Capítulo 104: - Whispers and Wonders: A Master's Word
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A/N: I have hit my "spring break" period of my college classes where I'm choosing to take some time off for the moment. I will be gone from the 11th to the 28th, which I understand is a while, as I will be spending some time with my grandmother. So I apologize for the inconvenience. I will be posting as many chapters that I have worked on until now. Thank you for the understanding.
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The room was silent, as the only two figures within the vast and large ballroom quarreled over their own thoughts, leaving a tense atmosphere between the two of them. The room was made of solid wooden floors, polished and bare, while one side of the walls adorned full panned windows that looked out over the vast back garden that reached until the forest edge. The white marble roof had been chiseled and graded away to make beautiful and intricate patterns for anyone who had the scenes to look up, to enjoy.
Three chandeliers dotted the empty space between the floor and the roof, golden and silver candle holders, adorned with polished glass and shimmering jewels, that at first glance, appeared as diamonds against the white background.
Lia, who was in the midst of this beautiful scenery, could only search for ways to pass the time as her host was currently busy occupying his own mind filled with thoughts. Thoughts, she had no doubt, were solely focused on the wooden beaded bracelet he constantly turned in his hands.
Flipping bead to bead from his fingers, he stared intently down at the bracelet, taken in by the runic symbols that adorned it one each individual bead, each one different than the last.
Looking to the vast windows at her side, Lia watched the forest trees blow by in the wind, winds that lingered from the storm. Nature had reached a stand still and, as if it knew the seriousness of their future discussions, it refused to make noise.
The winds blew, the rain and occasional thunder began to crack and pound against the sky and sound echoing down the mountains every now and then, but they were happening somewhere far away. Out of their sight, and hopefully, out of their earshot.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, endless seconds of silence ticking by them, one after another, Mr. Dorrow spoke.
"So you found him."
Lia slowly turned her eyes to face Mr. Dorrow, who had his head over his shoulder looking back at her.
He showed nothing behind that empty look of his.
"I never said I found him. I said that I found something of his."
She gestured to the bracelet in his hands, as if he hadn't been staring intently at it for hours now.
"I just came to ask questions. Figure things out."
He shook his head, turning to face her, a pointing gaze of accusation already on his face.
"No, I gave you enough to find him already. There's no need to ask anything else."
"Why get so defensive over a few questions? Especially when it can help us find Voln."
Lia was pushing his buttons, pointing things out that she knew he wouldn't want gathering notice. She did this mainly because she was hoping that, in his new found joy for defending himself as if he was in front of a judge being accused of murder, he would slip up and give her something useful.
Something she knew from the beginning he was hiding from her.
"I'm not getting defensive."
He said, his voice beginning to raise before he turned to look out the window, catching the tone in his own voice.
Sighing, he placed his hands on his hips, looking out over the vast garden, fountain, and tree line that rested far beyond that.
"I gave you enough info to find him. The fact that you're still asking me questions, as if I was some sort of criminal, makes me a little bit defensive."
He turned to face her, a frown already setting on his face.
"Forgive me, Huntress, if I become a little defensive when being treated as a criminal."
Lia held her tongue for a few minutes, letting Mr. Dorrow turn back to the window, taking much interest in not meeting her eyes, though hers never left him.
"I never called you a criminal, Mr. Dorrow."
She was calm when she spoke, letting her words sink in like a dagger edged with poison, something that would cause him to wiggle in fear and contempt with whatever he was hiding.
"I only asked for more information than what you provided me. You calmed Voln was a boy who ran away because of you marrying his mother. That would mean you aren't his real father, so, the question remains. Who was his father?"
Mr. Dorrow grew silent, intent on watching the wind push pass the forest trees and canopy.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, reminding them both of the tension between them. They could deny it, but they were both suspicious of one another.
"I've asked you out of the kindness of my heart. Not out of some desperation to prove you guilty of anything. I only asked to get a better understanding of who Voln is. Who he takes after-"
She never got to finish, as Mr. Dorrow turned abruptly to face her, an even deeper frown taking the place of the one that once was there.
"And yet you come here with his jewels? His tools, his treasures. Something he loves more than his own being!"
Taking the bracelet in his hands, he held it out for Lia to see in an open palm before slamming it to the ground in one swift motion of anger.
