Oddities, Part 17 - Sweet

Marqués didn't even glance at the paper. He just stared at Alaia for a moment. There was nothing happening on his face.

"I don't know where Miss Nielsson is," he said. On the surface his voice remained polite, but the irritation and anger were audible underneath. "And I do not know why you would think I do. Now, I would like to ask you to leave..."

"No." Alaia shook the paper, and finally Marqués glanced at it. Some of the color left his face. For a moment he looked like he was afraid. "I know you know something. So stop lying and tell me where Tove is."

"I don't know where she is." He paused. "You're not going to give up."

It was more a statement than a question.

"I'm not," Alaia said, her voice tight but decisive.

Marqués thought for a moment longer, then waved them inside. He closed the door after them and stopped them in the hall.

"I don't know where Miss Nielsson is," he repeated, once again. "And you should get rid of that paper."

Alaia didn't make a move to do anything with the paper. She was still holding it and wasn't about to put it away until she had the truth of it.

"You know something. What is it?"

"A few months ago I bought an old telescope, and I wanted to try it, so I went to the roof one clear night. But it didn't work. The view was completely off, and it didn't enlarge the view much at all."

"The telescope in the living room?" Alaia interrupted. She remembered it catching her attention when they were here the last time. There had been something odd about it.

"Yes," he said coldly. " So I flipped it around to point at the empty street below, to see if I was able to get it to work when I looked at something that I could pinpoint exactly, instead of some part of the mostly empty sky. But as I looked through it, the street wasn't empty. There was... something standing there."

"Something?"

"I don't know what it was. It was mostly human shaped, but it was small and dark and I think it had a tail. And once I had seen it through the telescope, I saw it without it too. And then it did something, and I felt an odd kind of magic from it. And it disappeared. I went to sleep, and the next morning I thought it had been a dream.

"But then a week later I happened to be walking down this street near the office where a tree had mysteriously appeared in the middle of the street overnight, and I felt the faint traces of magic. I recognised it as the same magic. I thought maybe this was something interesting and worth looking into, so that's exactly what I did. I found a few other instances that seemed to be related based on the traces of magic. I occasionally caught glimpses of what I believed was the thing I had seen through the telescope. That thing was doing something and I wanted to know what.

"But I think it found out I was looking into it. I started seeing it more, and then I started getting threats. That's when I decided none of this was worth it. That I was too old for all that. That I should just let it go and retire. So that's what I did. I sent word home that I was done with this job, and I burned all the notes I had gathered on the whole thing. Or at least I thought I had. Must have missed one."

"What was the thing and why could you see it after you'd seen it through the telescope?" Alaia felt like her brain was melting.

"I don't know. As for the telescope, my guess is as good as yours. Maybe it's not actually a telescope, but an instrument that shows it's user what's really there. And maybe the creature can only been seen by those who know it's there, whose minds expect to see it there. So after seeing it once, I could see it again, because I knew it existed. I don't know. I gave it a lot of thought in the early days of my investigations, and that's the best hypothesis I was able to come up with. Whether it's anywhere close to true, I have no idea. But let me ask you. What made you think a paper in my old notes has anything to do with where Miss Nielsson is?"

"She was looking into these same events," Alaia simply said. This wasn't his place to ask questions.

"Well, then. Based on the threats I got I don't think you will ever see her again. A piece of friendly advice you definitely don't deserve after barging in here like that: let it go before you get hurt," he stopped and looked up and down Alaia to take in her condition. "More hurt. Now, I need you to leave and never come back."

He opened the door with an angry look on his face, and Alaia marched out, Ronja trailing after her. Alaia started down the road with fast steps, towards the tram stop. She felt like she was exploding. While a lot of her anger that had fueled her on the way here was gone, she was left with a stubborness she had never felt before. And while she had been worried before, she was now terrified of what could have happened to Tove. She noticed she was clenching her teeth together and tried to relax her jaws.

"Ah, Alaia?" Ronja drew her attention, trying to keep up with her fast pace. "What just happened in there? See, I only really speak Fjellish and Esperanto, so I understood none of what he said. But I assume we got some information from him?"

Alaia hadn't paid any attention to which language she had been speaking with Marqués in. Apparently not Esperanto.

"Sorry," she slowed down as they came to the tram stop. "I need some coffee. And something sweet. Let's find a café and I'll explain it all to you."
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Oooookay.
The topic for tomorrow is Wash.

~matu