Those words from Elmer gave Eddie a smile, one so amusing that a person would think he was watching a couple of children running around in a park or something.
"Elmer Hills…" spoke Eddie in a low tone that was further filtered out by the rain. "You are quite the man. You suspect the guard, don't you?"
Elmer had not yet moved too far from the young man he had been standing beside, so he had been able to hear his words unlike the other two people ahead of him.
He took a moment to plainly look over his shoulder at Eddie and the way his lips were curled to the side, but he said nothing and instead returned his gaze back to Ms. Edna who was standing firmly under the showers of the rain, defying the cold breeze that came with it.
Despite all the talks about only one unique physical characteristic being taken to a heightened level for an Ascender, Elmer noticed that his peers, and himself, were not shivering under this rain even though none of their heightened physical characteristics pertained to endurance.
They should have been cowering by now, maybe rubbing their arms fervently together to reduce the effects of the cold. And since that was not the case, he started to see that statement about heightened characteristics in a new light.
He took Ms. Edna's words—one which had come to be when he had been concerned about her sleepless night earlier during the day—to further approve of his deduction. A deduction that all Ascenders had their physical characteristics improved greater than the average human's, but only one unique to them was specially heightened to a far greater degree.
It made the most sense, and he was completely satisfied to go with that. He would have asked to confirm his thoughts any other time—that was something he'd taken a liking to—but at this moment, he was too busy to spare any second for such.
"May I?" he asked once again, directing his question to Ms. Edna who had something of a blank look. "I don't mean to belittle the performance of Whispers of Time, but it's just that it has been a while since then. Who knows, the corrupted one may already be long gone. And it would be pure madness for me to ask you to subject yourself to such a torture once more just to confirm if he's still here and if he has an accomplice." He side eyed the guard for a quick second. "This would be faster, and as well, efficient."
Ms. Edna shook her head softly with a sigh. "No, it's not what you think. I was just surprised at myself for not giving a moment's reason about doing that." She shuffled to her side, showing Elmer something of a path through where she was standing toward the gate. "Please, go ahead."
Elmer bobbed his head forward once, then turned back to the guard who had been watching their interactions with a confused look on his face.
He nudged a few steps closer to the gate, his right hand outstretched while his bronze pendant, which was carved with Enochian symbols that went in a circle, dangled from his wrist.
With a pounding heart and a breath so deep that he almost sucked in a few drops of the rain, he muttered silently after plunging his gaze into darkness, "The watchful eye of the Heavens that sees all. I plead for your vast gaze. Show me if what I seek is in this place with me now. Maggot-faced man."
Elmer did not need to bring his eyes open to notice how violently the pendant had begun to shake.
It was a good result. The maggot-faced man was still in the dock.
He couldn't even imagine how he would have felt if the man was not here. Since he would not have been able to ask Ms. Edna to use Whispers of Time in her current condition, then he would have been left with no choice but to wait until she was recharged, which would have no doubt been a painful delay for him.
But at least that was not going to happen now. And with that, Elmer's pounding heart relaxed a tad. He then went ahead to remind himself of what was next as soon as the pendant stopped its violent behavior.
After muttering the same prayer, Elmer added at the end, "Maggot-faced man's accomplice."
It took a moment, maybe as much as a few seconds, before Elmer finally gave in and opened his eyes. The pendant had remained still the whole time. His suspicion of the guard was completely wrong!
A sudden wave of shame washed over his body, and that caused him to avoid the guard's gaze even though the young man on the other side of the gate knew nothing of what had just happened, and had heard none of what he had been talking about through the rain.
Elmer turned to Ms. Edna and Eddie, the former raising her eyebrows up in a gesture that asked for answers, while the latter was just there standing drenched with his lips curled up indiscernibly.
Doesn't his cheeks hurt from all the smiling…?
Elmer breathed out an exhale and put his pendant back into his sleeve. "The corrupted one is here," he said, stopping his answers with those words.
"And the accomplice?" Eddie asked. Of course, he would ask. His smiles had probably been him laughing deep within on how paranoid Elmer was.
But was it not better to be safe? Prevent anything unexpected from happening?
Elmer's nose wrung up to one side before he answered, "There is none." Suddenly noticing that leaving his answer as such would put a hole into the plan he had come up with, Elmer quickly added, "At least at this moment."
He had let his impulse to find out if the guard was an Ascender take hold of him so much that he had almost forgotten a good chunk of his plan revolved around the maggot-faced man having an accomplice.
