Sentry of the Arcane: Engulfed

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Fitz

This time, I make sure that Sophie's asleep. Smiling ever so softly when I see that she is, in fact, sleeping, I gently close the connecting door. Shaking my head, I run a hand through my hair before deciding to go down again. I just couldn't sleep, so I've decided to go to Steven yet again. Hopefully, Sophie doesn't try to follow again.

Once I get to the laboratory again, I can't help but notice that Steven seems to have darker circles than before, and I wonder whether this applies to me as well.

Steven shakes his head, most likely trying to rid himself of the drowsiness that comes with staying up too late. "What did we manage to learn about Leila from Jacob?" he asks, fighting back a yawn to the best of his abilities.

"Well, he was talking about how he knew Arien in college," I begin. "But that was a lie. Leila came to him. We also managed to learn that Fittion told people about Jacob being in jail, but we don't know who those people are or how Jacob knows that it was Fitton."

When I'm met with silence on Steven's behalf, I raise an eyebrow and gaze over at him. But before I can ask about anything, Steven interjects, "Is it possible... that Aeron was one of the people Fitton told?"

My eyes widen. "I never thought about that," I admit, my mind racing with different kinds of thoughts. "Was that why Aeron suddenly came and tried to shoot me with a prostrator? And why he attacked Sophie as well?"

Steven suddenly facepalms. "I should've realized," he grumbles loud enough to be heard. "That Fitton wouldn't tell random people, but people of his organization."

"Organization?"

Steven curses under his breath, the foul words aimed at Fitton, Jacob, Aeron, and not surprisingly, Mr. Wallace. Sighing, the forensic pathologist pinches the bridge of his nose. "Remember that hideout that Mr. Wallace had you inflitrate last year?" he asks me instead, catching me slightly off guard.

"Does that have to do with the organization?" I ask, nodding in response to his question.

Steven nods as well. "My first question- did you know what the structure of the hideout was? I couldn't explore much."

I frown, still not knowing what the hideout's blueprint has to do with this organization that I haven't heard of. "Well, you had to go through the old building, which seems to be empty, but it wasn't," I explain. "I think they managed to block their thoughts from being tracked by me at first, because I did a regular check. Anyways, there are some runes- the same ones that I can only read for some reason- and it said, 'You shouldn't be able to read this.' After that, a latch sounded, and we were suddenly immobilized during a fall down a tunnel with saridian.

"The saridian lining eventually ended, which let Donovan and me actually control our limbs again, and two- allow the 'organization' to telekinetically break Donovan out of the tunnel and into an actual building, which I'm sure that you saw what they look like." I pause, looking at Steven for the second question.

As if he's suddenly brought back to reality from his thoughts, Steven shakes his head before staring at me again. "My other question is if you noticed anything that all of the people there had in common."

I scowl, trying to play back my memories and study then to the best of my ability. Suddenly, my eyes widen when something catches my eye. "They all had a grey eye," I admit after a few seconds of silence. "And if they held their hand above that eye, they could change the iris to grey or make the grey go back to their original eye colour."

Steven merely curses more. "That must be the sign that they're a part of the organization," he grumbles under his breath. After a moment, the pathologist then asks, "Anything else about those eyes?"