The Curious Case of Mary Hodgkins: Step 2

[Liessel]

Flynn and Flynn & Associates.



Dame Cora Murphy had written the letter herself and sealed it in a pristine white envelope that was simple and lacked any sort of embossing.The only markings on the perfect paper was the thick black lines of ink that spelled out the name "Sears" on the front of the envelope. The paper and envelope both smelled sweet, and floral, as if it had been treated lightly by some expensive perfume. The letter had traveled safely within the reticle of Liessel Erphale, but now sat on the low table between the chairs and the couch in the Flynns' sitting room. Placed next to it on the table was one of the shoes that they had been told Mary had been wearing at the time of her disappearance.



She had kept it safe, but not secret. They all had known she carried it, and once she had gotten back to the Knightsbridge House she had slipped it between the protective bindings of one of her precious notebooks only drawing it out and carrying it away from the house for this moment when she sat back and straightened herself to look at the faces of her companions before she settled on Adeline Webber, "How do we do this?" She asked the young reporter, but with a look going toward Eli and Adam to include them as well.

Adam had been a little late, and had explained that he could only get an extra hour off from the shop, with apologies. So this was his lunch, plus a little more, and he'd spent a portion of it walking over here. Now he sat on one end of the couch before the hearth, holding a wrapped sandwich--his lunch--but not yet ready to ask if he could proceed to eat before he had to get back to work. "I haven't heard anything promising, still," he said--unsurprised by this, as he'd not been back to the Bells since they'd met with Cora and Winston, and he'd never had one of his fairy friends show up at his door. "If you all hadn't joined me on this, my next move would have been to try to get some time to go to Bristol. To that farm."


Eli had welcomed them into his home. Because that's what Flynn and Flynn was to him. Home. He was dressed in his typical cowboy attire-- a little tired and worn out looking clothes, a little on the thin side. It was average fair for an Americans clothes. He'd played the proper host-- offering coffee and tea. And-- with a crinkle of the nose that indicated confusion-- biscuits. He walked around the apartment barefoot because this was, after all, his home. The apartment was at a pleasant temperature, not too hot, not too cold. When liessel looked to him, he gestured to a book. "I was doing some research on how to enhance spells, but I haven't gotten anywhere."


Adam glanced at him. "To enhance what?"


Adeline took in a quick but heavy breath. She was using to drawing attention in a room, used to having to explain her plans and ideas - but not like this. Here, she was not trying to cater to vipers waiting to strike out hoping to poison her ideas from the outside in. This was different.



Here there was no poison. Here she did not need to cover herself with armor that protected her shins and elbows. Perhaps maybe here it was safe to learn how to mind her clearances.



"I've been working on a spell to reach Cyrus." Adeline said. "I haven't gotten it right yet. Not in the way that I want it to; which is direct contact. But he's sensed me. Would your research help with that?"


Liessel waited, having landed her gaze on Adam, and then Adeline before she looked back toward Eli, giving Eli room to answer. She had a list of to-do's that was growing steadily these days. She kept finding things to add to it that she both wanted, and needed to learn. Magical enhancements were on there for sure, as were filters and several other aspects of magic working that she had not considered before she realized that knowing it herself might be the better thing in this life she had chosen.


Eli shook his head. "not so much... I came across a few things that looked useful at first glance, but they clash with my understanding of being able to cast spells like that... And I can't cast spells. Period. Not really." He sighed heavily. "There are a lot of references to astrology and things like places and times... Like, say, a spell cast in a High Place would have noticeable effect... But given our current time limitations, that's not helpful."


How do we do this?



Adam slid forward and cleared a small space on the table to unwrap his sandwich. He was listening, and trying not to be rude, but upon noticing Eli was barefoot, he'd realized that in this company no one was likely to chastise him for eating while they tried to think this through. "Maybe if Dame Murphy will give us directions to the farm, we can work this from both sides of the Borders. We try to get word out in Faerie, and at the same time see if there's anything we can work with at the site where she was taken."


"I like that idea." Adeline agreed with a quick nod. "Cyrus is already aware that there's a shift on the other side. He's also mentioned that he's picked up a few that have found their way into Faerie. It's a long shot but maybe Mary is among them."


Liessel gave a gentle nod before she was rising to gather Adam a cup of tea to go along with his sandwich, "I had been hoping we might get to see the farm for ourselves, anyway. We know that the Dame had people out there looking for Miss Hodgkins, but we might find something that they had missed. I think it is worth asking, at the very least."