He now wondered what his next line of action would have been if the guard had actually turned out to be an accomplice. It would have been a disaster.
Well, it didn't matter. He need not dwell on it.
Ms. Edna poured out a nerve relaxing sigh. "I see. That's very good." She shared a glance each between Elmer and Eddie. "Let's proceed."
As she returned toward the side gate, prompting the guard to finally resume its opening which he had paused with Elmer's act, Eddie approached Elmer, stopping just beside him and causing their faces to be in opposite directions.
"You know, you were too harsh with your decision making just now. You almost ruined your plan to keep Edna away." Eddie did not need to mention that, Elmer was well aware. "Also, it's good to be suspicious of people, but doing things discreetly would give a better result than outright making your suspicions obvious. Especially in our line."
Elmer turned to his shoulder's direction, beholding Eddie's side countenance which was a little bit high as a result of their height difference. He nudged his brows downward and asked, "What do you mean?"
"I'm saying whipping out a divination pendant would have instantly revealed your intentions to the guard if he was an Ascender. The gate was not even unlocked yet. What if he had been an Ascender who shared the same heightened physical characteristic as you, which is speed, if I recall correctly, would you have been able to catch him if he ran away? I certainly wouldn't have."
The muscles which had strained as a result of Elmer furrowing his eyebrows relaxed.
That's… True…
He had not thought about it that way.
His shoulders slumped as he turned away from Eddie's side face and put his eyes onto the carriage which was parked a few steps away from them.
Ms. Edna was right, he was inexperienced, and one or two jobs were not going to give him as much experience as he usually thought they would.
That was the harsh truth, and he now instantly engraved it onto his being.
When it came to the supernatural, he was still a child.
Still, what other method could he have used to figure out if the guard was an Ascender? Was Eddie saying that he should have hidden himself while he had done the divination, or was there something else?
Elmer sharply turned once again to his side to look at Eddie, but the man was prepared. Eddie shushed him immediately by opening his mouth and letting words free first.
"I sort of get the idea of what might be running through your mind, and yes, what I'm talking about does not involve the pendant at all," said Eddie. "You could have simply used your spiritual sight by directing it to the guard's crest. If it had been that he'd had one, you would have seen a blurry dark green color, different from the light green that represents vitality cloaking his body, forming a crest about his chest. Simple and efficient, and discreet. Doing that would have prevented the whole 'accomplice talk', and also give you a better chance of cornering him if he was an Ascender."
Those words filled Elmer with great uneasiness, one he should not be having, but he could not help it.
The illusionary potion affected all the senses, so the person missing from his mind had said, but did that pertain to spiritual sight as well, something that could even allow an Ascender to see curses?
Was the fact that neither Eddie nor Ms. Edna had held him captive and taken him to the Church owing to the possibility that maybe they had not checked his crest yet, or that the illusionary potion actually worked on the spiritual senses as well?
Elmer did not know which direction to send his mind toward, so he simply recited the prayer in his thoughts, directing it at his own crest before indistinctly looking down upon his chest.
He saw a blurry, dark green crest swirling about his chest as Eddie had said. But that was not what had instantly filled him with relief now. It was because the intricate goblet that represented the repulsive pathway he was currently in was nowhere to be found. The crest about his chest was just an endless rolling circle of dark green essence, nothing more.
From that, Elmer came to the conclusion that the supernatural was keeping each person's pathway a secret from the eyes of others. He found himself somewhat grateful for that.
"Why did you not stop me from going through with the divination then?" Elmer asked Eddie after he canceled his spiritual sight with a sigh, and turned around to join the man standing beside him to face the dock's gate.
"You did not mention what exactly you were going to do. You only said you had an idea. An idea which could have been anything. It could have even been what I just told you about. So I left you be." Eddie looked at him and smiled—again.
Elmer shook his head. The man was very experienced, but it was hard to take him seriously sometimes.
"So your constant smiles were just you telling me that I was being paranoid since you had already seen that he was not an Ascender with your spiritual sight?"
"Uhm… Not really." Eddie shrugged. "You're right that I had already checked with my spiritual sight, but I just find watching you amusing."
Elmer shuddered, though not from the rain's cold.
Sometimes Eddie's words perplexed him. Maybe he was going to keep his distance from the man once the night was done after all.
"We've wasted enough time. We should do what we came here to do," Ms. Edna interrupted Elmer and Eddie with a loud voice, prompting both of them to force their conversation to a close, then move forward and pass through the opened side gate along with her.
"And him?" Eddie questioned about the guard as the young man shut the gate following their entrance.
