"There's nothing I can do now," I said aloud, shrugging my shoulders.
What was done is done. There was no taking back words that had been said.
No matter how hard one might wish.
There was nobody nearby, just me standing alone in the hallway.
It has been years since I last set foot in here. Last I was here, I was looking for Rinara, as I always did whenever we stopped by. She hated this place. Too clean, too proper. She used to hide here, and master would force me to find her. But it never really felt forced. Looking back, it was as if I wanted to find her and she wanted to be found. Even as time passed, the layout was kept the same as it was before. Even with my hazy memory, figuring out where I needed to go was not a hassle.
At the end of the hallway was a set of stairs that led up to the second and third floors. Yet that was not my destination, at least not yet.
Anya was waiting for me, and thanks to Lilas, I was held up even longer. Near the staircase were two doors, one on either side of the hallway. Both were medical rooms, but separated between residents and outsiders.
There was a single door that was open, the door to the resident's medical room. I walked past it, hoping to steal just a glance inside.
It was normal, hardly any different from the outsider's room. The back wall was filled with books locked behind a sliding cabinet. The beds were empty, prepped for the next patient. A large stack of paperwork was thrown onto a desk in the corner of the room. There was not a single soul in sight.
Or so I thought.
I stepped back into the doorframe and looked over at the desk. There was a pointed strand of brown hair that curled out from the top of the massive load of paperwork.
It bounced, as if the person behind the paperwork noticed my presence, and a stack of paper slid to the side. A woman, no, a girl? She was sitting at the desk with her brown eyes staring tiredly at me.
There were black bags under her eyes. She brought a steaming mug to her lips while maintaining eye contact with me. "Golden Steam?" She said once she had brought the mug down.
"Sorry, I'll be on my way." I tried to walk away, but her voice stopped me.
"No, come in." She said.
I did as she asked and entered the room. The closer I got to her desk, the stronger the aroma of coffee grew. The girl spun around in her chair, her messy hair loosely tied with a scrunchie. She stood up, though there was hardly any change in her height.
The girl gave a small bow, small crumbs falling from her vestments onto the floor. "I am Mother Kili. I heard the saint tasked you with watching over our very own Mother Lilas. Please…do keep her safe."
She lifted her head. Looking at her more closely, she looked more and more like a child, yet her voice and manner of speaking were more akin to that of an older woman.
Wait, did she say she was Mother Kili?
I thought Lilas was the youngest priestess to earn the title Mother in the church's history.
There was a visible twitch in the girl's right eye as I let my thoughts wander.
"Ahem," she cleared her throat as she pushed her mug towards the center of her desk. Along with the copious number of papers, there was a small set of supplies, including an adhesive eye patch, near where she sat. "Sit."
I sat down next to her desk wordlessly. While she was getting supplies ready, I stole a look at the papers while her back was turned.
None of these papers belonged to the people of the church. Each page held a picture of a woman I was vaguely familiar with. Back before the previous second seat was slain by Muller.
Each one, a victim of brainwashing from the two artifacts.
We were unable to save them. But this time… I'll make sure these women currently affected will be saved. I do have a client who is a victim of it, after all.
"You know," Kili said once she finished prepping her supplies. "A little lamb told me that a gloomy-looking man was in need of aid." Kili approached me and began working her magic. "She said some brute of a woman patched you up, and she was afraid she did a terrible job given the severity."
"Heh, well, that little lamb was also treated by the same person, so maybe they are a little biased."
"They also said that the gloomy man redid their bandages much better than the brute of a woman." Kili pulled her face to mine with a smile. "You are much more knowledgeable in first aid than I would have given you credit for."
Kili worked quickly; her hands moved carefully, and any painful touch was accompanied by a quick glance at my face. Once she was finished, she stuck the eyepatch onto my face and sat back down, fully spinning around her chair once.
She reached for her mug, the motion of her reach sending a piece of paper flying towards me. Kili held the mug to her lips as she eyed me.
Was that on purpose?
I held the paper, watching her reaction carefully. Unlike many others I've seen, her reaction was not easily readable. Despite her appearance, she maintained a neutral expression, as if looking at someone several times younger than she was.
