Lev’s room was quite spacious—at least a lot more spacious than Elmer’s. The floors were covered in a savonnerie rug of mildly rich and bold colors of orange, and at its center stood a small round table draped with a white linen cloth and topped by a small book, a ceramic vase with an almost withered plant sprouting from it, along with a small glass tumbler standing beside a bottle halfway filled with alcohol, one with the tinge of pale gold.

He’s been drinking… The space between Elmer’s brows wrinkled for a second before he loosened them with an exhale.

Further down the room, straight ahead from the table, was the only window in this space, shrouded by a transparent curtain of white swaying a tad due to the small breaths of wind blowing onto it through the open shutters.

The window was flanked to its right by a single-door wooden cabinet standing tall and crowned by a few displayable antique-like items of porcelain.

While to its left, covered by a brown woolen blanket, was a divan sofa raised upon a flat wooden frame just beneath the small shelf which had a clock placed upon it.

The shelf had been fixed, same as a few framed pictures of scenery, into the wall adorned by slightly faded wallpapers of never ending flower petals continuing throughout the rest of the space.

“Have your seat,” Lev said, following his words up with another yawn, and pulling Elmer’s gaze from the walls and onto him as he gestured at the triplets of wooden chairs shared about the room.

His shirt was rough and his brown vest unbuttoned. He looked fairly unkempt.

Effects of the curse…?

“What can I offer you? I only have water…” Lev pointed at the liquor on the table… “and that bottle of rum there.”

Elmer took a glance at the alcohol.

Eh, maybe if he had punch… His mind drifted momentarily toward the fruit-tasting drink he had had at the orb of fate pub.

“I’ll have water, please.”

Lev nodded, prompting Elmer to have his seat on the chair closest to the table as he walked heavily toward the cabinet flanking the window and pulled out another glass tumbler and a jug filled with water.

“Here.” Lev offered Elmer the glass cup he had filled, and with a nod of thanks from Elmer he returned the jug into the cabinet and put himself onto the couch cuddled against the wall.

Elmer was about to drink from the cup when suddenly he heard the meow of a cat, and he instantly turned to the open partition carved out of a wooden frame, which led to somewhere he felt was Lev’s bedroom, to see a stocky thick-coated puss of british blue with a broad face and golden eyes crawl out of it.

“Ah, she’s woken up,” Lev voiced as the cat leapt onto his lap with a purr and cradled herself cozily within his embrace, at the same time putting her golden gaze on Elmer. “Don’t mind her, she always does that to anyone who isn’t me,” Lev commented based on the narrow stares Elmer and the cat were feeding themselves with.

Elmer nodded, then drank the water and put down the cup on the table.

“So,” Lev cleared his throat while he brushed his hand through his cat’s fur, “you took on my job?”

Elmer exhaled. “Yes.”

“How come?”

What do you mean ‘how come’? You put the job up for bounty hunters, and I’m one…

“I saw you,” Elmer said, and Lev’s head jerked backward as his eyebrows furrowed.

“What?” Lev asked, confused.

“I saw you come out of the bureau, that’s how I found out about your job posting.”

“I see.” Lev resumed his previously ceased rubs of his cat’s fur. “So, did you take on the job out of pity for me or something of the sort?”

Elmer had been expecting such a response from Lev, and thereby he had already readied his answer long before he had walked into this apartment, only it would cost him, but it was a good way to clear himself from whatever might tie him down in the future.

“I’m repaying my debt,” said Elmer, and in return caused Lev to put up a brow.

“Your debt?”

“Yes. With me being the person that took on your job you won’t have to pay the remaining balance of your fee. I’m doing this as a way to pay off the debt I owe you.”

Lev chuckled weakly. “What? You think I can’t afford six hundred mints?”

Honestly, I was initially surprised that you could, but seeing as you’re in the middle class of society, I guess such an amount wouldn’t be a problem for you…

“No,” Elmer replied to Lev’s question. “Six hundred is a big sum for someone like me, so I believe that if you could save up something of such an amount it would be more beneficial to you. And besides, why would you reject cutting down the fee? I’m basically going to be doing the job for forty percent.”

Lev scoffed. “True. Six hundred isn’t a small sum. But, glasses…” Lev rubbed the underside of his cat’s belly, inciting a long pleasant purr from her… “do you even have any experience in this sort of thing? If I recall well, it's not even been up to a week since you came to me with the form you wanted to forge the Church’s seal for, so you most likely just became a bounty hunter. Wait. Is my job your first?”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Firstly, your sense of calculation is misplaced, it’s been more than a week, but I won’t fault you on that, seeing as you’re very exhausted… And secondly, yes, your job’s my first, we all have to start from somewhere, don’t we…?

“Is there a problem with it being my first?”

Lev grunted as he scratched the back of his head with a finger. “I’m just finding it hard being relieved at putting myself in the hands of someone inexperienced—no offense.”

None taken… If I was in your position, I would find it hard as well…

But he could not let Lev cancel out on him for the job. He had no shot at taking on another today, and as well he did not have much time left before the potion wore out, so he needed to get the job done today and return to the bureau with his well prepared lie about The Warlock’s Torch. He would not let his plan falter, not now.

Elmer cleared his throat. “I'm a bounty hunter, Lev. Do you think that at the detriment of the bureau’s clients I would have been allowed to take on a job I could not handle?” A well forged tactical guilt-inducing question. He would have flattered himself if he was allowed.

Lev was silent in a ponderous manner for a few seconds before he finally said after a sigh, “Well, I guess I can’t be picky.” Elmer almost smiled at that. “So, what is it you want to know? I’m sure you came here for some sort of information.”

