The Sight Beyond The Haze

Chapter 42: Seeking Answers

Because of my supposedly brief slumber, I did not notice how long I was out and that I have already exceeded the time that I should be spending out of the classroom.

In conclusion, I was late to my detention which would maybe constitute to tardiness by the teacher supervising the detention room and might cause me another round of detention.

The difference between the outside and inside of the garden was quite startling. The inside of the garden was warm and cozy despite its more than average size. I even took off my heavy coats and hanged them at the lowest branch of a tree to dry them off from the wetness of the rain earlier. The instant that I went out though was a whole different experience than I was expecting.

I shivered violently when I went out of the dome, the rain from earlier has turned into snow and the wind blew harshly to my face that I thought it would cut me. The golden light butterflies huddled close to me, warming me inside the clothes and, instantly, I indeed felt warmer by them.

Students were already getting ready to go out of the classroom wing while I was getting in. I bumped into some of my own classmated who waved at me, I waved back awkwardly at them but did not let them engage me to a casual talk.

"I heard you're going to serve detention?" one of my classmates asked me and I nodded as if I do not have any energy left.

Zachriel was already inside, waiting patiently, when I arrived at the detention room. I peered at him inside the little glass on the door. Noticing a person behind the door, he nodded politely at me, addressing my presence, but I remarked that there was a peculiar expression on his face. That expression was a combination of confusion and amusement.

Getting curious of the reason of that kind of expression, I finally turned the doorknob and truly entered the room. What awaited me inside was indeed quite surprising that my eyebrows rose with askance.

"Cocytus," I stated the name of the other person inside of the detention room in a deadpan tone.

Cocytus ws wearing heavy clothes like everyone else and he was also wearing a fairly regular sized smirk on his lips. It made him looked like there was a mystery around us and that he was the one who gathered Zachriel and me here. Knowing Cocytus, that might be a very likely scenario. He waved at me and gestured at one of the seats.

Not wanting to be bested by Cocytus, I remained standing and positioned my chin higher, gesturing at his overall existence inside the room. The bastard has even seated himself on the supervisor's table as though he was the one who would supervise us. With a horrible jolt, I realized that he might as well be.

Cocytus could almost always get away from anything within the Academia Amitiel. He was, after all, the first grandson of the fourth generation of the Middle Ground's keeper and the only grandchild as of now. And he was, of course, related to the principal and the owner.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded at him calmly.

"Don't we have a mission to fulfill?" Cocytus asked me. "Leigh told me to let you move by yourself, but my family has been restless. So I gathered the necessary people to help us."

He smiled.

Similar to how he found my own smile frightening, I have finally experienced the same feeling he felt upon glancing at my own. I wanted to rip that smile off his lips.

Zachriel might not have caught up on Cocytus' words, but I did and I know to whom he was referring to.

Miss Adams.

Zachriel.

The witness and the one who will make the witness a witness.

"Will it be safe?" I asked him again and finally made way to one seat.

I felt Zachriel's eyes on the back of my head, just watching us two converse while he was obviously left out. I did not mind him and just continued questioning the person in front of me who was still wearing the same cocky smile.

"Zach," Cocytus stated. My eyes widened at him with contempt. Did he really called Zachriel that and did he just made a nickname for him? I pursed to avoid myself from being forced to laugh by that.

"Yes?" I heard Zachriel replied however. There was no indication that he did not like how Cocytus referred to him with.

"How long will it take for someone whose Veil has been altered to a mess recover their own memories?" he asked confidently.

I know that we were supposed to get Zachriel fixed Tansy's, Miss Adams, memories, but I realized that it might not be possible. Even me, who has exponential potential and magic, could not recover everything at once.

"There are a lot of factors to consider," Zachriel replied yet again, casual and calm. Again, I heard no indication that he did not want to be here at all. He was like a robot, there were no accents that I could detect on his voice, not even an emotion. "For Lady Alaric Elliot, whose Veil has been manipulated for over the years, it would be extremely difficult to recover any memory at all. Say, how many times do you think this person has been tampered with?"

He knew that we were not talking about me, I thought suddenly.

I refused to look back at him but I realized that it was not necessary when he walked to the front of the room where Cocytus and I resided. Cocytus and I exchanged glances and I nodded slightly at him.

"Just once," Cocytus responded.

"Was there any Weaver who checked on that person after tampering the Veil with?" Zachriel asked.

His tone was not curious but I know that he knew what he was doing here. He might even concluded that this was all just a farce to get him here, but that was not the case. Cocyrus might have taken advantage that Zachriel would be in the same place that he has control over and I was thinking the same as taking advantage of the fact that we would be both in the detention.

We could have worked together with the same goal, but Cocytus just has to show off his skills.

"Just me," Cocytus said, "but all I ever did was to get a good look at the Veil. The one who tampered it, just once, I should guess."

"A Veil is the cloth wherein the mind weaves its memories," Zachriel explained. "Like the mind, it would very unpredictable so we wouldn't know if that person's Veil would react or how it would react if it did."

"Then it might take from a night to months," I said.

Zachriel looked at me and nodded with what I said. Cocytus looked as though he was disappointed, but the determination on his eyes did not waver.

"Then shall we go meet that person?" Zachriel said.

Again, Cocytus and I exchanged a glance. Not saying anything we both stood from where we were sitting and nodded at Zachriel.