"Something he treasures, given by his father. The man who raised him for half his life! You bring this to me and expect nothing of it? Do you know how it looks for you to bring back something so precious, something he wouldn't dare take off his own wrist lest it was cut off in ful, back to me? How did you think I would respond?"
"I had expected a more civilized conversation from someone of your prestige."
"Ha!"
He scoffed brushing his uneven hair that had fallen to his forehead backup.
"So you think I am like some nobal breed? Like how my forefathers were, stuck up, rich, lavishing themselves in their own wealth and filth!"
"I had no intention of thinking so, no sir."
"Don't call me sir…it makes me feel…old."
Lia raised an eyebrow, her emotions as calm as they had been before the conversation started, while Mr. Dorrow's had only served to spiral further and further down hill.
Truth be told, she didn't think this bracelet was so important to Voln, nor did she know why he gave it to her of all people. But to him, a man who cares for his step son, this would look as though he hadn't just merely lost it.
Something had to have happened to him, and rather than being out there looking for his son who could be in danger, she was here questioning him about past events, as if he had something to hide.
In truth, Lia couldn't deny that his emotions, his anger, his hate, were well within reason.
"How old are you sir?"
However, she still had questions and she needed the answers too. The puzzle wouldn't build itself.
"Twenty five…but what does that matter?"
Lia didn't answer, her thoughts already piling in her head.
'So he's only five years older than Voln. That does create quite a strain on their relationship as it is, but his own mother, marrying a man who could be her son? I certainly wouldn't blame him for leaving.'
Cain had much to say on his own end, as he had put it earlier on when returning to the manor, this situation didn't rub him in the right direction.
'Perhaps it was money based. A single mother raising a growing boy like that, who would be living on his own quite soon. She might have needed the money to survive on her own. Her son couldn't do it if he wanted a life.'
'That makes sense. But if that was the case, why is she so worried about Voln running away. Why does she want him back so badly?'
'She could be lying?'
Lia silently shook her head, turning her focus back on Mr. Dorrow, who had been staring at her intently.
'I'll have to ask later.'
Clearing her throat, she spoke, calmly as before.
"How old is Voln?"
"Again. Why does it matter? Your job is to find him, not learn his life story."
"With all due respect sir, you can't take a deer without knowing first where it came from."
"But you're not tracking a deer. Your tracking my f*cking son!"
"All living beings act the same in basic instinct. You would know this as he came back once during the night did he not?"
"...."
"Well?"
Mr. Dorrow was silent for a moment, hands still on his hips as he bit into his lower lip, thinking deeply on the matter of whether he should answer, or whether he should just send her and her party away.
In the end, he chose the former.
No one else had taken the job in years, and he worried time was running out.
"...yes he did. So you're saying that he came back for food and supplies. That he could have been doing this for months and I wouldn't have known about it? Is that what you're saying?"
"Perhaps."
"Well which is it?!"
His patience was beginning to wear thin and she could see that, but still, Lia pressed on.
"If Voln is as young as you describe him as, then he won't stay far from the manor in terms of food and supplies being so close by. But the way your men described this "Shadowy figure," he appeared more like an old man. A man in his…early twenties."
As if putting the two bits and pieces together, Mr. Dorrow stepped back for a moment, looking over Lia's figure with a suspicious gaze.
"So that's why you asked me all this. If you've come here to judge the age of my wife and I, I assure you, you can't pack your bags faster than I can kick you out. Or would you like to test that theory?!"
He was in her face now, close enough that Lia could smell some type of alcohol in his breath, no doubt having shoved two bottles down the hatch, not caring who he reeked both his anger and his stench on.
Before she could respond, her patience getting the better of her, as this man - who was only three years older than her - was getting on her last nerve, as if summoned by the devils themselves, Mrs. Dorrow slammed open the front doors leading to the inner ballroom, followed closely by her first attendant.
"Clark!"
Mr. Dorrow - or rather, Clark as Mrs. Dorrow called him - stepped back from Lia, his anger subsiding the moment he laid eyes on her face. Though it was quickly replaced with worry as she lightly slapped him on the back of her head, bashing him with her harsh words.
"What is the meaning of this?! This Huntress brings back information about our son, and you're over here interrogating her?"
He rubbed the back of his head, a half smile of his face before his eyes turned to Lia, the smile draining completely.
"I believe I was the one being interrogated. Not the other way around."
Mrs. Dorrow turned to Lia with a face full of concern.
"What does my husband have that you want, Huntress?"