"I want to go to the farm. If things happen there frequently, there might be spirits there to talk to. Potential witnesses."


"Perhaps you and I can work more with these enhancers." Adeline said to Eli.



"Leaving a letter for Cyrus might be our only option, but I would like to try to contact him directly. There is no telling how long it will be before he can send a sprite to the Fens."


Adam, who nodded thanks to Liessel as soon as he guessed what she was about, looked to Eli. He'd been thinking of other kinds of witnesses, but finally had the opportunity to ask something he'd wanted to ask all night. "How does that work--forgive me a moment, Adeline, but Eli: how does what you do work? Do you mean spirit-spirits?"



That forgive me a moment, Adeline was hopefully a placeholder, too, but he and Eli were virtual strangers still.


Eli shrugged. "Bluntly put: I was cursed... The witch who cursed me bound me to the Veil. I don't think she intended it to have the effect that it did. I am what's called an ectomancer. I can see, hear, and interact with spirits... But not all spirits are those of the Dead... Sometimes excitable or traumatic events can leave a kind of... Echo... Hell, there might even be one of Mary for all I know."


High Place. The Veil. Ectomancer.



Adeline had no clue what any of these things were - with the exception of Eli's explanation. Like Adam, she felt herself becoming more and more lost to the conversation. What had started out as a steady footing was quickly morphing into a landslide.



If all she had going for her was perhaps the hope of reaching out to Cyrus, what else was there for her to offer? The feeling was so similar to how she felt in the Garden that she quickly cleared her throat as a physical attempt to shake it off.



Adeline said directly to Eli. "I'd prefer to operate on the hope that she is not dead. I'm certain Dame Murphy would also appreciate us treating this as her granddaughter is alive and within our reach."


There was a small tink of sound from where Liessel stood, the teapot Eli had left for them had just been sat back down with care that hadn't been careful enough as Eli answered Adam. The cup she had filled was picked up and delivered to Adam along with the small bowl of sugar cubes, and a small spoon.



"We know that the Dame's granddaughter is still alive. We have as much confirmation of that as Mister Larrow could get us. I think what Eli is suggesting is that he, should we convince the Dame to give us the directions to the farm, see if there are any lingering spirits in the area that might have been present when Miss Hodgkins went missing. My worry there is that, with odd things happening on the grounds, any spirits that might be found there might tell skewed stories. If the place is touched, then perception might not be --reliable."


"Still...." Adam said it carefully, his lunch momentarily forgotten. He had, in a matter of seconds, gotten quite a picture of Elijah Whitmoor, and probably why Liessel had invited him to Kensington the day before. "It would be more than we've got to work with right now, reliable or not. I will--" He had been about to say one thing, turned his head to regard the shoes with his good eye, and changed his mind again. "If we bring everything there, I'll try to use the pearl with all of this, too. I can't--do it today, when I need to get back."



He glanced at Adeline.


"I was not insinuating she was dead. But that she might've left behind an echo. An imprint on the land." He turned to look at liessel. "I do understand that hesitation. But they won't lie... They're inexplicably drawn to me like I'm..." He sounded exasperated in that moment. "... The north star... They can sense me from blocks away if I don't shut it down. That might actually be useful in this instance. While some might have skewed perceptions, there may be some with some incite. Spirits are weird-- some deteriorate from their cognizance as the years pass. Others become sharper."


"Of course." She saw the glance but didn't do much with it just then. Her mind was elsewhere.



"If and when we get to the farm, we have your spirits." She gestured to Eli. "Along with you and the Pearl." Her head nodded to Adam.



"I was reading about a technique called 'scrying'. Is that something you and I could try from the last place she was seen?" Adeline asked to Liessel. "Perhaps being close to where she was potentially taken could give it a, uh, boost."


Liessel had returned to her seat on the couch while Adam and Eli spoke. "I have no experience with scrying, but Mister Whitmoor does. I can do stichomancy, but it is not a method I would trust in a situation like this one. The results can be a little difficult to understand, and in this I feel we need better odds."


"He can," Adeline said after a little thought. "though if he is to be speaking with spirits then perhaps we can do this. I'm willing to at least try it if you are? We know about protection circles. I have one of Felix's journals that details the process. I think it's worth taking a shot.


