Back in Backlund, Vincent stopped by the Caesar Restaurant — he'd been away from it long enough to find himself genuinely craving their delicate Intis cuisine.
He ordered a few dishes and, while waiting for them to arrive, said to Bernadette: "Still thinking about the mirror people?"
"A little. But not so much the mirror people as Stephen — we still don't know for certain whether his disappearance is connected to the Evil Spirit or to them."
"The biggest problem is that even if we want to investigate, we don't have a direction."
Vincent leaned back, frowning. "I wonder if the Shadow Box could be used to find a person."
"Worth trying."
A short while later, the food arrived. Vivienne came over, exchanged greetings with Vincent, and then said in her usual brisk, light voice: "Your Majesty — there's an Emperor Roselle memorial exhibition at the Kingdom Museum tomorrow. Were you planning to go?"
Vincent paused, then remembered: right — he'd seen an advertisement for it in the newspaper two or three weeks back. Bernadette had noticed it at the time, but the paper had only said "next month" with no exact date. Things had been busy since then, and somehow the date had crept up without him registering it.
"Yes," he said with a nod.
Vivienne had clearly anticipated this. She produced a neatly printed admission ticket and placed it on the table. "The exhibition opens at nine tomorrow morning and closes at six in the evening — the ticket is valid any time in between."
"Thoughtful of you."
"I'll leave you to your meal, then."
Vincent picked up the ticket. The front bore the exhibition's details and the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery's large, prominent aureole. The reverse carried a brief description of the event, including mention of items that would be exhibited for the first time.
"Just as you said — more than a hundred years on, and the Church is still using Emperor Roselle as its flagship advertisement."
Bernadette also read the text as Vincent held it. After a moment she said: "Among the items on display this time are some of Father's earliest notebooks. They were confiscated by the Church after the assassination — even I never saw them."
She paused, then said softly: "There's a chance that within some of those notebooks, Father hid one of his Cards of Blasphemy. The Church has studied them for years without finding it."
That would be the Black Emperor's Card of Blasphemy — disguised as a bookmark tucked inside one of Roselle's notebooks. To all appearances, just an unremarkable slip of paper — but speak the right words and it would reveal its true form.
And the "right words" were Bernadette's name.
Whatever one said about Roselle as a person in his romantic life — and there was plenty to say, none of it flattering — as a father, he really had completely spoiled this daughter.
"Do you know which notebook it's in?" Vincent asked, playing dumb.
"No. I don't know which book, and I don't know which bookmark."
"Simple then. Just grab the lot."
Bernadette was quiet for a couple of seconds, then said: "That's one way to handle it."
Then her tone shifted: "When did I say I was going to grab anything?"
Vincent smiled. "You didn't. I'll go along with whatever you decide — and tomorrow, it'll be you in control of the body, so it's your call entirely."
"..."
After a pause, she said evenly: "Let's go and look first. It's a Church-sponsored exhibition. Do you really think grabbing things is as easy as just deciding to?"
In the original novel, you walked in there like nobody was home. Vincent kept that thought to himself.
After lunch, he returned to the York Street lodgings, drew the curtains, set up a spirituality barrier, and activated the Shadow Box one more time in the dim room.
As before, half the room went instantly, impenetrably black — not a single particle of light able to reflect off it.
Vincent held a Sequence 6 Beyonder characteristic and said: "I want to know Stephen's current location."
He reached into the dark.
Seconds later — thud — the characteristic came sailing back out, hurled forcefully enough to embed itself in the opposite wall.
Vincent looked at the dent. "If you don't want to deal, just say so. No need to be rude about it."
He produced a Sequence 5 Beyonder characteristic, made the same request, and reached in again.
This time it came back even faster and hit the wall harder — the characteristic buried itself into the plaster.
"Hey—"
Before he could say anything more, the black half of the room simply — dissolved. The Shadow Box's darkness faded and disappeared. The other party had actively cancelled the exchange from their side.
Vincent stared at where it had been. "Well. Quite the temper. I suppose those first few successful exchanges were just luck."
"More likely," Bernadette said, "finding Stephen's location is both extremely difficult and extremely dangerous. We were offering a Sequence 5 characteristic as payment. That directly provoked whoever is on the other side — possibly to genuine anger."
He understood now. From the perspective of whatever existed in that darkness, asking them to locate Stephen with a Sequence 5 characteristic was roughly equivalent to the Nine-Headed Serpent telling its spy: "Go take down the Tang Priest and all his disciples" — and handing him a few copper coins.
"Do you have any demigod-level Beyonder characteristics?"
"A Hermit Pathway one I had set aside for Gardenia. And a Seq 4 Unshadowed Beyonder item."
"Let's try again."
He retrieved the Hermit Pathway characteristic from the hidden compartment, formed the Shadow Box again, and stated the same request. He reached in.
This time the darkness didn't immediately throw it back. He waited — nearly a full minute. Then something dry and thin, resembling a finger, made contact with the back of his hand, very lightly.
And then — gently, but firmly — that finger-thing pushed his hand back out of the dark. The Shadow Box's blackness faded for the second time.
"A Sequence 4 characteristic isn't enough either?"
To go higher than that would mean the Sage's Diadem — earmarked for Bernadette's advancement to Sequence 2 — or the Pale Death characteristic, which was a critical combat resource for facing higher-Sequence threats. Neither could be casually put up as a bargaining chip.
Both of them sat in silence for a moment.
"It seems like finding Stephen this way is simply off the table," Vincent said finally. "I really don't know what happened to him."
Bernadette said: "The last thing he did before vanishing was specifically ask about the 'Son of Chaos.' Which means whatever — and whoever — he ran into may have been aimed at the Lord of Chaos. At you."
"Or," Vincent said, "aimed at the Nation of Disorder itself. I just can't work out why that person would specifically choose to use Stephen."
...
A hotel in Backlund's North Borough.
Klein led Stephen to the door of his room. "This is where I'm staying. For the next week — whenever I leave, please follow discreetly, and if I run into any danger, use your teleportation ability immediately and get me out."
"Not a problem."
Stephen smiled pleasantly. "And where do I stay?"
Klein, naturally: "You can get your own room in this hotel."
"???"
To be continued…
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