Virgil's eyes opened and once again the ocean peered at me, nay, inside me, looking, searching, for something that was necessary to complete what I needed to do. "Notwithstanding this, you still wish to pursue it?"
I nodded.
"That is enough," he said. "I shall tell you. Ms. Alice, if you may lead us to the common room." The wooden frame of Virgil's wheelchair was pushed out the door by hatted Ms. Alice, followed by Alfred's stout frame, then I.
The common room was a spruce square of a room; a serene light came from the chandelier overhead, illuminating the contents of the living room: two sallow couches around a mahogany table joined to a marble top, a grand piano rested at the corner of the room. Paintings hung from the mahogany-fringed walls, some of creatures, some of people, some of a blooming city that was as different to Yarim as man was to ghouls. The room smelt of violets and jasmine, an amelioration from the grimy dust a few rooms ago.
"Here is enough, Ms. Alice," Virgil said. "Come. Sit, Anima Diggory. Alfred, if you may give us some time to discuss these things privately."
Alfred grunted and left the group, stopping at the threshold of the door. He did not look at me, instead saying, "Don't do anything funny kid," before he shut the door. Virgil sighed before calling on Ms. Alice to make tea. I sat at one of the pillowed couches, sinking into the seat as I did when I met Virgil's gaze. We sat in silence for a while, the intermittent crying of the kettle our only interruption.
"Whatever did you mean back then, sir, when you spoke of knowing the cure to my affliction." I said, attempting to start conversation; I was interested too.
"Ms. Alice must be present," he said, looking at the tranquil visage of the chandelier. He was not displeased; or if he was so, he did not show or hint at it. "For she possesses the blood that will sustain you for now."
I wanted to know more but I decided on not forcing the answer out of the invalid old man, afraid he would not reveal it anymore if I irk his gracefulness and benevolence. I did not know if I could trust him—them—but the pain had left my body and only the old man and Ms. Alice could eliminate the searing burn that had etched my skin for years.
Tea came with Ms. Alice's return to the dim room. It was black tea—an earl grey, creamy and rich but not overtly so. Light snacks posted beside the cups of tea. I took a sip of the tea, the warmth it gave my mouth soothed my anxiety. "Sir," I started, placing the cup down. "Perhaps it is now time to speak of the matter but I do not impose."
Virgil shuttered his eyes. I did not dismay for looking into them had quickly ascended my list of peeves. "Yes, I think so, too. Then, I shall continue where I had left off. You will undergo countless trials in your journey to find the cure to your ailment, Anima Diggory. You had seen earlier…one of the ghouls that reside in the city;" his brows furrowed, "you must rid Yarim of these for that is the plague that stands between you and your cure."
I remembered the ghoul, its sinewy and sallow body, its mouth revealing blade-sharp teeth that would give no thought upon ravenously noshing on my insides. A grimace appeared on my face perhaps, for I felt the contorting of my features and the quickening of my breath.
I found my words. "What you ask of me is…" impossible, I had wanted to say. "It is unreasonable."
"Quite untrue, Mr. Diggory," a melodic voice said. To my surprise, it was Ms. Alice who had replied to my statement. She had given me her blood, saving me from early departure into the Nether; even though women were not to interrupt in conversations between men, I listened to my benefactor. "You possess my blood now, Mr. Diggory and that shall be enough for your survival in Yarim. Weapons are the only thing you lack—ambition, too, perhaps."
A stinging upon my skin; a sharp retort was readied but I swallowed it back down, a craven still against a woman, I could hear my father say. I feigned indifference and laughed self-deprecatingly, "Perhaps, Ms. Alice. Perhaps. But I do not think just having your blood is enough to kill those abominable creatures." I had strong belief I did not sound chiding and the disgust on her face was perhaps proof of that.
"That is quite enough, Ms. Alice," Virgil said, raising a hand. "Anima. What Ms. Alice says is true; because of the transfusion, you now stand a chance against those beasts that you feared and trembled before. You are now a hunter, Mr. Diggory. And the hunt has now begun."