Published at 22nd of October 2023 9:42 am

Book 2: Chapter 34

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

“Grant!”

Marta’s voice was loud, causing Grant to look over and spot Marta who was hiding in a nearby room. Turning, Grant hurried over and was pulled into the room by Henri who stared at him with dark eyes.

“What happened to Garrett?”

“On my back,” Grant said, grunting.

Crouching, he let Garrett down to the floor and then sat down himself, his breath ragged.

“For a kid who looks like you’re made out of toothpicks, you’re really heavy,” he said, rubbing the small of his back with his hand.

“For a guy who talks as tough as you do, you sure run fast,” Garrett retorted, causing Marta to laugh.

“Listen, I just saved you from death, so I don’t want to hear any of that negative attitude.”

“What happened?” Henri asked quietly, crouching down and looking back and forth between them.

“We escaped. The ghost seemed more interested in killing Eben than either of us, so we were able to slip away. Though, now that I think about it, we might as well have just stayed there. There’s no way out of here that I can see and unless we can figure out a way to deactivate the mirror artifact, we’re eventually going to follow along after Eben and his goons.”

Nodding, Marta looked down, her expression pale. She had thrown every bit of power at the Long-Haired Ghost and it hadn’t done more than cause it to pause. On top of that, there were still Pale Fiends wandering around, limiting how much they could move without getting spotted.

“I might have a solution for that,” Garrett said, causing everyone to stare at him.

Both Henri and Marta looked half incredulous, half hopeful, but Grant’s eyes, invisible to the others, flickered with a faint rainbow sheen.

“You have a way to deactivate the mirror?” Henri asked, crouching down.

“Yes. I think so. Or at least, a way to get out. The room I entered had a mirror. Did yours?”

One by one, the others shook their heads, looking at each other with excitement in their eyes.

“No, my room was like this, no mirror, and only one door,” Marta said.

“Then it’s likely that mirror holds our way out,” Garrett said, closing his eyes. “The ghost used a mirror to bring us into this space, so I think that if we use a mirror of our own, we should be able to get out of here.”

“Marta, do you have a mirror?” Grant asked, looking disappointed when she shook her head.

“I know where we can find a mirror,” Henri said, his face turning down in deep frown. “But it’s not the answer we want. The only person who has a mirror is the ghost.”

“She isn’t the only one,” Garrett said with a small smile, holding up a gleaming silver mirror.

Staring at the replica of the hand mirror that Garrett had been holding before he was dragged into the Hollow Space, Henri could only laugh and shake his head.

“I knew it was the right idea to bring you. Alright, once you’re rested, we’ll go and try to find this place. Do you happen to remember the way back too?”

Smiling sheepishly, Garrett brought out a small piece of paper and unfolded it, showing a map with a dotted line tracing the path to the room where he had entered the ghostly mansion.

“I drew it while we were traveling. Force of habit.”

“That’s… I…”

Grinning, Marta patted the stunned Henri on the shoulder and took the paper from Garrett, doing her best to commit it to memory. For the next half an hour they continued to rest, trying to regain as much energy as they could before they began to trek back to the mirror room. There were a few close calls where they were almost spotted by the Pale Fiends who floated around the halls, but after two hours of careful walking, they finally arrived at the large mirror. The surface was smooth, but it was clouded, almost as if it was shrouded by something.

Still, Garrett, who was riding on Henri’s shoulders, had everyone gather together, and then held up the small mirror, making sure to capture everyone in it. There was a shiver and then suddenly they were standing in the basement of the count’s mansion. After having been stuck in the dream for hours, the darkness of the basement barely counted as darkness anymore and they all breathed sighs of relief as the bits of light filtered into their eyes.

The first thing Henri did was spin around, looking for the mirror, which he assumed would be behind them. Instead, he found nothing but an empty spot where the mirror should have been. Scanning the darkness, he didn’t see anything but dusty furniture and cobwebs, causing his eyes to widen and his fists to clench as he remembered the masked woman who had trapped them all in it in the first place. She was gone as if she had never been there in the first place, and even the spot where she had previously stood had a fine layer of dust over it, making him wonder if he had imagined it all.

