𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐓𝐘- a labyrinth sequel

𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐀 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐌. When she put her mind to something, it was typically hard to get her to stop. Even if she knew it was wrong, or she shouldn't be doing it, she just couldn't help herself. Which was why she found herself at the library again, searching every corner of the internet for some kind of information about the society, and it's suspicious charity, the Arcane Alliance. She'd run a search for past newspaper articles that had been published, but there was surprisingly a lot of mentions of them in papers previously, but nothing about founders, or how it all came to be.

She found articles that were written every year about the annual charity auction they'd put on, and the millions in dollars in revenue always went to charity. Most of their funds typically went to the Arcane Alliance, which she found strange. The events were annual, usually around the same time every year, in the spring. There were always articles about them, but it was almost as if they were written from a distance, like the reporter was stuck watching from a distance. Aurelia found it ironic how there was so much information accessible about them on the internet, but it felt like she knew nothing at all. It wasn't as if they were being discreet about their crimes, they just knew exactly how to market themselves, how to cover it up so they'd continue getting away with it.

When she reached the year 1972, she paused for a moment. For the first time, she saw a picture in the accompanying article. A photo of members, all of them standing in a line, drinks in their hands, bright smiles on their faces. Everything about the photo screamed wealth and power, like it was something you'd see in an advertisement. Pictured below (left to right): Nathanial Vanderbilt, William Rutherford, Marcus Winchester, and Richard Hawthorne. The article went in depth about how the four of them were being honored for their generous donations. Although Aurelia knew what it was like to be fairly wealthy, her eyes still widened when she saw how much they'd paid for the artwork they had bid on.

Still, she recorded their names down and then did a search on every single one of them. She paused for a moment when she'd searched up William Rutherford. She delved a little bit more into his family history, but when she searched up the name, she'd realized there were more than one.

And one of them was engaged to her mother.

Aurelia sat there for a moment, staring at the photo of her mother, not much older than she was now, pictured beside who she assumed to be a Rutherford grandson. He must have been the grandson of William Rutherford I, based on their ages. Still, Lia found herself staring at the picture, finding it strange that her mother had almost married another man that wasn't her father. Mind you, she was young at the time, but it just felt...wrong.

Looking at the photo announcing their engagement, Celia Clairmont had a smile on her face, and to anyone else, she would have looked happy. But all Aurelia could notice was how utterly sad she looked. She was tucked into William's side, like she was trying to dim herself so he could shine, and he didn't even seem to notice it. Aurelia recalled her mother mentioning a William before, but she never knew the extent of their history. For instance, Aurelia knew that he'd tried to kill her once, but she never quite understood why until now.

It felt like an invasion of privacy, looking at this part of her mother's life that she knew nothing about. Nothing she could have read about him would have been relevant to what she was searching for now. Aurelia closed the tab and moved onto the next name. Marcus Winchester.

The top article that came up was describing a man who'd been found dead, presumed homicide. Aurelia perked up and eagerly clicked on it, seeing that the man had been identified as Marcus Winchester. She glanced at the date in which the article had been put in the newspaper, and noticed it was a week after the charity auction. It was ruled a homicide, but they'd never found who killed him. It was assumed to be a robbery, since jewelry was missing, and a ring on his finger was also taken. They'd suspected he was having money troubles, and that he'd had debts he couldn't pay, and it ultimately ended with him paying them with his own life.