[Location: Unknown]
In a darkened room, constructed of an unidentifiable kind of wood with metal lines of circuitry carved into it, two thrones were erected in the center where, if one were to look at the room from a bird's eye perspective, all lines of circuitry converged. Upon the thrones, there were numerous runes of different languages engraved. The throne in the direct center of the room and the circuit was empty, the other, slightly offset throne held a woman, her white hair draipped down her back, her golden eyes were half open as she looked upward.
[Unknown changes in Branch Iteration: [6.28.496.8128] seem to be guiding iteration to acceptable stability standards. Investigation shall commence after event: [Purification of Tau Do] selecting Iteration Shade…. Complete. Istaroth notified.]
A message was sent through one of the many lines of circuitry through the wood of the wall, and up the trunk of a near incomprehensibly large tree. It worked its way up, weaving around many small branches, and large dark scratches and burn marks, before climbing up a large branch and disappearing.
Unknown to this unknown individual, in the iteration it had been observing, Istaroth was currently dormant, having spent a majority of their power to bestow a blessing to avert an apocalypse level event. This event would have set off a chain reaction that would not only have destabilized their iteration, but neighboring iterations as well.
The message reached the dormant Istaroth's mind and stayed there, waiting, for who knows how long, for it's recipient to awaken from their slumber.
Back in the throne room, the white haired woman took a moment to observe her surroundings, something had changed, however, she had spent so much time observing the various iterations she was in charge of that it had been eons since she had paid full attention to her physical surroundings.
It wasn't until hours had passed that she realized it, a golden amber light that had previously been present in the room, and had been since it had been constructed, had at some point during her observations, disappeared, snapping her gaze towards the place where the light originated, she found the device missing.
[Alert: Archives have gone missing.
New task: Search for Archives.
Shifting Priority… Task: Search for Archives shifted to highest priority order…
Commencing search]
With slight panic, the entity started looking for the device that had been present in their chambers, but it would take an unknown amount of time for them to find it, after all, they were looking for one object amidst countless worlds.
[Location: Fleuve Cendre]
Vasher was pacing once again. The Brass Wraith and Pale Lady had not been seen for weeks, had they moved on? Had something happened to them? Was he not their target? No, the Brass Wraith knew who he was, had even left messages for him carved into stone walls throughout the underground. The Pale Lady… Perhaps she might have found her target and passed on? The Brass Wraith appeared after she did, did she create it or did they simply team up due to having similar goals?
Or perhaps was this silence just to lull him into a false sense of security before they attacked again.
Vasher didn't know, but his guard was up and he was getting ready for whatever was thrown at him next. He had already been reallocating some of his funds to create new hideouts outside the city of Fontaine, specifically near the Operahouse and in the Belleau region. There was a place called Poisson there and it was quite similar to Fleuve Cendre, he would visit with his Marcel persona, get a lay of the land and its people. If the rumors were true it could pose as a potential place to set up a new headquarters for his research, out of the Brass Wraith's sight, afterall it seemed to only operate within the Court of Fontaine and its immediate area, perhaps it was reliant on the fuels produced in the city?
Vasher sighed, it would not do to get stuck in the rut of trying to figure out the Brass Wraith and the Pale Lady. He had been doing that too often as of late. No, what he needed to do was find ways to outmaneuver them, find a blindspot and exploit it, he needed more Mora to continue his work to bring back his beloved.
Speaking of, he turned over a document on his desk, one informing him of the details on a Private Investigation firm he had recently bought out. One of their rivals had gotten a bit too close to one of his operations and nearly revealed it to the Gardes when investigating the disappearance of a young noblewoman. The fact that he was indeed behind the woman's disappearance was of little consequence, what did matter was that a large storhouse containing many black market items was almost compromised. In order to clear his worries, he had decided to run this Ravenwatch into the ground.
They were sharp, and had sent investigators to try and scope out what had changed in his newly purchased firm, unfortunately for them, all the people they had sent were natural born Fontainians, and could easily be silenced with a dose of unadulterated Primordial Seawater. A weakness that Vasher envied greatly at times, how he wished that he could just dive into the waters and dissolve to join Vigneire and stop this tortured existence without her, leaving this accursed world behind. But that could never happen, he was after all born in Snezhnaya, with no ancestors originating from Fontaine.
Vasher proceeded to sit down and plan.
[Location: Court of Fontaine]
Peruere was standing on top of a moderately sized building. Crucabena had ordered her to patrol and search for signs of Clervie. Initially Peruere thought it would be a pointless endeavor, Clervie had been missing for over a week by that point. Clervie had either escaped past the house's reach, or was dead.
Despite what her callous attitude might imply, Peruere deeply hoped it was the former was the case rather than the latter.
She had been patrolling the streets, looking for any sign of red hair, a trait that would stick out like a sore thumb in the crowd of browns, blacks, and blondes. However the only red hair she had been seeing consistently was the boy who had piqued Crucabena's interest, what was his name.. Yes, it was Carman.
She was tempted to reach out. Ever since Clervie left, Peruere had started to feel like something was missing within her. She was solitary by nature, like a spider, if given the choice she would choose to recluse herself, limit her interactions with others. However, her life seemed much emptier now that Clervie was gone and no longer pestering her.
Peruere, despite her maturity and lessons from Crucabena, wasn't aware that just because someone preferred to be alone did not mean that they were immune to loneliness.
At times Peruere thought she heard Clervie's voice, she would turn around and scan the street, but not even find a trace of her long red hair and blue eyes.
Her eyes also seemed to play tricks on her as she once thought she saw a brown haired street urchin meet her eyes with a look of sadness. The child disappeared as a person passed between them so Peruere thought it had been an illusion, nobody other than Clervie and Crucabena would willingly look at her eyes, they unsettled everyone she had met and most people would instinctively shift their eyes away to avoid meeting hers. She wasn't sure what people saw when they looked into her eyes, but from the look of fear most people had when they looked at them she could tell it was unpleasant. Clervie and Crucabena were the only ones who would consistently meet her eyes, Crucabena seemed to not care about whatever she saw in Peruere's eyes, but Clervie, despite being clearly affected by them, still made it a point to regularly meet Peruere's gaze.
Peruere looked around the city once more, sweeping the streets looking for Clervie, even if by some chance she spotted Clervie down there. Peruere wasn't sure if she would report it to Crucabena. Sure she would be in for a world of hurt during their next lesson, but if it was for Clervie, she would bear the consequences.
Seeing nothing, Peruere turned and scaled back down the building and made to leave the city before the Aquabusses closed for the day.
-To be continued