Once the two of them had their desired drink, Charlotte briefly told him what she had heard. Antony listened attentively, without interrupting her or asking any questions. He only expressed mild surprise when Charlotte mentioned both copies of the testimony having disappeared.
“We should probably talk to that solicitor,” he proposed, not trying to hide his bewilderment. “It’s odd to begin with that he would simply hand over the copy of the testament to Lord Welz, knowing that the man had the original of the document. On the other hand, you don’t go around arguing with nobles about what they should or shouldn’t do with their testaments unless you want to end up in the streets.”
“Perhaps there was a good reason why Lord Welz took the copy, we don’t really know.”
“If he wanted to change the will, for example,” Antony continued to muse, “or if he didn’t trust his solicitor anymore for whatever reason and wanted to bring it somewhere else for safekeeping.”
“Why would he have kept it in his safe for a couple of weeks then?”
“Forgot, had no time, couldn’t settle on who to bring it to,” Antony instantly offered. “Hundreds of reasons. I am surprised that Mr Brook didn’t mention this when we talked to him. This definitely falls into the weird behaviour category. Come to think of it, he never mentioned that the testament was among the missing items, either. Even though he should have known.”
“That one’s not too hard to explain. Lord Simon Welz and his brother both didn’t want anyone to find out that the testament was missing. Mr Brook might have been honouring their wishes despite his eagerness to point fingers at them as possible culprits. Or perhaps he really didn’t know that both the copy and the original were in that same safe at the time of the robbery,” Charlotte reasoned.
“But why wouldn’t Lord Welz tell him? Also, I can hardly imagine him going to the solicitor’s bureau without his secretary.”
“Why not?”
“There are nobles like you or Andrew. Kind, understanding, trying to treat everyone as equals. And then there’s people like the late Lord Welz, who treat those in their employ as… things,” his face became an unhappy grimace. “From what I’ve seen, Mr Brook was treated no better than a notepad or a favourite hunting dog. He had to be present at every meeting, every banquet, every interaction. Not because Lord Welz wanted to have his counsel, or needed a second opinion. No, he was there to serve as a living organiser.”
“I have more and more reasons to believe that Mr Brook finally had enough of his employer and sent him to the afterlife. Either way, you’re making good points, and I don’t have answers. The only thing I can think of right now is, maybe Mr Brook was mentioned in the testament? Or, on the contrary, Lord Welz wanted to write him in? Besides, Mr Brook and Lord Welz quarrelled at some point prior to Lord Welz’s murder, remember? Could it have been on the day when Lord Welz went to visit the solicitor?”
Antony thought about it and after some hesitation agreed that it would have been reason enough.
“In any case, you’re right about needing to talk to the solicitor. Generally speaking, to anyone who saw Lord Welz a few days before the murder,” Charlotte continued in a more lively tone. “Perhaps this wasn’t the only weird thing he did during that period.”
“Alright,” Antony duly wrote it down. He, too, as it turned out, had been making his own notes about the case. “Now… Earlier you said something about something being too much of a coincidence to make sense.”
“The time when the haunting started. Right on the night of Lord Welz’s demise,” Charlotte nodded. “And it’s not just any kind of haunting. That house is a ghost honey pot.”
“Care to explain for the uninitiated?”
“I’ll make a hobbyist exorcist of you at this rate,” she jested, then continued in a much more serious tone, “We call it that as it’s the easiest way to describe the state of the area to anyone who knows even the slightest bit about ghosts and methods to appease them.
“However, the correct term would be ‘ghost encasement’, or ‘ghost death spiral’. Are you familiar with the silkworm curse, Mr Levy?”
He quickly looked away, his face suddenly becoming morbidly pale, then firmly nodded.
“Andrew… He and I met as fellow lecturers at Stolberg University, only that I taught History and he, obviously, Alchemy. However, he also read a course on Defence against Curses. Quite a fascinating subject.”
“Your reaction is not that of a man who learned about a curse while listening to his future employer’s and, by the looks of it, friend’s, lecture.”
“I have experienced it firsthand, but please, let’s just leave it at that if you don’t mind.”