"I told him to wait in his shack. He has to lock up once we're done after all," Ms. Edna replied.
Eddie took a moment to look at the guard, noticing how his eyes were flickering among the three of them without any understanding of all they've been speaking about.
"Are you sure, Edna?"
Elmer sort of had an inkling on what Eddie was getting at. Ms. Edna had mentioned that she didn't want any casualties, and having a guard remain in the vicinity seemed somewhat risky.
"Do you have any ideas? We can't send him home though, that's out of it. If he's not here we could be sued for trespassing if we're seen. He's our only witness," said Ms. Edna, seemingly dealing something of a damage to Elmer with those words.
He had instantly remembered his exploits in Spearhead Cemetery during Lev's job.
Wait… If I had been seen then I would have been sued…? Blimey…!
"Maybe staying in the carriage?" Eddie proposed. "That would be far better than remaining within this fence, and hopefully would be up to fifty meters away from me."
Ms. Edna nodded, rubbing her neck in some sort of exasperation directed at herself as she recognized that Eddie's option was far better than hers.
Elmer understood what was wrong with her. Not even considering how using Whispers of Time had weakened her mental capacity significantly, she was obviously quite nervous about this job. Her plan had not been heeded, and it only filled her with uncertainty about what the outcome might be.
"Yes. That's good," acknowledged Ms. Edna. "Forgive me for not thinking about that." She turned her gaze to the guard. "Kindly wait in the carriage, if you will?"
The guard blinked rapidly. "I'd prefer to stay in the shack. I think I'll feel a lot safer there," he replied, his voice as tender as a child's, though its prior calmness had long waned now. The pressure of the night's gloomy feel had finally gotten to him after Ms. Edna had explained the cause that had brought them here.
Ms. Edna shook her head. "I promise you, the farther away you are, the more safe you will be. We'll knock on the gate once we're done. Leave and lock it."
The guard inhaled sharply, resigning himself to heed the words of the professionals, then picked up his lantern and instantly rushed out of the gate, following it up with Ms. Edna's instruction of locking them inside the dock.
All three of them watched the guard scurry into the carriage before turning around to behold the dock in his great expanse. Its cloak which bore the name darkness was only being broken by the light from the countless lamp posts that went about the whole area beyond the gate.
Following Ms. Edna's lead—as she was the one who had seen where exactly the corrupted one must be—they trudged in the stealthiest way they could past the numerous warehouses that loomed around them like silent sentinels. Their signboards bore their differing numbers like a landmark, making sure to individualize each one from the other.
As they ventured further within the dockyard, the echoes of waves lapping against the wooden piers that stood at the end of the world that was Ur, grew louder, and with it came the occasional creaking of the ships that were moored nearby.
The air slowly became heavy, and it filled Elmer's nose with the conjoined scent of saltwater and fish and tar and damp wood.
Elmer found his heart beating fast—very fast.
Was it excitement or fear? He could not pinpoint which exactly. But what he did know was that at this moment he did not wish to slow it down; Eddie could subtly smell his emotions all he wanted.
He embraced this feeling. He loved this feeling. He craved adrenaline.
…
After something of a couple of minutes moving about the dockyard, Ms. Edna finally put her steps to a halt.
"This is it," she muttered.
Elmer looked up at the large signboard that had been bestowed to this warehouse. It had been given the words "DCK 01".
Ms. Edna turned around to face Eddie and Elmer.
"We make sure to stick to the plan," she huffed softly. "Dick, Mr. Elmer is going to blow a whistle if things turn out badly. If that happens you are to rush in and aid him, while I will remain behind to keep guard out here. Let's try to resolve everything as quickly as possible." Elmer nodded as a reply to her, then she proceeded to flay her eyes about the area, scanning and, as well, searching. "We'll be under the roof of DCK 05," she said to Elmer. "It seems like a good vantage point seeing as it is at the end of this area. Your divination confirmed that there's no accomplice currently, but Dick and I will stand guard regardless. We'll be taking no chances since the pendant does not have a wide range for its divinations." Elmer's brows fell. He hadn't known that. "Can you do one more?" Ms. Edna asked all of a sudden.
"One more what?" Elmer was confused.
"Do the divination for the corrupted one and if he has an accomplice one more time so we'll be sure of our current situation."
Elmer breathed out an exhale and nodded. Since she had agreed to stick to the plan, he did not object.
He went ahead with the divination, and the result came out positive for the maggot-faced man, and negative for the accomplice.
