shylarah

𝓣ℎ𝑒 𝓕𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝒻 𝓐𝑙𝑦𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑎 & 𝓕𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑛, 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡.

The library was a beautiful building, Alys thought. Both she and Chris were regulars there, and knew their way around, at least for the most part. Of course there was never any harm in consulting a librarian for help if such was needed, but over the years the pair needed that help less and less.

"We have about an hour before we should be going. Chris, set your pocketwatch so you don't forget," Alys cautioned, as Chris made to head off at once into the stacks of books.

"Yes alright," he replied distractedly, wanting to be off, but he did at least take out his watch and fiddle with it until the little device was set. And then he was away, Walter trailing behind, vanishing between the rows of books with an eager and confident air.

"Well that's those two taken care of," Alys said with a smile. "We may have to track them down later, but I have a good idea of where they'll end up. Finnegan, are there any books in particular you wanted to get?" She was eager to be off as well, but it was polite to ask her companion if he meant to get anything and take care of that first.

𝓣ℎ𝑒 𝓕𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝒻 𝓐𝑙𝑦𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑎 & 𝓕𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑛, 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡.

Alys smiled slightly at Finnegan's boasting, but said nothing about it. She was used to his mannerisms but saw little reason to encourage him to more. Instead she turned to her brother. "You should finish your meal, Chris. You too, Walter -- if we're going to have a decent amount of time at the library, we should be leaving soon."

"We're going to the library?" Christopher lit up. "Oh that's good -- there's a few books I've been meaning to get, but I was busy with my research and all so I never did get around to going." With a goal in mind, Chris stopped talking and dedicated himself to eating, and before long he was finished.

Once everyone was done, the group prepared to leave, donning jackets and locating library cards.

"C'mon, let's go!" Chris enthused. He was more than ready to be on his way, even before he'd gotten his jacket all the way on. "Library time!"

𝓣ℎ𝑒 𝓕𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝒻 𝓐𝑙𝑦𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑎 & 𝓕𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑛, 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡.

Both brothers had the fidgets it seemed, as Finnegan scolded Walter for not sitting still. Alys had long ago learned to put up with Christopher's lack of stillness, and under most circumstances encouraged him to carry some small device or other to keep his hands busy when they weren't otherwise occupied -- such as with a cup of tea.

"This afternoon?" Chris echoed, looking up from his teacup, where he had been watching the motion of the tiny particulates at the bottom. "What happened this afternoon?" Of course the young man would catch a reference to something embarrassing, without even knowing it was.

"Just a minor laboratory accident, Christopher. Fortunately no one was injured." Alyssana downplayed the incident to avoid piquing her brother's interest further, hoping to avoid having to explain the precise details of what was an all around unfortunate incident.

"Oh. Well yes laboratory safety is very important, even if you're not working with dangerous chemicals and stuff like that," Chris said. "You should be more careful -- accidents are bad."

𝓣ℎ𝑒 𝓕𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝒻 𝓐𝑙𝑦𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑎 & 𝓕𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑛, 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡.

"Tea time?" Alys pulled out a pocketwatch and checked the hour. "Ah, yes, I suppose it is. And there really isn't anything further to be done with the information we have. Tea would be lovely -- and I do have time for a trip to the library afterwards." She went to fold the map up and handed it to Finny, to tuck in with the various newspaper clippings in his notebook.

By the time the tea was ready, Chris and Walter had been rounded up and and everyone was settled in the parlor. Chris was fidgeting absently with a small cube featuring brightly painted squares of color. It was something he'd shown to Walter earlier -- a Rubik's cube, Christopher called it. Solving it was a trivial matter for Chris but playing around with it gave him something to do with his hands.

"Chris, put it away."

"But Lyssaaaa--!"

"No buts, Chris. You can't have tea and play with that at the same time."

𝓣ℎ𝑒 𝓕𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝒻 𝓐𝑙𝑦𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑎 & 𝓕𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑛, 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡.

"It means we know roughly when the next murder will occur," Alyssana declared, "though not so much where." She peered at the marked map with a sigh. "The murders are spread out across the city, far too large an area to patrol properly." She stepped back, pacing slowly up and down the length of the room as she thought. "I really don't think there's much more to be gleaned from what we have in the way of information. If the note doesn't refer to a place but rather to the cycle of murders and moon phases, well. I'm not sure what our next step should be." Alys closed her little notebook and tucked it back in her pocket, along with the pencil she'd used for writing.

𝓣ℎ𝑒 𝓕𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝒻 𝓐𝑙𝑦𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑎 & 𝓕𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑛, 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡.