“Of course,” she observed him for a bit, unsure if she should continue or give him space. “It’s what’s happening at that house. Only that it’s not so much that the ghosts already there are fighting among themselves. It’s worse.”
“I would be surprised to hear that a death mongerer somehow managed to avoid detection.”
“That’s implausible, but possible. It not killing anyone until now is the impossible bit,” she corrected him. “Something happened on the fifth that completely changed the flow of life energies within those premises. Small at first, then more and more until my little dress incident earlier today.”
“How can you be certain it was exactly then?”
“Because I asked a resident of that house who also happened to be a ghost,” she looked at him as if it was self-explanatory. “The Welz’s great grandmother, if you’re curious. I’ll admit that for ghosts, time flows differently than for those of us still here, and oftentimes sentient beings… What is often left are lingering thoughts, unfulfilled wishes, regrets… More feelings than actual people. However, if you know what to ask and how to ask it, it’s not hard to get the answers you seek.”
“Very convenient ability.”
“Says the man who can almost freely travel to the past. Which, coincidentally, also helped me confirm my assumptions. I felt nothing while we were examining the room.”
“Couldn’t it have happened on a later date though?”
“As I said, the late Lady Welz was kind enough to provide me with a most accurate timeline. Sadly I cannot use her as a witness.”
“I take it she was only able to say when, but not why?”
“That’s the case, I am afraid. However, here’s some food for thought. Remember I said Agnes might have made a mistake?” Antony nodded, and Charlotte grimly continued, “And she did. Lord Welz’s body aged by about ten years on that night. This case shouldn’t have been handled by the SIU. It was meant for the Nightmare Poets, or, at best, for someone like me.”
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“But didn’t she claim that they never found any traces of necromancy?”
“And that’s what’s baffling!” Charlotte raised her finger. “Apart from the aging, there aren’t any!”
She fell back in her armchair, looking slightly annoyed and lost, while Antony sat there, trying to understand what to do with this new piece of information.
“You weren’t using any spells to ascertain the presence or lack of,” he began, but Charlotte vigorously shook her head, stopping him.
“I am the Destined Avatar of the Lady of the Dead Moon, Mr Levy. I am the Lady of the Dead Moon, her aspect on the Mortal Plane who just happens to have a mind of her own. For now, anyway.
“One boon I have received from her is the ability to discern anything that is even remotely not to her tastes. I would have felt traces of a ritual, I’m certain of it.”
“You know, could it be that the head was taken not just to ensure no one could use any funny spells, but to also hide the fact that the man had aged a dozen years?”
“I think it’s possible. Doesn’t help us much though.”
“No,” Antony ruffled his hair in deep thought.
Charlotte remained quiet, letting him process the information. Her head was buzzing with too many ideas right now, and she could not decide which one to concentrate on.
“Before we had that argument yesterday, you started saying that you noticed something peculiar with the books in the room.”
“Right. It’s not exactly about the books. His fingers were slightly twisted, as if something had been wrestled from his hand post death.”
“You think he had time to write a note or something?”
“He was holding something, but I have no idea what it was. A note, a candle, a booklet… the key to the safe? It could’ve been anything. The reason why it attracted my attention to begin with,” Charlotte closed her eyes briefly, reconstructing the scene in her memory, “is because there was a booklet on flora of the Eastern Archipelago next to his hand. I happen to have the same one in my possession. And his copy seemed to have a missing page.”
“I didn’t pay attention to the books scattered on the floor, but I don’t think I noticed any of them being vandalised.”
“No,” Charlotte agreed. “They were simply thrown on the ground in a hurry. As if the person searching through the room was running out of time. Or, perhaps, they weren’t planning to search for anything, but suddenly remembered something and changed their mind.”
“Do you at least roughly remember what page was missing? Even if your copy is all the way back in Lindau, I’m certain I can find another one here. Provided there were no reprints or new editions of it. Even if it ends up a dead end, it’s worth looking into.”
“I had the same thought, so I wrote the page number down just in case,” she nodded. “Another thing that still bothers me are those candles scattered on his writing desk.”
“You think it has something to do with that set of rules he made or his demise?”
“There were way more than five,” Charlotte reminded him. “At least a dozen.”