"But we should not be seen together," I said then explained in a calm tone, "otherwise a certain someone would know what we are all up to."

This time, Zachriel's forehead knotted, he suddenly was not sure what we were actually up to.

"You see," I added to clear things up, "Cocytus and I are solving who has been k********g all the mortal students in the academy. I have my own suspects but we can never be sure."

"But my lady has passed this problem to Haziel," Zachriel reasoned with me. "Why would you go to trouble yourself with this?"

I did not answer him directly, but I did said something to appease him.

"We had a breakthrough when Cocytus found Miss Adams, I could not let this opportunity pass," I said, not wanting to tell Zachriel that I thought Haziel and her company were a little bit too slow and has not made a proper progress just yet.

Zachriel does not look satisfied with the reason I gave him, but we all moved on from that topic and agreed that we should arrived separately to Cocytus' house. The first to go was, of course, Cocytus and I made a roundabout way towards the house, similar to the route that I have always been using before. When the people have dispersed over the ground, only then will Zachriel went to the house for the first time.

The trapdoor was already opened upon my arrival and I immediately went inside to talk with Cocytus before Zachriel arrive himself.

"Won't he see Eris and Phlegethon?" I asked while I was watching Tansy's Veil, opened and so vulnerable. "And won't that be a problem?" I asked again.

Cocytus shook his head, his eyes were in slits and he concentrated with two golden needles, similar to those in my memories, on his hand to close up that Veil of Tansy.

"He doesn't really know that they were Deities," Cocytus explained to me using a very logically accurate tone which annoyed the hell out of me. "Besides, we could always tell him that Eris and Leigh are my guests. You're overthinking that he would find something out when Eris and Leigh probably don't have much trace in the place."

I nodded, discontented with the thought of Zachriel's presence in the house. I felt as though I would be intruded with his presence and I do not like the thought of it.

A few minutes passed and, from a monitor on the secret room, we saw Zachriel make his way on the front door. I realized abruptly that we were surrounded with a couple of monitors within the room. It was something that I did not notice on my first time here. Maybe I was too fixated on Tansy.

Since we could see Zachriel's every moves based on monitor, we saw him be guided by a maid inside the house. He did not even look around and just walked straight on. When he was just outside Cocytus' room's door, Cocytus has already sped through up the stairs of the secret room and welcomed him in.

"I hope you don't mind being roped up with this situation," I heard Cocytus said to Zachriel.

"I don't," Zachriel replied languidly, "Lady Alaric Elliot assigned this to us and we weren't able to solve this by ourselves."

I noted how Zachriel chose to address me. At first, I noticed that there was still some kind of stiffness and, dare I say it, sadness within it.

Cocytus didn't say anything else and, a moment later, I could hear their footsteps on the stairs leading to Tansy and me. I looked up to see them just descending.

"This is her." Cocytus motioned towards Tansy who looked like she was just only sleeping soundly on the bed. Her arms were crossed on her stomach and her eyes even fluttered every now and then as though she was on the verge of waking.

But she remained as still as a statue except for the occasional fluttering of her eyes and the rise and fall of her chest.

"I put her into a deep sleep, sustaining her with continuous supply of dextrose," Cocytus explained to Zachriel. "I saved her from a temporal illusory fragment at the classroom wing and saw her Veil was a mess. She has been here for a couple of weeks now."

"We thought that she would be the key of finding out the culprit behind all these disappreances," I added to Cocytus' statement.

"I'll look into her Veil and see what I can do," Zachriel said. There was a glint of gold shade on his side and, a moment later, he was pulling out two long golden needles. He looked at Cocytus and me, his eyes asking for permission before he said in a very polite voice, "May I?" I nodded as a response and Cocytus just gestured at Tansy.

Then Zachriel get to work.

He was very quiet to the point that I could pretend that he was not here at all. He deftly took out Tansy's Veil, a glowing threads interwoven together of different lights. Zachriel moved both of the needles on the light as though he was actually sewing.

It was fascinating to work if I was being honest.

The kind of cruel act that I thought they did to me was not so ugly to look at. It was beautiful in the process. I remembered being awake while my memories either faded or replaced by new ones. There was an excruciating coldness that crept on my body, enveloping me in an eternal winter. But looking at how Zachriel worked right now, I realized that maybe it was not so bad for others but I would never let those needles touch my mind again.

Those multiple experiences were enough for me.

Later on, Cocytus and I grew bored of just watching Zachriel work by himself. He was not talking to us and there was not assurance of how he was actually doing. I remained seated, my back was stiff and propely straightened. The same was true with Cocytus, but I could feel his restlessness. His want of getting out of here and just do what ever it was he wanted or planned.

We waited and waited until over three hours have passed.

I got worried that Eris or Leigh would call us over to dinner and I guessed that Cocytus was thinking of the same thing since he went over to where I was sitting and whispered to me.

"I'll intercept Leigh and Eris if any of them call us," he said and he ascended the stairs up to the second floor of his space and vanished.

It did not take long for Cocytus to reappear, giving me a slight nod. Again, we waited for Zachriel to be finished with his work.

On the walls of the secret room, the lights shifted from every other color but all of the colors were muted, not as boisterous as I thought they would be later on as Zachriel worked. It looked as though the lights were moving and I realized that those lights came from Tansy's memories.

Then, after four hours of working on Tansy's mind, Zachriel finally has finished.