Seth moved quite swiftly through the cluttered hallway of the Tangen house, the strange statue a heavy, cold weight in his pocket.
The air was filled with the smell of dust, old food, and something faintly sour.
He had carefully checked several rooms, each one served as living proof to the level of neglect.
Piles of unwashed clothes, stacks of yellowed newspapers, and grime-coated surfaces were everywhere.
It was a house drowning in its own filth...
Seth wanted to stop himself from breathing too much...
Then he pushed open another door and stopped in his tracks.
This room was different...
It was a boy's bedroom, and it was impeccably neat.
The bed was made with military precision, books were arranged by height on a shelf, and not a single item was out of place.
In the corner stood an expensive-looking piano, its polished wood surface gleaming spotlessly in the dim light.
The stark contrast to the rest of the house was jarring.
'Strange...'
Seth thought. '
In this whole messy house, only this one room is perfectly clean...'
A quick, silent search revealed nothing out of the ordinary, just schoolbooks and sheet music.
He slipped back into the hallway, the memory of the tidy room lingering in his mind.
He was mere feet from the balcony door, freedom almost within reach, when the door to the lit room at the end of the hall creaked open.
Alyanna stood there, silhouetted in the doorway.
She was a gaunt girl, perhaps a few years younger than him, with lank, greasy hair and a permanently sour expression.
'How did she notice me?'
Panic spiked in Seth's chest.
His [Null Presence] should have made him practically undetectable!
Realizing the situation was critical, Seth tried to bolt for the balcony.
But as he shifted his weight to run, his foot sank with the sound of a wet squelch.
He looked down.
The wooden floorboards beneath his boot had somehow transformed into a patch of thick, clinging mud, holding him fast...
"Who are you?"
Alyanna questioned, her voice flat.
In her hand, she held a heavy, old-fashioned revolver.
She didn't wait for an answer, her eyes cold and dismissive.
"Actually, it doesn't matter..."
The barrel of the gun rose, pointing directly at him.
Dread, cold and absolute, flooded Seth's veins.
He was trapped!
CRASH!
The sound of shattering glass exploded through the house as a large rock came flying through a nearby window.
Alyanna flinched, her head snapping towards the noise.
An opportunity!
Seth wrenched his foot free from the supernatural mud with a sucking sound.
He didn't look back, activating [Null Presence] and sprinting for the nearest alternative exit—a back staircase he'd noted earlier.
BANG!
A gunshot roared behind him, deafening in the confined space!
A vase on a shelf beside his head exploded into pieces.
He didn't stop, hurling himself down the stairs.
'How can she still see me?!'
He thought, his mind racing. '
Does her ability allow her to track me even with [Null Presence] active? No... that shouldn't be case... The mud just now was definitely from her power...'
'Maybe she has two separate powers or is using a demonic weapon?'
BANG!
Another shot.
This one tore through the banister next to him, sending splinters flying.
He could hear her footsteps pursuing him, unnervingly confident, as if she could see him perfectly.
He frantically analyzed the situation.
What had changed?
What was different?
And then it hit him.
The only new variable... was the statue in his pocket!
Without a second thought, Seth reached into his jacket, grabbed the cold metal figurine, and hurled it behind him into a dark, cluttered room.
He then immediately changed direction, ducking into a narrow servant's corridor.
The pursuit stopped.
He heard Alyanna's footsteps halt.
There was a moment of confused silence, followed by the sound of her scrambling, not after him, but towards the room where the statue had landed.
She had lost him.
His theory was right...
The statue was disrupting his ability.
He didn't waste a second.
He found a back door, unlocked it, and slipped out into the cool night air.
There, hiding in the bushes with a pale, terrified face, was Phoebe.
"Sorry... I couldn't cast a curse..."
She whispered urgently, her voice trembling.
"They're also proficient in curses. They might trace it back to me... the rock was all I could do."
Seth didn't reply.
He simply grabbed her arm and pulled her into a run, putting as much distance as possible between them and the house.
As they fled, neither noticed the figure of a young man standing at a second-floor window...
The young man's eyes were calm as he watched Phoebe and Seth disappear into the darkness.
...
Back at Phoebe's home, Seth recounted everything—the bizarrely clean boy's room, the strange statue, and how Alyanna had conjured mud to trap him.
Hearing this, Phoebe fell into a troubled silence.
"A clean room... in that house? And a statue that messes with your power?"
"This... I'll send a letter to my mentor first..."
...
Meanwhile, back in the messy house, Alyanna frowned as she entered the neat bedroom on the second floor.
Anthony was sitting at his piano, not playing, just staring into space.
"You were right..."
Alyanna said, placing the recovered statue gently on his desk.
"Someone really did come to the house tonight. No wonder you argued with Father about not attending your piano lessons."
Her younger brother, who shared her gaunt features but was slightly taller, nodded slowly.
"The man who entered our house... he's quite strange. I could not see his threads of fate at all. It was like he didn't exist."
He turned to face her, a deep worry in his eyes.
"And my vision from the other day only showed our cousin Phoebe investigating. He was not in my vision at all."
Alyanna placed her arms onto one another.
"If he hadn't grabbed the statue of our Lord Gremory, I would never have noticed him. It's like he's constantly invisible, even when he's standing right in front of you."
Anthony nodded in agreement.
"Yes. The sacred statue of Lord Gremory seemed to counteract his abilities, causing a flaw. It created just enough of a disturbance for my power to work. That's why I knew to hide when he checked my room."
"Unfortunately, he was quite smart and noticed it immediately."
He frowned.
"Should we tell Father?"
Alyanna asked, her voice hesitant.
Anthony shook his head firmly.
"No need. We can handle this ourselves."
He closed his eyes, his brow furrowing in intense concentration.
The atmosphere around him seemed to grow still.
Suddenly, his body convulsed.
He doubled over, coughing violently, specks of blood splattering onto his immaculate floor.
Alyanna rushed to his side, but he held up a hand, gasping for air.
"Tomorrow... they're going to visit a street food vendor in the morning... around 9 a.m..."
He wheezed, the vision clearly taking a heavy toll.
"You can go... bribe the stall owner... to mix one of Father's disease-infested dusts into their food."
Alyanna nodded, a nervous, grim smile touching her lips.
"The Sin of Prophesying is quite terrifying..."