Post by Liessel on Apr 6, 2024 19:58:32 GMT -5
Elijah Whitmoor came and knocked on the door at the Knightsbridge house on the morning of Monday. It was late morning, 10'ish, and he was dressed dapperly in one of the suits Avery had had made for him. He looked every part the gentleman-- except for the shoulder holster under his jacket. It was concealed well, but he also carried with him a cane. The one the Flynns had given to him.
Whitmoor would find the door opening at the hand of Cog, the house's mechanical butler. "Come in, Mister Whitmoor," the mechanical man said, leaving room for the young man to step into the house. What came next was some comment on Eli's chosen attire. Something about looking a lot less like a cabby than was typical of the young man. "Shall I fetch the young Miss for you?"
Eli's response to the comment was to simply grin. "Yes, please, Mister Cog."
"Please, make yourself comfortable in the parlor." The straight-backed automaton said before shutting the door and then climbing the stairs.
Eli would find the house quiet. There was no scent of breakfast having been made, nor any sign that the sitting room had been disturbed yet that morning. But everything was as clean as was typical for the large house.
"Thank you," he said, giving the automaton a slight bow. He went to the parlor, but did not take a seat. He walked around the room, taking note of the stillness and lack of sound and scent.
Several minutes would pass before Cog made his reappearance in the doorway of the parlor to tell Eli, "The young Miss will be with you shortly." And then the mechanical man was gone, off to see to other duties of the house.
Eli would not be alone in the parlor for very long after that, just moments really. Liessel would be entering the room, her soft footed steps barely sounding on the floorboards of the house as she checked the tie on her blue house coat. It was a lightweight garment, one made for ease of movement and comfort. Liessel's was the color of the sky with embroidered white daisies hugging the collar and running down the front.
She came in with her hair down, brushed out and both slightly wavy and a little disheveled, "My apologies, Eli," She said as she came into the room, "I did not get back until early this morning."
Eli took in her appearance and gave her an easy smile. "No need to apologize, Miss Erphale. Would you like me to come back tomorrow? I can let you get some rest. I just thought you might want to do some exploring today."
"Its alright," Liessel answered, coming into the parlor fully to take a glance at the clock on the mantle, "What time of day is it?" Seeing the time for herself she looked back toward Eli and said, "Give me a few minutes to dress, and we can be off. I have some things I need to discuss with you anyway."
Elijah had been about to answer her when she saw the time for herself. He nodded. "If you're sure, Miss." He wouldn't say no to an outing. He was getting pretty bored over at Flynn and Flynn.
"I'll be right down."
Her bare feet carried her out of the parlor and back up the stairs leaving Eli alone again in the front sitting room as seconds ticked away into minutes.
When Liessel came back down, she'd changed into a walking suit of cream and a soft green, something between a hearty leafy green and a softer clover color. Her hair was pulled back into one of her customary braids, and on her head she wore a hat that sat low toward the front in shades that complimented her dress.
Parasol in one gloved hand, reticle in the other, she remade her entrance into the parlor looking for Eli once more.
Eli offered her a smile. It reached his eyes and made him look more youthful than his eighteen years. He offered her his elbow, like a gentleman, and nodded to her. "You look lovely today, Miss Erphale."
His demeanor was entirely friendly. He wasn't always friendly, sometimes he joked sometimes he was in a bad mood. But this mood was just a good mood. There was nothing in his tone that indicated anything otherwise.
"You are being far too kind," She said, giving him a tired but real, and warm, smile, "Mister Whitmoor." His elbow was offered, and automatically she took it, "Where do you plan on taking me today, then?"
That smile widened just a little bit. A shrug of the shoulder. "I have no idea. i figured we could let our feet take us where they will. Leave it to chance."
"Alright," She turned, gently pulling herself free and moved for the front door out in the foyer, "Let us see where the mists of London take us."
He led the way out the door, then offered her his hand to help her down the stairs if needed. He was in full gentleman form today. He'd open the gate to the yard for her, too. When they got to the street, he glanced left and right. "Which way?"
As soon as they had stepped from the shadow of the front porch Liessel had her parasol open and across her shoulder. It was the same cream color as what was in her dress, and it cast light shade over both of them due to the angle she carried it at.
A moment was spared at the end of the walkway, and after a moment she turned right, "This way, I think. Let's get out of the neighborhood and then we'll talk."
"Yes, ma'am," he said, letting her lead the way. He walked to her right, left arm out for her. Under his right arm, his cane was tucked up against his body. He looked up at the parasol. "Would that I could get away with carrying one of these. I think I'd look good in frills." He was joking, it could be heard in his voice.
"I happen to know a good seamstress," Liessel answered, giving him a sideways glance and a little smile, "She does wonders with seams and flounces, and works very quickly. I think if we stop by her shop on our way, we could have you suited up for a proper young lady before dinner tonight. Pink -- I think -- or maybe lavender -- It would go well with your eyes."
He batted his eyelashes at her. He reached up with his right hand and tossed his hair dramatically. Or would have had his hair actually been down. As it were, it was in a braid. "I think it sounds like a wonderful idea, my dear, but alas-- we have exploring to do."
