Chapter 3 - Sister

"Big brother, please go to hell!" a feminine voice exclaimed in a hushed tone.

Uh!? Shit. Vern pocketed the decrepit book into his coat in a swift motion and turned around in the loose embrace. His eyes reflected a petite girl whom he promptly hugged back. The perpetual frown that hung on his face melted down, and a radiant smile bloomed in its place. He lifted her off the ground a little and squeezed her tight.

She wore a loose green long coat that was draped over her white vest, paired with matching two-tone earrings. Her pitch-black hair was worn in a half-up and half-down messy style that shimmered under the twilight, and her oval face had a soft glow to it beset by her eyes, which shone with a cheery gleam.

"How've you been, Ariane?" asked Vern as he put her down, ignoring her lovely greeting.

"I see, I see. Willful, intentional neglect. You don't care anymore. I heard you arrived here three days ago. Three whole days and you didn't even come say hi? Yes, please just go find a new sister," replied Ariane in a matter-of-fact tone as she struggled out of his embrace.

"Didn't your last letter mention that you had exams this week? So, I was really just trying to be considerate and not distract you until you were done."

Ariane's gaze turned dejected as she squirmed out and hung her head low.

"Not like I study all the time. It would've only taken you a few minutes to come by. I see. Now that you are successful, you don't need a sister anymore. He doesn't need me. He doesn't love me. He doesn't need me. He doesn't love me," she kept repeating in a voice that lowered by the second.

"Uhh, umm…Ari. Calm down, it's nothing like that, please listen to me—" He closed in on her, and his shaky voice paused as a smirk peeked through between her repeated murmurs.

Cheat! "Actually, you're right. I should find a new sister. This one's defective. Your gods forgot to install a brain up there, which people use to logically think through situations and not jump to conclusions," uttered Vern in an apathetic voice as he turned around and waved his hand.

She rushed up to him and yanked his arm. "You can actually say that? How rude! I'll write to your master, citing your lacking ethics and mistreatment of your adorable little sister."

"Hmph. Can't even play victim correctly," said Vern with a sneer.

Ariane nodded slowly, "I see. Never mind me." She unclipped a fountain pen from her vest pocket, and started waving it in the air, "Mhm…Mhm. Dear Master-in-law, your apprentice's behavior leaves a lot to be desired. He lacks the manners and grace expected of a gentleman, showing little regard for honor or respect for his peers. He is a loathsome sociopath with nothing but apathy for those around him. A stain on this beautiful society—"

"Okay, okay, milady Ariane, please calm down. I meant well. I was really gonna visit you tomorrow. I knew you'd be done with exams by today. Also, I had this situation where involving you could have been unfavorable."

His original plan was to send her a letter, blaming work for his inability to visit and avoiding any complications. No way he was going to get her involved with these stalkers if he didn't already have an inkling about their intentions. She did catch him off-guard, though.

"Don't believe you."

She was right not to. He could only blame himself for having to lie to his sister like that.

Vern took a step back and held a non-existent top hat before executing a full bow, "I apologize for the neglect. Dear Master's-apprentice's-sister, I brought a few souvenirs from my master's personal library that you might fancy. I was hoping to give them to you at my earliest convenience, but your rejection to accommodate my schedule has broken my heart. I might have to line up for quacks and get it remedied bef—"

"UGHH! Stop, stop! Just pay for this month's expenses on top of the books, and I'll forgive you."

"…"

"I have to save my paychecks for something important."

"…"

"I swear on Lady's name that it isn't wasteful! Pretty please…" She grabbed hold of both his palms and looked up with watery eyes.

"…"

"…" She tilted her face a notch higher.

"Ughh whatever, just this time then."

"Great! Then let's eat these desserts I got for us! You're paying for them, too, obviously."

Ariane pointed at the creamy white pastries sitting atop one of the tables with a cheeky grin.

"…"

Vern shook his head, retreated from the edge, and grabbed himself a chair by the table. The terrace was there to relax anyway. The usual restrictions of being discreet and quiet didn't apply out here. He was getting a little hungry anyway. Ariane sat next to him and helped herself to the desserts.

