.·✧☆Stellarium☆✧·.

Chapter 11

Nova, Camping | 2,668 words

“A night in jail and you’ve already started going crazy? I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I can’t.” Sybyll says to him, clearly still holding whatever grudge she has. The cell floors and walls are littered with drawings of organs, it's all quite serial killer-esque. “Wonderful picture of you by the way, I think it really captures your likeness,” She unfurls today’s newspaper to show him on the front page. The headline reads “Infamous Train Robber Caught,” with a picture of him squinting his eyes and scrunching his nose at the camera, his mouth caught in an ugly cringe. Arthur rolls his eyes, “I refuse to dignify that with a response. But, seeing that I’m in this cell, I am willing to help if you are willing to do things for me in return.”

“Like what exactly?” I ask. “I can bring you to the base of operations for the entire organization, in return you allow me to live a free and peaceful life.” He is offering a good amount of information, but I can’t just let him go free. He is both the perpetrator and most likely an accomplice to more crimes that I don't know about yet. “You do realize there are other methods of getting information out of you, ones that wouldn’t involve us sticking our necks out for a criminal.” Alex says to him, an eyebrow raised. “Then you’d just have to figure it out on your own, go ahead and scan every building in the city for all I care.” Arthur goes to lean back on the stiff prison mattress, arms tucked behind his head. “ You won't be able to find it without my help, not if any of you wish to do anything else with your lives.”

There are really only so many buildings in this city, and we could search one by one, but this would be so much faster. If I know anything about criminal organizations, it's not going to be so easy as to just find the building anyways. Sybyll looks over to me to gauge my reaction, “Nova you can’t seriously be considering his offer.” She seems entirely distrustful of him, just like before. It's not unwarranted now, but this could be our only chance. “Hold on Sybyll, this isn’t necessarily a bad deal. Our end of it will have to be stricter than that though,” Alex steps in. I don’t want to say anything too early, because at the end of the day I’m aware that what I say goes. I guess I was letting what I was thinking show on my face again. “What are your terms then?” Arthur asks.

I nod to Alex as a sign he has my permission to be the main negotiator. “First, you have to help us before we do anything for you.” Arthur seems like he was expecting this, as his expression doesn’t change. “Next, if you do decide to help us, we can consider a lighter punishment. Though you still are a criminal and you will have to face consequences.” Arthur seemed to perk up more at this. “How light of a punishment?” He asks Alex. “That will be decided depending on how helpful you actually end up being. If you continue to help in this investigation we perhaps could consider better arrangements for you.” Arthur’s smug sneer returns to his face, “You do realize I am a prisoner of Forra and not Crystalia, right? You can’t do anything to me while I'm here.” he says indignantly to Alex. They stand face to face with the bars of the cell barely separating them, both trying to look bigger to each other. “That would be the case if we weren’t in a long-term alliance, on top of the initial crime being in Crystalia. As outlined, you’re actually under our jurisdiction and just being held here for now.”

Arthur’s expression reverts back to unhappy and unamused. “So really, if you don’t help us you’ll just have to live through the full sentence that Nova makes for you.” This definitely struck a cord, though I have no idea why. I don’t think I would make any punishment that was overly cruel, I wouldn’t even be allowed to be on the case due to my involvement. Serena would be the person he would have to worry about. “That's not true, there are courts and systems in place for things like this. Do you think I know nothing about the legal system in Crystalia?” Arthur retorts. “If you were so aware, then you would know house Vulpecula rules over the government, and that this case is going all the way to the top.” Both of what they are saying is true, but the lower courts would have to decide if it was worth our time. Though… If I really wanted to, we could pick up the case. Arthur looks at me while I’m lost in thought and seems to get the wrong idea. Clearly nervous about me looking to get my revenge, he finally relents and says “Fine, I agree to your terms.”