"Thank you for keeping an eye on my brother," Alys told the servant at Finny's prompting. "I'm glad to hear he and Walter are being looked after." Even if Finnegan had ignored the news, she would not -- and it never hurt to be courteous to one's staff. She herself lived with minimal staff, just a single housekeeper, but the Greys had taught her to respect the help and always treat them well. "Let's see...I think a map of the city, if you please Franklin, one that Finnegan won't mind me marking up, and that should be all."

It didn't take long for the man to return, and by then Alys had moved the various trinkets from the coffee table to an end table, giving herself and Finnegan space to work. "Thank you, Franklin," she said, taking charge of the requested items. The map she laid out on the table, and she gave Finny the book with the news clippings, keeping the almanac for herself, as well as a small notebook of her own. "If you'll read through the dates and locations in order, Finny, I'll write down the moon phases, and we can mark the locations on the map to see if a pattern emerges."

Together the pair went over times and places, until all were neatly jotted down. Alys looked over her notes and frowned slightly, then held out her little notebook so Finnegan could read it. "I think you were onto something, Finny, with the phases of the moon being relevant," she said. "Just look at this."

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

Ziotea finished checking over her armor and got to her feet. The dusk sky to the west reminded her a bit of the trees she'd seen in Idden-Mar, all oranges and reds, but that wasn't what interested her at the moment. She turned to look eastward, at the paired glaciers pointing the way to the Narrow Gates. Somewhere ahead of them lay three damaged ships, and an unknown enemy. The thought was both exciting and worrisome.

She glanced around at the others of their little expeditionary force, wondering in passing what was going through their minds. Overhead the thin, shimmering barrier of Ragnar's aegis kept out the worst of the cold and the wind. Ziotea looked around for Ragnar himself, spotting him on the upper deck. She made her way in that direction, but Galahad arrived before she did by quite a bit. She would have joined them, but from the look of it the two were arguing. Not my affair, she thought to herself, giving the pair space to sort it out. It was odd for them to fight, but she supposed any relationship had rocky portions.

Instead she turned eastward again, regarding the reflected gold of the glaciers, taking the time to appreciate the view. The colors were odd but Ziotea found they were growing on her, much like the sunset behind her. She stayed that way for a few minutes, just fixing the image in her mind. Somewhere ahead ether sparked, and she wondered if it was from their destination. After a moment, though, she realized it couldn't be, for it was getting closer at an alarming rate.

"Ragnar, everyone, be ready. We have incoming," she shouted. "Some sort of powerful magic attack, it'll be on us in a moment--" She could see it by then, a massive ball of white ether speeding toward the Sword of Dawn. "Ragnar, it's up to you to protect us!"

𝓣ℎ𝑒 𝓕𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝒻 𝓐𝑙𝑦𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑎 & 𝓕𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑛, 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡.

"A bored murderer?" Alys said. "Just what we need. Someone who kills people because he doesn't have anything better to do with his time." She sighed. "That will only lead to more killings, I think. Best if we stop him quickly."

Finny brought up a possible connection between phases of the moon and the murders themselves, and Alyssana gave the idea due consideration. "I suppose it's possible," she said at last. "Do we have a timeline of the various murders and an almanac? We could compare the two sets of data."

𝓣ℎ𝑒 𝓕𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝒻 𝓐𝑙𝑦𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑎 & 𝓕𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑛, 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡.

"Hmm." Alyssana finally took a seat, settling gracefully the chair next to Finnegan. He'd brought up a good point, that the melody to Twinkle Twinkle was in fact shared by several other songs set to the same tune. "'Ah vous dirais-je, Maman' is not a particularly shy tune. The ABCs are mostly factual. As for 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'," she paused. "I suppose sheep might be seen as shy, but there's no particular reason to think so." She sighed. "Of all these things, I'd think the moon would be the most shy, actually. After all, it's the only one that hides its face regularly -- so to speak. Perhaps a location with 'moon' in the name...but that's still terribly vague."

𝓣ℎ𝑒 𝓕𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝒻 𝓐𝑙𝑦𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑎 & 𝓕𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑛, 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡.

Alyssana took the proffered paper and looked it over. The paper itself lacked a watermark, and the hand seemed to be a lady's -- probably the mentioned Madam Sophronia. The rhyme was the only notable thing she could discern, and she said as much. "It's based on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," she added, smoothing the creases from the paper, "which brings to mind an observatory or somewhere with a good view of the sky, but the changes seem to indicate music and dancing. As a clue, it probably refers to a location." Alyssana frowned, passing the paper back. "There's really not much to go on here. It could be referring to the monarch butterflies and their yearly migration, for all the indication it gives." She looked at Finnegan. "What about you, Finny, what do you make of it?"