“What?” Ms. Edna’s visage shifted at Elmer’s words and the tone of surety he had spoken them with. He had bamboozled her. “Is this some sort of jape, Mr. Elmer? Something you and Dick plotted?”

Eddie gasped, his chin slightly sliding upon his palm. “How come I have been brought into—”

“Tell me,” Ms. Edna cut him off, her tone making it pretty obvious that she was not in the mood to entertain her friend’s witty nature at the moment. Eddie did not mind though, at least that was what Elmer surmised from the man’s countenance. “Have you completely forgotten all I told you about the corrupted ones? Or is this the ‘I survived once, I can do it again’ sort of thing? Oh my, please tell me it’s not, Mr. Elmer. You struck me as someone who could deeply understand the supernatural and the troubles that come with it. Did I make a bad judgment?”

She was desperate, Elmer could tell from the way her shoulders were straightened stiff, and how her voice shook weakly with every word she’d muttered.

From her probing glare, he understood that this back and forth between them could go on all night—she would let it go on all night—as long as she could stop him from coming in contact with the corrupted one. The burden would be too much for her to bear if he died as a result of the exploits he was hoping to partake in, seeing as she had pushed herself to believe that she was at fault due to her mishap while registering the job.

But that was a lie.

Elmer had not uttered those words as a joke or whatever Ms. Edna was thinking of it as. He was sure he would survive. A hundred percent sure—well, maybe fifty, in truth, but he had some surety nonetheless. And that was because of what he had put together during the minutes of silence the carriage had had when they’d all first gone aboard.

He’d thought well about it. Why had he not died on that night? Why had he only felt a somewhat mitigated crippling fear? Why had he been able to break free from the mythical presence of a high level corrupted one?

And all those questions had gotten an answer as soon as he had recalled the words he’d heard at Sir Reginald’s mansion. Ones which had come when the maid in the kitchen had transformed into the first monstrosity he had seen in Ur. Words which formed the sentence: “Help me.”

He was not going to die because the maggot-faced man was not going to kill him. If the man had wanted to do that, he would have not held back the power of his mythical presence on the night they’d first met. And also, who in their right or insane senses would kill the person they were requesting help from?

It was a gamble, sure. But it was one he was willing to take if it would bring him closer to ‘The Warlock’s Torch’, and as well a question which had started to bother him: Why was he being asked for help by the maggot-faced man?

Getting both those things achieved was a feat he was willing to face dangers for—the former bearing more of the percentage.

Yes. He was going to court death with all his might.

“No, you did not,” Elmer shook his head as he answered Ms. Edna’s question. “And in that case, shouldn’t you be giving me the benefit of the doubt?” Those words were going to do nothing, he had just sent them off as the base for the next one he was going to pour at her. They would work, the ones he had prepared for her reply, he was sure of that.

Ms. Edna’s expression pinched. “That benefit of the doubt is me letting you come along. But now, I want you to listen to me and avoid contact with this person we’re about to face. Dick and I will take care of it.”

Perfect… Elmer intoned. She had spoken the words he had been hoping for.

Elmer took on an acting role and grimaced fiercely as he turned to the lady beside him, peering solidly into her red eyes.

“You’re not my mother,” he groused harshly, and a sharp, audible gasp crept forth from Ms. Edna in such a manner that Eddie’s countenance changed a great deal for the first time since the carriage had set on its way.

Could there have been some other way? Surely. Did he believe it would work as effectively as this method he had begun to tread upon? No.

He had to wake her up, and this was the best way.

“You don’t get to tell me what I can and cannot do.” Elmer did not stop with his last words. “As you said, it is my job. You are not the one who let me come, I am the one who let you come. I understand how you feel. You want to avoid all casualties, fine. But do you think I care so little for my life? I am the one most at risk here. Do you think you’re more afraid of me losing my life than I am afraid of losing it?” Ms. Edna clenched her jaw. “I do not care what you think, or what burdens you bear, or how you feel because you wrongly tagged my job…”

“Elmer,” Eddie whispered from across the coach, his voice somewhat strained. “That’s enough.”

Elmer turned away from Ms. Edna to face the man and further narrowed his brows as he said,

“So my burdens are not yours to bear. Even if anything happens, whether now or in the future, it is none of your concern. You are not obligated to care for me in any way. You are not obligated to feel sorry for me in any way. You are not obligated to carry any cross for my sake in any way. You are merely the clerk of the bureau that gives me my jobs, and I am merely the bounty hunter taking on those jobs.”

And with the last of those words having escaped Elmer’s lips, the coach abruptly grew silent. It was almost like an empty forest in the dark of night, only the occasional bellow of winds between them were missing. The heavy patters of the rain made up for that in some way though.

