The World in Dissonance (Volume 2)

Chapter 3 - Part 3

Part 3

Everything came finally into an end. As Edmund Vale was escorted by the two officers accompanying the Inspector Virgil, Beatrice fell into step beside Dedicatus.

For a while, neither girl spoke. They had spent the better part of the morning confronting something that neither ordinary reasoning nor conventional investigation could adequately explain, and the exhaustion was finally beginning to catch up with them.

Eventually, Beatrice broke the silence.

"Dedicatus."

"Hm!?"

"Is this what you usually do when you skip classes?"

Dedicatus glanced at her.

"Whaddya mean!?"

"Visit isolated houses, provoke suspected occultists, dismantle their rituals, face up against supernatural forces, recite Latin and Greek while evil forces attempts to murder you, and then negotiate access to prisoners with the Inspector who has just witnessed the entire affair?"

The eldest Liddel sister considered the question.

"Not always!!"

Beatrice waited. Dedicatus grinned.

"But yeah, somethin' like that... But the part with the Inspector only happened this time!!”

Beatrice closed her eyes for a moment.

"I see."

"Usually, I tell peeps am doin' benevolence work for the Church."

"Usually?"

"Well, I ain't exactly lyin'. The great me is assistin’ our Good Ol’ John in some of his investigations!!”

"You have an extraordinarily flexible interpretation of benevolence."

"They all say the same thin’!!”

"I can well imagine.", said Beatrice as she adjusted her gloves before giving Dedicatus a sidelong glance. "And here I had assumed your absences were attributable to ordinary youthful irresponsibility."

"Aw, c'mon Beato... The great me is still young enough to be irresponsible."

"That is precisely what concerns me."

Dedicatus laughed as they approached the waiting motorcar. For the first time that morning, the tension had eased somewhat. Yet the investigation was far from over.

Edmund Vale was being escorted into custody, his ritual had been disrupted, and the poltergeist phenomenon had apparently ceased. But Dedicatus still had questions about the Cult of the Anti-Christ, the entity that had manifested inside the house, and the connection between Vale's activities and Laurencia's condition.

The most important questions remained unanswered.

Who—or what—had been waiting on the other side of that invisible sanctuary?

Was it related to the entity holding Laurencia into a coma?

And if Vale had merely opened the door, what had been listening before he ever arrived?