The Forests of Silence

I'm home - Mozart Requiem Confutatis

It was cold. Too cold.

Gale slowly opened her eyes, feeling warm drops of water dripping from her head. When she looked down, she realized it was not water. It was a thin stream of blood trickling from her head and to the wooden floor.

Gale panicked, shooting upright. She was laying down on a floor of a stranger's house. She felt a long chain binding her arms and legs, restraining her movement.

Where was she? Why was she here?

The sudden movement made Gale dizzy and she kneeled down again, panting from a terrible headache. The world span under her eyes, like a mad circus.

"Finally, you're awake."

Gale took a glimpse of a pair of shiny leather shoes walking to her. She didn't have to look up to see who he was from the voice -

"Anthony..." Gale groaned through her clenched teeth.

"I'm sorry for our previous... barbaric actions. I hope you understand."

Anthony crouched down to meet Gale's eyes, smiling slyly.

"What do you want?" Gale glared at Anthony.

"You see, Ms. Smaragdos. I had a bit of a problem...with your father."

Anthony sighed, lighting up his cigarette.

"You want one?"

Anthony handed a cigarette to Gale. Gale shook her head, no.

"We found a gold mine in Collenka. He promised me 50% of the share. He didn't keep the promise."

Gale's mind raced. She immediately thought of the cargo ship #2204 from Collenka that disappeared - the ship that John was looking for the other day.

"The ship #2204..?"

"Now we're talking!"

Anthony laughed and slapped Gale on the back. 

"And I have used up all the family money to find that treasure so you probably have some idea how pissed I was."

Gale carefully thought back to that document.

"I read the contract a few weeks ago. It was because you bailed your investment a few months before the expedition......."

Anthony put his index finger on Gale's lips.

"No, no. Not now. We - your father and I - had a promise."

Gale recoiled back, disgusted. She didn't like Anthony touching her in any way.

"So everything was going according to plan after I took care of your.... father..."

The drugs.

Gale bit her lips in anger.

"...and managed to re-route the ship on its way to Candra. And this is my loot here that was on that ship."

Anthony walked next to Gale where a massive iron safe stood.

"The safe contains net worth of gold that can buy an entire city in Handorr. The problem is, I asked different professionals around the country but the safe cannot be opened or be destroyed ...without the right key."

Anthony blew the smoke into Gale's face.

"Turns out the key is your father's ring - the Smaragdos family symbol. You should know it very well."

Gale inhaled a sharp breath.

The ring she gave to Newton.

Anthony smashed the cigarette under his shoes.