The Messenger's Mistake (ONC entry)

Chapter 4: So What Now?

Chapter 4: So What Now?

Lydia stood frozen, jaw-dropped, and still questioning over Thalia's elaboration about her soul scroll. Thalia turned to her with half-hearted smile and chuckled nervously.

"Heh...sorry..." Thalia apologized, spinning her thumbs on her clutches. Her eyes never left Lydia's, now that it was glowing in anger.

"H-how—since...when...this happened?" Lydia asked, intimidatingly.

"Uh..? I just told, right?" Thalia shrugged.

Lydia began to have an overreacting panic again shuddering words coming stiff of her lips like she was about to curse when a soft lighten voice of a man chimed behind the pillars. Lydia and Thalia spun around to find a Reaper walking up to them. Thalia gulped while Lydia's eyes shimmered, she recognized as the Reaper from earlier. Then again his presence made Lydia buckled down to her knees, causing her to stutter by just gazing at him.

"Ah, Lydia, there you are, the Council wants to talk to you..." he trailed as he noticed Thalia shaking nervously from her spot. He tilted his head in question, Thalia made a coded gesture and pointed out towards Lydia. His eyes widen.

"Oh, that's not good," he said, massaging his temples.

"Please, Lucas, it was purely an accident I didn't mean for Lydia—to die...for now," Thalia stammered, rubbing her thumbs nervously.

Lucas breathed out a sigh and glanced at Thalia with pity. "Okay, I'm surely not allowed to do this but you need help and I don't want you to get into trouble so I'll help."

"Thank you," Thalia said, quietly with a smile.

Soon, they strolled down the corridors in a rush as the three headed for a the Watchmen's location systems. It didn't took long for them to make it through without any suspicions and made all the way towards some narrowed halls that only bear minimum light much over it almost occupied with the looks of steampunk. Broken rusty pipelines, steam puffs, tightly brown walls, and most of all clutters and clammers of metal banging on the floor like a factory. Yet, in fact it was a stationary where the Watchmen could get their 'collector's tool' when it comes to demon hunting. The three exchanged glances with the people who worked there which caused Lydia to gain sudden interest on what was this side of view in the Afterlife and what's up with the hunter slash cowboy looks from these six footer ladies and gentlemen?

Lydia paused her wandering thoughts when they came to stop at an old rickety-looking wooden door. Lucas pounded knocks on the door when it immediately opened and were welcomed by an old man, fully bearded, and has a look of a steampunk engineer.

Both Lydia and Thalia wasn't all too surprise what was inside the room, being all messy with cobwebs, disarranged books and knickknacks on shelves, rusty pipelines whistling, but something caught their curiosity sitting in the middle of the dark room only lit up by a small chandelier. A table.

A table crafted like a flatten globe and within its form was like a hologram feature, allowing it for the finder to gain more access of locations as it took more detailed information.

"How did you got yourself a map in here?" Thalia asked.

"Oh, easy. I'm the head of building those," he pointed out.

"Then why are you here in this dump like old-school place? No offense by the way," Lydia echoed.

"Okay...I would like to share to you that I prefer quiet dark places rather than brighten areas with many, many people watching and telling my every move constantly. Anyway what brings you three here in my humble abode?"