Eddie squinted his eyes and tilted his head sideways at Elmer. He almost felt like a predator. But if this was to work then Eddie had to hold back whatever feelings he had for Ms. Edna and let her feel the sting of Elmer’s words. And Elmer was glad the man had the sense to understand that.

A loud, dejected sigh suddenly poured out from Ms. Edna—whom Elmer had been avoiding eye contact with—before she cleared her throat.

“Forgive my impudence, Mr. Elmer. It was bad of me to force my choices onto you.” Elmer still kept his gaze away. He had said all that, but now he could not even look her in the eyes. And apparently, that had caused Eddie to scoff at him before leaning back to relax his tension. “I understand. But if my words are not going to be listened to, then at least may I know why you have such a strong belief that you cannot die by coming in contact with the corrupted one we’re after?”

Elmer lowered his head, prying his eyes from the man seated across from him as he heaved out a soft exhale. “Because he’s going to ask for my help.”

With those words, Elmer glimpsed from the corners of his eyes both Eddie and Ms. Edna have confusion and curiosity stain their faces. A plausible reaction—completely.

“What do you mean?” Ms. Edna was the one to speak, her voice gone back to what it had usually been as the abrupt change caused by the argumentative tone mother’s always had was nowhere to be found.

Elmer shrugged inwardly at that. Ms. Edna’s tugs of war with him had made him miss Mistress Eleanor’s rambles for a moment.

Well, it was good while it lasted.

As for Ms. Edna’s question, he had readied the perfect answer.

“My dream was haunted last night,” Elmer lied and his nose did not hesitate to twitch twice. It was good that his head was lowered. “The corrupted one appeared in it asking for my help. He did not mention what for, but it is for that reason that I am confident.”

“That’s absurd,” Ms. Edna claimed, her voice’s depth making known her disbelief. “Are you sure it was not just a dream? A nightmare caused by the fear you experienced when you came face to face with him? I can’t see any reason why a corrupted one would be actively seeking the help of an Ascender, furthermore, a bounty hunter.” She stopped talking and took a moment to ponder, both Eddie and Elmer letting her do so without disturbance. Then she resumed, “I would have said that maybe he was trying to save his neck by acting pitiful after he, one way or another, found out you have been assigned to his job. But you took it on today, and you said the dream was yesterday, so that as well is out of it. Yes, back to my first statement. It is absurd.”

Elmer raised his head slightly to peek at Eddie glaring at him, seemingly unsure of if this was all a part of Elmer’s ‘plan’ or if he was actually telling the truth.

It almost made Elmer smile. His method of counteracting Eddie’s ability to smell emotions was working better than he’d expected.

Of course, it was simply to just keep himself calm—at least that was the basis.

The human body released pheromones all the time, and that was due to the beating rate of the heart at any given moment. A steadied heart represented calmness, and as such, a person whose heart was beating at a steady, normal rate was feeling no spike of emotional reaction.

Eddie would be unable to smell anything then.

But obviously that deduction was not entirely true. Other things, such as physical exertion, affected how the heart was performing at a given time, and that was also the same for pheromones. The human system was pretty complex. He had only managed to make it work because of his constant usage of his heightened hearing. It had engraved in him the ability to keep himself calm and peaceful, in return, concealing his true emotional reactions.

“It is,” Elmer agreed with Ms. Edna’s claim of the absurdity of his words. “But it was not a dream. It felt real—too real. I knew it was not a normal dream. Even if only a few, I’ve already encountered enough of the supernatural to know when I come in contact with one. If we think about it well, it already cancels out your question of why I did not die when I came before him the first time. I believe he wants something from me.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Ms. Edna sighed with an exhausted shake of her head. “And your plan stems from this?”

“Yes,” Elmer answered. “I will approach him as his helper, the one who he requested aid from and see what I can dig up.” He remained silent after his talk, and after what had begun to feel like ages, Eddie gave his voice leave of his throat.

“Is that all there is to your plan?” Eddie asked, leaning forward once again.

“No,” Elmer denied and stopped again.

“Then what’s keeping you from saying it all?”

“Because…” Elmer trailed off for a moment. “I need to know about yours and Ms. Edna’s abilities.”

He was curious as to what they were, granted. But that was only partly his reason for wanting to know their abilities. The other—which was the greater—was because he wanted to figure out what their limitations were while he entertained the maggot-faced man.

Ms. Edna had already mentioned ‘False Cognition’ as Eddie’s ability. And if what Elmer had deduced from the name was to be considered true—seeing as cognition was a word that was related with the term ‘perception’—then maybe Eddie’s ability fell in line with something that related to disrupting the senses of people.