Adam listened to all of this and quietly said exactly what was going through his head: "I wonder what the Dame would make of this. And I wonder why she wasn't more helpful. Even Temmis tried to get everyone together--but that's always been tricky off-calendar, and he's not nearly got her clout."


He listened to everyone speak... He focused on Adeline first-- "I am familiar with protection circles," he said, nodding to Adeline. "I can scry in small amounts.. But with protection circles in place, I might be able to bridge the gap for you and Cyrus to communicate. I'm certainly willing to try."



Then he turned to Adam. "The Dame struck me as odd, but I have no room to talk," he muttered.


Adam glanced at Eli with a blink. "You met the--? --I mean my Dame, sorry. Dame... Ashbroom...." He frowned, looking around, and then looked back at Eli with a lopsided, sheepish smile. "It's been a while since I sat in company that talks about stuff like this but that doesn't know the Twin Bells. I apologize. Dame Ashbroom was my teacher."


"No. I -" Her brows pinched. "I meant for Liessel and I to scry for Mary at the the farm. I know for a fact she has experience with protection circles, as do I. My apologies, but I did not mean for you and I to scry to reach Cyrus. Though, I am willing to try that as well if you think it will help."


"I think, rather," Liessel said, sitting forward slightly from the seat she'd resumed, "that, if you are willing to show us some of the basics in practical use," She was looking toward Eli, "then Adeline and I can handle the scrying. We can practice together before hand, and that will allow you to focus on communing with the spirits and energy of the farm. If we, after that, we can reach Captain Singh, then that is where your help would be more than welcome. But let us try this for ourselves."



She took a breath then, and shifted her gaze toward where Adam sat, "I have spoken a bit with the Dame, myself. I think she is wanting to see how you handle this, and what you do on your own with what you've taken into your life."


He looked as confused as Adam did at first, then blushed a little. It didn't flush in his cheeks, but in his ears. Eli was a little odd that way. Embarrassment always showed itself in his ears and neck before his face. "sorry for the confusion! I was a little busy crashing a zeppelin that night," he said with a tiny laugh. Then he looked at both Adeline and Liessel as they each spoke in turn. He nodded. "I'll gather what we need to teach you both. It's not hard. It's all about intention."


Adam's one big idea was Bristol, and that sounded like what they were going to try to do, so now he sat trying to think a smart thought about the other proposals. The best he could come up with right now was that everything sounded good. Information gathering. Using odd--extraordinary--skills to do what poor Dame Cora had not been able to. But, at the last, he was left nodding to Eli only distractedly--which he had not meant to do. It was what Liessel had just said, about this being some sort of test of Amrilaine's.


She had Felix's journal which was a detailed explanation of the use of scrying. It was odd that she had more trust in the crinkled notebook than relying on a crash course from Eli. However, that was most likely because she knew Felix. A hard earned trust was built between the two of them. Sometimes it shook from wind and rain, but it hadn't crumbled yet.



It was quite possible that Liessel had done the same with Eli.



Only Adeline hadn't. Perhaps this was an opportunity to try.



"Is that what Ashbroom said directly?" She asked Liessel with a curious glance.


"More or less," Liessel answered Adeline with a little nod and a shift of her gaze to the young reporter, "It was my taking of her meaning. Adam," she looked back toward the card reader, "cannot be led through this. You must find your way," she said to him, "just as much as we must."


Adam half-remembered a different conversation:



"And maybe what you said is still right, even if what they're testing is your willingness to do things their way."



"Testing boundaries, then, as well as those other things: mind, body, heart and strength...."



He didn't register at first the rest of what Liessel was saying, mixed up in his feelings about the idea that Dame Ashbroom was staying away so that this situation might measure him--but he did glance over at last, and the tail of the idea got through and made him frown. "Only it's not about me," he protested tiredly. "It's about Mary Hodgkins. What does it matter if I find my way or not? She's somewhere else, and she needs help. Isn't that--Shouldn't that be the most important thing? To the Dame? To anyone?"


"Yes," Eli said to Adam's question. He looked back to Adam. Right then, he looked older and more serious than his short eighteen years. Maybe Liessel had witnessed one such moment, maybe she hadn't. But right then, it wasn't Eli talking, but Oliver. "But you must consider the faith a teacher must have in their pupil that they can and must take flight on their own. It is the teacher's burden to judge when that time is. Clearly, she means it to be now."


