The World in Dissonance (Volume 2)

Chapter 2 - Part 4

Part 4

Time seemed to pass more slowly than usual. Their discussion felt as though it had stretched on for an eternity, each passing minute dragging behind the next, yet whether they liked it or not, the subject of their little chitchat was important enough to make the wait worthwhile.

The exchanges between Dedicatus, Glenn, and Vincent continued for several more minutes, with the young maiden carefully choosing how much information she was willing to disclose. She remained seated across from the two men, one leg crossed over the other, her expression still composed despite the urgency behind her request.

"So, let me get this straight!”, Glenn began, leaning slightly forward. "The lady accompanying you has shown us this portrait, telling us the man is important enough that you want us to find him, but you aren’t telling us why."

"Correct!!”

Dedicatus's answer came without hesitation. Vincent narrowed his eyes slightly in response to that.

“And you expect us to conduct a search with almost no context?"

"I expect ya to do what the British Firms art best at!!”, replied Dedicatus casually. "Findin' peeps."

Glenn gave her a long stare.

"That's a rather convenient answer."

"Convenient for both of us."

The Firm's Boss leaned back in his chair, studying her carefully. He had already understood that Dedicatus was deliberately withholding something. The girl had not come to him because she lacked the means to investigate this person herself. She had come because she wanted the Firms to find him quickly, quietly, and without drawing unnecessary attention.

"At least tell us who we're looking for!", said Vincent. "Is he dangerous?"

Dedicatus paused for a moment.

"Potentially."

"Potentially?", repeated Glenn. "That's not exactly reassuring."

“He is nothin’ the Firms can’t handle. N’ it’s not like am askin’ ya to confront him!!”, clarified Dedicatus. "I need ya to locate him. That's all."

"So we're tracking someone whose identity we don't know, whose motives we don't know, whose connection to the matter we don't know, and you don't want us approaching him once we find him."

"Exactly!!”

Glenn exhaled through his nose, almost amused by the absurdity of the request.

"You know, Dedicatus, most people would at least pretend to give us enough information to make the job easier."

"Most peeps don't have the luxury of knowin' everythin’."

"And you do?"

"Nay!!", Dedicatus's visible eye sharpened slightly. "That's precisely why am askin' the Firms."

That answer made Glenn's expression change. For a moment, the atmosphere became considerably more serious.

Vincent glanced at the sketch again.

"Suppose we find him. What then?"

"Report his identity and whereabouts to me. Don't confront him unless there's no other choice. Don't warn him that someone's lookin' for him, either."

"And if he notices our people?"

"Then ya've been too obvious."

Vincent gave her a dry look.

"You're asking us to find a needle in London without letting the needle know we're looking."

"Now ya understand."

Glenn slowly shook his head, although there was a faint trace of amusement in his expression.

"You're certainly something else."

"I've been told!!"

There was another brief silence before Glenn's expression became more businesslike.

"How quickly do you need this?"

"As soon as possible."

"That's vague."

"Then make it less vague by findin' him quickly."

Vincent chuckled quietly at that, while Glenn simply stared at her for another second before eventually accepting the challenge.

"Fine. We'll see what we can dig up."

"That's all I needed to hear."

After a while, Dedicatus's conversation with Glenn and Vincent eventually came to an end. The young maiden had deliberately kept the reason behind her request to herself. There was no point in burdening them with information they did not yet need, especially when the immediate objective was simple enough.

As for Beatrice, she just acted as a third party, not interfering at all with the exchanges between her rival and the Firm’s Boss. All she did was to observe carefully Dedicatus.

"Since we dunno his name yet, we fynna call him ‘Person X’ for now. I have but one request!", told firmly the girl with medical eyepatch. "This one doesn't concern herself ‘bout how ya will proceed. We just need ya to find out who Person X is, where he lives, n’ where we can find him."

She then glanced toward Beatrice.

"Beato, let’s leave the drawin’ to them!!"

Without any words, Beatrice agreed to leave to them the sketch she had prepared, thus allowing the two men to keep remembering the mysterious person's features for themselves. The young aristocratic girl was just noting in the corner of her mind how her genius rival was casually instructing the Firm’s boss after manipulating him.

"Once yer peers have identified him, come find me at St Bartholomew’s hospital!”, continued Dedicatus. "I have some business to take care of there."

Neither Glenn nor Vincent questioned her further. They simply acknowledged her instructions before making all the preparations to begin their search.

.

..

...

Not long afterward, Dedicatus and Beatrice made their way back to the hospital.

By the time they returned to Laurencia's room, Alyss and Sonya were resting quietly there. Father John was still present, quietly watching over the situation. The moment Dedicatus and Beatrice entered, however, the two girls immediately approached them.

"So, how did your investigation go?", asked Alyss.

