The Peculiar Alchemist

60 || Never-ending Secrets

By the time Kellen managed to unbury himself, Aubrey's thoughts were a mess. He was very anxious, and despite his anxiousness, the envelope he suspected was from Lucille remained unopened. It was a mystery to him how long he sat there just thinking about it, but it wasn't a short while considering that Kellen was now in front of him, ruffling the dirt from his hair.

He noticed the shovel lying on the ground before he frowned at Aubrey. "I would have appreciated some help, you know."

But Aubrey ignored him and held his head looking a little bit panicked. "Agnes was right. I do have poor judgment."

"You're the poor judgment." Sammy informed Kellen with a grin, and while Kellen understood why he was being referred to as such, he didn't know what transpired to make that their topic of discussion.

There's also the fact that Aubrey looked deathly afraid of something, and it was all too confusing and headache-inducing to Kellen who literally just dug himself up from the ground. Couldn't he have a few moments to gather himself before something gets thrown at him?

Everything is so chaotic whenever his grandmother is involved.

"This- The black everything. Kellen, I know who sends letters like these." Aubrey said handing him the two envelopes Agnes gave to him, and he took them in his hand, still dazed and confused. "It's Lucille Abbott, she sends them to my mother, too. She knows about the book you stole."

Kellen stared at the black envelope wordlessly before he carefully opened it and took out the black piece of paper Aubrey was so used to seeing in his mother's hand whenever Lucille sent her a letter. It was just as he feared, and the white ink was identical. There was no doubt about it. It was from her.

The expressions that ran through Kellen's face would have been funny if he wasn't so worried, and Sammy did not care one bit about the predicament they both found themselves in as he read the letter over Kellen's shoulder.

"Yup, she knows all about your visit to her library." He told Aubrey while fighting a smile, and Kellen grumbled something under his breath before the paper was engulfed in flames. There was no way anyone would read what was in that letter now as he opened the other one.

"We'll ignore that for now." He told Aubrey nonchalantly, too relaxed about the whole matter, and Aubrey frowned at him.

"Easy for you to say when you can't die."

"Trust me there is nothing more I fear than a terrifying illusionist." Kellen muttered reading the paper in his hand. It was from Vincent, and it had some very interesting things to say. "I'll deal with it later, don't worry. Her sending the letter here means she thinks only I did it."

Before Aubrey could relax a bit at those words, Sammy spoke. "Nope, she mentioned you, too."

"You're being the opposite of helpful right now. Look at how worried he is." Kellen told him not really that bothered at how Sammy exposed the white lie he just told, but he was being deliberately annoying and Kellen knew why. He was trying to nudge Aubrey in the right direction, but it wasn't working well for him. It was like a silent game they're playing. "By the way, it seems like I am meeting a friend of yours, Sammy."

That made Sammy frown. "A friend of mine?"

"Briar."

Aubrey tensed up at the name. "What? You're going to see her?"

"Yeah, why not? It'll be interesting to see what she wants."

"She wants him." Sammy answered and gestured at Aubrey who looked unhappy about it all. Kellen slowly nodded his head at the reminder. "She also wants to involve Marc in it all, and wants to destroy the Abbotts. What I want is to be alive again, can you just revive me already?"