Knock—knock.
A muffled sound of knocking resounded in the quiet bedroom, stirring awake the young woman who was sleeping on the bed. A crisp white blanket covered her as she shifted slightly.
The crimson light of the moon sprayed through the curtained window, giving the bedroom a slight, eerie red shade that seemed to dance across the furniture.
Sarah woke up immediately upon hearing the knock on the door. As a Sequence 8 of the Spectator pathway, her mind was naturally sharp; it didn't take her long to become fully awake and alert.
Removing the blanket that was draped over her legs, she got up. She was wearing a simple, cream-colored nightgown that flowed around her ankles. She adjusted the gown and walked out of the bedroom, her bare feet silent on the floorboards.
Sarah had a good idea of who might be outside the door.
Who else would visit at this hour but her woman, Natalie Rogers? Natalie had gone on a dangerous mission and had told Sarah that she would be back by midnight.
As the main earner of their household, Natalie was often gone at unconventional times, but since Sarah knew the nature of her job, she didn't pester her much to be at home more than she already was.
After reaching the door, she looked through the peephole to confirm that it was indeed her Natalie.
But to her surprise, it wasn't!
Instead, it was a young man in a formal suit. He was holding the waist of a woman who had one arm draped heavily around the man's shoulder; she herself seemed to be completely unconscious as her head was slumped down against his chest.
As if knowing that Sarah was looking through the peephole, the young man raised his free hand and waved at her with a wry, somewhat apologetic smile.
Sarah recognized the young man as Jace, as she had met him briefly before, but her eyes widened as she recognized the woman in his arms as Natalie.
She hurriedly unbolted the door. "Jace! What happened!?" she asked breathlessly, her voice cracking with worry as she held Natalie's body from the other side and helped bring her into the house.
Behind them, a black cat entered the apartment, its tail twitching as it looked around the new environment with curiosity.
"Where is the bedroom?" Jace asked, his voice strained from the weight.
"There," Sarah pointed.
They both proceeded to carry Natalie into the bedroom and laid her gently on the bed.
Jace stepped back, walking out of the bedroom and leaving Sarah alone with her lover.
Sarah knew that Natalie and Jace had been working together quite often lately; Natalie had even told her that today she was going out on an operation with him.
But Sarah couldn't help but wonder what had gone wrong. She quickly got her emotions and thoughts under control, focusing entirely on Natalie.
Sarah worriedly inspected Natalie's body. She noticed that Natalie's slacks were half-burned, the fabric charred and smelling of smoke. Her upper body was bare, covered only by Jace's frock coat.
Sarah then inspected her health; her breathing was stable, but when she checked her eyes, the lids fluttered to reveal pupils that were heavily dilated and bloodshot.
'Is she high?' Sarah wondered, recognizing the signs of heavy sedation.
She removed Natalie's tattered pants and helped her into some comfortable, clean clothes before covering her with a fresh blanket.
—
Meanwhile, Jace stood in the living room with Natalie's coat and gun holster in his hands.
These were the things she had kept outside the property before going into the battle; while leaving, he had made sure to pick them up. He kept the items on the wooden table in the middle of the living room and sat heavily on the couch.
The apartment itself was quite well-kept. Decorated with vibrant plants, fresh flowers, and soft curtains, it looked very welcoming and comfortable, filled with a pleasant floral scent.
It seemed to have two bedrooms and was well-architected and spacious—far better than Jace's own cramped apartment.
Though both places were in the Cherwood Borough, Natalie's place was in a significantly better area.
'It's time for me to move,' Jace thought with a deep, internal sigh.
With his relationship with Jane now severed, he felt it was better to move to a different place entirely.
He felt quite detached and lonely, as if there was no one left in this world truly there for him. The thought scared him more than he cared to admit.
'Did I make a mistake... by cutting off Jane?' he wondered, the silence of the room amplifying his doubts.
'No,' he thought firmly.
Jace was walking the path of a Beyonder in a mystic world that was bizarre and dangerous beyond imagination.
Being even a simple acquaintance of Jace could put a person in danger. Even if he had made Jane to walk a Beyonder pathway, that would only result in her being in more danger, eventually affected by the madness that inevitably comes with the power.
He couldn't—no, wouldn't—do that to her. 'I made the right choice,' he told himself, hardening his heart.
Meanwhile, the cat, Nyx, was sitting on a stool leisurely while observing Jace from a dark corner.
Jace, of course, noticed the gaze, but he let it be. Cats were natural spectators, and this one was literally a member of that pathway.
Sarah stepped back into the living room, her steps firm and purposeful. She was still wearing her nightgown and had a complicated expression on her face—a mix of confusion, deep worry, and simmering anger.
"What exactly happened?" she asked, her voice stern as she stood before Jace with her arms crossed over her chest. Her eyes locked onto his, observing his micro-expressions as a Spectator would.
Jace sighed, leaning forward. "Well, we were hunting a Sequence 7 psychopath slash cannibal. We ambushed him at his home and engaged in a gruesome battle. The said psychopath had two Sequence 7 level sealed artifacts, which made his powers rival that of a Sequence 6 Beyonder or perhaps even higher..."
He stopped for a moment, carefully choosing his next words, while Sarah looked at him patiently, her gaze piercing.
"The psychopath... just so happened to be a Sequence 7 Psychiatrist of the Spectator pathway. Just a split second before I killed him, he used the 'Psychiatrist's Frenzy' on Natalie." He stopped, looking for Sarah's reaction, but there was no change in her stoic expression, so he continued.
"A 'Psychiatrist's Frenzy' is a dangerous and fatal ability that can damage a person's mental and emotional stability, throwing them into a frenzy that can even make them lose control... So Natalie went berserk. I scavenged a tranquilizer nearby and subdued her. In the carriage, the effect of the tranquilizer faded, so I dosed her on laudanum to keep her from hurting herself. That's why she shows signs of being high." He told her everything that had happened and explained the long-term effects of the Frenzy in detail.
There was silence in the living room for a full minute until Sarah walked over and sat in a single-seater to the left of Jace.
While Jace was speaking, Sarah had been closely observing him, using her traits as a Spectator and Telepathist.
What she saw in Jace was truth, honesty, and sincerity—or at least, that was what he allowed her to see of him. She realized she couldn't really see through him like the first time she had met him; he had changed, she thought.
She sighed and looked at him with a hopeful and pleading expression. "Since you are so calm, I suppose you have the solution to our predicament."
Jace gave her a small, knowing smile. "Natalie told me you digested your potion a few days ago," he said.