The Sight Beyond The Haze

Chapter 37: Who Is He?

I still did not forget that I should go to the faculty office and return my injured prof possessions and belongings.

Since the time was now for classes, the faculty office was relatively desolated from the presence of people. I let the butterflies flutter around the room. They were quite mischievous and curious if I would say something to describe their behavior.

I never did know if these butterflies were similar to actual and breathing butterflies. I never had the time to ask Deo, but I guess I could when he comes here.

I did not went out of the faculty office that quickly, letting the butterflies to just fly around and circle the room. There were about two to five butterflies that accompany me every single day. They have never failed me, of course, only listening to my commands and obediently doing what they were all told.

I did not want my mind to linger on Zachriel Legrand, fearing that I might have disappointed myself with the way I acted. I was not the most virtuous person, but I know loyalty and betrayal.

I have experienced and it cost me so much pain that I do not want to bet anything on someone who has lost my trust before.

A buttetly perched on my cheek, seemingly comforting me with the warmth it gave off. I felt lighter with its presence, feeling as though I have someone on my side even if there might be a chance that these butterflies were only synthetic and a by-product of Deo's power.

Well, I will never knew unless I ask Deo how he breed these bright and wonderful creatures, whether he made actual butterflies into light butterflies or he only just make them out of scratch.

An agitated buttefly then entered the office, its bright shine was dimming and it circled around me. I reached out a finger to touch it. Closing my eyes, it showed me what it has seen.

A very familiar face was walking towards the hallway that leads here in the faculty office. He was what would people say a very handsome man with his little cleft chin, light eyes, and a pleasing aura. It was Sir Apollyon Hart. Behind him was a student, walking closely.

I jolted awake, my eyes widening while I was looking at these peculiar creatures. I have never known that these light butterflies could act as a monitor, enabling those who touch and control them to see what they had seen.

How clever and very convenient.

I flicked my thumb and middle finger, calling on to the butteflies that were still flying around freely. As I was expecting of them, they did not disappoint and actually came to me. It would be extremely peculiar to have the butterflies around and flying, but the agitated buttefly did not stopped when it showed me the image.

It even wanted to drag me out. My eyebrows knitted quicly as its odd behavior, they have never acted this way before unless there was danger.

"What is it?" I asked it as though it would actually answer me right away, but its shine just immediately dimmed and brightened then it repeated. The butterflies never use their force on me, but this one seemed to want to since I cannot fathom what was the message it was trying to convey to me.

"Did something happen?" I asked again, but then I knew that I have no more time since Sir Apollyon was quite close now base on how much time I used on trying to decode the butterfly's message.

Trusting my instincts and their behavior, I suspected that Sir Apollyon was up to no good.

I looked around the office for a hiding space. It was quite spacious, but it consisted of cubicles and nothing to actually hide myself in except for the table that could barely fit me. I gritted my teeth and went by the window of the office.

Fortunately, none of the windows in here were locked by any means. I quickly went to go to work. Sliding the window open, I climbed up on the ledge and saw that there was actually roof just beside the window. I draw the curtains to a close over the window. I was supposed to also close the window, but just then I heard someone went inside the office.

Two of the butteflies around me immediately went side by side on both of my ears, covering them and making it hard for me to hear anything. I knitted my head at their reaction. It was a few seconds before I realized what they were doing all the covering for.

The siren's song was in full blast from the inside of the faculty room and it was all thanks to the butteflies that were covering both of my ears that I was not able to be affected by the sounds of it.

I remeber that time when I was affected by the siren's song. I was so hot both from the inside and outside back then, wanting to escape and do unspeakable things.

It was quite embarrassing to Deo that he was able to see in that kind of situation.

But if I ever heard the siren's song again I'm afraid that there would only be Leigh who would hold me when I was delirious from the side effects of it.

Since I was not able to completely close the window, the curtains flutter around the wind and I immediately went to a crouching position so no one inside of the faculty office would see my silhouette.

I looked down the building. I was in the fourth floor of the building complex and it was quite fortunate also that no body would be able to see me even if I was exposed like this. There was another building that was covering this one that I was on.

I was not certain how in the world I would be able to get down, maybe I can just take the shortcut and jump my way down.

"That is quite a chore," I heard a familiar pleasant voice said. "All these luring and sucking up life forces. It is a good thing that the Seer couldn't see us."

My eyes widened considerably.

Did I misheard everything? Who was inside again? Sir Apollyon? The same teacher who helped me out of the temporal illusory fragment with Caspian Cashel?

I listened closely, daring to pressed myself closer to the wall and, consequently, to the danger.

"This is draining me too," I heard Sir Apollyon say again. "Why don't you go and enter to that door?" he said yet again and I heard a bleak response from probably the student he brought with him.

"Yes, Sir Hart," I heard the student replied to him.

I held my breath, the siren's song then continued on playing. Without the accompaniment of instruments, the voice that was singing was even more mesmerizing than anything I have heard from before.

