so long to get home. Perhaps I could investigate some of the leads I’d gotten from the Scriptorium’s records.
Through my research, I suspected that two of Aurora’s slave comrades lived in the city as a married couple under the assumed names of Reynold and Catherine Newman. They lived on Squire St ‑ a place quite close to here. I turned onto Trinity St. and walked the few blocks to Squire St. Here I stopped my fast walk and slowed to a slow stroll, keeping my eyes out for the house number 3646. It was a short walk and I found it in a small courtyard. I stood there for a few minutes just watching.
Just when I thought I would move closer, a boy and a girl exited house 3646 and I immediately slipped behind a pillar to watch them. The girl was tall and willowy with long black hair that hung just past her shoulders. The boy had the same shade of dark‑brown hair that Aurora had. He was approximately the same height and, even from this distance, I could tell that he and Aurora were kin.
I listened to his and the girl’s conversation for a few minutes and watched as they re-entered the house. The boy turned and looked straight at me just before he went in the door. His eyes were a piercing blue and for a second I thought he had seen me but then he turned and followed the girl into the house.
I watched the house for a few minutes before I started to approach it. The house was three stories with a red roof and beige walls with flowers engraved on it. Really, it was fancy – too fancy for a couple of commoners. It made you wonder how they got their hands on the property…
However, it didn’t matter that they owned the house – I needed to find out if they lived there. I crept up to the window and peeked in. No one was in the bright sitting room. I knew there were people in the house because I’d seen the girl and boy head back in but as far as I could tell there was no one in the front of the house. Just as I was debating whether I could sneak in using an Invisibility Cloaking spell two boys came into the room. I’d never seen the first boy before but the second boy – who leaned in the room’s doorway – was the same one who’d come outside with that girl. Neither of them looked like they could be older than 20 – and that was being generous. Remembering the girl’s comment about Rowan wanting to see the boy, I assumed that the first boy was Rowan.
I quickly cast a spell to help me listen to their conversation but it deteriorated quickly into a brawl with Rowan tackling the boy I’d seen earlier. The shouting attracted the attention of the other people in the house and two other boys dragged Rowan off the Aurora’s twin and pulled him toward the front door. Frantically I casted an Invisibility spell. I didn’t want anyone to detect me spying. Two boys spilled out into the courtyard a moment later arguing loudly. I turned toward the courtyard to see Rowan and one of the other boys (who had pulled him off Aurora’ twin) having a heated conversation. Eagerly I listened, hoping for some reference to the Liberation or Rory, but was sorely disappointed.
After a moment, Aurora’s twin ran out of the house wiping blood off his lip to speak with Rowan and the other boy. After a moment of speaking softly with them, all three turned to go back inside. The rest of the party had poured onto the steps during their conversation and now all of them except two of the boys piled back into the house. The remaining two boys stepped off the steps to the house entrance directly in front of me. As Rowan and the other two boys passed by, they whirled around and grabbed me!
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