Wangshi told him he’d be waiting inside his grandfather’s laboratory, so after doing his usual morning routine in front of the mirror, Lark went downstairs with Gushi. As soon as the bookcase spun him into the lab, the smell of fruity alcohol greeted his nose.

He covered his nose, looking at Wangshi with a dirty look on his face. “You haven’t been drinking, have you?”

His caretaker shook his head and nodded at the workbench. Lark’s eyes bugged out. He’d forgotten that he left everything out!

It was one of those moments where you think if you’ve forgotten something, it probably wasn’t that important when it actually was.

Eying the alchemy set, Lark leaned over to examine the suspicious pot. He remembered emptying the blue-green tonic into the flasks. So there shouldn't be anything inside, except now, there was a collection of golden-colored liquid at the bottom. The assortment of random materials he had off-ed to the side and a fishy amount of his yellow herbs were missing. The honey had disappeared too.

Without missing a beat, Wangshi poured both of them a glass. “We have a lot to talk about. I read the files on the computer. Who knew the world was this vast?”

Lark clinked his nail against the glass cup. “I suppose you want me to drink this?”

“Don’t look at me like you’re going to die. It’s a simple stamina drink. I noticed there were some ingredients leftover…and well, we have a lot to talk about, don’t we?” his caretaker repeated, taking a light sip.

“True.” Larked pulled up a chair beside Wangshi and saw that the computer was online. COSMO’s notifications were marked as ‘finished.’

“So, you’ve read all the files.”

“Not only that, but I also reviewed every footage from the attacks including the grainy ones." Wangshi paused before clicking on the links. "Hey, please drink it. I promise it won’t kill you.”

“I’m warming up to it.” Lark took a deep sigh before placing the glass against his mouth. Remembering his first encounter with the red potion, Lark steeled his nerves as the liquid met his upper lip. He knocked it back all at once. Cold. Sour. Those were his first impressions, but, the tonic left a burning after-taste on his upper palette. Where was the honey?

“It doesn’t taste exactly awful.” Lark wiped his upper lip. He could feel heat pour into his stomach. He didn’t exactly feel re-energized. Were its effects going to be like coffee? He couldn’t help but wonder uneasily.

“That’s good. I followed most of the formula I remembered as a kid. There was a simple rhyme, the village taught everyone…

“Anything yellow from the meadow.

Reds for meds

Heart for gold

Running water from the potter.”

Lark snickered and Wangshi wanted in on the joke. “What was so funny about that?”

“I was just thinking about the twins when you said ‘potter.’ Teddy for sure would go ‘potty—’ and Cloud would try to follow up with something funny, but would end up saying something like ‘pottery.’ But only Sky would laugh with him.”

“That’s actually not so far-fetched,” Wangshi murmured, clearing his throat. “Unsurprisingly, boys are rascals… Are you planning to visit them before Soko’s?”

“Yes. If time permits.”

“Well said. We should get started then—” Wangshi gulped down the rest of his drink and pulled up a video from COSMO’s directories, which was titled: From Skycam 32. One of the still images showed several red-cloaked figures standing outside the hull of the Redlines airship. Or rather than standing, they were floating in mid-air. In the next slide, a clean tear ripped into red panels. Dark smoke rose from the edges of the torn panels and a hazy figure emerged from behind the opening.

“Hey, isn’t this—” Lark looked closer at the screen, counting the number of members shown. From his memory, three were apprehended at the scene by the Allied Agents, while Wangshi took the fourth one home.

There were three shown in the image currently. He recognized the one with the red-gloves who tried to pull off one last attack, but none of them appeared to be the one who had perpetrated the attack. “How could this be? They weren’t the ones behind the bombing!”

“That’s right,” Wangshi murmured. “The airship was attacked from the inside. Yet they don’t look surprised by this outcome either.”

“So this person must be who they were lying in wait for?” Zooming closer into the pixelated figure, Lark tried to enhance the photo as best he could, but no identifying marks could be made.

“Actually, he’s their enemy.”

“What?”

“Keep watching.”

In the next few seconds, a man in his early twenties stepped into the camera’s angle. He was dressed in all white and his long, blond hair tied back. The stark white uniform felt familiar, for a second, as its cape flowed heroically in the wind. But, Lark couldn’t put his finger on where he had seen it before. Then the mysterious person pulled out what looked like a stick and waved it around a few times when the screen shook and snapped off.

“I don’t get it. Why are they fighting?”

“COSMO obtained the itinerary of the members on board.” Wangshi pointed to the red airship on the screen. “Cornelius Goodwing was on site.”

“Him? That guy?” His back felt it was on fire. “No way, he looks not even that much older than me. And his notebook felt ancient. How’s that even possible?”

“Hold on a minute. I’m getting there.” Wangshi tapped his own leg impatiently. “Remember too I had captured him, and you have that ring and gun which was taken from Joffrey Gullivan. At some point during this skirmish, he had obtained both the ring and the gun from him. Possibly inside the airship. So when he came outside, he tried to subdue the other three, but failed and endangered everyone."