"If that is the case," Judging by what she'd heard so far in previous conversations, Adeline wasn't so certain it was. "I do not know if I would agree with choosing this exact time." Adeline said, shaking her head. "Not when it is a little girl's life that is at stake."



Her brows were furrowed. More and more she was feeling like a talk with Dame Ashbroom was required. The urge to do so had already been pin-prickling the back of her mind since Adam told her of what happened with the visit to Missus White. This only made that pinprick start to feel more like a pinch.



The Watchful Citizen with pixie dust, and Robenn with Glanning. Now was Adam, the Pearl, and Dame Ashbroom. The words of Loriana Long whispering in her ear. Poor lost Mary Hodgkins. The mystery of Missus White and Blackthorn. Cyrus.



Adeline wondered if this pinch was what Avery felt at the start of the cracks in his own foundation. She certainly hoped not.


Adam's eye lingered on Eli when that change in his tone signaled something else. His brow drew tighter--and the shift didn't bear the flavor of annoyance, or anger, or even confusion. It was more, by the hunched-forward set of him and the line of his mouth, a matter of speculation. And he didn't move out of that right away when Adeline slid her opinion in on his side. When he did look at her, he made a small gesture with two fingers, still frowning. The gesture was toward his eyepatch.


It was something that could happen sometimes, especially with Elijah Whitmoor. Children could adopt mannerisms of their parents and wind up mimicking through the set of the mouth when they smiled, motions of their hands when they talked, even things like walking and postures while sitting could be adopted as a child grew into an adult. The shades of their mother and father were picked up, unconsciously or otherwise, and became a thing of the child. What she saw in Eli as he spoke was a little more in-depth than that, though, and for a moment she was taken back to another world where a breakfast table had been set with two of her favorite people, and a host of new but now known strangers had shared a meal and made plans to rescue another girl, in another time and another place.



Liessel found herself saying, "It might not be the best time for it, and it might not even be the case of it at all. As I said, I took it as her meaning. But I could be wrong, and it would not the first time if I am."


Eli's expression changed in a flash when he saw that gesture from Adam to his eyepatch. That older reflection of Oliver was gone in the blink of an eye as he remembered something. He opened his mouth to speak, but then liessel spoke. He politely shut his mouth to let her speak, but pointed at Adam offhandedly with his entire hand as if putting a pin in the thought. "I suppose we'll have to see, won't we?" He said in a very soft and thoughtful tone.



Then he was turning back to Adam and gave him a frown. As if debating whether or not to say what was on his mind. He chewed on his lip for a few seconds. "I know this is awkward timing for this... But I have a particularly potentially and probably rude question for you." How he managed not to trip over those P words with his deep southern accent? The world may never know.


Adam nodded slowly; a go ahead without opening his mouth.


He pointed at Adam's eye patch. "Miss Erphale mentioned you sacrificed your eye for the Pearl... Did you give it? Or was it taken?" He asked softly. "Honestly, I can't tell why this detail stuck with me. Why it bothers me. But it does."


Adam winced. Why was complicated. Everything was complicated. "I... gave it," he said slowly, unhappily. It was hard to say more without sounding churlish, or irresolute, or bitter. How many people had made grand heroic sacrifices, and then turned around to whine about how hard they were, or how deeply confused they were by them?



Zero, if the stories were any real measure. But maybe millions, if they were so tiresome and irritating that nobody ever wanted to pass their tales along. What if Odin losing an eye for knowledge had turned around and spent the rest of his time until Ragnarok complaining to everybody in Valhalla about how many times he tripped up the great heavenly stairs due to wrecked depth perception?



Adam tried to feel out words that didn't make him feel like he was sniveling about it, or just blaming others because it wasn't easy, and found himself coming up empty.


Liessel's frown was deep, and quick, and it cut toward where Eli was. She had told him that, and she had told him just what Adam was saying at that moment: he had given it. It was a sacrifice. Not forced. The young man's eye had not been removed from him unwillingly as if a grape plucked from the vine by the hand of a god. It had been traumatic, and it had come in the midst of a traumatic day.



It was her fault, then, that Eli felt the freedom to ask about such a thing just now, she thought. She knew, just at that moment, that she had failed to convey just how hard and horrible it had been for the card reader.


Adeline watched Eli.



Her eyes narrowing on him like a razor being sharpened along the edge of a wet stone.