The young woman walking at his elbow laughed, and then gave a dramatically heavy sigh, "If you insist -- but know that if you change your mind, we can always make a detour!"
He chuckled, having earned the laugh he was seeking. "You have a lovely laugh, Miss Erphale. I don't think I've ever heard it."
The sky overhead was forgiving that day. The blue of it was clear, with only traces of streaky clouds running in light and sparse crisscrosses here and there. Around them, the Knightsbridge neighborhood was up and about with life going on as it normally wound.
She had them heading for the park just north of Trevor Square.
"Thank you, Mister Whitmoor. It has been a rare thing for me to feel as if I could -- one of the things that has gotten easier since the settling of my problem."
"Understandable. I was like that for a while... But I am glad tro have been able to help. Even if it was rather late in the game." HE leaned into her a little. "You know, i don't think i ever did thank you for the help you gave me in the whole Denver affair."
Liessel shot him another sideways glance and then shook her head, "I -- I do not know that I was much help in Denver. I remember feeling as if I were blindly fumbling around, just hoping that I wasn't getting in the way."
He came to a stop and turned to look at her fully. "Listen to me, Miss Erphale... You were there. You had no reason to be other than that you cared. You didn't know me. On some level, I think I was aware that the lot of you were trying to get to me. Trying to get me out of the whole mess that those people orchestrated. Me and Tom. It wasn't just Felix and Avery. It was everyone working together. That includes you." He gave her a quick smile. "Besides, to hear Felix tell of it, you handled yourself well."
He stopped, and she stopped with him. She smiled in return, having heard him out but then shook her head and felt a slight frown tugging at her lips, "Felix -- is an entirely different matter. I wanted to help you more, Mister Whitmoor, but I had no idea what to do. Felix, though, when I saw him fall I knew exactly what I was doing. When I fought with Mrs. Lippmann, I knew what I was doing. When I took the offer to go with the fairy -- I didn't understand completely, but I knew that I had to get those disks away from Denver. Beyond reach, out of sight. But with you, and Mister Jefferson, all I could do was be there."
He shook his head. "Don't you see, though? Doing those things did help me. You taking those discs away? It helped me in ways I couldn't help myself. It removed temptation. It removed possibilities of things going awry. It was damage control. I may have been the target of all their scheming, the centerpiece, but everyone contributed to the success of that situation."
The young woman was silent for a moment, watching Eli's eyes, meeting his gaze in her stillness. When she moved again, her parasol was changing hands so she could lay her right hand upon Eli's chest, right over his heart, "I am glad," She told him with all gravity and seriousness, "that it helped you, Elijah. I am glad to have had my part in that. And I am glad that you came to help me with circumstances that required a different form of damage control."
He gave her a small smile. It was a mixture of emotions. "Debts owed, debts paid," he told her gently. "I don't normally keep score, but Denver irrepairably changed me and my life. I would've come to help you regardless. Because that's what people like us do. When you are aware of trouble, and you know you are capable of helping, it is a moral obligation to do so if it is within your ability to do so."
Her hand lifted away from his chest, and Liessel gave a small dismissive wave into the air as if she were trying to gently clear away some light haze of smoke, "I do not know about any of that," She told Eli a moment later, "But I did only what I was taught to do. That is, I was taught to help those in need. I am sure I would have felt the same even if it had not been my training, but as a Sister it was my job in Harroway to give aid no matter who, or what, or when. Is -- that the same thing? Would you call it the same thing?"
He gave her a reassuring smile. "Different principles, but same effect, yes."
"Then," She said after a soft moment, "so it is."
Liessel took up Eli's arm again and started walking once more. The streets here were wider than they were in Avery and Felix's territory. The buildings were wider, larger, and far more upscale than the old barrister's office they had claimed for Flynn and Flynn.
It was as they started walking again that Liessel heard herself say to Eli, "Along those veins, Mister Whitmoor, I need to ask a favor of you. A friend of ours has a peculiar case he is facing, one that he needs help with. He has some of his own friends looking into the matter, but I would like to borrow your filter to go into The Fens to see if I can get some direction from the willow tree that guards the bordering lands."
He stopped, then, and gave her a slightly startled look. "You weren't just gonna borrow the filter and go, were you? Like-- go alone?"
Liessel was tugged gently to a stop with him, "I had been prepared for it. It is not my favorite place, Eli, and I know it is dangerous. But the girl needs help, and I need to figure out how to get word of her to Captain Singh. He might be able to help find her -- or in the least keep an eye open for her while he goes about his own work over there."
The look on his face was one of pure stubbornness. "You're not going alone. I will go with you. In fact, that is my stipulation. You can only borrow the filter if i come along." He nodded decisively.
"That," Liessel told him with a little nod and a small smile, "Is an easy stipulation to bend to. I was not relishing the thought of going there alone, but I would have if I had to."
He took up her arm and began to walk again. "It's settled then. Who is she? How do we know her? What kind of help does she need? Details, miss."