“Someone took the mirror!” Marta exclaimed, panic in her voice. “What if it goes crazy?”

“We’re going to have an absolute mess on our hands,” Henri said, his tone grim. “The mirror will need to be categorized as a disaster level artifact. If we don’t find it soon, we could very well end up with another red hand incident.”

“Red hand incident?” Garrett asked as both Marta and Grant shuddered.

“Yes,” Henri nodded, “it was quite a few years ago, in the slums. A mysterious artifact was broken, and the curse it contained escaped, infecting a large area of the slums. Official reports are that it was a sickness that swept through, but it was actually a curse. Stained people’s hands red, like they were covered in blood, and drove them crazy so they slaughtered everyone around them. There were six thousand deaths before the curse was destroyed.”

Blinking, Garrett shook his head.

“That hair ghost was strong, but six thousand dead? There is no way.”

“Believe me, it could be much worse than that. Imagine if she wasn’t contained in this mirror, and instead, she could hide in any reflective surface. And then imagine that she started transforming everyone into those horrifying Pale Fiends? They can’t be stopped by conventional weapons, and they make more of themselves. It would be horrendous.”

“Now that is a wild idea,” Garrett said, his eyes going wide. “How would she be able to do that, though? Are you saying that if someone broke her mirror, she would be able to use any reflective surface? We need to find the mirror immediately.”

“I’m not saying that would be the precise thing,” Henri said, giving Garrett a strange look. “But if the curse gets free somehow, that could potentially be one of the things that happens.”

Coughing lightly, Garrett nodded, trying to keep the smile off his face.

“Like I said, sounds really dangerous. So, what’s the plan now?”

“Right now, we do damage control. You stay at the party with Grant and Marta. Keep playing your part, since there is no need to abandon this persona of yours. I’ll head back and talk to Chief Fellix about the missing mirror to see if we can put feelers out. That woman looked like a thief, and is probably part of a thieves group, since she said something about her boss. We need to get on top of it if it shows up at a dealer. We’ll also issue a general warning that it’s disaster level.”

“What about Eben and his team?” Garrett asked.

“Who and who? As far as we know, they got sucked up by the mirror,” Henri said, snorting. “I mean, are you going to tell anyone otherwise? We got the chance to see them get sucked up, and then that lady stole it away from under our noses. That’s the story, and don’t get fancy with it.”

The sun was just starting to rise when Garrett and the others went upstairs. There was a bit of a problem, since he didn’t have a wheelchair anymore, but most of the servants who saw them climbing the stairs just assumed he was sleeping off his drink. Without sleeping, Henri headed off to make his report, but not before promising Garrett to go and let Obe know that he needed his backup wheelchair. Catching a few hours of sleep, Garrett missed the Dreamer’s Throne and the constant stream of energy it released, but as he rested, he could feel his mental energy being recharged, providing him with some reassurance.

Even his encounter with the possessed Henrick had not tested his limits so much, and though he had managed to navigate his way through the adventure the previous night, he was now reflecting on how dangerous it had actually been. Only after he had transformed her into a guardian of his had Garrett realized just how powerful the Long-Haired Ghost actually was. Though there seemed to be some sort of suppressive force on her, when she began to get angry, things grew out of control quickly. One of her screams could shatter the walls of the Hollow Space, and had it been concentrated on any one person, it probably would have killed them outright as the sound pummeled their brain.

On top of that, she had only fought with her hair, but she was, in reality, a more powerful version of the Pale Fiends. No one had managed to land a physical attack on her, but if they had, they would have realized that like her lesser counterparts, she was completely immune to mundane attacks. Adding in her ability to paralyze anyone she caught in her mirror, Garrett had picked up a true gem. He originally had different plans for his next guardian, but desperate times called for decisive action, and he was happy that it worked out as it did. The trick, of course, would be ensuring that she didn’t accidentally turn the whole gang into Pale Fiends.

