Curse of the Crystals

Chapter 3: Maiara Aina - part 1

Maiara was in the study of her mansion the noble's district, going through some of her latest research into the Empire's history. Just as she was starting to read up on newfound documents on the war with the Humans, one of her servants suddenly ran in.

"Miss Aina, you've got to come, there's something terrible going on! Ifran and Airi, they... They are..." The woman wasn't able to finish the sentence.

It was clear that the older lady, miss Baker, was more than a little bit panicked, so Maiara immediately got up. As she followed her, she was led outside of the mansion and around the corner, into one of the many back-alleys. If Maiara wasn't pretty confident about the loyalty of those she hired, she'd have thought of this as an assassination attempt. After all, she did know a fair few people that severely disliked her. Whether it was something as trivial as the way she dressed in all black, breaking most of the unwritten dress-codes of the upper nobility, or something more ground-breaking, like how she interacted with 'commoners' as if they were to be respected, there were lots of things about her that others thought to be utterly disagreeable. She had also gained a fair few rivals among the scientists and scholars in the empire, as they envied her ability to keep up with a variety of scientific fields, from predicting storms to finding new ways to calculate distances. It was none of these rivals that she encountered around the corner, nor was it someone sent by them.

Instead, she was confronted with the sight of three people that seemed to be unconscious. Maiara got closer to confirm their identities. She instantly recognized two of them. The first was Airi Cervantes, a young girl that helped miss Baker in Maiara's kitchen. The second was Ifran Cervantes, Airi's grandfather, whom acted as Maiara's research assistant. The third was a faintly familiar member of the staff of one the families living nearby.

Maiara spoke up. "What in the world happened here?"

"I don't know, I walked past this alley on my way back from doing groceries when I found them like that... I tried to wake them up, but none of them would respond. What do we do?"

"Inform Qadir, and tell him get the guards, and to get a doctor as well."

"O-of course." The older lady hurried back to the mansion.

Maiara sighed, feeling bad about having to see miss Baker go through all of this at her age. She also knew that miss Baker was pretty close to Airi and Ifran, which showed in how distressed she'd been. It's why Maiara told miss Baker to inform her steward, Qadir, rather than having miss Baker try to find a guard or doctor on her own.

This part of the city was pretty isolated, as it was a noble's district, which meant it existed of large estates with few inhabitants. Most of the nobles thought this part of the noble's district was too far off from the royal palace. In general, they had the unwritten rule that the more important nobles lived as closely to the place as physically possible. Her own estate was the furthest you could get from it without leaving the noble's district. In other words, she didn't expect any people to pass by. It also raised the question what these three were doing here, but that could wait. She walked up to them to check their breath. They were all breathing. However, shaking them didn't seem to wake them, and even pinching or slapping them didn't do anything.

The guards arrived a while after Maiara had confirmed that all victims were all in the same state, and that none of them was showing any obvious signs of injuries.

It seemed like the guards were led by a Sergeant, whom approached Maiara. "Miss, could you tell us what happened here?"

"No, I'm afraid that I don't know anything about it either."

"Please, just tell us anything you know."

She sighed. "My cook, miss Baker, found them. I just arrived here myself, so I've only found out that they're all unconscious despite not showing any injuries."