Wonderful! “Sybyll, would you go and fetch the guards? We’re going to take him with us.” Sybyll seems somewhat displeased with this outcome but still obliges. She brings back the woman who let us in earlier, the woman goes inside the cell and re-cuffs him. As she leads him back out, Alex takes him by the arm. Arthur also looks less than happy with this, as he jerks his arm to make Alex loosen his grip. “You already have me cuffed, I’m not going anywhere,” He says. “Just making sure what happened last time doesn’t have a repeat.”

Arthur starts leading the way to the base, but acts somewhat like an ornery kid the entire time. It's completely different to the way he was acting back when we were friends. It kind of confirms that all of the niceties had been an act to bide his time and steal the sword. Though, is this seriously how he acts naturally?? Truthfully I really wish he would go back to pretending, the charisma and composure he once had is completely gone. We arrive at a run down area, full of abandoned buildings on the outskirts of the city. “It's in there.” He nods his head to the building in front of us. There are vines running along the walls, and the interior looks untouched from peering in the windows. “There is a secret door that connects to a series of tunnels, it’s an underground lab where your artifact is being held.”

“We should make camp and think of a plan. There’s no reason to charge in during broad daylight,” Alex says to us. “Agreed, we need to think of what we want to do about this,” I say to everyone. We make camp like hobos in a somewhat distant abandoned building. “Could you maybe uncuff me sometime soon? My wrists hurt.” Arthur says to us. “Not happening any time soon, so stop asking,” Sybyll says to him. “I know you’ve already tried to break out and run multiple times now, you can’t because those cuffs limit your magic.” I thought of this as somewhat cruel, but we can't have key information running away again. “How would you have known that?” He asks her, “Because I’m not dumb enough to let you out of my sight again.”

“Things will only get worse for you if you run anyways, it's best to cooperate.” I say to him, setting up a small fire for dinner tonight. We don’t need to worry about the smoke or anything, the building has a hole in the roof it can funnel out of. He lets out a huff and doesn’t respond, it seems he’s more scared of me than anything. He’s obviously been keeping tabs on me and checking exits, but I seriously doubt he’d actually run again. “We should report our location to Serena, I can give the money for the priority mail and international fees,” I say to both Sybyll and Alex. “I just need someone to drop off the report, I wrote most of it last night.” Sybyll hums, “I’ll go, I can trust you and Alex to keep an eye out on him.” Alex seems in agreement.

“You can borrow my pen to write, I’ll finish up the fire.” It's not ideal, but I use the stone tiled floor to finish up my report. Most of it is assuring Serena I was okay, she’s kind of like a mom in that way. Or now, would she be my first mom or my second mom? Everything has been so confusing as of late, of course I can’t tell her any of that. I add the location of our camp and the location of the lab in my letter. I want to add something about the train scuffle, but I’m sure she already saw that newspaper. So, I finish it up with a ‘I’ll be home soon!’ and seal it up. I don’t have any wax, so I just fold the paper tightly. I give Alex the pen back and send Sybyll on her way.

Sitting next to Arthur I ask, “Tell me about the base, is there anything notable about it?” He stays silent for a moment, “There is only one entrance and one exit that I know about. If anyone wants to leave then you’d have to see them leave out the front door.” Good to know, we could probably trap them like rats and get this over with quickly. “You should know there are three labs,” He looks away from me towards the ground, “Your sword is being held in Lab 1, the main lab.” A longer pause takes place between us, somewhat awkwardly, “I promised someone I would help them out. I don’t like anyone having to pick up my promises on my behalf, but there is someone being kept prisoner in Lab 3.” He seemingly embarrassedly fully turns his head away from me. This is more like the Arthur I used to know. “Please help her out.”

“I will.” I say to him, I’m not heartless after all. “Nova hold on, you shouldn’t agree to something so quickly without all the details,” Alex speaks up while doing preparations for dinner. “You have no idea what it has been like for her, she's covered in welts and kept for who knows how long.” Arthur’s voice is not raised, but definitely has a bit of edge to it. “I said I could get her out, but I failed. This is probably her last chance for freedom at all.” I can’t help but let his words tug at my heartstrings even just a little. It doesn’t matter to me in this moment what has happened, if I can help someone like that I will.

