The Labyrinth on Bourbon Street 2

The Shrine of Scandalous

Lapis shined the torch light over the pile of bricks. There was something very dubious about the grimy hand prints. They were a shade of off-red that closer resembled dollar-store costume blood. Lapis ran a finger down one of the prints and it stained her skin a very familiar shade. 

"What did you find, madam?" Eidus asked, hurriedly hobbling over to her side. Lapis closely examined the shade that dyed her finger. 

"Scandalous." Lapis proclaimed the name of Allie's favorite shade of lipstick. The vague utterance of the word left Eidus confused and alarmed.

"What's the matter?" He panicked.

"That's not blood." Lapis stood up, suspicions alight. "It's lipstick. Allie was leaving her calling card."

"Madam?" Eidus had already made it halfway to the other side and his torch was hovering over a small conglomeration of bricks. "I can't read it."

Lapis tried to make out the writing on the fragmented remains of the brick wall.

"...răzbunare..." Lapis made out with a little assistance from her Spanish. "That's Romanian for 'revenge'. Sebastian was here too."

"Is it a call to arms, milady?" Eidus asked, maybe a little too enthusiastically.

"It's not a call to arms." Lapis shook her head. "It's a message. Sebastian told me that they faced a challenge. This is where the faced it."

Eidus still felt it necessary to question her. "There's only one person I know who wears this lipstick and one person I know who speaks fluent Romanian and Arthur Conan Doyle references." She explained.

"So we've found them?" Eidus questioned one more time.

"We're on the right track." Lapis huffed.

"Y'majesty!" called out a voice that sounded like Eidus. Lapis looked down at him, expecting him to be desperately seeking her attention. But he was on his guard, too.

"Is that..." Eidus's ears perked up. "My brother?"

Lapis ran towards the voice without thinking. Whatever it was, it sounded short of breath and helpless. 

"What's your brother's name?" Lapis asked as she saw Eidus appear by her side.

"Phelous the minstrel!" Eidus answered. 

"Phelous!!" Lapis called out, cupping her hands to her mouth. 

"Y'majesty!" said the voice again, this time from directly across from her. Phelous didn't look dissimilar to his brother, but was cloaked in blue and grey and carried a crude, battered lute in his hand. He stood under a single source of light, like he was going to offer her a sidequest. 

Eidus beat Lapis to his brother, sprinting ahead on his stumpy legs and wrestling him to the ground (as was normal for boys). Phelous didn't seem to be very keen on the wrestling, but he managed to outdo his brother for just a second to catch his breath. 

"Y'majesty!" Phelous repeated, bowing his head upon Lapis's arrival. For a second, Lapis thought that he was actually going to offer her a sidequest. 

"Sir Minstrel?" Lapis cocked her head, feeling it too much trouble to explain the situation again. 

"I was on my way to the palace to present myself to be your royal entertainer, but the palace wasn't where it originally seemed..." He looked over at his brother. "I, of course, stayed where I was when my brother and I got separated, just as our mother instructed to do."

"Always the Mamma's boy" Eidus crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "And I suppose you'll be the favorite of the Queen, too."

"Yes indeed." Phelous proudly added. "Anyway, madam, I was almost led astray when I heard the most lovely sound. It wasn't of this world at all. It was too melodious and sweet to be a product of the cold, unfeeling underground."

Lapis dropped to one knee. "Oh really?" She asked, her curiosity peaking when she heard the term 'not of this world'. 

"Yes ma'am." Phelous nodded. "And since the most beautiful things in the kingdom are to be immediately delivered to the royal family, I captured the melody in my lute. And now I would like to present it to you, as my gift."

Lapis's eyebrows knit together in skepticism. She didn't really have time to listen to music, but the seemingly endless quest was quite a boulder to push. She gave in to the temptation and gave her permission to hear Phelous's newly-learned song.

"Alright." Lapis sighed, feeling hopeless. Nothing else had worked in helping her through the labyrinth, or finding Sebastian and Allie, so she may as well try this. 

Phelous started picking out a tune on the pinstripe-thin strings of his lute. It was barely recognizable at first, but then a familiar melody started to crescendo. It sounded like any guitar riff in the background of any of the songs in Lapis's memory, but it really stuck out as Phelous started to hum. He didn't know any of the words, but could sing the chorus on 'oohs' and 'aahs'. 

"...when I wore a younger man's clothes." Lapis sang along under her breath when Phelous reached the final line of the verse. 

Phelous grabbed the strings to stop them from vibrating and gasped. "You know this song?" He asked, Eidus shifting into her line of sight and sharing an expression of surprise with Phelous.

"Yeah." Lapis brushed her hair behind her ear. She knew it was a surefire sign of Sebastian. She knew that it couldn't have come from anywhere else. But with this newfound hope, she felt that she could dawdle a little and listen to the remainder of the song, just to ease her nerves and rest her feet. "I know it."

"Fantastic!" Phelous beamed. "You can sing for me."

"What?" Lapis flinched. "Oh no, you don't want that. But could you take me to where you heard the sound?"

Phelous thought for a second. "If you sing it for me, I could probably better remember where it was I heard it."

Lapis was not a bad singer by any means. She was somewhere on the spectrum between "can hold a note sometimes" and "not quite professional but almost". She had a singing voice, and what she didn't have was anything to lose. But she did have something to gain. If it meant the whereabouts of her best friends, then it was worth it. 

Phelous started the song over and Lapis tripped over her cue to start. "It's nine o clock on a Saturday, the regular crowd shuffles in. There's an old man sitting next to me, making love to a tonic and gin..." 

Phelous played up to what he remembered, which was cut off right after the end of the refrain. Lapis caught her breath on the last note and thanked god that she was able to pull that off without error. Sebastian would have been proud.

"Yes yes." Phelous scratched his chin without any opinion on Lapis's performance whatsoever. "I think I remember hearing the song sung three out and one over." 

He had already started to wander. He snatched the torch from his brother's hand and lead the way. "If I could hear it again from the same direction, that would be ideal."

Phelous started to track down the spot like a bloodhound, with Lapis and Eidus trailing eagerly behind him.