It took them about twenty minutes to near their destination. This included a ride on an Atelier City subway. The four were walking down a row of bourgeois stores that gleamed with expensive looking items through their windows. Overhead, the black sky was illuminated by a myriad of vibrant lights showing they were still in the underworld.

“Get a move on! We don’t have time to waste!” Evelyn nagged from the front which stirred a sigh from Allen. Nera was walking closest to Evelyn with an exasperated face from being dragged all the way from the R&R Lounge. Luka was behind those two while Allen trailed in the back.

“Maybe I would go faster if you explained more in detail what’s wrong. All you said was that a play was in danger.” Allen rebutted.

“There was no time to do any explaining.” Evelyn angrily asserted.

“Are you sure?” Nera chimed in. “You spent the entire train ride just telling me about different deserts you wanted to try on a poster.”

“See, you definitely could’ve filled us in more!” The young man said with arms thrown up. Instead of words countering his own, he was met with the sound of a clowder of cats meowing at his heel behind him.

“Cats?!” Allen shouted and made a break for the front of the group. When he turned back, he was stunned to see there was nothing behind him. “Cats..?”

“What are you going on about? Are you having a nervous breakdown?” Nera asked while walking past him with a grinning Evelyn. As Allen looked back to try to find any trace of the imaginary cats, Luka walked past him too.

“You got a cat-phobia? It must've been the wind, dude.”’ Luka rationalized with a pat on the shoulder.

“It’s a rational fear, not a phobia, and there’s no way it was just the wind...” Allen struggled to accept that inference but there was nothing to fall back on. “...Or the wind must sound different in the underworld.”

Evelyn turned a corner to a pristine lot with a fountain in the middle made of red brick and a mural painted against a wall that depicted a horse formed from raging turquoise waves.

“This is the Backdoor to the Verre Chateau.” Evelyn declared while pulling out an ornate, silver key. “You need to have one of these to enter in this way.”

‘That must be a magic tool, an Istrumentum, like Nera’s scythe.’ Allen thought to himself.

Evelyn stuck the key into the mural. It slid in effortlessly and caused the wall to ripple like a lake in front of her. “Alright, follow close behind. It’ll only be open for a moment once I walk in. Normal Atelier City barrier rules also still apply.”

She said the last sentence while staring directly at Allen. Meanwhile, he did not make any movements until Luka nudged him in Nera’s direction.

“Oh right, the barrier that keeps people without magic from going back and forth from the underworld.” The young man walked over and pllaced a hand nonchalantly on Nera’s shoulder. A dark haze shrouded her body. It had taken him a while to learn that most Crafters could not manipulate the shape of their aura, only maintain it.

That meant he was the only way for Nera to go in and out of the Luminaire District on a regular basis.

They no longer needed to hold hands but Nera still was not used to Allen entering her personal space.“Tch, you’re getting a bit too carefree, aren’t you?” She remarked with averted eyes.

“Well, it would be different if it was another girl.” Allen surmised.

Nera tried to demand an explanation from him but he hastily walked through the Backdoor. On the other side, they were met with a large dim room with numerous stage props lying stacked in one corner. They consisted of paraphernalia such as two-dimensional trees, costumes, and steps for performers to stand on.

“Okay, where are they?” Allen uttered out loud. A masculine voice then responded to him from his left.

“We’re over here. Don’t you see?”

Allen’s head turned in that direction only to see nothing.

“Hello, are these the people you went to go get help from?” He heard that same voice but from the opposite direction where he was looking.

“What?’ He had to swivel around once more.

They were greeted by a quartet of people. One was a man who appeared to be in his thirties with stubble on his chin and light brown hair wearing a flamboyant blue suit with a white ruffled undershirt. Another man in his twenties had black hair with green highlights. His t-shirt had a spiral design of blue, yellow, and green hues and his long sleeves were rolled up to his forearms. In between those two were a pair of young women.

The taller one had short blonde hair in a bob cut with heavily pierced ears. She wore black pants and a beige button-up shirt with black suspenders. The other woman wore a simple teal blouse and denim jeans.

‘I definitely heard them coming from the other way.’ Allen kept his confusion to himself for now.

“Yes, these are the two Specter investigators I told you about. They’re amateurs, but they’re better than nothing and don’t have any important connections.” Evelyn bluntly explained.

“Well, we’re a lot better than nothing. Just who are we supposed to be doing a job for anyway?” Nera scanned over the unfamiliar faces of the four that had just arrived.

“She’s the one who’s requesting your services, Katelyn Francis, our star violinist.” The older man gestured to the young woman with the teal blouse who was clutching a turquoise violin like it was her safety blanket. Another look told Allen that she had dark bags under her eyes that were evidenceevident of insomnia.

“Yes, thank you, Nathan.” She talked with a trembling voice. “I thought it would be best to get outside help in order to deal with a Specter haunting me. It’s attacked me several times these past two days, and we have a show coming up tonight.”

