The sun was right above the horizon, dying the rooftops of Orchidia in a diluted crimson red. It fell over the snowy blankets across the town and coaxed it gently back into water droplets that now hung on leaves and flowers. It was the first in a long while that the sun was out so visibly. Yet, judging by the rolling dark clouds, Faye could tell it would be snowing again. She was on her way to meet Dex Miller again. Since the last time they met in search of a ‘culprit’, a day or two seems to have passed. That morning, she was once again surprised to find another letter right in front of her doors. The familiar handwriting omitted a search for the sender’s name as Faye quickly scanned through the contends and sighed. Somehow this writing of his was less controlled compared to last time, as if he had written it in fear of something.

Throwing it back to her bed, she grabbed a coat and Hana before leaving the inn. She wandered around the town till evening and went up to the same café they met last time. Similar to that day, she was expecting to find the cozy building empty. But she was wrong and realized that the place was loved by many middle-aged to old-aged men that liked to spend their evenings out. Now that she thought about it, Dex fit somewhere in that age group, didn’t he?

She noticed him quickly on the same table he sat last time. This time, however, there was no pretenses as the man looked panicked and worried. He restlessly bit the nail on his thumb and kept stealing glances everywhere until it finally landed on her and relief washed over his countenance. “You’re here!” He exclaimed, standing up right away. Ignoring the stares of many elders, he walked over to her, grabbed her hand and started walking out.

“What?! Hey hey hey! What do you think you are doing? Let go of Faye!” Hana quickly spoke up, her wooden hands falling over the hand grabbing Faye. Dex immediately let go, and even looked startled as if he didn’t intend it. “Oh! I’m sorry. But you must see this! You see..,” He told her about some weird blue orb over at the riverside. It was, according to his witness report, floating over the river and emitted strange blue light. He had fell into some sort of daze as he got closer to it and the blue orb was giving him all sorts of negative feelings.

Faye tried to put all of his words together, internally frowning at the complicated case. Any other day, she would have ignored him ramblings as mere fantasies. But Dex acted so differently to how he usually did. His body language was rigid, confirming to Faye that he had indeed gone through such a frightening experience and despite saying things like it was some kind of dead ghost or culprit, he recalled everything as he experienced it. In the end, it had gotten Faye curious, too. She agreed to go with him to check it out later when night falls.

526/1000

Once the sky darkened completely and a starless dome fell over the town, Faye left her apartment for the second time that day to meet up with Dex. This time, she had taken a small flashlight with her just in case it may come in handy. As it turned out, she had to use it all the way to the riverside where Dez was waiting for her, pacing in distress. He jumped with a light scream when the flashlight’s blue light fell on him. But noticing Faye behind it, he calmed down with a hand to his chest.

“You scared me!” He almost yelled at the young puppeteer who was, at this point, very amused at the man who had acted all cool and brave just a couple of days ago. Well, even he couldn’t win over the possibility of a ghost, she guessed. A ghost; thinking of it made Faye internally sigh. She didn’t believe in ghosts. The magic world had many strange occurrences and not all of it could be explained even by the most intelligent scholars. Not even a week had passed since she fought all those demons! However, ghosts were still a very iffy subject. She couldn’t even begin to think they truly exist. It was most likely that this blue light was the result of some sort of magic.

At least, that was what she had in her mind until she actually saw the object floating so gracefully over the blue river surface. It made a humming sound as it spun in an invisible axis, creating ripples on the water. Faye didn’t even hear Dex when he told her to be careful. Instead, she took a couple of steps closer to it, extending her arms towards the warm light. Then, it was as if something pulled her in.

Darkness fell for an instant and then the image of a lonely room came into vision. “Shall I tell you a tale?” A voice made Faye shudder right away. How could she forget it? The sound that Faye was excited, scared, happy, and sad all at the same time for? Edwin. “Shall I tell you a tale? A tale spun on the heels of twenty four?” His ghostly voice echoed in the room and Faye suddenly found herself standing in the middle of Edwin’s workroom back in Minstrel. All the recognizable puppets lined across the walls, all looking down at her as they always seemed to do. She suddenly felt as cold as a corpse and then an orange blaze began to gather around her feet. It swished, swayed, rocked back and forth before turning a light blue and exploding.

Faye was thrown a few feet back, her back hitting the trunk of a tree hard, and fell down. She groaned in pain. “Urgh”. Beside her Dex’s body tightened and wriggled. He finally went still, obviously passed out from the pain. Faye’s constitution had let her get away with small wounds even though her back hurt like hell. Dex was clearly not as lucky as her and would probably take more damage. Forcing herself to her feet, Faye had no time to look back for the blue orb and immediately took Dex to the nearby hospital. Halfway there, she met someone by the name Dacol –the name was all she got from him and cared to get at the time- and he helped her for rest of the way. The man even stayed in the hospital to help out until Dex finally came to and gave her the payment for her trouble. Looking back at Dacol, the man seemed like he had something to say but Faye didn’t stay to listen. After everything she experiences, Faye desperately wanted to be alone.

-Exit-

1150/1000