Felix bit his lip and closed his eyes for a moment, distracting himself with the purple shapes in the light cast behind his eyelids. He thumbed the edges of the book he had opened and tried to compose himself. It wasn't easy, especially not with Alice humming besides him. Her song distracted her from noticing how distressed Felix had become, which was a mercy he held to.
"So how does this work?" Alice snapped her book shut and rocked up onto her knees, "there's no way our two options could be this different."
"I don't know," Felix replied, "but I highly doubt it's either one of them."
Alice pulled herself up from the floor to lean on Felix's desk beside him. She looked over his shoulder and scanned the pages he was barely reading. He already had the contents memorized. But he'd hoped that re-reading would produce some sort of revelation.
"Why would the council give us the wrong diagnosis?"
"Either they didn't look too closely at it, or they're trying to make this as difficult for us as they can," Felix turned the page slowly, keeping his gaze on it to avoid Alice's brown eyed stare that was more intense than she realized it was, "I'd put money on it being the latter."
Alice sighed and reached for the phone on the desk beside Felix. She switched it on and scrolled through to the messages from an unsaved number, Felix watching over her shoulder the whole time. They read the Latin words together, the same heavy frustration resting in their chests.
Victim: Larson Briganti.
Spirit: Unknown. Likely a Accidiam or a Vindicta.
Location: Manhattan, New York.
Alice gritted her teeth and fought against the urge to shatter the screen against the stone floor. She opted to slide down the desk and sit on the floor instead, closing her eyes and breathing heavily.
Felix gazed down at her for a moment before turning back to the book in front of him. He paged through it again, illustration after illustration colouring his vision before he stopped at a eerie picture. The subject was faint, barely more than a wisp and easily mistaken for fog. The only thing that distinguished it was the shocks of blue through it, like electricity trapped in the center. The edges were blurred and blended into nothing, and it shifted easily. The picture itself was moving, the book designed and charmed to do the spirits justice in how they reacted in real life.
"An Accidiam isn't worth wasting a seasoned team on," Felix mused, "no matter how much they hate us. They're only going to give that assignment to someone new."
He continued turning while Alice's focus waned. She'd never seen an Accidiam before, she'd joined Felix in the middle of his assignments and proved herself capable of more important spirits. But she always liked the way they looked.
"If it was a Vindicta, they would know." Felix gestured to the page. The illustration turned Alice's stomach.,
It showed a spirit, black and silver. It looked more solid, though an actual shape wasn't distinguishable. Not a consistent one, anyways. The more Alice stared at it, the more forms it seemed to shape itself into. One moment she saw a skull, the silver pooling together to form the empty eye sockets. The next it was a knife, black and deadly.
"So it's not a Vindicta?" She asked without looking up from the image.
"I highly doubt it."
"So what is it then?"
Felix shrugged and pushed his chair back. Alice took the book immediately and started shuffling through pages. She loved it, how the pictures of the spirits moved as they actually would. The magic of the book's moving illustrations had prepared her for many things she hadn't known she would need as badly as she did.
"The only way we'll be able to know is to scout it out."
Felix traced a finger along one of the shelves at shoulder height, scanning through the scattered items. He finally found the camera and pulled it out, setting it on the desk while Alice watched in fascination.
"We'll just have to see how the target is behaving and what damage has been done," he finished while twisting the lens off the camera.
"What does that do?" Alice asked while she watched Felix rub at the glass with the sleeve of his red hoodie.
"It's like an x-ray for spirits. It's pretty inaccurate unfortunately, so we'll have to take its readings with a grain of salt."
"How does it work?"
Felix smiled slightly, shaking his head. So many questions.
"I'm not actually sure," he twisted off another piece that had screwed on behind the lens. He held it up, letting the light shine directly through it while he examined, "I know how to use it and maintain it, but that's where my knowledge ends."
"Can I see it?"
Felix shook his head immediately and laughed at the pout Alice gave him.
"It's incredibly delicate," he chuckled, "and you don't do so well with anything even a little delicate."
"That's not always true,' she leaned back in the armchair with a scowl and propped her boots on the desk. She ignored the scowl Felix threw her way.
"It's not a risk I'm willing to take with this. Maybe when we get back from the mission."
Felix pushed her feet off the desk along with a few spare papers and a book or two. Alice rolled her eyes and jumped to collect them, setting them back with more force than required.
"You're not good with anything delicate," she repeated mockingly, "says you."
"Books are more resilient than this camera," Felix responded evenly.
"Doesn't mean you should go shoving them everywhere."
"Fair point."
They fell into another natural silence, Felix fiddling with more bits of oh-so-delicate machinery while Alice leaned over the other side of the desk to straighten out a few crumpled pages. She turned a few pages at once before the book settled naturally where it wanted to be opened; a picture of an Angustia. The spirit swirled in a mist, never settling down or slowing, stirring up tornadoes while it twirled. It wasn't a ballerina's twirl or an excited frenzy. It was the quick paces of a prisoner. The way a mother can't stand still when her child is lost. The distress and panic of an anxious mind.
Alice took a deep breath and closed the book. It was strange, how it fell open to that page so naturally despite it being near the beginning of the book. It was nowhere near where a book fell naturally, nowhere close the the center of the spine. She glanced toward Felix, watching his jaw twitch as he focused on pulling a memory card from the port of the camera. She smiled slightly at the way he looked angry while paying such close attention. It was an entertaining sight.
"Do you have a favourite spirit?" She blurted, too loudly. Felix barely gave her a look, completely used to her sudden random questions.
"What do you mean? He asked simply, his tone mostly flat.
"Is there one that you find super interesting?" Alice leaned a little further across the desk, "maybe one you like to hunt more?"
Felix sat up, setting the screws he'd been pulling out down in a very specific order. He rested his elbows on the desk before leaning forward to match Alice's posture. He set his jaw and looked more serious than Alice had ever seen him. It unnerved her.
"No."
The simple and quick answer nearly startled Alice, and she sat up while he went straight back to the screws.
"Sorry, didn't realize it was an offensive question," she muttered, then startled when Felix grunted and slammed the small screwdriver onto the desk.
"Why would it not be?" He snapped, "you realize these are real people? They're not special effects, Alice, these spirits are where they are because they died horribly."
He shoved his chair back so forcefully it fell, crashing into the stone floor with enough force to echo across the room. Alice didn't move, just watched him stalk into the dark development room he'd pulled the camera from.
She waited an hour, and he still didn't come back.