“That seems strange. Is there any reason why a Specter wouldn’t attack anyone else?” Nera asked.

“We’re not sure,” Nathan replied for Katelyn. “However, yesterday, Katelyn was selected to be a participant of the Sword in Stone Festival and given an Invite Card.”

“Yeah, our little Oyster’s been chosen to represent all of us small-time theater nerds. I like to think it was my training that did most of the work.” The woman with the piercings made a haughty statement while giving Katelyn a look of pride.

Allen was surprised by this revelation and took another look at the meek violinist. Although, he had to remind himself that magical power made outward appearances not matter much in terms of how strong a person truly was in this society.

“Alright, even if that’s the case, a specter wouldn’t care about you getting an invite to a tournament.” He assessed.

Nera followed Allen’s statement with one of her own. “You think someone tried to threaten her by releasing a Specter in the theater? Would someone really go that far to get an Invite?”

Katelyn shook her before replying. “It’s farfetched, but we do think a person is involved. However, they haven’t made any demands, so we’re not sure what they want. The last attack happened this morning and…”

She went on to explain how the Specter had apparently appeared while she was practicing alone early in the morning. This incident caused the catwalk to collapse and almost fall on her, but she was somehow able to manage to come out of that disaster without any injuries. Besides that, there had been several minor attacks where parts of her surroundings would be inexplicably damaged.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Becoming even more confused, Allen asked them to direct him to the spot where the catwalk fell. This led him and Nera out of the room and onto the main stage of the theater. It was filled with uncleaned wreckage from the previous incident.

He paced around looking for anything that stood out. He could not spot anything that felt like a clue. The amateur detective then skimmed his hand along the ground and an idea came to him.

“Looks like another chance to test out Sense.” Allen closed his eyes and spread Extract as far as it could reach from his hand. That was not very far at all, so he had to slide it all over the place like an inefficient radar.

“Gotcha.” Allen declared out loud.

Allen lifted up a hefty amount of wreckage and peered closer at the spot scoped out by his Sense. It was a dark stain smeared on the wooden floorboards. It was not fresh but it came off easily by scraping it with a broken piece of the catwalk lying on the ground next to it. It could not have been too old either.

Allen’s eyes furrowed. “Blood? If so, who’s is it?”

Nera’s armsarm were crossed as she replied. “Didn’t they say Bag-eyes was completely unharmed? If it can’t be hers, do you think it was a normal accident?”

“Possibly, but we can ask that later. I want to check on something else first.” Allen walked over to the wall where a hodge-podge of holes littered its surface. These fractured openings each roughly had a diameter of four centimeters. He used Sense on this spot too and detected short, erratic tunnels spawning from the holes and into the brick wall.

He explained this to Nera and asked, “What kind of Specter could’ve left damage like that?”

“Did you check for miasma?” Nera responded as she also strummed her fingers against the same area. “There should still be some lingering here if it’s only been a day.”

“Huh?” Allen thought back to what he had already scanned. “I didn’t check for it, but I’m sure I would’ve noticed if there was any.”

“Then, it’s not a matter of what kind of Specter did it, but what kind of person they were.” Nera stated firmly. “Let’s not tell anyone that we’re sure it’s a human, okay?”

Allen nodded with a pensive look. “You think one of the three besides that Katelyn woman was behind this? They all seem to have known her for a lot longer than a day.”

“Who knows at this point? It could’ve been any of the other troupe members as well. All I know is that keeping our cards close to the chest is for the better. It’ll be easier to catch a lie written on a face that doesn’t know what to hide.”

Allen silently understood what she meant. Shortly after, the door was thrust open. Evelyn ushered the pair off the stage.

“Our train is going to leave soon. We have half an hour to catch it.” She told them both.

As they left, Allen questioned Katelyn, “Hey, is there any reason you didn’t come with Evelyn to request our help directly?. Worried the Specter would ambush you?”

Katelyn shook her hand and then briskly said,” No, I just couldn’t go with them.”

Before Allen could ask a follow up question, Nathan answered him instead as they walked through the front doors of the Verre Chateau into the backdrop of the setting orange sun and violet clouds. The illumination against the towering skyscrapers castcasted a shadow across the entire street. The turquoise violin held fiercely in the young woman’s hands was a beacon of tranquil light.

“It’s true. She could not enter the Underworld, because Katelyn Francis is completely magicless, an ordinary human.”

***

Meanwhile, Iyo and Xalia were walking through the back alleys of Atelier City’s underworld. The buildings were much less pristine and shorter. Gray smoke wafted upward from their vents. The two encountered increasingly more Grendel as they walked further into this area.

“This is the place where you usually get your potions?” Iyo asked while keeping a lookout for anything out of the ordinary.

“It’s more like this is where I get the ingredients for my own custom potions. I get a few potions, but I mostly buy raw materials like dog heartsheart and rat tailstail.” Xalia answered followed by an audible silence. “Just so you know, that’s just code for different types of plant parts.”

