The Relic Seeker: The Council of Grim.

Part 14. Time to Investigate

It was a very long and silent journey from the Ruins of Alph to Roger's house, because of both his house being in Blackthorn City, and with Jordan refusing to say a word to Ash since she yelled at him in the mirror room. Not that Ash wasn't okay with it, he would've felt even more awkward if she had acted like nothing had happened.
"You alright back there?" Roger called from the front seat.
"Yeah," Ash replied, shifting slightly to get more comfortable. There were no back seats in Roger's van, so Ash was forced to sit on a bundle of old blankets that were surprisingly soft, so it wasn't too much of an inconvenience. Especially when Roger's Woobat was content sleeping in Ash's arms.
"Again, sorry about Arnold, he didn't want to go back into his PokeBall."
"He's fine, honestly. It's been a while since a Pokemon that wanted to could fit in my arms." Roger let out a chuckle at the comment, before the van returned to silence, apart from the radio, which was currently on the JBC Radio 2 station, and as it was early evening it was Simone Dayo's Drivetime Show, and by the way Roger was tapping along to the jingle, Ash assumed that the other man listened to this show everyday.

After a couple more hours, they finally arrived at Roger's house. As soon as the van stopped, Jordan jumped out and ran into the rather small, traditional-style house.
"That girl..." Roger sighed, before getting out as well.

Once all of Ash and Jordan's luggage had been moved into the house, Ash sat at the mahogany dining table and opened up his laptop, having already been given Roger's WiFi code, and with swift fingers he typed, until he came upon what he was looking for.
"The Council of Grim...huh..." Ash had come across a website, that was garish shades of violet and orange, and 'The Council of Grim' was printed in overly Gothic font at the top. Most of the screen was taken up by a large photo of a woman dressed in a long purple dress, and her face was covered by a rather thick matching veil. Ash could, however, see a small strand of hair that seemed to be platinum blond due to how light of a colour it was.

A few more minutes of looking through the site and Ash found a picture of the man who had attacked them back at the ruins: Michael. It was a kind of profile page, detailing some basic facts about the man. "Michael Colins...thirty-seven years old, the Suzerain's right hand man..." Just then, Ash felt a large hand land in the middle of his back, and he flinched, his whole body arching forward from the slap, which came from Roger.
"What are you looking up there?" Roger asked, rather intrusively.
"The freaks who attacked the ruins earlier today," Ash replied, having regained his composure.
"Oh right, them lot. Council of Grim, huh? Sounds like they're all nasty pieces of work. I'd be careful if you ever run into them again, Ashworth."
"Thanks for the heads up. And you can call me Ash."