“You’re right,” he sighed. “Honestly, this set of rules is so weird. Almost like something an annoyed father would ask his children to do to behave, or… You know, kids sometimes tell horror stories to each other, which often feature someone not following certain precautions and getting themselves into a dangerous situation because of it.”
“I considered those possibilities. It’s just that there is, how should I put it, a pattern within that set that makes me believe it’s more than a collection of superstitions.”
She leafed through her notepad, found the right page, and placed it on the coffee table in front of Antony. Greg jumped down from his perch and finally joined them, finding a new nesting ground on the armrest of Antony’s chair.
“I had time to talk to Mr Fincke while waiting for you. We agreed to have a separate, more thorough, interview two days from now, but he was nice enough to provide me with the full list of rules,” Charlotte explained to the two of them. “Lord Simon Welz remembered some of these, but not all.”
They huddled over the small piece of paper, which read:
- Always keep the doors in the house closed.
- Before entering a room, knock three times. If no answer comes, knock another two times, and only then enter. It does not matter if you know the room to be empty or occupied.
- Before entering a room, look behind you and check that your shadow is where it’s supposed to be.
- Always have a bowl of candy at the entrance.
- Before descending or ascending the stairs, touch the railings twice.
- Do not linger at the top of the stairs.
- The paintings in the hall are not to be moved or rearranged. If taken down, they must be returned to their rightful place. If a painting falls, check that whatever is the subject of it still casts a shadow.
- Curtains are to be always drawn in the study and in the dining room, no matter the time of the day or weather. Curtains in all other rooms must be kept closed at night.
- Any beverage left in a room unattended even for a moment should be discarded. Same goes for any beverage that has been left on the table for more than thirty minutes.
- Always have at least five candles lit when in a room in the evening, and extinguish them in order they were lit before going to bed. Keep the last candle you put out on your bedside table, and always check if it’s still the same size as it was before you fell asleep.
“That is… quite the list,” Antony whistled. “And you’re right, there is a pattern.”
“Yes. For whatever reason, Lord Welz was afraid of either losing his shadow or finding an extra one.”
“Did Mr Fincke provide an explanation?”
She shook her head, “He started working for the Welz family five years after Mr Brook became Lord Welz’s personal secretary, so he didn’t know where the customs originated from. They were already established at that point, and obviously he had no desire to argue with his employer, nor did he want to show unnecessary curiosity. He did, however, mention that Lord Welz’s old housekeeper, Mrs Greeves, might know more, and provided her address. Lord Simon Welz also told me to talk to her.”
“I take it the great grandmother was of no help?”
“She found her peace and finally passed to the afterlife once I was done with the death mongerer,” Charlotte felt her cheeks become somewhat reddish. “I think her desire to protect her kin was finally fulfilled.”
“In other words, you didn’t just give that one ghoul a good beating, you managed to break an extremely tricky curse and purify that house just as an afterthought,” Antony concluded.
“Yes,” she stared at the carpet under her feet.
“And I wondered why you were barely awake and that low on mana… Cardinal Whitesand has one hell of a story to cook up.”
“I almost feel pity for him,” Greg scoffed, “but he refused to give me fish the other day when I begged for some.”
“You… begged him for fish?” Antony and Charlotte said almost in unison.
“I’m a cat,” he shrugged his shoulders. “What did you expect?”
“You behaving with a sliver of decency?” Antony proposed, then noticed that Charlotte suddenly fell quiet, frowning slightly. “Is everything alright?”
Dear Lady, it was all in front of me, wasn’t it? And I’m only just putting two and two together…
“I’m fine. I just realised something thanks to that remark of yours,” she looked at Antony. “I finally remembered where I heard about that cursed ruby. Literally cursed.”
“Huh?”
“You and I are going to the archives of the Church of the Dead Moon,” she grinned, seeing Antony’s confusion. “I think I know what that thing is, but I need a final confirmation.”
“Why the two of us?”
“Isn’t it obvious? You know that place much better than I do. Don’t worry, you won’t be detained for your previous unauthorised excursion.”
“As long as I help you solve this case?”
“I didn’t mean it like that, but… I like the idea,” she laughed heartily, while Greg hit his muzzle with his paw so hard he lost balance and tumbled to the floor.