Sybyll returns, no issues with the report. I bring her up to speed on the info with the base as well. “I’m really nervous about the plan to storm the base, we’ll be easily outnumbered won't we?” She says to us as we sit around the low fire. I don’t know how to make any food, and she doesn’t either. Alexander is making something out of the rations he packed. “You will, but most of the people won't try to fight you. They’re scientists, not soldiers.” Arthur says to us. We’re all sitting in sort of an even circle, which is a bit weird. This is the first time everyone has been together since my coronation, and even then we all were doing separate things. “The person you need to worry about most is Violet.”

“Who is that?” I ask. He pauses, it seems that certain things surrounding this are harder for him to tell us. “She’s… the lead scientist. More closely, the leader of the movement.” I’m somewhat confused by his wording, “What movement?” He looks intensely uncomfortable, but keeps talking. “She researches magic. How it works, the biology of it, all of that. She’s easily the strongest one there.” Alex seems to listen more intently at this. “She’s working to eliminate the lack of magical ability in the world population, though her methods are often… extreme.” As he is stirring the pot he’s cooking in, Alex speaks up, “She sounds like someone we’ve been looking for and tracking for years. Violet Arkwright was expelled from the top university in Crystalia for her unethical and illegal actions.” She fled the country and went off the grid, her case has been cold for around 20 years.”

Dinner is ready, it's not so appetizing looking but it's surprisingly good. Not astounding or anything, but good for rations. I wish this was more surprising of a reveal, maybe connected to the ghosts in my dreams. It seems things aren’t that simple. “I wasn’t allowed to know much of anything about her current research. Lab 3 was supposed to be a big breakthrough.” Sybyll uncuffs him for a minute to eat, none of us were very keen on feeding him ourselves. This of course came with the condition that I would personally hunt him down and not hold back. “She obviously didn’t trust me at the end of it, after I came back I was no longer useful to her.” He chuckles a little to himself. “And she was right for it, cause I’m here doing exactly what she said I would. She was right to send me on a fool's errand.”

The silence that follows this statement is deafening, the crackle of the fire and hum of night time insects fills the void. It’s really awkward now. “The food is good Alex, thanks.” It’s all I can muster out at the moment, but it catches on with everyone else thanking him for the food. “Hey, now we know what we’re getting into at least. A crazy mad scientist in an underground lab is at least interesting.” I say to everyone. “Oh hey, if you guys find my old room can you bring back some of my stuff? I lost everything I brought with me when I was arrested.” Alex hums as he thinks about it, “Maybe. If it’s convenient.”

“Somewhat unrelated, but when we charge in we need someone to watch Arthur,” I say. “I’ll do it, I don’t have any practical scouting or fighting experience,” Sybyll responds. “I really don’t need supervision,” Arthur interjects. Another silence follows when he speaks back up with a “Okay fine, I get it.” Dinner is over and I insist on Alex not being part of the cleanup because he made the food. We re-cuff Arthur on the front of his body and get him in a sleeping bag. The boys are both asleep with lights out when Sybyll takes me to the side to talk to me.

“Nova,” She says to me in a hushed voice. “You know how dangerous this is, I don’t want you rushing into something like this again.” She searches my face for a response before I speak. “I understand that this is something that could be considered dangerous.” Truthfully I’m maybe not taking this situation as seriously as it should be. We’re in the last bit of the mission though! It's only natural that I’m a bit excited to relax a little after everything. “No, I mean it. When you ran into Arthur last time you survived because of luck. My job on this trip is to make sure you come home in one piece.” I feel bad that I’m such a liability that Sybyll had to come to make sure I didn’t die. “I know what you’re thinking right now, I’m not just here because you’re reckless at times but because you are an incredibly important person.” I don’t feel much better at this. “I will be okay, it’s not just me going yeah?”

“Will you promise me?” She asks me, searching my face once more. “I promise,” I say to her before we go to bed for the night.