Ms. Edna sighed and said, "Be careful, and make sure to keep to the plan of blowing the whistle. May Chronos be with you."
"Amen," Elmer replied, his shoulder suddenly tensing, before taking a glance at Eddie who bobbed his head once at him.
With that he turned around and approached the large, towering warehouse that was termed "DCK 01".
Upon reaching its large wooden doors, he took a moment to look behind himself, glimpsing Ms. Edna and Eddie taking cover under the warehouse that was "DCK 05". After which, Eddie undertook something of a praying position similar to what Ms. Edna had done when she had used Whispers of Time.
Elmer was of the mind to see how False Cognition both worked and affected its user, but he had no time.
He quickly brought out his revolver and filled it with bullets, six of them. Then with a deep breath in and out, he pushed open one half of the door, its sound creaking loudly in the darkness of the night, and went from the harsh rainfall that had taken over the outside world into the murky but warm shade of the warehouse.
As he shut the door following his slow entrance, revolver up and ready, all that remained was a great stuffy air of sawdust and a veil of blackness that was occasionally being pushed away by the slight traces of lamp posts' lights making their way in from the high windows of the warehouse.
Rows of wooden crates and barrels with somewhat faded markings were arranged in a line against the walls and stacked high until they'd almost touched the ceiling.
The whole space was filled, leaving only a few paths, and what more, it was too silent.
Elmer could hear the rain beating itself against the roof, but even with that, he could still hear his heart raging. He knew that slowing his heartbeat down in this scenario would be practically pushing himself into failure. There were no harsh sounds to wake him up if he tried such, so he would be basically handing himself over to the maggot-faced man to do whatever he might want with him.
That part of his ability was a no-go here, even though it was his most powerful at this moment.
Settling his thoughts, Elmer held his revolver tight and slowly went forward a step at a time, sharply and cautiously turning to his sides in intervals even though he was hearing no sounds.
Where is he…?
Elmer was already halfway into the warehouse, which had caused his cautious turns to now involve his hind side, when he suddenly noticed a dim light come on at the far end to the right of the room.
He flinched and halted his movements then, his breathing becoming quite audible as he pointed his revolver toward whatever path was hiding in the midst of the crates over there.
Making sure to say nothing, Elmer heard as heavy footsteps echoed through the warehouse, and watched as the dim light slowly grew brighter, both actions reminding him of an unforgettable night he'd experienced at Sir Reginald's mansion.
He was sure of it. The maggot-faced man was who would emerge. And he was ready.
"You… You came?" a frail voice stammered. "You really… came."
Elmer frowned as he felt his hair lift on the back of his neck. He instinctively took a step backward, his humanly defensive mechanism instantly triggered for some reason he was not sure of.
It was not the mythical presence Ms. Edna had spoken of, right? He had not even seen the maggot-faced man yet, it couldn't be.
Then, why was he shivering? Why was his heartbeat suddenly so heavy? Why in the world was he having difficulty breathing?
Should he blow the whistle? Now? Yes, now? But if he did that he would be unable to join the Pathway of Time. If he did that everything would be ruined. He would not get hold of 'The Warlock's Torch', surely.
Then what should he do? Just stay here to die? Eddie… Eddie could smell his emotions right? No. He had said it was only subtly. The distance between them both was too great.
Elmer's musty grip on his revolver slowly weakened as a sudden dizziness stormed his being, but he forced a resolve on himself to hold on tight to it—to not let go.
Although, he was unable to give his knees the same resolve as he had given his hands.
He crumpled to the floor, his mouth opening as he gasped for breath. The beads of water rolling from his forehead now were not from the remnants of the rain that had lodged in his hair, these ones were sweat. Sweats pouring forth as a result of dread.
This was a feeling vastly different from the one had endured on the night he and Patsy had snuck into the mansion. He had been weaker then, and he had been doing a lot better than he was doing now.
Was it all a trap? Had the maggot-faced man lessened the effects on that night so that he could successfully lure him and kill him here instead?
But why? Why?!
His arms shook violently and his eyes spinned.
He had to do something. At this rate he was really going to die.
"I… I really didn't think you would… come." To the far end of the warehouse finally emerged the maggot-faced man in the same fit he had been garbed in weeks ago. A thick black trench coat with soleless boots. Though, this time he was holding a lantern in his hand in the place of a candle stand.
He turned around, saying as his half-rotten face further sickened Elmer where he was on his knees with his body shivering restlessly,
"Nice… Nice to finally meet you. Elmer Hills."