“So there was nothing suspicious at all?” Zeke asked for the second or third time.
“No, sir!” the guards answered in the same way they had last time. Zeke was getting frustrated. They hadn’t seen anybody suspicious, hadn’t heard anything out of place, and hadn’t left their post once. If they were to be believed, then the intruder must have been a literal ghost.
“I see. Let’s try something else. Tell me everything that happened between the time I left and the moment Jettero found the broken Enchantments four hours later.”
“Yes, sir!” the older of the two guards exclaimed. “Miss Mia came by not long after you had left. She wanted to know for how long you had been in the office. After we had told her that you had just left, she stamped her feet and said ‘That boy is just like his father!’ before leaving.”
Zeke grimaced. Jettero must have told on him. He was sure there would be a lecture about this in the near future. Still, the interaction seemed harmless enough. “What happened next?”
“A short while later, Mr. Geralt came by and asked the same question. After we had told him that you had just left, he chuckled and said ‘That boy is just like his mother!’ before leaving as well.”
Despite Zeke’s terrible mood, his parent’s antics still made him smile. But his face grew somber soon after. To guarantee their safety, it was all the more important to catch that spy. “Next?”
“There wasn’t much else,” the man said. “After Sir David’s visit, nobody bothered us anymore until the engineer found the Enchantments.”
“David?” Zeke asked in bewilderment. “What’s he got to do with this?”
The guards looked back at Zeke with a gaze that was just as confused as his own. “Weren’t you with Sir David a moment ago, young Lord?”
“Yes?” Zeke asked.
“Surely, Sir David must have told you that he entered your study this morning to retrieve an important document?” the guard questioned.
“…Of course, he did,” Zeke lied. “I still want to hear about the incident from you. Please don’t leave out even the smallest detail.”
This couldn’t be true, it simply made no sense. David couldn’t be the traitor. Zeke listened to the two guards’ account. His mind was running a mile a minute. Nothing seemed off and they hadn’t noticed anything weird about David’s behaviour either.
“That will do, men. I won’t keep you from your rest any longer,” Zeke said.
“Sir,” the two saluted and marched off, leaving Zeke alone in the conference room. He stayed seated for a while, unsure of how to proceed. Should he confront David? What would that achieve? What was the right move?
Zeke's mind spun. He needed to be smart about this. What did he want to achieve? How could he maximize the probability of success? What were the worst outcomes? How could he avoid them? Questions over questions. Zeke kept mulling things over, devising and abandoning one plan after the other.
Finally, he had a breakthrough when he remembered a specific line from his favorite book — The Heart of Men.
‘True cunning lies not in predicting the enemy's moves, but in shaping their desires, compelling them to march willingly into a web of one's design.’
A smile slowly spread across his face. Soon after, a plan started to form. If he wanted to get ahead of this, he had no time to waste.
On the very same evening, most of the von Hohenheim household was gathered in the Grand conference hall. It was just before dinner. The people had been told that Ezekiel von Hohenheim would be informing everyone about what had happened earlier today.
As the appointed time arrived, the hall was filled with old and new staff. Only the guards and the crew in the workshop were absent. Zeke looked out over the sea of faces.
With a grave expression, he began his speech. “Thank you all for coming. You are all hungry and I won’t keep you for long. As many of you have heard, there was an incident earlier today. Two top-grade Enchantments with a combined value of 4,000 gold were destroyed. The two components were vital to the success of our current project…”
Zeke let his voice trail off, giving the crowd time to digest his words. A nervous murmur swept through the hall. Most of the people were worried. It wasn’t a secret that the future of the family was dependent on their current project. He could even see a look of despair cross many faces. Before the panic could build any further, his grim face suddenly turned to a smirk.
“Luckily,” Zeke continued. “I have foreseen something like this happening. For that reason, I had a second set of Enchantments made and hid them in a secure location. Even so, I urge all of you to stay vigilant in the future. That’s all for now.”
The crowd was first astounded, then delighted. Zeke’s incredible foresight had managed to save the family from certain doom. More than one voice could be heard praising his leadership as the people made their way to the promised meal. Many could also be heard speculating about who had tried to sabotage their project.
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A smile spread across Zeke’s face. The bait was set, and only time would tell which mouse came to nibble. For the rest of the day and the following morning, nothing happened. Then, another incident occurred. Half of his father’s finished carvings were burned. For security reasons, most of the important parts were stored on the Alexandria. Only Zeke and Kerim were supposed to have access to the storage area.
Again, the guards claimed that nothing strange had happened, but said that the Captain himself had visited around an hour before the fire had started. Zeke didn’t confront Kerim about it, but the suspicion in his mind hardened. He made an effort to ensure everyone that this was no major setback and that as long as the Enchantments were still safe, the project would not be in danger.
This was of course a lie, and Zeke had to bite his tongue so as to not lose his temper completely when he saw his father’s hard work destroyed. Thankfully, Geralt himself took the setback unexpectantly well. He put his hand on his son’s shoulder and smiled. “Don’t worry, Zeke. Now that I have more practice, the next ones are gonna be even better.”
His father’s honest words managed to sell the lie much better than anything Zeke could have come up with. It also was a huge relief that his father didn’t seem discouraged at all. Geralt seemed a lot happier than Zeke had ever seen him. Now that he could not only be useful but also pursue his passion at the same time, his father appeared ten years younger.
