Hopper cuffed Ernest to a table and went down to find someone to summon the nearby Internal Police folks. “The next course of action is to write down Wyndham's confession that he gave us and have him sign it and put him on immediate trial,” he told me as we walked out of the apothecary. “All the people who were arrested for testing positive with the green blood test need to be released too. It's going to be a long day for me.”

We stood out on the sidewalk and watched the carriages passing by. “Why are you worrying? Didn't you retire? You can just hand over the case to someone at IP and walk away. Also, you aren't even the real Lloyd Hopper.” I said the last part a lot quietly.

The man looked down at the ground, his eyes focusing on something that was way beyond his gaze. “I think I'll stick to this role a while longer,” he said. “Maybe I can carry out my mission a lot better as Hopper than anyone else that I had been pretending to be.”

I frowned. “Mission?”

He nodded. “The mission to change things,” he said. “Even though I have caused some ripples in this society, I still haven't been able to bring a noticeable change in this country. Maybe as a part of the system, I might bring a more concrete change.”

I considered it for a while and it seemed to make sense. At least a little. “Also, we managed to reveal a big plan that might've cost a lot more lives. The government probably won't be as harsh on you for sending all those people to be executed. Or more like the people that the real Hopper sent to be executed.”

“Yes, I will probably be pardoned,” he said.

I cocked my head. “I'm curious though, what kind of ripples have you caused in this society?”

“The last of my adventures involved blowing up the temple of the Steam Elemental.”

My jaw went slack. “It was you? I remember Lily telling me about it.”

He nodded. “It created quite some ripples but on a larger scale it really didn't lead anywhere. And so I took Hopper's place to get to the bottom of the entire green blood matter.”

“That reminds me now,” I said. “Are you going to tell me who you really are? Or how exactly you became Hopper?”

The man was silent for a long time before he finally opened his mouth to say something. “The closest thing to a real name that I have is Eidolon. As for the latter question, I simply took over Hopper's body.”

I just stared at him for a long moment, unsure of what to say. Not because I was baffled by what I'd just heard. But because of the information that his statements had triggered in me.

Eidolon, the lonesome ghosts, Old Elsa's memories told me. They once lived in the world beyond the veil but in order to experience mortal life, they abandon that world in exchange of never having one real identity or a real place of belonging. The gates of the immortal world are closed off to them forever after that and they are invisible in their true forms to everyone who lives in the mortal realm. The only way they can exist in this world is as a passenger in someone else's body.

It made sense why Eidolon didn't remember his real name or anything of the sort. His memories were probably wiped out in order to let him use his powers in the mortal realm.

I didn't pry him with any more personal questions after that and gave a single nod.

“You helped me out with this mission well. I would even say it wouldn't have been a clean job like this without you,” he said. “And so I'll keep my promise.” He dug into his coat and pulled out a dark, gleaming object. It was a key, made of obsidian and textured with white specks that swirled within it like stars.

I'd never seen anything like that before. “The Voice told me to give it to you. Where it can be used? It didn't tell me anything about that. But since it was meant to be given to you, you'll be able to figure it out.”

“I see.” I pocketed the key and wished him good luck with his mission. We parted ways.

****

I hailed a carriage and asked the driver to take me to the Hammer's estate. My mind was still spinning with all the information I had absorbed in the past few hours.

I looked out the window and tried to focus on the streets we were passing by, looked at the people who were all headed their own different ways in life. I tried to give my mind a break from all that I had learned about this new world and the people living in it. The rules that it followed and the rules that it broke.

I also felt lucky that I wasn't alone while I witnessed all this. Things could've been a lot, lot worse if I had been going through all of this by myself.

The carriage came to a halt outside Hammer's manor. I walked past the main entrance gates and up the gravel pathway that led to the building. To my surprise, Lily, Asmod and Smokewell were all sitting on the porch steps at the front.

Lily seemed to be crying while Asmod comforted her and the cat was next to them…counting the steambolt coins that she had laid out in front of her.

“What is going on here?” I asked, puzzled.

Lily sniffled. “I'm sad.”

“I'm so happy.” Smokewell laid another coin in front of her.

“I'm confused.” I frowned. “Again, what happened?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Asmod opened his mouth to say something but the cat gleefully interrupted him. “We got paid!”

“Then why is Lily crying?”

“Because…because…Mr. Hammer…” Lily managed between her sobs.

Asmod gave her a few pats on the shoulder and said, “Turns out Alistair Hammer passed away a week ago. The funeral was two days ago.”

“He never got a chance to say goodbye to his father!” Lily sobbed.

****

It was almost as if my feet moved on their own and I walked inside the manor. A maid was dusting the curtains and asked me whom I was looking for. I told her.

“But Master William left to visit late Master Alistair's grave,” she said.

I asked her where the grave was.

She said it was on the estate itself. Putting it more bluntly, what she meant was that the man had been buried in the Hammer family's personal graveyard in the back.