Eli had known that this would have been a hard question to answer for Adam going into it. Hence the particularly, potentially, probably rude. Part of what he'd said... He was aware of the gazes of the women on him in that moment. His eyes were serious. He went a little closer to Adam and dropped down to one knee to be at eye level with him. Probably a little below. "I know you probably don't regret it... You helped save countless lives that night with it. But are you okay?" He asked. His tone was soft and understanding. He knew what it was like to go through a literal life changing event where hundreds of lives were on the line. For him it had been hundreds. For Adam and everyone else, it had been thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. "It sounds sort of shallow after that delivery... I'll never understand what any of you went through that night. But I know what it's like to lose a part of yourself."


From Adam to Eli.



Then back to Adam where they stayed.



Adeline sat very still, ready to strike. But she knew her friend. She trusted his judgment on where his line was drawn in the sand on the matter of the Pearl and that day.


Eli came in. Adam leaned back, eyeing him warily out of his single coffee-brown eye. British personal space. But he didn't get up or shove Eli back or retreat further. He did seem unable to say anything until Eli was finished, though, and then it still took him a moment past that to gather himself. The eyepatch ruined the full read of the reluctance on his face. "I'm--not--offended," was what came out. That greased the tracks some. "By the asking. It just feels tangled. I haven't figured... much of it... out at all. --Yet."



The "yet" wasn't the hopeful, wink-wink, smirky sort of yet. It was merely a yet-yet. "Why are you asking me this?"


Eli moved in closer to Adam and Liessel shifted forward on her seat. She was watching, and she was listening, and the shift came from no more than the need for her to be ready to rise and gather Elijah up and away from Mister Larrow for the respect of personal space and that of the topic.



She was still ready. Still watching and listening. She could have stopped it the moment it started, but the switch of subject had left her trying to jump tracks between her thoughts of how to help Mary further by what they had all proposed to do at the farm, thoughts of Adam and Lady Ashbroom, and now this -- a conversation that might have been served better at a different time. She was just now catching up to it. "Eli --" She said his name gently, hoping for it to serve as a reminder of just how short their time was today. Mister Larrow had a schedule to keep to.


Eli did not look away from Adam, though at the mention of his name, he did nod in liessel's direction. "I don't know," he said honestly. "when miss Erphale first brought it up, I was struck with a sense of....wrongness. I don't know how else to describe it... Sometimes I get attached to ideas or thoughts or feelings. I think I needed to hear it from you." His voice was quiet as he spoke and relayed his own confusion and frustration with those notions. He shook his head. He stood up and retreated a few steps. He sighed. "I'm sorry for bombing you with that question... I'm sorry for bringing up a sensitive topic. I'm sorry I whallop people over the head when I get ahead of myself and stick my foot in my mouth." He tucked his hands into his pockets and looked properly ashamed of his behavior.


Adeline clearly had enough.



"If none of this has to do with Mary Hodgkins, then shouldn't we hold off on this particular topic for some other time. Perhaps after we've all been given to the chance to know one another better than we do today."



She looked at Adam. "You said you only have a short time before you have to return to work. Is that window almost over?"


Adam blinked and looked at Adeline with only his eyes before he fished out a watch, missing the fact that there was a clock on the mantel. "Ah--I still have half an hour before I need to start back. I don't...." Quite know what to do with the apologies, any more than with the question. He scrambled to try to get things back on track, and caught a handhold. "I don't think you need to worry that the pearl will lead to problems. For Miss Hodgkins. Mister Whitmoor." He frowned, disliking the halting talk that he often heard in his own ears. It was different from his favorite self. "It's not going to get in the way. I'm not going to fall apart over it."


"Miss Hodgkins is in good hands," Liessel picked up, "With Adam, and with us." That 'us' included her, Eli, and Adeline Webber. And that was where she left the subject, making a note to talk to Eli about it further later on. "Knowing that," She continued, grabbing a hold of the reigns of the topic and wrapping her hands up in them, "We will need to contact the Dame and Mister Hodgkins again. Which of us will make that call?"


"It had better be me," Adam put in, looking to Liessel. "All I'm asking is for proper directions, and for us to pick up Miss Hodgkins' shoes?"


"Yes, I believe that is all," Liessel answered, giving Adam a little nod. She hadn't shifted back in her seat, but her hands were now folded together against her lap as she met Adam's one-eyed gaze.


"I can go with you." Adeline volunteered. "I was already planning on a trip to the the Bells as it was. We might as well go together."