There was no further incident for a few days, and the production advanced on schedule. And just when Zeke thought that the spy might not take his bait, something happened.
It was the morning on the third day after the last incident and Zeke had just finished his inspection round with Jettero when he had an unexpected visitor. The two were just about to enter his mother’s office, where she and David were doing paperwork when a silhouette came bounding down the corridor. The figure came to a halt right in front of Zeke, catching her breath.
“Margret?” Zeke asked with a strange look on his face. “What are you doing here? I thought you were chasing a lead?”
“Yes,” Margret managed to say between breaths. “…ran all the way… Found something… Enchantments in danger!”
“What!?” Zeke exclaimed. “How did you find that out?”
After a few more deep breaths, Margret was finally able to speak clearly. “We found a clue that the spy is working for the Goldfinger company. A letter claimed that he has found the hiding spot of the second set of Enchantments. But we can’t be sure how old the letter was, so you should check as soon as possible if they are still safe.”
Zeke's brows furrowed. He stayed silent for a moment, seeming to be deeply focused. He was right in front of his mother’s office, where David was. But instead of entering or asking for help, he turned to Margret. “Let’s go, Margret. You’ll be my guard for now. We need to check on them as soon as possible and I don’t know who else I can trust at the moment.”
Margret’s face lit up. Wordlessly, she followed Zeke down the stairways, leaving a confused Jettero behind. The two of them made their way into the basement of the mansion. Zeke guided them past the crates filled with foodstuffs. He was leading them ever deeper into the underground maze. They were now in the deepest, darkest corner of the cellar and had reached a dead end.
“Is it here somewhere, young lord?” Margret asked after a while.
Zeke glanced at her and slowly came to a halt. He turned and looked Margret right in the eye. “You are terrible at this.”
“At what?” Margret asked, completely bewildered.
“Being Margret,” Zeke responded. “First of all, she never calls me ‘young lord’. We were friends long before I became lord of anything.”
Margret remained silent, her expression not giving anything away just yet. Zeke was not at all perturbed by this, he continued his explanation. “Also, why did you pretend to be out of breath? Margret is a Wind Mage. She would have flown instead of run.”
Again, ‘Margret’ remained silent. “Also also,” Zeke continued. “Didn’t you think that I would catch onto your game after you pulled the same trick so many times already? You must think me pretty stupid. As a Mind Mage, I am deeply offended.”
The woman still remained silent, but Zeke thought he could detect a hint of hostility in her gaze now. “You know, even if you didn’t make all those mistakes, I would still have found you out immediately. Do you know why?”
The woman glanced behind her, making sure they had not been followed. After not seeing anybody anywhere, she returned her gaze back to Zeke. When she spoke, it was in an unfamiliar voice. “How?”
“You stink of Flesh Magic,” Zeke responded with a smirk.
“You know,” the woman said in a deep, masculine voice. “For someone so clever, you sure overestimate your abilities by a lot. It wasn’t smart to come with me on your own.”
“You would have run if I had brought more people,” Zeke countered. “I’m sure you had an escape strategy ready when you approached me.”
“…Still wasn’t very smart,” the deep voice responded.
“I guess we’ll just have to find out,” Zeke said with an edge to his voice. “I wanted to get my hands on you since you burned my father’s work, you piece of shit.”
The person using Margret’s face smirked. “You won’t like how this ends, boy.”
“Ohh? Can’t be much worse than hearing you talk with that mismatched voice, you freak of nature,” Zeke said in a disgusted tone.
Without another word, the Flesh Mage charged. He hadn’t been idle during their talk. Slowly, he had changed the shape of his legs to give him an incredible horizontal thrust. He shot toward Zeke like an arrow, throwing a lightning-fast punch with a fist that had swelled to the size of Zeke’s head. The boy didn’t even have time to raise his guard.
The punch connected and the attacker grinned. However, it was a short-lived celebration, as he noticed in the next instant that he had not hit the boy at all. Instead, his fist had struck a black barrier that had sprung up right in front of the boy. His eyes widened when he noticed what the substance in front of him was. “How can that-”
But before he could even finish the exclamation, dozens of tendrils emerged from every crevice, every nook, every shadow. In the dingy cellar, there was no hiding from the darkness. The man fought back valiantly. He was extremely hard to pin down, shifting form whenever he was grabbed. It was a bizarre sight, like a melting candle that was assailed by a never-ending tide of darkness.
But no matter how hard he fought, eventually, the tendrils won. They had switched strategy and started to simply beat the man into submission. After a couple of minutes, a bloody mess was all that remained. A figure silently emerged from the darkness behind Zeke.
“I hope you didn’t kill him, David. I would really like to know who sent him,” Zeke said without looking back.
“Of course not, young Lord. It’s not the first time I’m doing this.”
Zeke turned around, looking right at David with a giant smile on his face. “Good job,” he praised in all honesty. The man had performed his part perfectly. A single telepathic message had been all the butler needed to execute this plan.
David chuckled. “Let's get this man locked up before he regains consciousness. Body Mages have incredible self-healing capabilities.”
Zeke nodded. As a Body Mage himself, he was of course well aware of this. When his eyes returned to the figure that was bleeding on the floor, they became frigid.
“I think it’s time we got some answers.”