The Detective's Damsel

ix.

"IT'S LIKE THIS," Ryan explained, holding a piece of paper up at Corinna's eye level. "When enough energy is exerted, we are able to warp time and space back on itself." He does so with the piece of paper, creating a cylinder with a hole in the middle. "We have created technology so powerful that it rips a hole much like this in the time-space continuum. You three will travel straight through in a capsule."

Corinna nodded as if she understood, but if she was being completely honest, the whole prospect of ripping through the fabric of space and time made her especially queasy, not to mention overwhelmed. Something felt wrong about this, like the universe wasn't meant to be tampered with. And yet here she was, ready to cut into the framework of history like her sister had cut into her victim with that knife.

She didn't want to think about the contents of her dream or the documents she found in the computer lab.  When Knight had told her the news in the lab, she hadn't hesitated to follow him. This was the very thing she'd been wanting all along, wasn't it? To go back to her family? She still held hope for her sister's innocence, but this trip would be an ultimatum. Was Elizabeth a murderess or was she not?

The truth was beginning to blur. For now, she had a part to play.

"Ah, the paper model," Ivan drawled as he sidled up beside her. He caught Corinna's eye with a wink. "Ryan showed us the exact same thing when Knight and I were newbies."

"That's right, Beanstalk, and it worked like a charm, didn't it?" Ryan replied, setting the paper down on the desk.

Corinna pressed a few fingers to her mouth to smother a smile. Knight had mentioned Ryan's avid use of nicknames, but she didn't expect Ivan's to sound so comical.

Shuffling and a slew of foul language turned their attention to an even more amusing sight: that of Knight attempting to figure out how to button up his culottes. Corinna, unused to the sight of men in the process of getting dressed, turned away and tried to hide the way her cheeks heated up. Ivan sighed and threw up his arms, but not before a wide grin spread across his face.

"You did this last time too, man," he said, headed towards where Knight was evidently struggling. "They're buttons, dude, it's not rocket science."

Ryan let out a laugh, shaking his head, and Corinna's giggle bubbled out of her against her best interest. Ivan was right, it wasn't a science at all, not that she was sure what the word "rocket" had to do with it. Corinna had dressed in only a few minutes, though without her maid Adel, she had to abandon the corset in the dressing room. She couldn't say she was particularly upset about that fact, however. Her other dress being soiled and shoved in the waste somewhere, she'd had to choose one from the Studio, though she was surprised at how accurately the dress resembled those from Hungary so perfectly. She'd decided on a velvet paisley dress, with a thin lace pinafore. Its sleeves were embroidered with a lovely flower design while the waistcoat billowed out from her waist in several layers of velvet. She'd pulled her hair up into a bonnet, allowing two wavy strands to escape, adding some shape to her face. It was a trick she'd learned from Adel. She'd made sure to grab a fur jacket as well; it certainly wouldn't be as warm in Nyírbátor as it was in modern-day Florida.

And even though it was her typical attire, she couldn't shake how much it felt like a costume.

For Knight and Ivan, it looked like a costume. They both walked a little funny as they made their way back towards where Ryan and Corinna were waiting. Their outfits were similar, with a dolmán over a vest and shirt and pair of culottes, fur caps clenched in their hands, feathers extending out of the side of each.

"No offense," Knight said, tugging at the culottes with limited success, "but this is one of the most uncomfortable things I've ever worn in my life."

Corinna straightened, smoothing out imaginary wrinkles in her waistcoat. "Fortunately for you, then, you'll be wearing it in mine. You can't exactly expect to blend in wearing a shirt with a man covered in spider webs on it in my home village."