Her gaze went to Liessel and Eli afterwards. "How soon can we be practicing scrying?"


Adam glanced at Adeline--and then grew confused as she spoke, only to brighten again as he understood. Smiling weakly, crookedly, he said, "There are now, apparently, two 'the Dame's in our circle. Dame Murphy should be 'Dame Murphy' because Dame Ashbroom got there first." He looked to Liessel to make sure he wasn't in fact making the mistake Eli and now Adeline appeared to have. Liessel had said 'the Dame and Mister Hodgkins' after all.


Liessel had much the same reaction that Adam had: confusion that grew into understanding. She had looked Adeline's way when the other young woman had spoken up, and now found herself looking toward Adam with a little smile of her own as she gave a nod and said, "It is here, by-so, agreed. Dame Murphy shall be known as Dame Murphy."



She said that, and then looked back Adeline's way, "And Adam will be calling her to see about getting us the directions to the Richardson Farm. As for the scrying," she paused to look at Eli, trying to get a read on where he was just then, "We can start whenever Mister Whitmoor has everything we need gathered."


Eli nodded. "Let me get it. Do we wanna do this in the work room?" He asked before he turned to go. Then he frowned. "I suppose it doesn't really matter. Felix sets up his protection spells on the work room as needed." Then he truly did turn to go.


Eli left before Adeline could give her reply.



Which wasn't that large of a concern as there was no personal preference to where she wanted to learn the technique. But this was good.



With another skill under her belt, Adeline could feel her tool box growing larger. Each item added into the box could be another defense against beings that still seemed quite large and powerful to her.



"You said you knew of a skill called, what was it, stichomancy?" Adeline asked to Liessel while Eli gathered his materials. "What is that?"


Liessel watched Eli slip past the small table at which Adam still sat, his sandwich unwrapped and partially eaten, before Adeline drew her attention back into the room. "It is an art of divination," She told Adeline, "Where one takes a book and something that can be dropped into the pages like a pendulum, or other such item with an indicator point to it, and from that meaning is derived. I can -- show you --"



Her words cut off as Liessel turned where she sat, suddenly scanning the room for something that she might use for their purposes. Finding a book would be no issue. The Flynns had many to choose from. She needed her indicator, and for a brief and odd moment found herself thinking about the ugly stone that Felix had carried around when she'd first met him and his brother in the very room in which they sat. "--If I can find something to use..."


Adam had finally picked up that sandwich again, and was listening now, interested in the mention of stichomancy--and when Liessel needed 'something to use' he seemed to know what might be sought automatically, as if he'd heard of this before. Setting down his lunch and straightening up, he unclipped his watch and chain and dangled it in the air between them. The little watch was simple, and spun lazily. "If you can't find something else in the house," he explained.


"Yes." Adeline nodded.



Adam was offering the little watch by then.



"But more than just showing me, could you teach me? Observations only give someone the surface level of understanding. The true test is when you dive with both feet in and try for yourself."


The light in the parlor glinted off of the metal of the watch as it swung lazily, calling her attention to it as Adam held it out for her to take. She reached for it, bringing her hand up from the bottom to catch the watch head against her palm.



"Thank you Mister Larrow," she said brightly before looking toward Adeline, "And I can try, but I might not be the best teacher for this. My own experience with it is still rather new, so if you have questions I may not be able to answer them fully."


Adam nodded to the thanks. He admitted as he went back to the last crust of his lunch, "I always thought that sort of divination was more wishful thinking." Which might have sounded random, coming from a fortune-teller. Arbitrary dismissal. But he'd said it quietly enough that it could easily have been overlooked.


"Don't discredit yourself before you even start." Adeline said.


She was rising as Adam finished his lunch, that forward slip of motion that gave way to her being on her feet with his watch clasped in her hand, allowed her to hear him. "It is an art that can be very subjective," Liessel started to say as she slipped around the edge of the couch with the swish of heavy skirt fabric, "which is why it can be very easily seen as 'wishful thinking', and why I had suggested not using it before. The answers given are typically -- less than direct and left up to intuition and objectivity to be deduced. And answering questions about such things can be difficult -- which is why I gave that disclaimer."



From where she had moved to by one of the bookshelves lining the parlor, Liessel looked back to where Adam and Adeline sat, "It is a lot harder for me to explain how I got an answer than it is for me to look at the words and know what the answer is supposed to be."


