Wednesday morning. Ais woke feeling completely clear-headed and refreshed. The period that had accompanied her for four days had finally ended, taking its maddening cramps with it.
But barely had the fully-restored Ais registered her relief when she remembered everything she'd done over the past three days.
What was I doing this entire time? When did I become so skilled at being clingy, playing pitiful, seeking comfort, and demanding attention? She let out a sharp internal shriek, then pulled the duvet over her head and briefly became a hermit.
At least her IQ hadn't dropped along with the personality regression. She'd only collapsed her composure in front of Zoe. She hadn't slipped up and said anything that would raise suspicions.
After a short period of cringing, Ais forced herself out of bed and prepared to go out.
"Preparing to go out" mainly meant putting on the black short leather jacket, a white shirt with lace trim at the collar, and a deep black ankle-length pleated skirt — an outfit Zoe had bought ready after their previous meeting, as congratulations on Ais earning her first significant sum.
The moment she'd seen the outfit, Ais had started regretting the decision to go out and celebrate. Putting on a nightgown at home and wearing a skirt to go out in public were two entirely different things.
But a woman going somewhere enjoyable was naturally expected to dress up — that was axiomatic. Having overlooked this fact, Ais had no one to blame, and couldn't back out at the last minute.
That woman had no good reason to have this all ready to go. Could she have been planning this all along? Ais suspected that the skirt fit perfectly for a reason. Zoe had been criticizing her fashion sense for a while now.
Just as Ais was contemplating the inscrutability of women, Zoe pushed open the door carrying breakfast. Seeing the sharp, composed Ais, her pale blue eyes brightened:
"Stunning! My taste really is impeccable. Ais, someone as tall as you is made for this kind of style. To borrow the Great Emperor Rosselle's words — very cool."
Now that I think about the famously-converted Emperor, I really can't help laughing. Ais pressed down the corners of her mouth and turned to look at Zoe.
Today's Zoe was in a pale blue low-neck lightweight sweater paired with a long emerald skirt, with only a strip of white visible at the neckline — the white shirt underneath. Against her cascade of golden hair, the color combination made Ais think of clear spring skies, white clouds, and green countryside.
Ais said sincerely:
"You look wonderful today, Zoe."
But Zoe wasn't having it. She handed over the breakfast while commenting:
"Ha. Look who's composed now. Personally I preferred the clingy Ais from these past two days — she was much cuter."
"Ha. Ha." Two dry laughs, and Ais steered to another topic:
"Zoe, what kind of performances do you think the West District circus will have?"
"You'll find out when we get there. Now hold still and let me do your makeup properly first. Seriously, if anyone else ever wasted a complexion like yours, I would have already done something about it."
"At least let me finish eating first."
"Then stop talking! Hurry up!"
Since her income of 90 pounds for the week was far too conspicuous for an ordinary private detective, and would definitely prompt Zoe to wonder if she was being kept by someone — especially given how many questions she'd been asking about Ais and Leel — Ais had simply reported 10 pounds when asked.
With that as the baseline, a 5-pound celebration budget didn't go very far. The entire morning involved a circus performance in the West District, a bit of shopping, and a lunch at a restaurant that came to just over 2 pounds — and the budget was spent.
After saying goodbye to Zoe, Ais finally returned to her own house, which had gone without a resident for over a week.
Removing a soft hat with a black fine-mesh veil, she shook her head internally:
"I will never again make fun of women for being dramatic."
Zoe had been making jokes at Ais's expense all morning over her behavior these past few days, and Ais had found no comeback until she threatened to do exactly the same to Zoe the next time her period came — at which point Zoe toned it down slightly.
Back in her everyday work clothes, Ais first put away her first-ever gift, then washed off the makeup Zoe had done and reapplied her own — transforming herself back into an ordinarily-complected detective with a few freckles.
When they'd gone out, Zoe had preferred to spend a few extra pence to have Ais wear the black soft hat that obscured the details of her face, rather than apply disguising makeup. So Ais had to redo it herself after coming home.
Though she'd discreetly checked in on the Femi house once or twice over these days and confirmed everything was fine, Ais checked the mailbox on her way out.
Confirming no letters inside, Ais took a carriage to a quiet, inconspicuous little bar in the North District on the side closer to the East District — the Wagner Bar. This was where she met her Church of the Evernight Goddess Watcher contact. For anything not urgent, she just needed to find someone called Lucas Beckett here.
The afternoon bar had almost no patrons, but Ais's entrance still caught the attention of a not-particularly-productive drunk:
"Wow~ What a tall woman."
The exclamation turned a few sparse heads, and Ais simultaneously spotted her previously-met contact.
But she didn't walk straight over. She settled at the bar and ordered a pint of Southern Ale, sipping it slowly.
When the contact — a Watcher in worn but unremarkable clothes — had idly finished what little remained in his glass and headed toward a billiards room, Ais waited a moment, then walked in the direction of an unoccupied room on the other side.
She closed the door. Ais produced a compact mirror and used Mirror Jump.
Two or three seconds later, Beckett's intuition registered a disturbance. The figure of Ais, holding her deerstalker cap, materialized swiftly beside the mirror he'd deliberately left on the billiard table.
"Meeting again, Miss Ais Fal. Is something up?" Beckett offered a simple greeting.
"Nothing major, Mr. Beckett. It's just that I recently came across two rather strange entities in the West District area. I'm a little concerned it might be cult-related, so I thought I'd mention it."
Ais sat down in a nearby chair and described in detail the characteristics of the two black entities from the Femi house — leaving out, of course, the detail that they'd been causing trouble there in the first place.
"That sounds like shadow creatures." Beckett replied, also a little uncertain.
"What are those?"
Beckett recalled what he knew and spoke slowly:
"As you know, the spirit realm is the birthplace of many spiritual entities. Given the spirit realm's remarkable nature, spiritual entities with almost any imaginable ability can emerge from it. Shadow creatures are spirit-realm entities closely tied to shadows — they can typically manipulate shadow forces and move between the spirit realm and the physical world through shadows.
Recently a new cult organization appeared that seems capable of directing these shadow creatures, so the church introduced the term. That's the concept."
Ais frowned:
"So there may be cult activity in the West District?"
Beckett analyzed from experience:
"Ordinarily, yes. But since you already eliminated those two shadow creatures, they very likely abandoned the operation. This particular cult is unusually cautious to begin with — and even more so in Beklund. For them, cutting losses the moment something unexpected happens is perfectly ordinary."
So the Femi family should be safe. I'll write to Leel. Ais thought to herself.
"Even so, to be safe, I'll notify the West District Watchers to increase their attention. Regardless — thank you for bringing it to my attention, Miss Fal."