Dance of the Gods

On Copper Street a man was walking. He wore a long black coat over his dark brown suit. In his left hand was a cane made out of some metal, his other hand lingered at his side for some reason. Occasionally he even touched his hip and felt around that area.

His eyes were a fierce grayish-blue color, while his short hair matched the color of his suit. On his head was a black top hat covering most of said hair.

With measured steps he walked down the street, it was already late at night so there weren't many people, or at least there shouldn't have been. But this part of the city never truly slept, with all the brothels and taverns it must've been a nightmare living in its proximity.

After walking a bit more the man stopped in front of a strange looking building. It's roof was all over the place, the windows size's didn't match and the door frame looked crooked.

He took out a golden pocket watch and with a small click opened it.

'Hmm... I'm a bit early, wonder if the others made it already.'

Carefully the man approached the door and slowly opened it. He could smell the blood even before opening the door, but the inside was way more pungent. The man didn't seem bothered and just closed the door behind himself, then turned and looked around.

'So they aren't here yet... At least I can do some preliminary investigation while waiting.'

The room was dark, but he soon found the gas lamp's valve and the it got bathed in light. In the middle was a large table with scratch marks and blood on it. On the ground in a pile of broken objects and divination cards lay the corpse of an old woman.

'Poor Madam Stout... You didn't deserve to end up like this... But how did you end up like this, that's the question!'

He didn't even have to move from the doorway, his eyes became more vibrant in color and his vision changed.

The previously empty and desolate room became colorful. The first thing he saw was the footprints on the floor, there were three of them. One he instantly knew was Madam Stout's, another a taller male's with measured steps and the last smaller –– a woman's.

The last one interested him the most since the steps heading inside the building were made by her shoes, but she left without them. He quickly found out why... In the corner there were the shoes that made those footprints, they were right next to a pile of vomit.

'Hmm... The man is definitely an ascended judging by his footsteps, and the woman was in a distress and quickly left after throwing up... Well, at least I know who those bloody footprints belonged to!'

With light and wary steps he approached the corpse, then with a swift movement turned it on her back. The sight was very disgusting, all over her body were yellow eyes and their veins seemed to be popped out.

On the side of her head was a clean gunshot wound and judging by the gunpowder residue all over her face, it was from a pointblank range.

'Whoever the man was, he didn't let her to fully become a corrupted and just shot her when the opportunity arose... But why did she get corrupted at only order 8?'

Consumed in his own thoughts he heard an approaching carriage. It slowed down near the building and soon two pairs of footsteps approached the door, an average build male's and a small female's... His colleagues.

The weird door opened and a young woman stepped in, following closely behind her was the man he heard, they both had their guns out ready to shoot any hostiles.

The girl looked small and skinny, unlike most people she opted to wear a suit made for female's instead of the dresses she was supposed to. It was understandable considering her job. Her bright blond hair was put into a bun for the same reason, and it was kept in shape by two hairpins that could also be used as stabbing weapons if necessary.

Her sky blue eyes immediately focused on the man and with a small sigh of relief she lowered her revolver. Her expression became angry as she shouted at him.

"Dammit Michael! What are you doing here? We could've shot you!"

"Yeah well, we are ask first shoot later type of people, so if you did shot me that would mean you're bad at your job." Michael had a small grin on his face which made the girl even angrier. It also didn't help that he was right.

"Anyway, I have been waiting for you two to arrive. I saw some bloody footprints while walking home and followed them here. Care to tell me what happened?"

The other man stepped forward and knelt down next to the corpse. His face was perfectly expressionless just like always. He wore an old suit and a bowler hat, below it hidden from sight was his not well maintained midnight black hair.

He looked over the body a few times before turning his head towards Michael. His skin was deathly white and those blackish-purple eyes were as bored as ever. After a minute of just staring he explained the situation.

"We came here after getting a telegram from Father Martin. He found a young woman named Veronica Navarro with blood and dirt all over her. You probably followed her bloody footprints. It took him a while to calm the girl, but she eventually told him everything."

The man stayed silent and just watched the corpse, and the woman continued the explanation.

"This Veronica claimed to have some sort of amnesia and a friend of hers took her to Madam Stout for a simple past divination. But when she looked into Veronica's past Madam Stout's words started to make less and less sense, then after a few minutes she became corrupted as you see. Her friend was there luckily and shot her before Veronica could be harmed."

Michael turned back towards the corpse, then looked at the table more closely. There was something strange about this whole scenario, but he just couldn't figure it out.

'Let's start from the beginning... This Veronica has amnesia and wants to recover her memories... She goes to Madam Stout for a divination, but when she became a corrupted and got shot she went into the corner, vomited, then ran away until she finally stopped at the cathedral...'

As he put the clues together the question started to become clearer.

'She ran away, which means whatever she saw was new to her... But that implies she isn't an ascended... Then how did she not go insane just by looking at Madam Stout's corrupted form?...'

His whole thought process didn't even last a full second. Michael turned towards the woman and asked with a wide smile, "Miss Robbins, how did the woman survive?"

She seemed to be very irritated by this question and with a pout replied, "This isn't fair! Your stupid investigator brain... How did you work this out so fast?"

"Because I'm just that good." He said while chuckling at her angry red face.

Finally after a long time of staying silent the man spoke again.

"We don't know. That's what concerned us as well. She was supposed to either die or go insane, but after drinking some spiritual tea with the right ingredients, all her previous symptoms disappeared." He said in a prefect monotone.

They stayed silent for a long time, there was one thing bothering Michael in particular.

'What did Madam Stout say, there must have been some clue for the cause of her corruption... And that Veronica has some secrets too...'

"Hey Ted, did Father Martin ask the woman what were Madam Stout's last words?"

Ted kept silent for a bit, then he just shook his head. His every move was methodical and well thought out, but also very slow which really irritated Michael.

'How I hate communicating with people from the Lost Path, I just had to join the Unbroken where most of them works!...*sigh* I should've thought this through more before joining...'

While silently cursing himself, Miss Robbins asked with a slight tremble in her voice.

"Should... Should I try to divine what she saw?"

Her face was a bit pale and it was obvious she wanted no business with that knowledge. Luckily for her Ted had other ideas.

"There's no need, she died too long ago to get an accurate divination. It would only place you into unnecessary danger. I think you two should talk with the girl while I report this to the police's supernatural department."

Since Ted was their boss they had no right to object. He always worded everything nicely and politely, but it was still an order. They just nodded and went outside, the cathedral was quite far away so they quickly claimed a private carriage to carry them.

The Unbroken were technically part of the police, and they had badges similar to the officers of the law.

The driver was a bit confused as to why they wanted to go to church at night, but because they had the badges he didn't object. They travelled in silence, nobody making any small talk. The streets were less silent, they were full of drunks either causing trouble or trying to find their way home.

Michael watched the whole scene with distaste, he always hated this part of the city. Sadly his workplace was nearby because most of the crimes happened here.

They reached the cathedral quickly and when they got off the carriage he slipped a few eura's inside the driver's pocket. He didn't even notice it and just moved on, carrying some richer person to a private brothel probably.

The pair stood before the huge cathedral and stared up at the large clocktowers. Both of them tapped their chests on three points while making a circular motion, it was the symbol of the Church of Time.

With serious expressions they finally looked at the door and walked inside.