Adam carefully folded up his crumb-flecked paper and stuffed it away in a pocket. "I didn't mean to be rude," he said, without any of the notes that might have made it sound like he thought anyone here was stressing over it. "There are just methods that, on the hill, are talked about as 'rich people divination.'" He sighed, grinning a little, and shrugged as he got to his feet. "When you buy your confidence in the future."


"Your description sounds like this is a technique of instincts." Adeline surmised. "As though you need a level of awareness of yourself and what exactly you're looking for."



To that point she looked at Adam with a smile. "That might be why you consider it wishful thinking?"


Technique of instincts --



"Very much so," Liessel said to Adeline as she turned back to the bookshelf and began looking for a book she could use, "What other methods do they say are 'rich people divination', Mister Larrow?" She hadn't sounded upset before, and that hadn't changed in just those few seconds. This was an easy-going afternoon in comfortable company.


"Seance," Adam told her at once. "It's not that I don't believe in spirits--though I've never heard of 'ectomancy,' exactly, before. The form is a joke at the Bells. The way it's been done in society. We hear all about that. Grieving folk, curious folk--they hope that spent money buys peace of heart." He frowned a little there. "I've seen people like that at my table, too, but I'm not tricking them into raiding their savings."


"Is there a different way of contacting spirits then?" Adeline questioned. Another question went to the floor, this time to Liessel. "How do you know what book to choose?"


Seance.



Liessel felt herself smile, and shook her head slightly. She'd heard stories from Victoria about meetings held in dark rooms where people gather around a table to try and speak with their lost loves. She had yet to see one herself, to sit and take part in the ritual, and she wasn't sure she wanted to.



"My practice has, largely, been done with a bible but I've not yet seen the Flynns with that book and I will not rummage through their house to see if they have one. Instead, this time," She threw a glance back over her shoulder to where Adam and Adeline were, "I will choose one at random, and we will see what we can get from it."


"I'll head back now, then," Adam offered. "I don't want to make a commotion in the middle of your efforts." He turned and reached for his coat and cap, where he'd draped the former over the back of the sofa where he'd been sitting.



"I'll ring Dame Murphy this evening if I can."


Earlier Adam had gestured to his eye patch. She hadn't forgotten that little motion.



"I'll walk you out while Liessel looks for a book, then."


The hunt for the right book was abandoned momentarily. Liessel was turning and moving back across to where Adam was standing, her hand held out for him, curled around his watch, "You will be needing this."


"I can come back for it." He looked around. They stood in the home of magicians. "... if you don't think you'll find something else here...." His hand had gone out only slowly to take it back.


"If not, I can return it to you when we go to the Bells." Adeline offered.


"It's alright," Her small was small, gentle, and warm as she met his one-eyed gaze and then looked to catch Adeline as she answered, "I am sure I can find something around here. I would not want to be the reason that it would get lost, or broken, between now and then. Thank you, though, Adam."


He did need it and didn't fight Liessel handing it back. He clipped it back into place and got ready to go. "I'll be released from the shop after five o'clock. I'll see about the directions, when to pick up the items, and any other advice about accessing the Richardson property." He hesitated, though. "I might need...." He sighed. "--some assistance, if we hope to take the train to Bristol."


Adeline caught the look from Liessel and quirked a quiet brow at her.



"I can help." She nodded while her face smoothed back out.


"I'll pay you back," Adam promised. And as Adeline offered to walk him out, he gestured in the direction of the hall, and the stairs beyond. "Or we can bet over checkers again."



She had been about to say that whatever help Adam would need in covering the train, it would be of no issue to see it handled when Adeline spoke up with her own offer. Liessel gave it a smile and a nod of her head as if to say See, no trouble at all.



"Who won the last time?" She found herself asking instead of commenting on train tickets and debts to be paid.


"Adam was on the path to win." Adeline answered. "But he graciously decided to call it a draw instead. We'll have to play another game soon." She started slowly moving down the hall. "I shouldn't be too long."



Either Liessel would find her book or Eli would return with his things. Either way, Adeline hoped to have learned something by the end of this afternoon.


"I'll share the details with you as soon as I have them, Miss Erphale," Adam assured Liessel as he nodded to her. "Give Mister Whitmoor my best." He held onto his cap until he was down the stairs and out the alley door, under the slim stripe of cloud-dotted sky.


Adeline got a small nod, and then one was given to Adam as well before they were gone from the parlor and she returned to looking for the right book, and something to use as an indicator.