Probably the perception of time?

He already knew about Eddie’s heightened sense and its limitation, that also being the same for Ms. Edna’s unique ability. The main problem at this moment was with her heightened sense. He had thought it to be the one pertaining to sight back at her bungalow, but that had been wrong. Now, he was hoping that it would not be something similar to his. If she had heightened hearing, then he was in a big boiling pot of mutton stew.

“I don’t understand,” Eddie spoke nonchalantly. “You already know our abilities. And besides, you said you already have a plan, what does your question have to do with a plan that you’ve already prepared?”

Elmer had been expecting such a question, only he had not been expecting it from Eddie, but rather, Ms. Edna. She was always usually over-skeptical. Now though, it seemed that had suddenly lessened somewhat.

Maybe it was just as a result of her being exhausted. She was probably not herself.

“Because my prepared plan is something like a final draft,” Elmer answered. “Learning about each other’s abilities and what we can do will help me polish it to the best quality, and increase our chances of success in that regard.”

What are you even doing, Eddie…? You’re not meant to be opposing me, we had a deal…

Elmer made various eye gestures at the man seated across from him in such a manner that if Ms. Edna had seen him she would have thought he’d had epilepsy all of a sudden.

“Then let’s hear this final draft first,” Eddie proposed, in return surprising Elmer.

The man had been willing to spill out what sort of sense of his had been heightened when Elmer had paid him a visit for the first time. He had even been willing to lecture Elmer on what he did not know about. So what was different now? Surely it was not because he wanted to hide his unique ability, Ms. Edna had already mentioned it. There was something else stopping him—something making him not want to talk.

What is the problem…? Maybe I should make my cards known first… I can’t say the plan as it is, I only need to put forth the refined one…

Elmer came to a decision, but before he could speak, Ms. Edna beat him to it.

“You already know about Whispers of Time,” Ms. Edna said, and Elmer glimpsed Eddie’s face squeeze in something akin to disapproval of her letting her lips loose as he instinctively turned to meet the young woman’s side features. “That’s all there is to it. I doubt it would be useful anymore tonight. As for my heightened physicality, it’s my reaction time.” Elmer blinked once in ignorance of what that entailed. “It just simply means that my alertness has been heightened.” She smiled.

Fits well with your skeptical nature, probably that’s why it was what was heightened in the first place… Unique characteristics… Elmer thought.

“As for my heightened sense,” Ms. Edna hesitated for a second, and Elmer did not miss it. “My heightened sense is my perception of pain.”

Elmer’s heart skipped a beat.

That did not sound good in any way. And a quick glance at Eddie gave him the answer of why the man had been on the defensive about their ability’s divulsion. It seemed that heightened sense was one of the things that reminded Ms. Edna about her past, and Eddie was trying to not have her call upon such memories.

Perception of pain… Did that come as a result of her beating herself up for her fiancé’s death…?

Elmer felt sorry, but at least now he knew better than to let the young woman face danger. As her perception of pain was high, any single damage done to her would obviously be ten times more painful than if it was done to any other person, Ascender or not.

Granted, her reaction time had been heightened as well, so she would probably be able to avoid attacks quicker than any other. Only, that was any time that was not now. In her current state, she was too weak—too exhausted. She would most certainly fall victim to an attack.

“Is that good enough?” Ms. Edna asked, and Elmer replied with a dejected nod. He chose not to ask about the effects that came from using them and just decided to leave it be.

He turned to Eddie next, and the man looked at him for a moment before sighing.

“You already know about my heightened sense. My physicality is flexibility. In simpler terms, I’m basically a monkey.” He chuckled silently. “As for False Cognition, it’s an ability that grants me the power to cause time to flow slowly for anyone who is fifty meters away from me. And when I say slowly, I mean slowly. It’ll almost seem like I paused time.” Eddie scoffed. “Paused time? That’s a power only Chronos can wield. Although, as I have something similar, I suppose that makes me like a chosen one.”

The way you switch between seriousness and wittiness is quite fascinating… And False Cognition is a very interesting ability, now I understand what Ms. Edna’s initial request was for…

Elmer heaved out a breath of air. “As for me, since I have not unlocked a unique ability as I’m still a Baseborn, my only abilities are heightened speed and hearing.”

Ms. Edna nodded while Eddie just smiled. It was as though he was the only one who cared what abilities others had. Maybe he was. They did not look to be one bit interested in how his powers worked.

“So, what’s the plan? The improvised one,” queried Eddie, and Elmer instantly conjured it up.

“I’m going to face the corrupted one alone.”

Eddie downturned his lips matter-of-factly, while Ms. Edna had some sort of restrained shock creep upon her face.