"Her name is Mary Hodgkins. Her grandparents found Mister Larrow and asked him to do a reading for them regarding her fate," Liessel said, falling into step with Eli once more, "The reading told them that she was trapped in Faerie, while at the same time Mister Larrow received a message that he has so far been unable to decipher. I had been hoping to look into the symbolism of that message when I got to the office. He said that he saw a magpie trapped within a bottle, tapping at it furiously in an attempt to break free. He said that he was given the impression of a message: the ground falls out from beneath that bottle and all other bottles, setting that bird and all other birds free. We do not know if the magpie was our missing girl, or not, but to me the message sounded like a warning."
He listened attentively, clearly drawn in. He had a short attention span, but when he gave his attention to something, he tended to focus whole heartedly if there weren't too many other distractions. Then he frowned thoughtfully. "Alright, I'm not sure about it being a warning... It might be a foretelling? Was there a sense of danger?"
"That I cannot say for sure. To have heard Mister Larrow speak of it, it certainly held a sense of foreboding for me. He seemed quite startled by it, himself. He had gone with when we went to see Missus White last night in the hope of getting some aid from her on its meaning. She -- was not helpful at all for him. She refused him with no truly kind word spared."
"Like refused him as in said no? Wouldn't see him? Slammed the door in his face?"
"As in said 'no', Mister Whitmoor," Liessel's frown was small and tight, "Her message to him was pretty clear. She had nothing to teach him, nothing to tell him aside from that she would be more than willing to take the matter off of his hands, as well as The Pearl. All his efforts to learn for himself what was going on were met with her disapproval. She wouldn't have even glanced his way, I am sure, if he hadn't put himself between us to draw her attention."
He held up a finger. "Had she been teaching him about the Pearl and how to use it?" he asked.
"No. She -- gave -- it to him? Bestowed it upon him? I'm not sure of the correct phrase for it," She shook her head a little bit and let go of a soft sigh, " 'Sight for sight'. He sacrificed one of his eyes for it but hadn't been told how to wield it. He's been trying to figure it out on his own."
Something in the way she said that... Sight for Sight. "He gave it or was it taken?" He asked quietly.
"His eye?" Liessel asked, glancing toward Eli as they walked. They'd come far from the Knightsbridge house, having crossed a few streets along the way. Ahead of them was the park Liessel had been guiding them toward. There, they'd be able to catch a cab, and from there they'd be able to go anywhere in the city. "It is my understanding that he gave it."
"MMm." He didn't say anything else, but instead redirected the conversation. "So what about this guardian of the border?" he asked.
"There is a willow tree," She told him, "That sits in The Fens. It is my hope that from it I can learn how to leave a message for Cyrus there, it is my hope that he would even think to check back there for some word or something. I know that Aurelia has been receiving messages from him, or in the least she had gotten one from him before they left."
He nodded. "Well, I don't know anything about the Fens, so I will trust you to be my guide there... You had your fair share of Fae during that whole fiasco, I'd imagine. You probably know more about etiquette than I do, though i do know etiquette and wording is very important. Avery did manage to make that impression on me, at least."
"I am afraid, Mister Whitmoor, that it will be the blind leading the blind for this adventure. I know a little bit, enough to hopefully keep us out of trouble. But I am no scholar about such things. Beyond being mindful of wording, I can tell you to this: Do not eat or drink anything that is offered to you there. Do not take any gifts that they might present you with. And do not allow yourself to fall asleep. If you feel tired, we will take that as our exit cue."
He nodded. "Would Mister Larrow come with us?" he asked curiously.
"That I do not know. I can ask him again if I see him when I head back to The Bells. We have a deadline for this, Eli. I'd like to see it done before I head back to The Tor to talk with Missus White again. I do not know how my next meeting with her will go, so I want this taken care of before then. Before my head becomes too cloudy with what I might see -- what she might show me next time."
"Then i suggest you go home and get rest," Eli said seriously, meeting her eyes. "I cannot let you make this journey tired. If time is of the essence, you return home and rest. Tell me how I can help besides providing an impressive arsenal."
Liessel stopped and took a moment to look at Eli, to meet his gaze and hold it there for a moment, "Find me that information about the significance of Magpies, please. As much as you can -- and glass bottles. Whatever you can get. -- I will make this up to you, Elijah. Our next destination will be a lot more fun than a simple walk down the lane."
Eli had been turning to dismiss himself. then he turned back around on his heel to give her an odd look. "I'm not sure going to the Fens could be described as fun... Maybe... Exciting...? But fun?" He made a skeptical face.
Liessel found herself shaking her head at that, her own turn abruptly cut short, "Mister Whitmoor, I think neither fun, nor exciting, could ever describe The Fens. I had meant our next attempt at exploring London."
He looked instantly relieved. "Oh, good," he whispered. "Yes, we shall make our next exploration ofi London fun," he said with a grin.
"I will come by the office after I have rested. We'll work on our plan for The Fens, then." She said, having given Eli a tired little nod, and a small smile.
He gave her a small nod and a slight bow. He turned to go. "Rest well," he told her quietly.