“I did. Mind telling me what exactly you experience, or experienced?”

Elmer had put coming to Lev’s apartment first over Ms. Edna’s colleague’s for that sole reason. He hoped that whatever he would learn here would serve him better when he went to Ms. Edna’s colleague’s place to buy the items he would need for the exorcism.

Lev’s cat stretched with a yawn, begetting him to cease his rubs totally.

“A sorrowful cry, that’s what I hear whenever I try to sleep at night. And it grows louder and louder with each.” Elmer’s brows nudged downward as he shifted slightly on his seat. “I knew it was a curse as soon as it started—a month now, probably. My father experienced the same right before he died in his sleep, and so did my mother, so I knew better than to let myself fall asleep at night. But there’s only so much sleep I can have during the day, seeing as I have to go to work and do daily things, you know. Though, somehow, Patty always helped me sleep briefly at night. Her songs drowned the curse’s cry out. She’s a good singer.”

Elmer sighed indistinctly and in exasperation. He had done well to throw her out of his mind, up until now, thanks to Lev for reminding him.

“That is all,” Lev said. “I’m haunted by a crying curse that will kill me if I have a shut eye at night. I wonder who my family offended.” He scratched his hair in something akin to indignation.

Elmer was not sure what questions to ask Lev as the pretty but now rough-looking pawnbroker obviously knew nothing as to the reason the curse was haunting him. But he needed to find something out if he was to successfully exorcise the curse, and that was where exactly the ritual to bring about the curse had taken place.

“What else do you know?”

“I just told you all I do. Well, there’s one more thing. A night before my father and mother died, they both mentioned the cries being the loudest they’ve ever heard it being.” Lev’s voice had a puny spike. “If only he’d had his wits about him and actually went to look for help, then he and mother would both still be alive.” Lev glanced at Elmer queerly.

I’m sorry you did not get a better experienced Ascender, Lev, but could you stop eyeing me like I don’t know what I’m doing…?

Did he though?

“Do you know anything deeper, like where this curse is haunting you from? I need something more tangible if I’m going to find out its whereabouts. Maybe if you searched your mind well enough you would find something. I need every bit of information I can get.”

Lev let out a breath and plunged the room into silence, then after a dragged out moment of quiet, he let his lips loose, “The hoots of owls.”

“Huh?” Elmer’s brows fell down.

“Mixed in with the cries, I also hear the hoots of owls. And as well the sound of something metallic scraping on gravel. They are usually very distant so I might be wrong.”

Owls and gravel…? Where could possibly combine these things…? Elmer’s gaze dropped to the savonnerie rug covering the floor as he let his mind roam about for a while before a conclusion suddenly made its way into his head; though, he needed to confirm if he was in any way correct.

With a sharp gasp he took his eyes to Lev. “What time do those cries start?” Elmer asked.

“Hmmm.” Lev took a quick glance at the clock resting on the shelf above him to his left. “Something around nine,” he answered unsurely.

Elmer’s eyes beamed slightly.

A plausible time for the caretakers to be ending their shifts…!

“Lev,” Elmer called out, surprising the weakened man with a cat sprawled across his lap. “This is merely a speculation, but I think the curse is lodged in a cemetery.”

Lev’s face squeezed. “A cemetery?”

“Yes,” Elmer replied. “The emperor’s curfew begins at eleven, and since I’ve been working at the train station I noticed people tend to go back to their homes once the clock strikes seven. If my suspicion is correct that the metallic sound you hear scratching on gravel is that of a rake, then there’s only one place with owls that would still have people about it by that time using such tools. And it’s a cemetery.”

Lev squinted.

“You said you have no knowledge about the curse, so I’m sure there’s no way you would know what exact cemetery we could access to ascertain my speculation. That is why we will start with the only one I can get off the top of my head.”

“Which is?”

Elmer cleared his throat. “The one harboring your grandparents.”

Lev remained silent for a moment as his countenance shifted slightly—as well his sleeping cat’s body position. “Why my grandparents?” he asked, peering at Elmer with unrestrained focus.

“From what you said, the curse apparently started from your father and mother then passed on to you. If I’m right that the ritual was performed at a cemetery there’s no way it could have been done at your parents’ if they were still alive, right? So that only brings us to the option of your grandparents. Unless I’m wrong?”

Lev shook his head. “No. You are right. My father never mentioned anything about my granddad being cursed or hearing things.”

Good… Elmer intoned with a sigh.

He’d had a slight fear that he would be wrong, and then all his critical thinking would vanish just like that. But one thing still lingered.

I hope his grandparents are buried in this city… Putting aside the money to travel, I don't have the time… There’s barely a week till the potion wears off…

Elmer continued, “Do you know where your grandparents are buried?” His tone had a slight tinge of nervousness at the anticipation of what Lev’s answer might be.

Lev moved his head to the side. “What a question you ask, glasses. Of course I know where my grandparents are buried.”

“Ah, sorry. That was not the right way to put it. What I meant was—”

“Spearhead cemetery, Sailport,” Lev cut in. “My parents are buried there as well. I suppose I too will, seeing as we all lived in this city our whole lives.” Elmer noticed a gloomy smile almost forming upon Lev’s face, but it was a yawn that made way instead.

After an exhale to calm the nervy touch that had been upon him, Elmer jumped to his feet, prompting Lev to look up at him with a fairly befuddled expression, which only went ahead to worsen after he said, “Get a trundle, you’ll be sleeping at that cemetery tonight.”