“Can I meet him?”

“He said he wants to be left alone while he is there,” the maid said.

“Just take me to him. This is a matter of grave importance.” After a while I said, “No pun intended.”

The maid led me to the graveyard on the estate. It was a little patch of land with squat brick walls surrounding it and a small metal gate at the entrance. I walked inside, weaving my way through the short maze of graves.

I saw William Hammer on his knees in front of a concrete burial vault. Staring at his father's epitaph that read: A man with many regrets.

“Why are you here?” he said, not looking at me and probably having heard me approach. “Didn't the maid tell you–”

“She did,” I said. “I wanted to offer something.”

“I don't feel like I need anything right now…” he said.

“What if I said…you could talk to him?”

A loud gust of wind passed between us, raising unanchored blades of grass off the ground. “How is it possible?” he said.

“Do you want to or not?” I asked.

He agreed.

I drew the pentacle on the burial vault and smeared a drop of my blood over it. Black mist seeped out of the edge of the vault, gathering up into the air before materializing into the shape of a person.

The Abyss was about to bow in subservience and ask me to command him but I stopped him before he could speak. “I don't want anything from you,” I said. “Just…Just talk to your son.” I stepped aside.

William Hammer rose to his feet behind me. Tears were rolling down his face. “F-Father?”

“William…” Alistair Hammer's abyss whispered.

For a long time his son just stared at his father's shadow, hovering in the black mist in front of him. Then he asked, “Is it true…that…that you wanted me to be arrested so that I wouldn't get in your way?”

Alistair’s abyss frowned. “Why would I want such a thing, son? In fact I regretted having that fight with you after you were gone. That was why I even offered the reward to anyone who would find you. I was desperate to see you just one last time before…well, this…”

More tears streamed down William's face. “I-I'm sorry…I-I abandoned you, father.”

“Don't apologize, son. I feel like I deserved it. I pushed you away with my stubbornness and greed. I hope you can forgive me for it,” Alistair said.

Hammer couldn't stop crying so he just nodded. But after catching his breath he said, “I forgive you, father.”

Alistair smiled a sad smile and reached out to his son and wiped his tears. “I hope I’ll get another chance to have you as my son. So that I can be the kind of father you deserved.”

Hammer swallowed hard and embraced the man in front of him. After pulling back he gestured to me that he was done. I set the abyssal being free.

While Hammer was wiping his tears, he said, “Thank you. If it wasn't for you…I would've had to live with the regret of…never getting to see him before he left…”

I just nodded. I still wasn't used to people saying such heavy and intense stuff to me.

We started walking back to the manor. “May I ask…why did you take the effort to…do that for me?”

I really wanted to say something profound at that moment. But I couldn't come up with anything. So I just said what had been on my mind. “I've realized something recently. It is that everyone deserves a second chance. Even someone who believes that they can't do anything good with what they have.”

****

And so we made our way back to the docks to board the ferry home, our purses filled with coins. I couldn't help but smile. “I think all of the unresolved omens that we had read are now real,” I said as we sailed back into the Fallstone river. “The coin, the hammer. Everything.”

“Yes,” Lily said and groaned, leaning back on the bench. “And it sucked the life out of me.”

“Well, at least we were paid,” Asmod said.

“And our names are completely cleared,” I added.

Lily looked at me skeptically. “Really? Hopper won't cause us any trouble?”

I grinned. “No, he won't. Quite the opposite in fact,” I said. “He said we'll get recognized as the team that uncovered a viscious scheme and saved dozens of lives.”

Lily frowned. “But we didn't.”

I sighed, thinking of what Eidolon said to me before we parted ways. “You won't have to worry about your cases being brought up again. After this incident, your names won't just be cleared but taken with respect for exposing Wyndham's plan.”

“We did, Lily,” I said. “You'll see it when the newspapers will have our names in there. Also, William Hammer is going to be our alibi in any case we have the problem with the Inquisition again.”

“Really?” Asmod said. “That's…quite a powerful contact actually.”

Lily frowned again. “But he didn't say anything like that to us.”

“He said that to me,” I said.

“Now that I've inherited everything that my father left me, I'm going to put it to good use,” he had said as we walked out of the cemetery in his backyard. “I'm going to use my background as a doctor and his contacts with the government to form an entity that stops idiocy like the green blood theory before it causes problems like these.” Then he looked at me and said, “I owe you a special favor for helping me talk to my father. Don't hesitate to call on me, if you ever need help with something.”

“Hm, so it wasn't a bad idea to help out Hopper it seems,” Smokewell said in a quiet voice so the other passengers couldn't hear her.

I smiled and gave her a little scratch behind the ear. She purred and then she glared at me. “Don't ever do that again.”

“Wait, but we forgot to ask,” Lily said. “What did you and Hopper do when we parted ways?”

I sighed as I watched the buildings passing by. “That's a story for another time, Lily. Another time.”