Ash continued to search the study for clues, along with Ivy. He was badly torn with the simultaneous desire to just talk to Ivy, the person, and not only to play the game, but to play it well. He wanted to be a hero, solve the mystery, and impress the hell out of her. At the same time, the game world was utterly and completely immersive. Alistair Marquand had achieved a real, live, Star Trek-style holodeck, but on a grand scale. When he had first seen the old Star Trek episodes on DVD as a kid—his mom had been a fan—he had thought the holodeck ones were the cheesiest. But now, here he was, pretending to be a private eye just like Captain Picard had. And it was fun.
His high Investigation skill had already yielded results. He knew that the culprit most likely knew where the safe was, which pointed squarely at an inside job, either one of the family or one or more of the servants. He couldn’t rule out accomplices. And he seriously wanted to get that safe open himself that check out that ancient-looking book.
A moaning gust of wind rattled the windows, driving a spatter of rain against the glass.
“I think we should split up,” Ivy said abruptly. “I mean, we’ll cover more ground that way.”
Ash’s heart sank. He had been enjoying the time with just the two of them. “Yeah, sure, of course.” He considering protesting on the grounds that it was always a bad idea to split up an adventuring party, but he didn’t think they’d reached the dangerous part of the story just yet.
“Meet up again in fifteen?” she said. “In the foyer?”
“Sure, good plan. I think we’ve gone over this room with a fine tooth comb. If only we could lift some fingerprints.”
Text popped up in his HUD.
Although fingerprints have been studied for centuries, fingerprinting will not be used for forensic crime scene analysis until 1910.
He swiped the text away and focused on Ivy again. “See you in fifteen, unless you see a monster. Then scream your head off.”
“Do you suppose this is that kind of game?” she asked pausing at the door as if she were in a hurry.
“We have weapons, don’t we?” He shrugged. “I guess we’ll see. If I run into James or Elwood, I’ll relay the plan.”
She nodded and left as if she couldn’t wait to get away from him. He sighed and paced a couple of circuits around the room, trying to settle the butterflies in his stomach. She was just too cool. If she were still alive, his mom would be giddy with the idea of him dating this girl. He could hear her voice now, Oh, just look at my handsome young man! His mom had been a gamer herself, back in the days of Tetris, Legend of Zelda, and Super Mario on Nintendo. He liked to think she would have liked Ivy a lot, and vice versa. His mom had been an easy person to like, selfless to a fault. Which is why nobody knew about the cancer until it was too late.
He shook off the stab of grief and ventured into the hallway, across which lay the open door to what looked like the library. He strolled in, noticing that the shadows were growing deeper. The sense of the incoming storm was palpable, like the crackle of static electricity in the air. Or maybe it was just a subliminal sense of foreboding. Regardless, he found himself on edge.
Most of the books stacked on shelves all the way to the lofty ceiling, were imposing, leather bound volumes decades old, maybe even a century or more. He strolled along the shelves scanning the spines, brushing them with his fingers, enjoying how genuine the sensation felt. General topics on various sciences, zoology, biology, medicine, works of literature in both French and English, books on history. He also found yellowed, crumbling ship’s logs, family ledgers. Many of the books bore a gold-stamped coat of arms on the cover, which consisted of a shield, crossed lances, and a fleur-de-lys juxtaposed against some creature he couldn’t identify. Lots of medieval heraldry had animals like lions, griffins, and dragons, but this was something he couldn’t grasp. He couldn’t even be sure how many limbs it had. All he knew was that it was fearsome and breathed green fire.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Then his gaze fell upon a huge, ornate volume, placed prominently on one of the shelves, with tarnished brass clasps and a cracked binding of black leather which read Holy Bible in baroque filigree.
“Family Bible?” he said to himself.
He took it town, laid it upon a nearby reading table, and unlocked the hefty clasps.
The room fell into shadow that made reading difficult. Wind rattled the windows in strengthening gusts. Where was Ellie? Hadn’t she gone outside? Could the gamesuits simulate the sensation of being soaked by rain? Also on the reading table was an oil lamp and a box of matches, so he lit the lamp. First time he’d ever done such a thing in this ultra-modern age. Yellow light spilled over the Bible as he opened it.
Successful Research Check! Gain 3 points to increase your Research skill! Family Bibles are often used to catalog family trees and record births and deaths.
Inside the book’s cover was drawn the Delacroix family tree. Near the bottom he found Gilbert, Anastasia, and Armand, names written in tiny, crabbed script, in pencil, but the tree was so full of curves and switchbacks to accommodate dozens of births that it was difficult to tell where the branches lay. What was the familial relationship between the twins and Gilbert? He peered close and followed the birth lines with a fingernail. He had to do it three times to be sure, but as far as he could tell, they connected to Jean-Paul Delacroix, the very same one in the painting in the study. Their mother’s name…had been erased.
Then he noticed that a bunch of names had been erased. He counted twenty-five, along with birth and death dates. Here was Gilbert, born 1822. Here was someone named Renard, born 1833, no death date listed. Anastasia and Armand, born 1873. Here was a Delphine Delacroix, born 1750, one of three sisters of Jean-Paul Delacroix, two of whom had died young. Oddly, this Delphine had no death date listed. One that had been erased he could still read: Jacqueline, born 1850, with no death date, erased or not.
Wait, hadn’t Anastasia mentioned a Cousin Delphine as being the person who discovered the theft? A second of quick math. “That would make her a hundred and forty-two.” He shook his head.
Another gust of wind, more powerful than any yet, made the windows shudder. But then in an odd stereo effect, he heard a scuffling, skittering sound from the opposite wall, so quiet he couldn’t be sure he’d heard it. As if there were something on the opposite side of the wall scratching or sliding downward, like a cat descending a tree.
Successful Perception Check! Gain 4 points to increase any skill! Perception checks represent moments of sharpened sensory acuity.
He approached that wall and knelt. The scratching came once more, moving downward, then disappeared. Something was moving in there.
Going back into the hallway, he circled to the other side of that wall and found himself a nook that had been decorated as an art gallery. Gloomy oil paintings of nautical scenes and poorly rendered family portraits. On shelves and stands were exotic art objects gathered from native tribes from all over the world. He suspected there were clues here, but he was not the one with the scholarly skills. But there was something odd about the wall this area shared with the library. He moved back and forth between the two rooms until he was sure.
What appeared to be a wall was actually almost four feet thick. The fact that he could hear something moving in that space suggested it was hollow all the way through. A space like that was more than enough for a human to crawl through. A secret passage?
Then, as if the GM was reading his mind, a minor-key chime rang in his ears, and glowing text floated before him.
SIDEQUEST: Rats in the Walls? Something is lurking inside the walls. You have discovered evidence of a secret crawlspace or void inside the walls, through which something is moving. But where might it lead? How could one get in there? Discover the secrets of the noises in the walls and earn a Major Weapon Upgrade. Do you accept? Yes or no.
“Yes, I accept,” he said.
Whatever was in there had moved downward. Time to find the basement.