“What?” she voiced, keeping her tone low in order to imprison her motherly tendencies.

“I said I’m going to meet with the corrupted one alone.” Elmer peered at Ms. Edna, watching her narrow eyes as she watched his. “It sounds stupid, but I strongly believe it will work. I will meet him as the helper he’s seeking and learn exactly why I am being sought for. Whereas you and Eddie will stay at a distance where you both will not be seen by him, while using that opportunity to guard the perimeter in case he’s not alone.

“Eddie will use False Cognition as you requested in order to prevent casualties, but we cannot be hundred percent sure that we will be the only ones there. He might be working with someone else, or there might be a few people somewhere, and if we’re all occupied, then we’ll fail in that regard if anything unexpected happens.”

Elmer took a moment to breathe out, his plan seemingly perfect in his head.

“What fighting equipment did you both bring with yourselves?” he quickly added so as not to give Ms. Edna any chance to question his plan, and at the same time trying to learn about what sort of supernatural items they had in their possession.

If there was anything that would cause him troubles, he needed to know beforehand and prepare for it.

“None,” Eddie replied with a smile. “I prefer to fight with my hands.”

Elmer thought Eddie was too calm and collected. Obviously that was due to the man’s experience in this line, but still Elmer had been expecting even a tiny bit of nervous reactions. At least that was what he would have been having if he was not trying to hide his emotions from Eddie.

Ms. Edna sighed, seemingly giving up whatever argument she might have had for Elmer’s plans.

“I have a few charms with me,” she answered, and Elmer glanced at Eddie.

Charms required the recitation of prayers to use, and since that was the case, then Ms. Edna was not to be allowed to use the charms in any way.

Eddie’s indiscernible nod gave Elmer relief that the man understood.

“And me,” Elmer started. “I have a mystic artifact.”

“Oh!” Eddie jumped forward on his seat, somewhat excited. “What grade?”

And as simple as those words were, they confirmed Elmer’s deductions on the artifacts being ranked based on their abilities. It was as though a log of oak wood had been lifted from his stomach.

But an issue also arrived with that question; how was he to answer?

Saying he did not know would not sound right. Afterall, the grades would be something he should have known if he’d actually bought it at the Church’s shopping complex. He thought about it as going to buy a set of goods a person had never used before, the seller would obviously enlighten the buyer on what they were about.

In the light of that, he decided to just do the inevitable.

He dipped his hand into his waist bag and brought out his revolver. Ms. Edna already knew about it, and Eddie would have seen it sometime later, so nothing was lost by gracing their eyes with it at this moment. And he was also sure it was not an artifact with a high rank, so he was definitely not going to lose it.

“A high grade artifact?” Ms. Edna blurted, and Elmer found his mind wandering restlessly.

Wait… A high grade…?!

“That’s a big boy you hold there, Elmer,” Eddie applauded. “I thought you were from the countryside. How did you afford such a thing? I heard they’re worth around five thousand mints to ten thousand. I’ve never been interested in one, so I’m not really sure—correct me if I’m wrong, Edna?”

“No, you’re right.” Ms. Edna nodded. “They are around that pricing.” She almost had her skeptical look return on her face after a few hours of desertion. “I’m actually surprised that you could afford such.”

Elmer chuckled weirdly. He did not know what to say, so instead he weirdly returned his mystic artifact into his waist bag and remained silent, making sure to not let his mind try to recall the person who had handed him this artifact. He did not want the pain that came with it. But still… How had he gotten it for a dollar?! He was sure that it was no mere thing. That missing piece of his memories was important.

“Well, you don’t have to say anything. It’s not any of our businesses how you got the money to purchase a high grade artifact,” Ms. Edna said, her usual prowess of taking note of his hesitance coming in clutch.

Elmer smiled. “Thank you.”

And then the whinny of the carriage’s pulling horses echoed through the heavy pattering of the rain, followed up by the voice of the coachman whom Eddie had hired for whatever hours they used his services.

He voiced, “We’ve arrived!”

Ms. Edna breathed out a sigh and turned to Elmer who had begun to put on his brown leather gloves.

“I pray your plan works out,” she said, her tone somewhat laced with worry.

“It will,” Elmer answered without sparing her a glance. His attention was on his gloves. He had to fit them well so his revolver would not slip from his hands at an important moment.

“May Chronos bless us all and keep us safe,” Ms. Edna mumbled a prayer loud enough for them three in the carriage’s coach. “Amen.”

“Amen,” Elmer and Eddie voiced in unison, though Elmer's tone was a little bit lower. His mind was focused on something else—something that made his body tingle in excitement and nervousness, causing him to forget about steadying his heart rate.

Tonight, I join the Pathway of Time…