As the crowd disperses, Lord Édouard is nowhere to be seen anymore, Thaís and Jorge are quick to join the quadrille – that is now forming with the return of the music – and you are left alone, standing still at the same place as before and lost as to what to do.

  Frustration arises from your abandoned search and so you begin walking about the plaza, apparently now one hundred percent recovered from the previous confusion. It is not long until you reach the banquet and a slightly melancholic voice calls your name:

-        Orion…

  At only one or two steps behind the first of the long tables, accompanied by two guards at either side, Lady Marie watches over the fair, gesticulation for you to come closer. Your curiosity – still set on finding Maebh – suggests that you pretend you did not hear her and resume the search but given all the kindness the people of this village have spared you, and, how – extremely kind or not – Lady Marie is still a lady and so demands some more respect, you do as requested.

-        Milady.

-        Mon fils told me that you’ve been badly hurt in the head during the last hunt. Are you feeling better now?

-        Ye-Yes, milady. I don’t remember much of what happened last night but at least I don’t feel like my memory got any worser than what it was already, haha.

  You jest casually, still struggling to think before the words leave your mouth.

-        Hahaha, don’t worry child, I am sure it will get better eventually.

  Lost as to what say next, curiosity takes over your voice swiftly:

-        Milady, have you seen your son, the Lord Édouard? I was supposed to talk to seem but as soon as your speech ended, I can’t find his whereabouts….

-        Hmm… Not long ago, I saw him heading to the main gates, if that helps…

-        … Knowing him, he must probably be checking the status of the guard and if everything is going in accordance with his orders.

  Her answer comes in quite a parental manner, a proud mother safe that her child is well dedicated even when preforming the most mundane of tasks… Yet, oddly enough, something other than your rationality senses a touch of apprehension, worry masked behind her tranquil tone. Either way, there are more pressing matters to attend to – so says your mind – and as such, you verbalise yet another disquiet:

-        And… And Maebh?

-        Maebh? Bon… She promised to sing later, the people love her sweet voice and comforting songs so much, but I have not seen her ever since the fair begin. I hope nothing bad is keeping her from coming…

-        … Why do you ask? Are you also one of her admirers? Hehe.

-        Oh! Umm… It’s, it’s that her and the lord, your son seem to be so close, so I thought that by finding her I would find him as well…

  Between the surprise and embarrassment in your words, you suddenly realise that their tone might end up implying something not quite adequate to imply about a lord before his mother – who is also a lady –. But before you may alter any of your previous words, Lady Marie proceeds in a more solemn tone:

-        I would love to believe that the Beast’s death has brought an end to mon fils’ suffering and that, thanks to that he has returned to think of other things beyond vengeance, but… I’m afraid you are much innocent yet, Orion…

-        … When Jacques died, Édouard lost more than just his brother, he also lost a part of himself…

-        … And no matter how much I pray that he recovers it one day, in the end, that is all I can do…

  No longer having your attention split, both your rationality as well as your unexplainable will to find Maebh agree that you have already caused far too much damage with this single conversation and, that the best thing to do would be finish it and return to your search as soon as possible.

  Whilst you struggle to find kind enough words for your leave – since, it would be plainly rude to just “runaway” after remembering the Lady of such painful memories –, Lady Marie herself suggests:

-        Bon, tonight is supposed to be one of celebration, non? Let’s not allow the past to darken the mood any further, shall we? Haha.

-        … If there is anyone who can find mon fils, it surely is the captain Löschental, at this time he should probably be at the west gates. As for myself, standing near the banquet for so long is starting to get me hungry, so if you excuse me, haha…

  She then heads towards the nearest table, leaving you alone and free to pursue your quest. And as if you had just dodged a bullet, your legs point west hastily and happily, one step after another, and another and… Suddenly, a deep palpitation disrupts your heart’s pace, immediately being followed by the meeting between your face and the ground as all images and sounds turn into an absolute void.

  Crumbs of images and sounds manage to intermittently break the void for a few seconds: Cries for help; hurried footsteps approaching your soulless body; a wave of cold hands lifting it from the ground and a familiar voice calling:

-        Orion?! ORION?! What happened?! Are you still feeling sick?

  Next, the fluids inside your internal ears bob in an almost galloping pattern as if someone is carrying you on their shoulder at an urgent pace.

-        Somebody find a doctor, quickly!

  Another voice echoed, however – just like the first – it quickly fades into the distant silence. Time freezes and your body seems to grow heavier by the minute yet floating in an infinite nothing. Along with some more confusing images, a muffled conversation reaches your ears with difficulty, almost as if coming from behind a closed door:

-        But doutor! What do you mean you don’t know???

  I am sorry monsieur Souza, but the symptoms the boy has been displaying are practically contradictory. There is nothing I may do that won’t risk his life further…

  Said voices grow quieter as a light – better yet, delicate – humming of a melancholic song emerges, beckoning for you, warming and comforting your soul, even if… There is something that feels awfully wrong about it. Unexpectedly, primal fear and aggression wake within you in defiance to that humming in the most peculiar manner, almost as if, coming from a separate existence to yours… Coming from a different you.

  All is then aggravated when the humming stops, making way for a sweet – yet, malicious – laughter from the same voice, causing you to fall into an apparently endless void off your bed, sweating feverishly and having your lungs fail at drawing air.