Beatrice was the first to answer. She had always been considerably more comfortable explaining the results of an investigation than Dedicatus, and she had no reason to hide the progress they had made.

"We managed to narrow down the possibilities considerably!”, explained the young aristocratic girl. "The person we're looking for appears to have a connection to the incident, although we still don't have enough information to establish exactly what his role is. Dedicatus has already asked some of her acquaintances to identify him properly and determine his current whereabouts. We gave them my drawing as a reference, so if this person has been seen anywhere in London recently, there's a good chance they'll find him."

She deliberately omitted the means by which Glenn and Vincent, the aforementioned acquaintances of Dedicatus, intended to accomplish that task. There was little reason to explain the extent of the network they had at their disposal, particularly when Alyss and Sonya had never needed to know about it.

"That's good!”, replied Sonya, before exchanging a brief glance with Alyss.

The expression on both girls' faces immediately caught Dedicatus's attention.

"Ya two look like ya’ve got somethin’ to tell us."

“...”

Alyss hesitated for a moment.

“Nothing really escapes your gaze!”, highlighted Sonya.

"Actually... Hmm— We tried something ourselves!”, admitted the younger twin. "Since we couldn't determine what was wrong with Laurencia, we thought perhaps we could reach her through prayer and—"

"It failed, right?"

Dedicatus interrupted so abruptly that both girls fell silent. Her tone was not questioning. She already knew the answer.

Sonya stared at her.

"You already tried?"

Dedicatus gave her a quiet nod.

"Several times!! N’ it didn’t go well."

That revelation made Sonya's expression change. Suddenly, the strange sensation she and Alyss had experienced no longer seemed like an isolated failure. They had encountered the exact same obstacle Dedicatus had already encountered.

"There was something between us and her”, continued Sonya, her voice becoming more serious. "Something prevented us from reaching Laurencia's soul. We could sense her, but we couldn't establish a connection. And then..."

She stopped, remembering the violent force that had thrown them across the room.

Dedicatus's expression became noticeably darker.

"That is why it failed."

Neither Alyss nor Sonya needed to ask what she meant.

"There is somethin’ protectin’ the barrier!!”, explained Dedicatus. "Or perhaps guardin’ Laurencia herself. Whatever it is, it doesn't want anyone reachin’ her through the spiritual realm. This one encountered the same resistance while tryin’ to do so!!”

"You know what it is?", asked Alyss.

"Nay!!”, Dedicatus's answer was immediate. "N’ frankly, we can’t identify its nature with certainty yet. But make no mistake, knowin’ its name will be necessary. In spiritual matters, a name carries weight. A proper name can reveal an entity’s nature, establish a connection to it, n’ in some circumstances, even give us the means to confront or expel it. But until we know exactly what we’re dealin’ with, there’s no point in guessin’."

She briefly glanced toward Laurencia.

"For now, we know only one thin’ for certain!! Somethin’ is preventin’ access to Laurencia’s soul. That's the current situation."

The girls remained silent. Dedicatus had deliberately refrained from speculating about the entity's identity. There were still too many unknowns, and for someone with her knowledge of demonology and spiritual practices, carelessly assigning a name to an unidentified entity was not merely foolish—it could potentially be dangerous.

Father John, however, finally spoke.

"If we can discover the name of the spirit responsible, then perhaps I can do something about it."

Everyone turned toward him.

"A spirit cannot always be confronted simply by force!”, continued the priest. "But if we can identify what we're dealing with, I may be able to perform an exorcism or a proper rite of expulsion. If it is an evil spirit attached to Laurencia or interfering with her soul, then perhaps we can drive it away and break whatever connection it has established."

Beatrice had been listening quietly until then. She was, by nature, considerably less inclined toward spiritual explanations than the others. The words evil spirit, soul, and exorcism belonged to a category of things she generally preferred to approach with skepticism. Nevertheless, she understood the logic behind what Father John was proposing.

"So, essentially...", she began, folding her arms as she thought about it. "We have an unknown phenomenon interfering with our attempts to establish contact with Laurencia, and we don't currently know whether the phenomenon is the cause of her condition or merely something exploiting it."

Father John gave her a curious look.

"That is one way of putting it."

"And identifying it would give us something we can actually target!”, continued Beatrice. "It's basically like diagnosing an unknown pathogen. We can't develop an effective treatment if we don't know what we're dealing with."

Dedicatus glanced at her rival.

"That's an unusually scientific way of describin’ an exorcism."

Beatrice shrugged.

"I don't particularly believe that makes the problem less real."

Her gaze shifted toward Laurencia, who remained motionless on the hospital bed.

"If something is preventing us from reaching her, then whether we call it a spirit, an entity, a supernatural phenomenon, or an unidentified hostile force doesn't change the fact that there's something there."

For once, Dedicatus had no objection to her reasoning.

"Exactly."