16 Crime Scene (2/2)
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Climbing the first set of stairs and finally arriving at the place, Garett noticed something out of place at first sight! The window he had broken to divert the ransacker's attention was now fixed! Something like that would take weeks to repair, as none of those living here would care enough to repair it themselves, and the landlord wouldn't do it himself.
”Captain... That was the window I broke last night... but... it is repaired now.” Garett stammered while pointing at the now fixed window, as his mind couldn't understand what was happening.
”Hmmm.” The captain didn't reply, only glancing at it once before turning to Garett's door before asking. ”It's here, right? Open it first.”
”Yes, sir...” Garett complied and stumbled forward to open the door, and as such he was the first to look at the insides of the place.
Everything is placed right where it was before! There are no signs of the ransacking at all, and it's like it was all just a dream!... Garett pupils froze, his mind raced as he could only attribute this to a hallucination.
”T-That is not possible...” He mumbled as he entered the place, how could all traces of the things he remembered so clearly vanish in such a fashion!?
He looked at Dante, and the captain's face was still calm with only a small frown accentuating his forehead; the situation seemed more complicated than he thought, and it was possible that if something had happened, then it was done by professionals at hiding their tracks.
”Alice, take the Lens out,” Dante commanded in a heavy voice as he stepped forward, taking a look closely at the scene. ”Give it to Garett, let him use it first, as promised.”
”Okay, here it goes, Garett.” She presented him the ornamented box, and with all care in the world, she slowly opened the lid, revealing a small, polished old artisan monocle with a small mechanism to change between two lenses during work. ”Just wear it and use the second lens, then you'll be able to see. Do not use it for too long, though, you can feel a bit dizzy”
Garett took the warning very seriously, as he wasn't familiar with the adverse effects of such a weird artifact, what if he became blind from overusing the monocles, or started to hear the shades saying things?
Those were mostly fantasies crowding his mind though.
I better heed her warnings and use it as little as possible... He carefully picked the lens up from the box, his movements steady as if afraid of dropping it and damaging the artifact.
Wearing the lenses, he quickly tapped the tiny mechanism, eliciting a click from the object and finally allowing for the use of the artifact.
The world before his eyes changed, as he felt the colors vanish, only leaving white and black; to avoid the discomfort, he closed his other eye, only leaving the one with the monocle open.
He then looked to where he was standing the night before, and there he could see something akin to a shadow standing, its definition foggy, and it was impossible to define even if it was a man or a woman.
That's good, this way they can't notice that what I threw as a knife and not a rock, and it proves that I really broke the window, so they'll be able to see that this should be the result of someone's ability... Garett contemplated, his mind relaxing a little when he saw that he was not crazy, and everything had really happened.
Looking at the insides of the room, and he could see a multitude of shadows flashing to an fro, eliciting a blurry vision with shades everywhere. Garett had to close his eyes to keep himself from the impending dizziness caused by it.
”That's normal. When there are too many shadows in one place, you can get giddy when using this object for the first time.” Dante said at the side when noticing the recruit state.
And you tell me that only now? Couldn't you have told me this before? Now I'm feeling my head spinning... Garett cursed inwardly, promising himself to be more careful with artifacts from now on, he wouldn't be played by his seniors anymore!
”You can give it to me now, let me see around.” Dante enunciated as he extended his hand to grab the lenses, his face stern without emotion, but it was clear that Alice was having fun at the recruit's situation.
Putting the artifact on, Dante then proceeded to analyze every inch of the place, stopping briefly at the window Garett broke before walking throughout the whole place, the frown on his face deepening.
”The scene was reconstructed using some kind of weird ability that did not belong to the domain of the orthodox deities, and I can't understand the principles behind it. The only thing I can be sure of is that the assailant entered was related to the scholars, as the patterns of search shows that he was very carefull with books and the like.” Dante concluded as he started to follow a particular shadow that climbed the stairs to the top of the building. ”It should be this one... it came from here, so we should be able to find something if we follow it to the top. Maybe we can find it's dwelling, not that I hope they to stick around after what happened.”