บท 4: Moonlight Sonata
When Alex woke up, he once again found himself within the toxic and terrifying dream, surrounded by black sand. However, as he looked around, he discovered that dream felt fake. He could see the flaws that he could not see before. He even felt like he wasn't constricted by the dream like he was before.
"Is this the result of becoming an Extraordinary?" He wondered to himself, as he looked at the deep well in front of him, he found that it was fake.
Suddenly, the entire dream shattered. He found himself in a world of darkness, with a grey moon that dimly glowed placed in the sky. "Placed... not rising... Indeed, this world is fake as well, however, the flaws are not as obvious as the previous scene. Is this a dream within a dream?" Alex quickly analyzed with a terrifying proficiency.
Then, a piano suddenly appeared in front of him. Immediately, the keys began playing on their own, releasing a soul wrenchingly sad melody. When Alex saw the piano and heard the music, he immediately felt terrified as memories of a past suddenly gushed into his mind. He immediately wanted the music to stop, but then Alex relaxed when he discovered that while the piano had the melody, it didn't have the terrifying effects that Alex had ingrained within his mind to associate with it.
Back when Alex was in high school, almost six years ago, he remembered the incident, that changed everything for him. It was the second time he had ever encountered an artifact and it happened to be this terrifying artifact.
"Artifact - The Moonlight Sonata.
Description - An extremely well maintained antique piano produced by the esteemed luxury piano manufacturer Bösendorfer.
Danger - Absolute Danger"
Alex sighed. Till today, he could not find out why the piano had suddenly become an artifact in his second year of high school, and how it bewitched each of its players into cultish murderers awakened with monstrous abilities who had become absolute mental slaves to the piano.
If he had not already managed to bind with the observer spectacles beforehand, he would never have realized the anomaly and managed to help Black Matter solve the case.
However, in the process, the cult of the piano had caught wind of his observations and forcibly made him play the piano as well. All he did was play one key under duress, as the appropriate bait for Black Matter.
Although Black Matter never detected any significant psychological trauma within him from the piano, Alex had already been corrupted and it was almost impossible to get rid of.
After joining Black Matter, Alex found out that the story of The Moonlight Sonata didn't end at all, because some members of the organization's sealing team assigned to seal the object had turned into its believers engineering the piano's escape. Alex had the nagging suspicion that the piano was sentient.
Black Matter had immediately put high alert on the organization forming around the piano. Apparently, they had been imbued with a different awakening to Extraordinary and the outfit had named themselves the Sonata Troopers. Even today, they hadn't been completely eradicated.
Just now he was fearful of being bewitched by the music from the terrifying piano, however, he was surprised and glad to find it didn't seem to have any effect other than his own lingering psychological trauma from the instant when he almost died.
Without realizing, Alex had activated his "Observer" state as he began analyzing the piano. It actually appeared to be damaged, quite unlike its well maintained form from before. The music keys also seemed to be slightly out of tune, as if it hadn't been maintained for some time.
He could also see signs of a silhouette playing the piano, however, the silhouette was only a shadow and Alex couldn't make out much by observing it. However the damage on the piano gave him speculations.
"There has been no news of the Black Matter hunting the Sonata Troopers recently... however, the piano seems terribly damaged. Is this an illusion within my mind that the piano wants to inject, or is it a reflection of reality? Could the Sonata Troopers be in some kind of factional conflict?" Alex speculated. "The piano seems to have lost some of its luster from back when I saw it all those years ago."
After some time, Alex woke up. It was early in the morning, and he surprisingly didn't have the terrifying ordeal that he went through every night. Although he suffered from the nightmare, Alex realized that he wasn't in the grips of the nightmare and traumatized by it. He had observed the nightmare like a passive observer.
"Is this why that mysterious person suggested 'Observer' over "Fighter" and "Official"?" Alex nodded. He seemed to have some insights. He woke up and freshened himself up.
At breakfast, Alex's parents and sister looked at him with curiosity. Alex felt awkward at their looking at him like he was an alien.
"What happened? Is there something on my face?" He asked as he chewed out a piece of bread.
"Did you use make up? You look mature." Melissa asked in seriousness.
"Ha?" Alex asked in a flabbergasted tone.
"Never mind. Nowadays men wear make up as well. You don't have to be embarrassed." She replied.
Alex was tongue tied and didn't know how to respond to such an accusation. He hadn't worn any make up! 'Observer' had already given him a mature looking appearance by making his eyes deeper and mysterious, however, beyond that there didn't seem to be any easily observable defects or changes within him.
"May be I have to use make up to mask this change, Alex thought. After all, even Sherlock Holmes used make up." He placated himself.
At the Black Matter headquarters, Alex was going through documents of interest when he received a call from Elena, asking him to report to the chief.
Alex walked to the Chief, Kellard Grimes, office as asked. The chief was an aging man, but Alex could see that he looked extremely healthy and powerful with Observer. He could feel the energy coursing through his veins that could probably destroy concrete.
"Is this the power of a higher Extraordinary?" Alex wondered within his mind.
The chief looked at Alex and nodded. "Alex, I saw your report requesting documents about mystical rituals for research. It might be difficult for me to sanction that request, but considering how hard you work I will put in a request to the higher ups.
The rituals are usually never shown to those who haven't awakened, however, I'm sure Black Matter can gain some benefits from a historian analyzing the origins of the mystical rituals and texts." He said with a smile.
"Thank you chief." Alex said, however, with observer activated, Alex could easily observe the Chief's breathing, his eyes, perspiration and his gulps. He knew the chief wanted something from him. "You must have called me here for something else?" He asked.
The Chief looked at Alex's glasses and nodded. "As sharp as ever. Yes. Someone is asking for your expertise for a private consultation and reached out to me."
Alex raised an eye. "Private consultation.."
The Chief nodded. "How much do you know about the Grimes family?"
Alex thought for a bit. "Grimes family is one of the noble families in the Rose Kingdom, with members in all aspects of government and industry... and I am guessing a family of Extraordinary individuals."
Chief sighed. "You are really too astute. Indeed, many members in our family are Extraordinary individuals. My brother Gillan Grimes, who is the current heir to the nobility, heard about your exploits at the school this weekend. Well, his daughter was one of the students in the class which was involved.
He requests for your service as a private detective. I want you to understand that you are under no pressure to accept. I don't want you to feel like I am trying to use my authority to force you here. You can reject it."
Alex did not reject it. He had already realized that the Black Matter information fragmentation was too high and he couldn't get anything substantial unless he revealed himself to be an Extraordinary and join as an official member. However, he didn't think it was the appropriate choice. Thus, building contacts among other groups might help a lot.
"I am willing to offer my services." Alex said swiftly after his considerations.
The Chief nodded. "Alright. You can go to the Grimes Manor on Parliament Street and introduce yourself. There should be no problems."
Alex nodded and left the Chief's office. Inside, the Chief sighed. "May be this young man can solve this conundrum." He proceeded to write a letter asking for higher document permission for Alex.
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