The Peculiar Alchemist

37 || Even the Crow Knows

When Sammy left, Aubrey found himself still holding on to the shovel but he was staring at an empty place. There was nobody alive or dead around him, and the pendant was placed back on the table right next to the crow.

He was silent for a few moments trying to think about everything he was being told, but he was mostly thinking of Sammy and the way he couldn't say what he wanted to say. It was a very heartbreaking display of what necromancers were capable of, and Aubrey wanted nothing more than to free Sammy of that. What right did anyone have to control someone like that?

They might be dead, but they were dead people.

It made it clear to him now why it was so appealing. In the wrong hands, control over the dead can be very devastating, and gradually Aubrey was able to see how the Abbotts could be connected to all of this. That power and control they had over everything would make sense if they were the ones keeping such power to themselves. All that information, all that wealth...

It's just surprising because Marc didn't seem like someone who'd belong to a family like that. Aubrey had seen how distraught and desperate he was to find his father, but was that all an act to get closer to him?

Even his mother, Lucille Abbott, visited Aubrey's own a few times. They were even exchanging letters regularly now and seemed to form a friendship he didn't bother to look too much into. In fact, he barely even thought about how close the two of them became, but Sammy had told him to be careful of the Abbotts and it seemed like he was right. Aubrey shouldn't ignore them anymore.

They were closer to him than he thought.

He gingerly placed the shovel on the ground and sat down not knowing how to approach matters with this new information he got. Thankfully, the door slammed open loudly and Agnes walked in and took her hood off to reveal a mess of gray hair and an expressionless face.

She paused when she saw him before she gave him a pleased look. "You're here early."

"I wanted to try this." He told her, holding up the pendant distractedly. Curious, she walked over to him and held it in her hand before a look of mild surprise appeared on her face. Despite it being obvious that she knew what it was, Aubrey still gave her an explanation mainly to distract himself from his thoughts. "It shows you how many times something died."

Her steely blue eyes moved to the crow as she held the pendant and she scoffed. "I thought I killed that wretched thing more than that."

"Can you please stop abusing the crow?"

"Not until it dies permanently." She told him as she gave the pendant a thoughtful look before she smiled at him. "I'll be taking this. Would be nice to see my progress with the bird."

Aubrey shrugged at her, not really minding it. "Be my guest."

"You should really stop making things like that. It'll be suspicious when things that shouldn't exist keep on appearing like that shovel over there."

His eyes went to the shovel before he sighed with a nod. "I'll be mindful of that. Can I talk to you abou-"

Placing the pendant in her pocket, Agnes immediately turned around and headed to the opposite direction cutting him off with her curt words. "I'm busy."

A whine left him as he watched her go, but he knew that nothing would make her stay if she didn't want to stay. He wished she wasn't so dismissive sometimes, so he decided to go to her gardens and save some of her dying plants from withering away due to her negligence.

Agnes had a habit of ignoring the ones she doesn't have a use for anymore, but then she'd complain about it later when she needs them again only to find them dead. Of course, everyone was to blame except for her, so it was best to just avoid that mess altogether. Aubrey planned to tend to her dying plants.