The siren's song that I heard from that one time Deo and Cocytus saved me, I was still rather out of it and could not tell what was right and what was left. Now that I could hear it, I could now appreciate more of its quality.

"I know you're around here," he said which made my blood ran cold. My whole body just stiffened on that exact moment. "Clever, getting out of the building, but not clever enough to actually go. Would you mind letting this humble servant take a peek at the intruder?"

Without any hesitation, I jumped from the fourth floor roof of the building down to the ground where the butteflies cautioned my fall. I rolled a few times on the pavement before I regained my balance and stood up as though nothing actually happened.

I groaned inwardly and felt that there was prickling pain on my knee, indicating that I have scraped it on the pavement.

I dare not looked back at the building where the person was, I did not even marveled at how I pulled off such a stunt. What I did was to walked away and just never look back.

What exactly was Sir Apollyon Hart doing with that boy? And his words, what does he mean by that. I was not dumb not to think about any of those things were not somehow related with everything that has been happening around the academy. My brows almost met in the middle and the pain on the knee that I accidentally scraped off the pavement has faded.

I deliberated if I was going to tell this to Leigh first, but then if Sir Apollyon knew that someone was there, was it much of a stretch to think that he also knows that it was me who caught him accidentally?

Even when I wanted nothing but to find Leigh and Cocytus so I could tell them what I knew, I remained, acting natural.

Since I skipped my class, I made sure that I would attend the afternoon classes. The first out of the two classes left that I attended was boring and I almost fell asleep again. However, I did not do the same mistake I did from my last class and the mishap with the professor was not repeated again. The last class of my afternoon class was fairly well, but the time was dragging on too long that I could not even hide the eagerness out of my typically neutral expression.

At night, as the whole family was eating at the formal dining hall, I was then asked by Leigh about what had happened with Zachriel and me.

I was actually quite surprised that he even knew about that, but then again he was a Deity and was it not just normal for him to have such an encompassing power? I could even say confidently that it was Eris who saw us together, but she chose to ignore it all.

When I looked at her from across the dining table, she just shrugged both of her shoulders, proving my suspicions true and correct. She then looked at Leigh who was sitting prettily on the head of the table, neither eating the delicious-lookig food on his plate nor taking his red eyes off me.

"What did he said to you?" he asked casually, but I immediately knew what he was talking about.

I was also mildly surprised that when I looked at Cocytus, he was not the least surprised about what seemed to be a peculiar question to me.

"I just saw you two but never watched longer than necessary," he cleared his name quickly, coming up to his own defense. "I just had to make sure that those boys you beat up were still fine and breathing."

"You beat up people?" Leigh asked incredulously. "What is happening exactly, Seraphin? You are suddenly a delinquent?"

I scoffed silently. If not for Leigh's sharp eyes, it would have gone unnoticed but his eyes turned even sharper after my action so I just kept still and quiet.

"Eris," he then turned to the girl on his right side. There was an accusatory tone on his voice that even made me smile internally. With that, Eris' lips protruded slightly, seemingly not understandinh why she must be dragged into this mess that she probably knew of but did not say anything. "You failed to tell me? Did you or did you not see anything on your Sight?"

"I did!" she complained. "But it is personal matters and I try to give as much privacy as I could so don't blame me!"

"Cocytus?" Leigh turned to his foster son who suddenly became so enamored by the tablecloth. "You also opted not to tell me?" he finally asked with incredulity.

"I stand by Eris this time," Cocytus only responded, filling his mouth with food from his plate.

I saw a vein visibly throbbed on Leigh's temple, but I remained silent, afraid that I would just provoke him any further.

"So this is how we will do this in this house, then?" he demanded at all of us. Since he was like our great-great-great then great and great granduncle or something like that. Ridiculous, I know, but Leigh may even be older than the time itself.

I looked at both Eris and Cocytus who both kept their mouths shut ever so tightly. So this is how we were going to do this.

I calmly reached for my glass of water, looking sharply at the glasses of wine in front of both Leigh and Eris.

"He apologized," I said mildly, setting my own glass of water down. "And he did say I should not have done beating up those boys who, actually, wanted to harrass me, I might add," I explained to my ancient ancestor. "It would not have been fine if I am not worried that they might do the same thing to another person or student."

I sighed, thinking it was the right to bring up Sir Apollyon. I set both of my utensils fown the side of plate and took another deep sigh.

"I have something else to say though," I finally announced to them all. Given the gravity and the seriousness of my tone, even Cocytus paid his attention to me.

Maybe Eris has seen already what I was about to do, or rather what I was about to say to them, there was a loud gasp that came from her. It echoed in the entirety of the dining hall, making Leigh turned his head towards her while Eris just kept on looking at mez disbelief was in her eyes still.

"Just who exactly is Apollyon Hart?" I asked them. "I have a suspicion that he is the one k********g the students that have gone missing. So do any of you know him or his background?"

"And why do you think that he's suspicious?" Leigh asked seriously.