  The deep darkness engulfing your room is only challenged by the starlight peeking from the window, highlighting the miniscule dust particles that dance not too far from the starlit wooden floor. Such scene brings serenity to your mind and heart, but only for a moment, as the humming voice from before echoes once again, puppeteering you to respond to its beckoning.

  First, you leave your bed cautiously, careful to not cause the wooden boards to creak under your weight. Then, you open the door of your room with the same care and swiftly – but silently – dash through the hallway and down the stairs, reaching the tavern’s dining hall as calm in the dark as a cat, soon walking out the back exit of the building undetected.

  The dark brown sludge of mud mixed with snow lowers the night’s temperature to the point the air feels even colder than the creepy atmosphere of the village – a creepiness resultant of poorly illuminated back alleys combined to the deep blue moonless sky and an uncomfortable silence –. Also, a fleeting thought escapes your lips as you make your way to the main gates, furtive as a shadow:

-        “Hmm… It must be quite late if there’s no one out here…”

  There, two guards seem to trade shifts atop the watchtower with their backs facing the village. Below them, still to the opposite yet inner side of the gates, a third guard seems to either take from or store a rifle into a weapons rack two or three meters from a ladder that leads up to the second watch tower.

  Without questioning why is there a weapons rack at such exposed location – rather, you are quite happy that it is there – you snake through the shadows and then past the guard, climbing up the ladders once he turns to look the other way, apparently oblivious to your presence. The fall from atop the tower to the ground past the village’s walls seems rather dangerous, yet, the humming sounds too close now for your prudence to outwill your curiosity, and as such, you jump without a thought.

  Truth be told, beyond finding the source of the humming, the only thoughts in your mind are:

-        “How aren’t the guards listening this humming????”

-        “Don’t they find it suspicious?!’

-        “But how??? How could someone hum so loudly and the guards not even acknowledge it?”

  As your feet meet the ground and pain climbs your legs, your mind is far more concerned with another consideration:

-        “Tha-That’s not just in my mind, right? They… They can hear it too… Can’t they???”

  Luckily, there were enough bushes and snow where you just landed that the pain is but a signal of discomfort – and not of actual, severe, injuries – yet, they are not enough to dampen all sounds from your fall and the guards at the opposite tower take notice:

-        Mais quoi…? Oi! Did you hear that?

-        Meh, it probably must have been just a nocturnal bird or rodent, non?

-        Bu-But it sounded too loud and big, it couldn’t have been a bird…

  The first guard protests, pointing his gun towards the darkness you are hiding in and even aiming – with surprising precision – at your face. But, whether be it due to poor eyesight or indeed the thickness of the night, he soon puts down his weapons and returns to talking to his colleague:

-        But what i-if it is the Beast!

  With a “do I really have to deal with this shite?!” slap to the back of his head, the other guard is quick to reprimand him:

-        What are you? Stupide?! Haven’t you seen the impaled head at the fair? That was the real deal, the Beast is dead!

-        Umm… Ye-Yes, I saw that! But what if there are more than just one, hein?! The captain may be an honourable man but don’t you find it strange for him to keep the lockdown order going? An-And…! When the lord came back from the hunt with the others, I saw some white tufts of fur on the clothes of that passed out étranger!...

-        … The Beast always had red and brown fur, not white! And I doubt they were from a fox  or wolf, given how hurt the técol looked! You should have seen how bloodied his clothes were!

-        Quit yapping nonsense! The Beast is dead! Your conspiracies will only get the people panicking more… Do you want that?!

  The second guard grows strangely frustrated, visibly trying his best to not slap his colleague across the face. That bothers you but before you may consider what to do next whilst the two continue arguing, the first one’s comeback sparks your curiosity even more than his remarks about the the tufts of white fur:

-        Call me stupide if you want then, but I’m not diatonic! Th-The Beast that they killed was red-brown, not white. What if they actually found its lair or whatever it is called and there were more than just one, hein?! Maybe… After they killed the first one, one of the others showed  up and attacked the té-

  Yet, before he may finish his sentence, the other guard leaves his seat and pulls the first by the neck of his shirt:

-        Faites attention… If you are caught spreading rumours like that, I swear by the Sans-Nom, there will be much bigger problems than another Beast on the loose.

  The first guards is caught by surprise and practically freezes in panic, which causes the second one to let him go and then look at his fists with regret, realising he might have gone too far – and said too much –. He then sits crossing his arms, trying to regain his composure to then speak in a more calmly manner to his colleague:

-        Lord Édouard might hold a few secrets from everyone but his mum, the lady and the captain, but make no mistake, he still is a Cœur D'Argent. No matter what the rumours have it, the wellbeing of this village and its citizens are always in his head, no matter what decision he must make… Always.

-        I-I wasn’t doubting them, I’m just worried that they don’t trust us to help them carry whatever burden they’re carrying…

  The first guard mumbles between his teeth whilst fixing his jacket and gives the forest a last look before ending his shift. The more you think about it, the more his arguments cause an itch within your memory… Yet with the growing silence between the two, your mind is once again still enough to allow the cursed humming to flood it and beckon you again, clouding your thoughts and pushing your legs to move on their own.

-        OH! OH! Look, là! I told you there’s something moving over there!

-        MERDE SAINTE! Why can’t you shut up even for just A. BLOODY. SECOND?!?!?!

  Their voices echo one last time, already far in the distance,  offering little interruption to the hypnotizing trance in which your consciousness drowns deeper and deeper. The light of their lanterns try to reach you but it is already too late, as you are reaching the halfway point to your doom.