"You're telling me magical energy is the key to the Gray Fox's machines, the Antikwald monsters, and who we suspect is House Schild's unofficial investigator?"

  "I confidently say 'yes' to all that."

  "And you have much confidence in Luminberg holding at least some major keys to the answers."

  "Worth a try, Farin, unless you want to report back to the Capital empty-handed yet again."

  "I believe you, Captain Rinvar." Farin shook her head, letting out a sigh of defeat. "I'd best send you there. I don't like the idea of your running around in that brace and hurting yourself even more. Elena deserves to see her husband alive and intact."

  "That's settled. I'll see you at the Day of the Defense celebrations."

  ????

  If there was anything the captain missed about Luminberg, it was how many of the towers cast shadows that crisscrossed into strange patterns. These changed with where the sun was during the hour. There was enough shade on the pavement; a bright yet strange, coldness prevailed all around as the sun gave off more light than heat. Brilliant rays broke into several colors when passing through the crystal spikes on many a residence's roofs was a common sight here, though the captain was never bored of looking at them. It gave him a little calmness as both the excitement of seeing his beloved after nearly months at the Capital and the progress of tracing the Gray Fox's whereabouts raged inside his mind.

  The Silbern residence was up ahead. Though easy to spot from the main road, it sat humbly with the rest of the neighborhood. Two floors, with the upper section featuring four windows and an equal number of rooms. A low gate stood in the way before the main door, which was easy to overcome with a simple push. A few sets of steps and a simple tug of the string to sound a bell.

  Rinvar heard rushed footsteps approaching the door. He grinned, shaking his head as he waited for the turning of the doorknob. A woman half a head shorter than the captain answered him. She bore a slender, darker form, though Luminberg's climate made her paler. A colorful dress of several patterns stood against long, silvery black hair. She sported a shawl that covered her shoulders and most of her upper arms. He returned to a smile that forced soft laughter out of him–right before she threw herself towards the officer.

  "Rinvar!"

  "Missed you very much."

  Rinvar took a half step back to hug her. He surprised her with a kiss on her lips, but changed his mind when he was pressing too close to her.

  "Be a little careful, Elena. Rib brace."

  She spanned her hands on his torso and felt something like thin metal pieces in cloth. Elena pulled back slightly, but kept her hands on his arms before looking at the captain and saying:

  "This Bureau work of yours is becoming more and more dangerous."

  "Part of the job." Rinvar squeezed air in exhalation.

  "It's good that your superiors allowed you rest." Elena went outside and took the captain's bag with both arms. "You have come just in time for tea. The table's a little cluttered, so just set aside my papers."

  ????

  What Rinvar did first on the first night after arriving home was to dive onto his bed, burying his face in glowing, white, fresh-scented sheets. His wife must have thought of him doing the same thing by the time he reached the privacy of their room. Four wall lamps came to life; each gave off a soft white glow when he entered the place. His head broke free of the pillow's embrace minutes later; his gaze shifted to the small stack of papers he tossed aside upon his return to the city. The pile remained untouched, though dog-eared in a few places.

  "Damn. There's still work to do."

  His arms found it hard to let go of the smooth tenderness; they seemed to have minds of their own and decided to rebel against his head. Were the papers waving at him? He shook his head and blinked a few times before the desk returned to being a table with stacks of paper. Either the coffee or the chocolate had something to do with this, perhaps both of them worked in tandem to bring him to a degree of madness. He turned to his back and looked at the ceiling: the mattress was more inviting than before, or perhaps the Imperial standard-issue beddings were too stiff and starched for their own good. If only he could be more willing to move about after the string of incidents that almost cost him his life. He made a couple of grunts before he lifted himself off his bed; a nearby chair, angled and polished.

  Rinvar darted to the wide study table not far from the bed, spreading the envelope's contents fanwise against its surface. His hand picked up a film of dust that gathered at the surface. Elena was as busy as he was, perhaps even more. The Academy's fall term was picking up, and there were more students interested in what Luminberg offered compared to the first years of the new program. Knowing her idea of humor, perhaps she left the table as that one spot he still needed to clean when he got home.

  Farin's collected monster photographs slid out of the envelope. He had forgotten about them, and the last he remembered was that Blaurosen's scientists were yet to identify what the creatures were. He remembered the director's words about 'Sister Mia' reading the church's old texts about otherworldly creatures. Perhaps she was on to something. Impossible. Church canonesses certainly had a lot more to do with their time than meddling in matters that do not concern them. What would someone like her get from studying creatures that should have stayed in mythology?

  He almost tossed the pictures off the table; the photograph glided and spun around until the table border brought it to a halt. The captain tried another attempt at getting his mind to work, even without the everyday desks Blaurosen or, recently, Aurelburg, supplied him with. Rinvar took his attention to the other images, trying to compose a scene of what possibly could have happened during that scene in the forest. A few cornered humans and the creatures behaving like wolves. Some gunshots... but where was the weapon that cratered the forest in the middle of that violence?

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  Nothing came to mind. Then there was the incursion at Altrecht.

  How could he, or anyone with the typical Constabulary armament, go up against those machine soldiers? Taking the walking battle machines head-on would be suicide. Nothing in their inventory could reliably go through the armor. He thought of the House Ravenna demonstration using a specialized rifle for defeating bunkers. Maybe that thing could stop the automatons.

  His mind was drifting away, and he began running scenes against the crime lord's constructs when a door latch clicked.

  "Work is not leaving you be, I can see." A low, soothing voice pushed through the door.

  "Come in, Love."

  "I called it right." She appeared in loose sleepwear; her hands held a tray of hot drinks. "I am here to have a night with you, and a night with you I shall have. Times like this are getting rarer now that you're being too focused on your work."