“Acknowledged, that’s much more reasonable.” Relief was slightly present in Iyo’s tone.

They followed the winding cobblestone path to its conclusion. It was a dead enddeadend with nothing but an ancient-looking stall stacked with all manner of glass jars filled with miscellaneous plants along with other items that were indistinguishable. There were incense candles from which rainbow-colored smoke rose in the air, saturing the area in a blurry fog.

“You two dare to approach my wares without even noticing you’re being watched?” A booming voice reprimanded. It came from a haggard looking man with leathery skin who was at their eye level even while sitting down. His block-like hands and golden-green eyes betrayed his ancestry as a troll, a tribe of Grendel descended from the denizens of SvartalfheimSvartalheim and giants. Due to their strong magical connection to the earth, they had an affinity for plants and minerals which made them natural herbalists.

“What are you going on about?” Xalia asked with furrowed eyes.

Before the proprietor could answer, Iyo spoke up. “You had seven hidden cameras scattered through the alley. You must have a monitor under that counter allowing you to keep track of anyone who approaches your stall.”

From his bewilderment, Xalia could tell Iyo’s words rang true. Her mouth hung agape before inquiring how Iyo knew about them.

“You told me to keep a watch on anyone tracking us, so I did. It seems like he’s the type to try to make things seem more mystical than they really are.”

“Seems so. I’ll get on with my selection if that’s alright with you then.” Xalia said to the vendor, earning a grunt as she pointed out various mysterious liquids and remnants of vegetation.

When she was done, the Troll was quick to give a price. “That’ll be $300.”

“It doesn’t seem like what I pointed out was that expensive.” Xalia countered.

“Then, your senses must indeed not be as sharp as mine. Each and every single one of those materials is highly enrichedhighly-enriched with Ether and Extract. It would be the height of ignorance to pass up on such a generous offer.

“Is that so?” Xalia raised up the gray jacket that she had wrapped around her waist. It revealed a small pouch where Allen was keeping all the specter stones Virtuoso had collected up to that point. She pulled out three of them: the Draugr, the Warg, and the Grimhildr stones.

“What if I offered up $100 and these three stones?” Xalia propositioned with an airy voice.

“Hmm..interesting offer but I would still have to refuse. Another hundred and those stones might be enough though.”

A frown crept on Xalia’s face and she put the stones away with a deep sigh. “Nevermind, I can’t afford that and if that’s really how much they cost then there’s really nothing I can do.”

“Good choice. Each one of their stones has more magic in it than any of those vials.” Iyo declared honestly.”

“Oh, then I’m glad he didn’t take me up on that offer.”

The Troll’s shoulders slumped with a groan after realizing he had been seen through at every instance.

***

A few moments later, Xalia was happily walking along with a large sack of magic ingredients hung over her back. She did not mind even as they weighed down her every step.

“You were a big help back then. Those eyes of yours are that sharp, huh?’

“There’sIt’s more to it than that.” Iyo started to reply. “It takes giving what needs focus a scrutinizing gaze.”

“Well, whatever your trick is. It worked to give us this large haul.” The blue-haired witch complimented.

“I’d say it had more to do with your bartering skills.”

“Please, that was simple. After feeling like they've suffered a great loss, people are more hasty to cling on to what they have."

“Hmm..” Iyo looked straight ahead. “You were never planning to pay with Allen’s specter stones were you?”

“Nope, I had them as an extra bargaining chip. You seem like you don’t trust me.” Xalia contemplated.

“I've never been able to get a good look at you since the moment we met. You're way too blurry.” The young man said without facing in her direction. That aloof attitude of his was starting to get on Xalia’s nerves. Now, he was starting to speak in riddles as well.

“Huh?” Xalia uttered but before she could continue, the sound of footsteps interrupted their conversation.

A group of thugs wearing green bandanas around various parts of their person approached them. They had all sorts of improvised weapons such as metal pipes and large kitchen knives.

“Look at what we found here. We’ll have to stop you and relieve you of that burden of yours.” The one in front said while gesturing at Xalia. They were referring to the large sack of vials she was toting.

“You’re Green Manticores, aren’t you? Wasn’t your lot kicked out of this part of Atelier City when the Grendel refugees came flooding in?”

“We were and now we’re taking back what’s ours starting with you.”

“But, I am no Grendel.”

“We know you got that from the Troll a little ways from here. Consider yourself our honorary gopher.”

Xalia smiled thinly and reached for her stylus, but Iyo stepped ahead before she could reach it. He pulled out a short knife that was concealed in a brown scarab. The pristine leather had a golden phoenix emblazoned on it. However, he did not take the knife out of the scarab as he got into stance.

The crowd of gangsters burst out in laughter. “You’re coming at us without even pulling out your weapon?! What kind of half-assed bluff is that?!”

No change in expression showed on the Oni’s face. “It’ll be fine. According to my mentor, a sheathed blade should be enough for those that don’t know war.”