"That boy from the Leviathan family in Room One—the one who drew those bizarre pictures—how exactly did he die?"
Miss Bevanna shook her head.
"The bodies hidden in the wardrobe were all... processed by the maniac in the last room. Now, even the most skilled medical examiner can't determine the exact cause of death. However... check that file, see if there's a small cloth pouch inside."
Jenkins shooed his sniffing cat aside, then turned the file upside down and gave it a shake. A small, gray, knitted pouch tumbled out.
It was smaller than Jenkins's palm, and it didn't feel heavy when he picked it up.
"What's inside the pouch was found in the boy's stomach during the autopsy. Luckily, it wasn't destroyed by his stomach acid. We initially thought it might be the cause of those strange drawings, but upon examination, it turned out to be something ordinary."
"Yes. To be more precise, in the lower-middle part of the stomach. A very peculiar spot."
Miss Bevanna pointed to her own body to show Jenkins the location.
Inside the pouch was a long, thin strip of metal. It was incredibly thin, with a golden sheen. The autopsy report mentioned scratches on his esophagus, likely caused by this very object. Both sides were covered in extremely fine engravings, which didn't look like decorative patterns, but more like energy conduits or something from Jenkins's memory—a circuit diagram.
He held it up to the light of the gas lamp on the wall, but couldn't see anything unusual.
"The only thing the autopsy revealed was that the boy was just one step away from embarking on the true path of an Enchanter. Perhaps the appearance of the Mysterious Realm awakened his talent, or maybe it was just a coincidence. But we may never know the real reason."
The woman tapped her fingers lightly on the tabletop and added:
"Considering those drawings, we speculate he had a talent for divination. The words on this metal strip were likely the results of his scrying. As for why he swallowed it... I'm sorry, we have no way of knowing that either."
The metal strip, upon testing, was found to be low-purity copper mixed with some silver and tin—the same material as a damaged metal ornament from Room One. As for the markings that resembled a circuit diagram, they were actually words the boy had carved, but his handwriting was so awful that Jenkins hadn't recognized them.
"The war of life and death, the victor is..."
That was the meaning of the words, but even after deciphering them, the Church had no idea what the boy was trying to convey. Jenkins held the strip up to the room's light, staring at it for a long while, almost able to picture the boy desperately swallowing it just before he died.
"Do you want to take it with you?"
Miss Bevanna asked, noticing his interest.
"Hm? Oh, no, I don't want to take it."
Jenkins shook his head. He gave the engravings one last look before carefully placing the strip back into the cloth pouch.
"After all, I'd rather not invite any more trouble."
Chocolate dreamt of chasing mice through snowy fields.
Tonight was time for his astronomy... no, his divination lesson. Miss Audrey was waiting for Jenkins in a derelict house on the outskirts of the city. It was a two-story building that stood incongruously in the middle of a field, its crude architectural style suggesting it had been built by a local farmer.
Having just eaten dinner at the church, Chocolate was feeling drowsy and lethargic. The cat had fallen asleep in the carriage and was now slumbering peacefully inside Jenkins's greatcoat.
He had to walk from a snow-covered country lane into the barren farmland. It was still winter, so the fields were empty. But the trek was difficult nonetheless; the snow hid the uneven ground, and Jenkins had to tread carefully to avoid falling. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novelFɪre.net
He didn't quite understand why they had to hold the divination lesson here, but since Miss Audrey had chosen this spot, she must have had her reasons.
The building's dilapidated front door was ajar. In fact, the doorframe was so warped that the door probably couldn't be closed at all. The house was dreadfully cold inside, filled with dust and cobwebs. Jenkins hesitated at the entrance for a long moment, only daring to step inside after confirming that the Enchanter standing on the second floor was indeed Miss Audrey.
Past the foyer and the living room was a staircase, though it seemed to have been cobbled together from planks and iron nails. The builder must have been a terrible carpenter; Jenkins reckoned half the steps were crooked.
After carefully making his way to the second floor, he found Miss Audrey standing by a window that had been boarded up. There were gaps between the planks, offering a view of the snowy plains outside.
Unlike the first floor, which was divided into separate rooms, the second floor had no partition walls. Aside from a few lonely load-bearing walls, it was just one enormous bedroom.
He called it a bedroom because, aside from the dust, cobwebs, rusted steam pipes, and droppings from some unknown bird, the only other thing in the room was a four-poster bed.
Only the top portion of the white gauze canopy remained, oxidized to a dingy yellow. In the center was a suspicious, discolored stain that Jenkins suspected was blood.
"How strange," Jenkins remarked. "The people who lived here somehow had money for a bed canopy."
He walked over to Miss Audrey's side as he spoke. She was wearing a thick, dark red dress today, adorned with a great deal of lace trim. When she didn't respond, he glanced at her face and was startled to see her eyes rolled back in her head.
"Oh, it's divination."
Jenkins realized at once. A diviner in this state could use a "second sight" to observe the future—it was a fairly advanced form of scrying. Ordinary fortune-tellers often tried to imitate the act, but all they accomplished was hurting their own eyes.
The strange state vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Perhaps in contrast to her previously white eyes, the woman's gaze now seemed exceptionally bright.
"Is this part of tonight's lesson?"
"No, I just want you to take a guess."
Jenkins glanced around the room.
"Did you see that our lesson today will be a great success?"
Miss Audrey shook her head with a smile. "I saw a grand performance."
Today's lesson was closely related to this house. Miss Audrey had temporarily given up on trying to get Jenkins to "guess objects from a distance," deciding this time to start with something he was good at.