  "This line of work takes up time. You know, there are cases where the perpetrators are much smarter than the smugglers we normally deal with." Rinvar took one of the mugs by the handle; the thick smoke began caressing his lips.

  "And gets you into more perilous positions, looking at you now."

  "Broken ribs can't lie." He said, "They're mending, you see? I'm just waiting on the doctor's approval to get rid of this cloth on me."

  "You don't have to act unhurt, Dearest."

  Rinvar straightened his back against the chair. He drew Elena closer to him. She sat on the edge of his bed, her head leaning against his shoulder. He moved with her to the bed and left the desk with cluttered documents.

  "I wonder about one thing, though. It's silly, really."

  "Ask away."

  "About those old books Old Demian treasured. You know, the legends- with those beasts."

  "You are not seriously asking that in the middle of the night, are you?" Elena nudged him on his shoulder. Her palm held his forehead. "No fever. You are serious about this."

  "It's been bothering me these past few days. I've been looking at this case, or work... and yet it doesn't escape my mind that something far beyond the ordinary happened somewhere."

  "Which is why you're thinking that a monster could be the answer that you need, am I correct?"

  "You can say that."

  "I'll try not to kill the mood with this, but if this is what will put your mind at ease..."

  Rinvar knew this look: this was one of her subjects of interest, though he went at her at a time she did not expect, nor wanted to talk about it. Few situations were more awkward than a lecturer and listener holding each other closely.

  "Records of old said that there was an age when monsters used to dominate the lands, until men grew in enough numbers to be a real threat to them." Elena began talking; her embrace was growing warmer on Rinvar. "Father had tomes, records about a war with monsters dating back millennia ago that ultimately led to their banishment."

  "Banishment? You mean extinction, right?"

  "Some of the creatures we challenged were too powerful to be slain, and our ancestors dealt with them by devising a means to keep them in one place... to imprison them in another world."

  "I've never read that before. You've been studying these when you were a student here, Love?"

  "Not formally, no. You can say it was something I dabbled in when Father's lectures were becoming too heavy-handed." Elena said, "What we know is far from complete. Some of the ancient texts remain unanswered, or are being revised. I am sure that I've read about creating hidden zones in our reality to trap them. And then most of them are forgotten."

  "Don't tell me that... What was that? The Vaughnstadt Sigil? Right. Don't tell me that that is one of them."

  "Then don't be surprised that it is."

  "Now I feel bad about how I've thought of that as some artist's elaborate prank. That huge symbol on a rock actually was older than it let us on, or let me on." Rinvar set the mug aside and held his spouse in return. "How scared am I going to be knowing that some monster will come out of the blue and try to kill everything it sees?"

  "It's far from pretty, if you want me to answer for you." Elena's voice became even more relaxed; Rinvar's bed seemed to lure her to sleep. "All I'm telling you is just based on what Father has taught me. You could visit him if you want to read up on it. I just found it strange that going through a history lesson will help you with your job."

  "Call me crazy, but there's something I need to know, and I hope that this whole idea is just my head making up stuff along the way. I'll have to make a trip to your father's archives very soon if that's the case." Rinvar was beginning to draw Magister Demian's face in his mind. "He'll sure love the company along with his dusty old books."

  "Let me tell you right now that his tomes aren't gathering that much dust nowadays." Elena's speech was slowed down; she was leaning on Rinvar's chest when she went on. "He's happy that Luminberg is finally picking up and drawing more students in. He believes that this is the 'Golden Age' the Academy is going to have."

  "That's great. Your old man will have his hands full at work."

  The captain drew Elena closer; more warmth to exchange between them. It was also when he raised another question:

  "By the way, does Luminberg receive uh, I should call them ah, 'magic enthusiasts', from the Church? Scholars, monks, or scribes studying magic?"

  "Father is encouraging them to come to the Academy."

  Elena gazed at him; her eyes were rounder than usual, probably because of what was coming out of this investigator's lips. She continued:

  "I personally don't see anything wrong with that. Besides, the Old Church left a few texts in our archives, and those books are in their... in their liturgical language. We benefit from how fast they can transcribe the works."

  "So you, Old Demian, and the Academy 'wizards' don't find anything strange with the Church learning lost arts?"

  "I don't see why not, Dearest."

  A burst of laughter escaped from Elena's lips, which was subdued later on. Rinvar almost forgot about the pictures that lay scattered across his desk. He knew that his wife wouldn't mind, but he couldn't risk letting her even take a look at them. It wasn't a matter of trust, but more of Rinvar keeping up with what was required of him to do his work. They eased away from the bed's edges and lay beside one another.

  "Rinvar." Elena looked right at the investigator's eyes. He felt a tense air coming from her. "I feel that you're up against powerful forces here. I don't want to pry into your job, but I'm... scared of what might happen to you out there."

  "Believe me, Love, I'm just as scared." Rinvar's hands were holding on to Elena. "If there's an easier way to deal with this mission without having to risk my neck out there, I won't think twice about taking it."

  "I know. I should be with you on this." Her hands climbed up to his shoulders, sliding on them before they fell back to his chest. "I shouldn't be worrying too much about it."

  "We'll make it... and get this whole job over with. That I promise."

  "I'll hold you to your word, Rinvar." A smile formed on Elena's lips right before her head leaned on his chest. "You won't mind if I get my hands full of you. It has been some time since I got to do this to you, and I'm missing it like mad."

  "Be my guest." He looked at her and landed a soft kiss on her forehead. "Let me give you a lot more of what you're missing."

  Both fell into each other's embrace; the night grew colder, and the room lights became dimmer.