Henri stayed true to his word and a few hours later, a couple of Garrett’s men, dressed as regular workers, brought him a new wheelchair so he could still get around. It wasn’t quite as nice as his last one, but it worked well enough. Marta was rather shaken up after the events of the previous night, but Grant seemed completely fine, so he took a turn pushing Garrett around to the various events that the count had set up throughout the day, all the while watching as the servants ran around like crazy, looking for the countess. She had not been in her room when her maid came to wake her up, and just like the count’s daughter, she seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Garrett was sitting at a card table with a few other young noblemen who had come to the event when someone stopped by to whisper that Eben had vanished as well, causing some uneasy looks to pass around the table. One of the young men, upon noticing that Garrett was playing his hand, completely unperturbed by the news, remarked on it.

“You’re awfully cool about it, Klein. Are you always like this or do you just enjoy your cards that much?”

“Like cards? Please, I’ve lost every hand. I’m starting to suspect there is something wrong with the deck because my luck is never this bad,” Garrett said, flashing a wry smile as he tossed his cards on the table, revealing a truly terrible hand. “But why would I be worried about the news that our esteemed hostess and a handsome silver-haired fellow had both disappeared overnight? She’s not my wife.”

Slapping the table as he laughed, the young nobleman nodded emphatically.

“I didn’t think of that. Hah!”

“You know, I did see him creeping around with a good number of different ladies last night,” another young man said, wrinkling his nose in amusement. “Who knows what he got up to last night. Not to my taste, of course, but everyone lives their own way.”

“Until now, I thought my way included playing cards, but at this rate I’ll be in the gutter in no time,” Garrett said, shaking his head to laughter. “I’m done. I can’t take any more of this abuse.”

Pushing back from the table, Garrett saw the count enter the room and waved. If the count was upset by the disappearance of either his daughter or his wife, he didn’t show a bit of it, and Garrett felt a flash of disgust when he saw that the count had his arm around a young noblewoman who was gazing up at him with dancing eyelashes. Others at the table noticed it too, and one of them snorted.

“Word is that the countess wasn’t the first, nor even the second, and judging by how our fine host is acting, I imagine she won’t be the last, no matter what happened to her.”

Raising his eyebrows, Garrett’s thoughts went to his experience in the countess’ dream and he shook his head.

“As they say, class can’t be bought,”

“Exactly. I’m Thomas Gelavin, by the way. We have parties every now and again. You should come to one of them.”

“That sounds like an excuse to fleece me of more of my money,” Garrett said with a wide smile. “Sounds like fun.”

Laughing, the young men all exchanged cards and Garrett waved goodbye as he made his way to the door where Grant was waiting. Falling in behind Garrett, Grant took hold of the wheelchair and brought him back up to the room to change for dinner.

“Looks like you’ve made some friends,” Grant said once they were in the room. “But shouldn’t you be trying to target the older nobles?”

Sitting up from where she was resting in front of the fire, Marta looked over, her curiosity piqued. Garrett, who was sitting near the window while Grant went to get his suit, shook his head.

“No, if any of the older nobles saw me coming over, they’d know I was after something. But the young ones are different. They’re hungry, looking for social connections, and have a pulse on the underbelly of this city. Most of them probably have connections, even if roundabout, with the gangs, since their fathers use them to get the dirty work done. Sure, their fathers might be able to help the most now, but in five to ten years, these young men will be taking over for their fathers.”

“But, all you did was lose money to them,” Grant said, laying out Garrett’s clothes.

“You lost money? Were you gambling?” Marta asked, her forehead furrowing.

“I did, but only my own money,” Garrett replied, running his fingers over the coat that Grant had picked. “And let me give you a tip, the only acceptable bribe is money fairly won. But the fact that I didn’t let my frustration show is what really hooked them. Women aren’t the only ones who like a handsome and mysterious stranger who is free with money.”

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