I looked at him.

"Isn't that a professor here?" Cocytus instead asked me. I lost focus on Leigh and turned towards him.

I nodded before saying, "Yes, he is a teacher in the academy. Somehow though, he knows magic. He even helped me to get out of a temporal illusory fragment a couple of months ago, before my accident. And I just saw him luring a student inside the faculty office, we should investigate him."

All three of them nodded their head along, not asking confusing questions about the past but focusing on the real deal of the situation. They were no stupid people so even with just a few phrases, they have already assessed the situation and concluded a plausible conclusion.

"So what exactly did happened earlier?" Eris also asked.

"You did not saw her, Eris?" Leigh asked. Even though there was only indifference on his face, Cocytus and I both know that he might be anxious over this matter.

"Only flashes and bits," Eris responded, her brows were knitted and she did not bothered on concealing her worry. "These days I felt as though people have been plunging into a void that I couldn't reach. You cannot exactly see anything without light, or miss something that you have forgotten. Without seeing people through my Sight, I feel blind and helpless."

"How is that possible?" Leigh muttered to himself before turning towards to my direction and asked me in a serious tone, "what did you do earlier?"

"I was inside the faculty office," I answered his question immediately. "I was supposed to bring my teacher's things he left in the classroom. One of the butterflies warned me of Sir Apollyon's arrival. I did not think much of it, but they started getting agitated. They were urging me to get out of the office which I did, of course. Upon his arrival, I heard the siren's song but slightly different from when I was inflicted to it from before."

Leigh nodded along after I finsihed talking.

"Right now, focus on gathering evidences that would support your conclusion," Leigh ordered me. "Do not be rash to avoid mistakes, but make haste on the investigation to prevent anyone being taken over. He is part of the Eirini and has been a great hand within the inner court of the Dalcanorian Territories even before he joined the Eirini faction."

"You think he is indeed the one who caused the disappearances?" I asked worriedly.

"Innocent until proven guilty," Leigh only answered to me. He was not admonishing me, but he was warning me to be more careful over my words.

"I understand." I bowed my head slightly. "I apologize I misspoke. I will try and find the boy that I saw earlier with him to make sure he was alright."

"Even if it isn't that professor who did all the disturbances, if you investigate hard enough then you'll eventually see who is the real culprit. Right?" Cocytus raised his eyebrows at me, asking me directly.

It sounded like a reassurance and thinking of Cocytus seeing me so distressed as to the point that he would try to actually comfort was quite concerning.

Maybe I was letting this get in to my head.

There was a sudden gloom in the dining hall that dissipated the cozy ambiance of our usual dining. The failing of Eris' clairvoyance power was the main concern. A way to get out of the Seer's Sight was something that worried both Leigh and Eris. It was alarming, I know, and both of the adult-like figure in this table was engrossed on their own thoughts.

Even I was lost in a daze of my own thoughts, thinking how should I catch the culprit, thinking about that teacher, Apollyon Hart, and the fact that there was a way that could avoid the great Seer's Sight.

A cough echoed throughout the room, interrupted Leigh, Eris, and me from our deep thoughts. We all looked at the only one who was still bright from all the news I brought to the table.

"Anyone interested for tea?" Cocytus asked.

As if the three of us practiced, we all nodded and stood up from our seats. Apparently, Cocytus found this whole ordeal of us three being so distracted funny. The bark of laughter he did snapped us all out of the trance we were put under.

I glared at him for laughing at us while the two other Deities did not minded us.

"Go to my room later," Cocytus whispered to me which made me creased my brows. I frowned at him, thinking it odd that he was inviting me. It was not like us both to invite each other for a movie marathon over sleepovers.

We both pushed open the double doors leading to the dining hall to get out, the Deities were just closely behind us. It has been almost like a tradition for us to go to the drawing room for tea, but in Leigh's case,

The hallways was long and unending, or at least it felt like it was for me. Cocytus and I both spoke in low voices despite that the empty space around us of the house was filled with our whisperings.

"What for?" I asked suspiciously, my eyes turning into little slits and glared at him fiercely.

"Because I won't be there," he told me casually. "There is an adjacent room to the second floor of my space. You can go there and just..." he paused, contemplating for the right word, "tinker around."

"Tinker around," I echoed his last words. "Why would I want that?" I then asked incredulously. "And the fact there is a person in your closet—"

"Not still," he interrupted, "just before."

"Still," I contradicted him, "there had been a person in your closet and I never did mention it to anyone. Why would there be a person in your closet? Your paramour?"

Cocytus stopped walking, looking at me as though I have two heads spouting out of my neck. Because he stopped walking, I also stopped and put on an askance expression on my face. Leigh and Eris were now walking in front of us.

"You had to ask that kind of question?" he asked to me, a disgusted expression was on his whole face. "That's like committing i****t. Just get up there whenever you like. Doesn't need to be now, but you'd get a lot of help and you better go therr."

"You can just tell me," I called out to him, but he did not looked back to me.