On the paper was an image of Kelly Frost. A brief description of her was handwritten, accompanied by when she was last seen and the events that led up to her disappearance.
Wait—
Towards the end, an update was noted. She was last seen near the Middle Outer Ring yesterday, carrying supplies to a building in the heart of the area's nightlife district.
I looked up to find that her mug was empty. Kili looked at me with an innocent expression plastered on her face.
"Call this a favor for keeping Father Muller from meeting his end several times over." She said warmly. "Sure, his artifact can undo damage done to him, but it's not something he can use infinitely. Though maybe you already knew that, or maybe you didn't."
"Thank you, but even if you say this is a favor, isn't using the shadows Mull—Father Muller's area of responsibility?"
"And who do you think changed his diapers as a kid when he was taken in?"
That had to have been at least 30 years ago…how old is she?
I glanced at the other papers on the desk. Those women were all dead, yet she held onto the records. "Why are you looking into the previous victims?"
If there was a reason, I wanted to know, even if I was out of place. The girl picked up a small stack and flipped through the pages. Her eyes darted from left to right, reading each page with abnormal speed.
"History can hide the answers we seek." She said. "Do you know why we, the church, label things as artifacts?"
"Because some items found outside the city's walls contain strange powers that we cannot understand."
"Fifty points." She said as she reached into her vestments. Kili pulled open her vestments just enough to reveal a small device embedded in her chest. It glowed a gentle blue light that mimicked the same light Lilas's artifact produced.
"Before this city of steam became the last place to contain us humans, we as a race were more technologically advanced." She traced the edges of the device, "We call everything we don't understand an artifact. But in reality, there are two classes of artifacts: Old World and Heaven Class."
She fixed her vestments and stood up from her desk towards a coffee machine. The buttons chimed with every touch as the machine started up.
"Father Muller, Mother Lilas, and I; we have what's known as Old World Artifacts. Machines made from former humans using the means we do not have to recreate. These artifacts are powered…meaning that they can run out if misused."
The coffee machine beeped as it finished pouring into a large beaker. Kili pulled out two mugs and poured the fresh coffee into them. She walked over to the desk and handed me a mug while already sipping on hers.
"The artifact the cult is using for their brainwashing is a Heaven Class. Its abilities defy the laws of nature in design alone. Like, could you imagine a dagger having the ability to rewrite one's memories when the blood of the victim was poured into its sheath? No, it doesn't make sense; that is why we call it an artifact."
"But," I said, drinking the coffee she had given me.
It was rich, despite her not adding to it. The aroma was as strong as other coffees I had drunk in the past; this was sweet, almost as if the smell alone was enough to keep me awake. But most importantly, it felt warm. Not just because it was hot; it warmed my body in a way that felt oddly good.
"That doesn't explain why you were looking into the previous victims." I continued, "What is there to gain from looking into those that were already dead?"
"Everything has a pattern," she said, already finishing her mug. "Like," Kili placed her mug down and stuck up her index finger. "Did you know that these girls have a trigger?"
A trigger? Like something that forces them to obey orders?
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Father Muller said that while he fought the second seat, strange music played. When it did, Kelly's personality flipped. He also said the day before he left for the Lower Layer, that establishment you and he went to, the same music was playing."
Damn it…If only I wasn't wasted that night.
This was supposed to be my case, yet the church beat me to the punch. I'd be lying if I said this didn't affect my pride as a detective, but this information was helpful.
"So, I need to look into the Brass Light once more," I said, standing up from my chair.
"If that's what you think should be your course of action, Detective." Kili then stretched out her small limbs, letting a cute yawn escape her lips. "Now shoo, you aren't supposed to be in here, and I'd rather not deal with that old fart of a saint."
"Yet you sound just as old as him."
"What was that?" She glared at me.
"Nothing. Have a good night." I quickly made a retreat attempt before I was stopped by her voice.
"Wait!" She stood up with her palms slammed on the table. "Your eye, give it two weeks to heal. Once it does, visit the woman in the Outer Ring who just came up from the Lower Layer. She works with Fixers and Runners alike; needless to say, she's trustworthy."
This was the second time someone had mentioned her.
"Okay, I will. Thank you." With that, I left the room.