The party was drawing to an end and lyra grew more panicked as time went by, she got to spend time with phoebe and she found her to be a very interesting person, they hit it off nicely and she was certain that they would become great friends with time but that was the least of her worries at the moment. She couldn't find zephyrus and everyone she asked claimed not to have seen him, she knew all the places he liked to stay but she had checked there and he was still nowhere to be found, she felt bad because she left him all alone knowing that he found these kinds of social events uncomfortable.
She eventually met with lady caelia who was saying goodbye to some of the guests who were leaving, but had to wait so she would be done with it. Lady caelia noticed lyra who was fidgeting.
"Lyra!" she called out with a smile and gestured at her to come over.
"Lady caelia" lyra bowed
"You look tense, is there anything wrong?" lady caelia asked with deep concern in her tone.
"I went up to one of the balconies to have a discussion with phoebe leaving zephyrus with lord valerian but at the moment I cannot find him, I have checked all the nooks and cranny of the castle but I still can't find him "lyra said, she looked to be on the verge of tears.
"That shouldn't be an issue, I am sure that he is somewhere around probably doing something strange. Have you checked the simulation room? I did notice that he seemed to be spending a lot of time in there recently" caelia said trying to calm lyra down but deep down she was shaken with fear, there has been news of white haired children, teenagers and young men all elites or children of elites being kidnapped or assassinated all around the world, fingers pointed at the cult of osthronos but they hadn't released any information concerning the recent cases.
This was why she had paid one of the kingdom's mercenaries to tail her son, to protect him if a situation like that arose.
"Lyra go with myoko to the simulation room and see if you can find zephyrus" caelia said, she needed lyra to leave so she could contact the mercenary she had put in charge of tailing renjiro, she double tapped on a small dark spot behind her ear but she was not getting any feedback, this development agitated her greatly.
The rest of the guest began to troop out seeing as the sun has begun to rise, the elites of the kingdoms rarely partied but whenever they did, they partied for hours, caelia absentmindedly waved the remainder of her guests goodbye and shut her doors as soon as the last of her guests left.
"you!" she said to one of the guards "get me alaric now" she commanded and marched to her room to change into something she could be more mobile in.
Lyra and myoko had gotten to the simulation room but it was silent and it didn't look like there had been an activity there in hours, as they searched through the castle's living quarters, they soon came across a room with the door slightly ajar and there was a strange whitish liquid on the door, lyra reached out to touch it but myoko stopped here.
"let me do it my lady, it might be something dangerous" myoko said
She reached with a finger and scooped a drop of the liquid and rubbed the liquid between her fingers then proceeded to sniff it, she let out a shriek of disgust.
"th…. Tha…. That is" she stammered
"that is what? Stop stuttering and tell me what it is" lyra asked
"that is someone's sperm" she said and began to make retching sounds
Lyra's face scrunched up in disgust, she couldn't believe that someone would do something that dirty in such a place. "I guess creeps are everywhere" she thought to herself.
"myoko can we check if there is a video recording of what happened here?" lyra asked
"I really don't know but I think the observation room should have such recordings, we can go check there" myoko offered
Lyra led the way and they arrived at the observation room, there they met a wiry man with wisps for moustache and a pair of very thick glasses, he stank like he hadn't had a bath in months, the room stank too, lyra and myoko almost covered up their noses but had to look polite so they could get what they needed. We need to take a look at the video recordings for the earlier hours of the morning.
"that is not a problem but if I may ask video recordings for which area of the castle" the man asked
"the castle living quarters" myoko answered
"I am sorry but there are no camera's in that area of the castle, lady caelia requested that all camera's is that area be disabled for privacy purposes" the man said grimly
Alaric stood shivering under the intense gaze of lady caelia, the scene would have looked comical if not that the atmosphere was serious, alaric was a strongly built man his shoulders were extremely large and he was over two meters in height, his arms looked like they had never lost in an arm wrestling contest.
"Can you tell me where zephyrus is at the moment" lady caelia requested sternly
"No ma'am" he replied shivering like a day old chick
"What about devil thorn any news from him" she asked
"Negative we have been trying to reach him but all attempts have been unsuccessful" alaric said bowing his head
"I am very shocked this level of incompetence" she said and stormed off.
The guards serving under the Thornfield family knew alaric to be a beast of a man, infact he was quite famous even among the other families, so it was a shock to the few guards present to see their respected boss cowering in front of a woman he could crush with one arm, they knew she could be scary but only alaric knew a bit of what she was capable of.