"How'd you know I was here?" asked Vern as he gobbled down the creamy dessert.

"Oh, that? A friend of mine saw you here and informed me."

"Huh, why do they even know what I look like?"

Ariane looked from side to side and murmured, "It might or might not have something to do with me bragging about being your sister. You're somewhat famous, you know. Anyways, never mind that. How long are you planning on staying in Elmhurst this time?"

Vern didn't comment on the pathetic change of topic. "I plan to leave three days after the conference ends, so about ten more days."

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"So soon? It's too short. How would I leech…I mean, be a good host if you're gone so soon?"

"Well, I can't be running off from my apprenticeship without a recommendation to at least a duke's house…or maybe even a count. Also, I need to go back to my lab and apply the feedback and comments I'll receive during the presentation at the conference to my research."

"Hmph, nerd. Also, what did you mean earlier when you said involving me could have been unfavorable?"

Vern turned silent and thought about the consequences of sharing his recent experiences and promptly dismissed any such notion. It would only be a disservice to her without adding any value, possibly even getting her added to the list of personages to be stalked. So Vern shook his head, "I can't talk about it."

"Huh? Why is that?"

"Top secret."

"PLEASE!"

"Yeah, that trick only works once a week."

Ariane looked at him with a pout and stared daggers at him.

.

.

.

"So, what are you presenting at the conference?"

"Huh. Are you actually interested or something?"

"I can always brag about it to my friends."

Vern spread his arms wide, "Well, if you're dying to know, then I can't not tell you. It's about event ratios and phenomenon replication. It's largely hypothetical right now, and figuring out an equilibrium for even an isolated event is a tedious-"

"Aghh Aghh, I am dying, I am deaf…I can't hear anything."

"…"

"Whatever you just said sounds sooo boring. I would have probably deigned to listen to your ramblings if you researched something about stars, but this? Yeah, no. Do something more interesting next time, okay?"

"That wasn't even half of the thesis…is your attention span getting worse? Are you secretly a goldfish?"

"A goddess, you said? How charming. Yes, yes, let me tell you how this goddess became the leader of the astronomy club in an epic political maneuver."

Caretakers ignited the flameless hearths, just a larger version of Sterling's spheres, illuminating the library's interior a bright violet. The glow blended with the moonlight into something of a lighter shade out on the balcony.

Vern also set off the spherical lamp on his table by thrusting the little mechanism attached to its sides, triggering some reaction as it instantly radiated a beautiful purple. The marvelous yet slightly inefficient cycle of combustion and condensation within the lamps did nothing to ward away the chill but slowly suffused the surroundings with a woody scent.

An acceptable companion for the upcoming conversation, and even possibly back to his lab if he could unscrew it without anyone noticing.

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Nine chimes hummed their metallic rhythm as he looked around yet another time. It wasn't the stalkers, but something was wrong. That feeling of urgency and being on the precipice that he'd been suppressing with his strict mental control and distracting conversation only grew wilder and wilder. I shouldn't have inspected that diagram for so long. If only I was more cautious.

"V. V. V?" a hand waved in front of him, and only then did he register Ari's figure.

"V, are you okay? Are you really thinking about another experiment instead of listening to my magnificent feat of banishing that fat mouse from my room?"

"Mouse? No, you were trying to gloss over how you failed your history test again."

"What do you mean again!? It's the first time this year. And don't change the topic, please. Is everything okay? You seem…distracted. Way more distracted than usual." She took his palm in her hands and looked him straight in the eye.

Vern dodged the stare and looked up at the sky in silence. The words in his stalkers' message implied limited time, and the incessant urging of his own curious mind had him going crazy sitting here doing nothing.

But he knew this was the best course of action. What did it even mean that he could see the laws? Would he lose his basic sight and only see these laws? That would be a disaster when away from his own city filled with unknown.