He pulled up a separate grainy video, which showed the three channels from an aerial view. Wangshi's wrist flicked to a black dot jumping atop of a red bus. The time stamps between the two sky cams were within seconds of each other. "Suspiciously though...bare with me. Right after the screen shakes, the Allied Agency is ready on the scene, which tells me they moved too quickly and had inside information.”

Then he pointed to Lark's Trinity Watch. “Also, according to your inventory description, these items were ‘gifted’ which means he’s likely to be on our side than theirs. It could be that this Cornelius has a connection with the Allied Agency and you somehow.”

“Don’t give me the chills Wangshi. I don’t recognize anyone like that—” Wait. He paused. Thinking back to the white uniform, he had seen it before…a year ago at Soko’s when he met the mysterious inventor. “The lunatic wore a similar cape.”

What did this mean though? The mysterious inventor was around his grandfather’s age. That was only a year ago when he purchased the Trinity Watch too. This young man couldn't be the inventor, but how were they connected? Sphinx had been very coy, too, about there being a link between the inventor and his grandfather.

He asked Wangshi, “Did grandfather know Cornelius? You must’ve known something since you two made plans together.”

“If I—if we had known the extent of this issue Lark, I’m sure your grandfather and I would be branded as criminals. And I would never—” Wangshi took a deep breath as he choked out, “never put you in this kind of danger.”

“That’s not…” Lark looked down at his feet. “I’m sorry.”

“I think it’s clear that we didn’t imagine anything like this. Your grandfather, as far as I know, was attempting to open his circle more to find something about alien-technology, which we now know is magic…to find your father, Lark.”

A large boulder seemed to fall upon his shoulders when the truth came out. Why his grandfather had kept the pyramid as a secret from him because he knew it was somehow related to the mystical reality of alien-technology. “Did he ever tell you about the pyramid?”

“No. Even if he did, I would only be able to recognize it as alien-tech, even now I’m not entirely sure what it is. Such things like amplified smart-watches or airships were not available in Celestia.”

“Really?”

“Do you not remember it from looking at my memories? There were no airships or transporters or even cars that we could take to the Forgotten City. We walked… and sometimes rode beasts.”

Lark nodded. Even though Wangshi said they ‘walked’ the party was still traveled at a pace faster than the average human.

“But while we were cleaning Sr. Rune’s documents—I came across a handwritten letter addressed from a person called Corn.” Wangshi pulled a postcard from the drawer. “It talks about the special ‘item’ your father sent to him shortly before he disappeared.”

They did know each other!

He grabbed the letter which was dated a couple of years before his grandfather’s heart attack.

“Dear Finder of the Core,

My apprentice heard you’re searching for some guidance in how alien-technology works. Would you be interested in an exchange of information? There will be an exclusive party at the auction house this weekend. Enclosed, is a key to the invite if you’d like to meet. Please do think about the offer.

Kind regards,

Corn”

“This proves it Wangshi. The ‘core’ — he’s talking about the pyramid. It must be, but it doesn’t matter anyway, because we know that they knew each other. This Cornelius guy knew a lot more about what’s been going on here than anyone else! He manipulated the sale of the Trinity Watch, let you captured him, and stayed silent when the cultists attacked the schools. That’s just…what is he thinking?”

Lark’s fist landed on the table. His arm trembled with both rage and fear. How could he be sure Cornelius wasn’t the enemy? Before the issue of the watch was Wangshi’s memories of the ‘capture.’ Sphinx and Nympha mentioned other mind-altering traces besides the Cursed Seal and from what he could guess, Wangshi definitely would’ve tortured the cultist for information when there was an assassination attempt done on him the year before. So didn’t that mean it was Cornelius who gained the upper hand during the interrogation to mess with Wangshi’s memories instead of Joffrey?

He bit his tongue. Why didn’t he notice it earlier—even if Wangshi was amazingly capable- there’s no way he could’ve ‘dropped’ off a cultist like no big deal.

Wangshi couldn’t have understood how many hoops Lark went through in his head just now, but the non-clairvoyant caretaker patted his shoulder. “It’s enough to know he hasn’t harmed you or me.”

Then his voice turned grave. “Even so, there’s a high chance we’ll meet him today and I hope nothing happens. Just in case though, I will teach you the four basic sword arts from the Shi clan.”

He handed over the jian.

“But this is yours, I can’t…” Lark pushed back the scabbard.

“I’m letting you borrow it. By using this sword you can produce wind qi. If we’re attacked, I can use my own qi to defend myself, but you, on the other hand, have only started learning. Even if you have the trinity talent, you’re still too green.” Wangshi smirked, further troubling Lark as he carried the jian reluctantly.

“And here I was thinking I could relax behind my super-assassin butler…” he softly remarked. “Then again, I may end up more powerful than you cuz of your senile, old age—hahaha—ouch!” Lark screeched after receiving a smack to the shoulder from the end of a broom handle.

“Looks like that stamina drink is working—shall we get started then?” Wangshi wore one of the widest grins he hadn’t seen in a while.