"Lia will do, thank you. And It's not what he has, but what he knows. Up until now I've gone off the bare minimum of info I can muster for this investigation. At least as much as I can put up with. However, if you'd like me to make progress in finding your son, then I suspect sharing some of that information is the best course of actions here."
Mr. Dorrow went down to the ground, retrieving the bracelet he had thrown down the ground, unharmed as he handed it to his wife.
"The Huntress, Lia-"
She didn't like the way he said her name, frowning at the words themselves.
"-found this on her trip to the mountains. Its-"
"Voln's."
Mrs. Dorrow said , interrupting her husband as she carefully looked over the beads one by one.
"I remember when his father gave this to him. He was just a boy, barely three, but he never once took it off since then."
She turned to Lia, hope but also despair filling her eyes, now brimming wet with tears.
"How did you get this?"
Lia didn't answer, and instead looked between Mr. Dorrow, and his wife, before sighing deeply.
"I'm afraid I can't say that right now."
Mr. Dorrow, who was just looking for a chase to get mad, exploded.
"What do you mean you can't say! You brought it here, and for what?! For nothing?!"
His wife grabbed his arm, holding him back while she stood rooted in place, eyes never leaving the bracelet.
"Tell us where our son is, or so help me-"
"You'll what?"
Mr. Dorrow stopped abruptly, as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard.
A challenge?
Lia's face was stone cold as she looked on at the both of them with a blank face.
"You can fire me. I don't care. I asked questions in order to increase the odds at finding your son. If you don't like answering those questions, even though they may help me find your son, for whatever reason, I will respect that."
She traded glances between them, her words like daggers in their soul.
"But before you do so, ask yourself this one question."
They waited, their breaths caught in their throats, fearing what they knew was coming next.
"In five years, which has done more, the Hunters who left after giving up? Or the Huntress that just brought you something from your own son's wrist?"
They stood there shocked that such words had left her mouth. Clearly they were not used to being dared in such a way, especially with their son on the line. But Lia didn't care.
"Until I have the full picture, I will not tell you anything. Better to put hope in something that is hopeful, rather than something that is hopeless and unsure.. Until then, I will not return to face either of you. Good day."
Without waiting for a response, she turned heel and left them both standing there, eyes wide with shock.
***
Rian and Luklai, both sitting on opposite benches across the hall from one another, waited patiently at the door to the ballroom, having just witnessed Mrs. Dorrow entered not too long ago, followed by loud yelling and harsh words being traded between the figures in that room.
They both knew where this investigation was going next, but neither of them wanted to admit that they might just have lit the match to the gunpowder trail. Lest it turn out to be a false belief.
As if by chance or fate, the door to the room opened wide with a loud creaking sound of the golden and silver hinges, Lia making her way through the open door, not bothering to close it behind her.
Gesturing to the both of them, they didn't need to share any words between them, both knowing what to do, as they quickly rose to follow her, close to either side of her.
"How did it go?"
Asked Lukali, his face turning to meet hers, but soon was sad he did so, after seeing her stone cold face filled with a silent rage.
"F*cking terrible. Didn't answer a damn question I asked and brought me nowhere."
She quickened her steps, not wanting to be caught up by those two 'lovers' again, feering their disdainful way of blaming her for somehow not finding their son, even though she had, and had brought back something even greater than what any of the other Hunters could do.
"I told you we were better off just trying to go look for Voln again."
Rian commented from Lia's other side. She had already told them the details - most of the not concerning Cain and his extraordinary powers - about Voln and their meetup on the way back to the Manor. Until now, she had put her hope in finding something from the two lovers. Something that would paint a better picture for her about why Voln left.
Not this half assed work of 'art' they called a lie.
"Up until now I had more hope in them than I would have in asking some maid or butler. They won't speak out of fear."
"Then who do we ask?"
"Someone who speaks with arrogance."
Lukali and Rian shared a look, the former being the one to voice his confusion.
"And who would that be?"
"Someone who is too arrogant for their own good. Someone who acts as though he can get away with everything."
Lia's pace quickened, the very mention of this name brought her back memories from when they left, his disgusting and leisurely smile bringing her the most discomfort she had felt in months. Worse than when the Goblin King tossed her around like a rag doll.
Someone she had been told, no, warned to stay away from.
Whose face already caused her discomfort just from thinking about him.
A pig.
"His name is Marcus."
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