If necessary, he could sleep it off tonight with some medicine and take a train straight back to Nvoaria to his master's workshop first thing in the morning. He needed another opinion because ignoring it wasn't really working, and his brain actually didn't want to, as knowledge was one thing he couldn't resist.

A few more seconds passed by before he replied, "I am sorry, Ari. I can't tell you everything, but I have this great opportunity in front of me. However, there are too many unknowns around it, and the indecision is making me anxious and jittery."

The grip on his hands grew tighter, and she spoke after a soft sigh, "I understand. Take your time."

There wasn't anything else to read about enlightenment or subjectivity. All the pages after the diagram were empty, and he had already checked the other books in the same section. They were just random books with nothing of interest. As of now, he felt like he had exhausted most of his circumstantial information and needed to go off of tangents to gather something new. Wait, I actually didn't pursue that at all.

"Ari, do you know someone named Yharl Ballin?"

She tilted her head and responded after a few breaths, "Do you mean administrator Yharl?"

"Administrator Yharl?"

"Yeah, he's the leader of Ascendant Council. A group of fanatics of history, no less. It's quite a famous religion in the city, mainly because they worship Lady Lennix and derive their philosophy from the fundamentals as well."

"Hmm, then where does the prefix of administrator come from? That's a political title, not religious. "

"Umm, I don't really know. He may be related to a noble or something. I only know what I do because they've been in newspaper quite recently."

When he was about to follow up with more questions, a bunch of people streamed into the balcony and started arguing while pointing at the sky.

He withdrew his hands, signaled Ariane to pause, and followed the gaze of the masses. Everyone had their necks craned, looking at the moon, which was somehow getting darker every second. The surroundings were losing their ambiance as the pale glow faded by the second.

"Ari?" She would know more than him about whatever was going on up in the sky. She was smart like that.

"Hmm, this is so odd. The sky is as clear as it gets, but the moon is losing light. This shouldn't be happening at this time of the year." Said Ariane as she squinted hard at the sky.

"So, not an eclipse?"

"Mhm, the next one is about three months from now."

Everyone just gawked at the display with rapt attention, including Vern and Ariane.

"Any idea what's going on?

She tapped her fingers on the table and spoke after a pause, "This is definitely not normal. I'll need to use proper tools and observe the positions of other celestial bodies and calculate their trajectories to reach a conclusion. Something must have changed drastically to come to this."

People visible down in the streets began clamoring as they noticed the oddity themselves. Few stopped to marvel at the scene, while others continued their business like it didn't matter, while some went completely ballistic and kneeled right where they stood and began reciting their prayers in a frenzy.

The whole scene made Vern uneasy, and it didn't really help that the conjectures of scholars around him were only getting unbridled and distressing by the second.

"Is this reckoning? Goddess is displaying her rage at the heresy we've all committed by stealing her fundamentals."

"NO! This is a celestial phenomenon. It's a planetary collision. We're all gonna die. It's the end. It's the end. There's no other explanation! I need to pray!"

"It could just be an eclipse, you all. Why are we overreacting?"

"Don't interrupt if you're not well versed in the field, young one. There's no eclipse titulated for this month, and that is why, I need to record this. This is a momentous event, and its every detail needs to go down in the annals of history."

"My compass is telling me the magnetic fields are in disarray. This will mess up all my experiments. Someone needs to stop this. The coven needs to do something. What are they doing? Why didn't they predict this?"

Things were getting just as heated beyond the terrace. Three Kingsmen dropped down to the street as people began to get restless. They unsheathed their blades from the scabbard on their back, leaving steam in their wake, igniting the very air around them. The effect was instant as the mob stilled, and a stifling calm settled down in the surroundings.

Vern didn't have time to guess at the fundamentals used to build the scabbards that held and overheated those blades before screams and gasps echoed all around. People started running indoors, pointing at the fading mass of white yet again. Vern finally looked back up, and his heart raced as blood surged through his body with intense thumping.

On the still somewhat bright moon's perimeter, appeared tendrils of dark that grew at a breakneck pace, like a crack through the celestial body itself.