Chapter 145

Chapter 145.

Heidi wisely did not keep asking.

She knew that she and Vanna were different. In name, she was also a member of the clergy and even held official certification from the Truth Academy. But compared with facing those dangerous hidden powers head-on, she was actually better at pure research and thinking. She could pry secrets out of cultists’ minds and pick out the shadows that heretics left behind in the whispers of a collective hallucination, but that was completely different from the work of an Inquisitor.

She herself lacked sensitivity to certain threats.

But Vanna had spent years fighting heretics and hidden powers head-on. She might already have sensed some kind of shadow. Their trip to the Lower City today had probably brushed against something by accident.

When they were almost home, Heidi asked a question: “Was there something wrong with that antique shop?”

“The antique shop was completely normal,” Vanna said as she slowed the car, a thoughtful look on her face. “But in our city-state… something might not be normal.”

The sky was completely dark now. The bell that marked the change from day to night and the whistle from the central steam core sounded at the same time, cutting through the clouds above the city in the fading sunset. In the Upper City, the gas lamps along the streets had already been lit half an hour earlier. Heidi reached her front door, hearing the sound of the car behind her fade into the distance.

At night, the city went under curfew, but the order only applied to ordinary people who lacked the power to protect themselves. The Church’s Inquisitors were clearly not affected. Before Vanna returned to the great Cathedral, she still had to swing by the City Museum to inspect the place and meet with the Guardians in charge of sealing off the scene. Her rest days were often like this—she never really rested.

Heidi could not help thinking again of her own ruined day off. She sighed and opened the door to go inside.

Lights were on in the spacious living room, but no one was in sight. The house was quiet everywhere. The daytime maid they hired to handle cleaning and laundry had gone home before the Sun went down, so this huge house felt a bit empty.

But Heidi was long used to it. Her father was the sort of man who, once he went into his study, could not be dragged out easily. Her mother’s health was poor, and she often rested in the bedroom. For this family of three, the house was a bit too large, and most of the time it was this quiet.

But that did not mean the house lacked warmth. Heidi had a very good relationship with her parents. It had always been good.

She smoothly took off her coat, put away her hat and medical bag, and glanced at the study with its light still on. She did not disturb her father, who was probably buried in his books, but went as usual to her parents’ bedroom and knocked on the door: “I’m home—are you in there?”

Her mother’s voice came from inside, carrying helplessness and a bit of pretend anger: “You’re getting home this late!”

Heidi stuck out her tongue at the door and quickly smoothed her expression. Then she pushed the door open with a smile, muttering as she went in: “I went out with Vanna. You really don’t have to worry. She could beat up the whole city with one hand…”

The light in the room was quite dim, because anything too bright would irritate her mother’s eyes. Her mother had been hurt by chemical fumes in the factory leak accident eleven years ago, and her eyes had never been right since.

Heidi let her eyes adjust to the dim light and saw her mother leaning against the headboard. She was a kindly old lady in soft pajamas, working by touch on a knotted craft that was unique to the city-state of Pland. In the shifting shadows of the dim lamp, she looked up at Heidi and spoke with a hint of helplessness: “Just keep running around with Vanna every day. Sooner or later you’ll end up like her, unable to find a husband. I know for a fact that she sneaks off to the marriage help center every weekend, picks someone there, and beats him up. The Cathedral gets complaints about her every single day…”

Heidi’s expression turned a bit odd at once: “Uh… please don’t say that… Vanna is an Inquisitor now…”

“So what if she’s an Inquisitor? She still ate lunch at our house for years,” the old lady grumbled, her hands still moving quickly. “If you ask me, that child turned out this way because of her uncle’s upbringing. Her mind is strangely stubborn. At her baptism she just had to swear these vows. Swear if you want, but she took all Three Great Vows at once. Normal nuns pick just one. She insisted on all three to prove how devout she was, and now she’s trapped herself and can’t get married at all…”

Listening to her mother’s endless chatter, Heidi could only smile awkwardly. She finally waited until the old lady paused for breath halfway through and quickly seized the chance to change the subject, looking at the craft in her mother’s hands: “Are you almost done weaving it?”

“I wove it and took it apart, over and over, and now I’m finally a little satisfied,” her mother said with a smile, holding up a ribbon of silk that looked like a colorful sash. The fine silk cords were woven with special techniques, leaving intricate open patterns and studded with pretty stones and beads. It was a kind of handiwork unique to the city-state of Pland, very complex and time-consuming. People believed it brought blessings and drove away evil. “I wonder if by the time it’s finished you will have found a good young man…”

Heidi glanced at the almost finished knotwork sash and ventured a cautious suggestion: “Then maybe… you could take it apart one more time. It might still be in time…”

“You’re just trying to make me angry!”

Heidi quickly smiled along and slipped out of the room.

Her mother’s muttering followed her from behind as Heidi shut the door. She tiptoed toward the kitchen, but as soon as she started to walk, she saw her father standing in the hallway.

The refined, gray-haired Morris looked helplessly at his sneaky daughter: “I heard you come home a while ago… Did you get your mother worked up again?”

Heidi waved her hands quickly: “No, no, we were just chatting.”

“Did you give the gift to Mr. Duncan?” Morris asked.

“I did—Mr. Duncan was very happy,” Heidi said, nodding. Then she could not help looking at her father a few times. “But I really didn’t expect you to be willing to give away one of your favorite books…”

“That was only a collectible—but he saved your life,” Morris said calmly. “In fact, I don’t think it is enough. In a few days we should pay him another visit to thank him properly.”

Heidi suddenly remembered her little ‘mistake’ during Nina’s hypnosis session today, and her expression turned a bit awkward: “We don’t have to… be that formal, do we?”

“It’s not about formality. Mr. Duncan saved your life, and I’m not just your father, I’m also Nina’s teacher. Besides, Mr. Duncan is an antique dealer with a strong thirst for knowledge and a real eagerness to learn. From a social point of view, this is a relationship worth cultivating,” Morris explained casually. “I like a word that Mr. Duncan often uses. He calls it a kind of ‘fate’…”

“All right, all right, your thinking makes sense, it makes sense,” Heidi said, feeling a headache the moment her father—who was not even good at socializing himself—started trying to teach her social etiquette again. “Then go visit him next time if you want, but please don’t buy random things again, okay…”

“That depends on whether any collectibles appear that can catch my eye,” Morris said offhandedly. Then he thought for a moment and asked, as if casually: “You went with Vanna today, right?”

“Yeah. She happened to have a day off today, so I rode in her car.”

Morris thought for a bit more, looking a little hesitant: “It feels like… you and Vanna are very close.”

“I’ve always been very close to her,” Heidi said, feeling a bit baffled. “We’ve known each other since we were little…”

“No, I just think…” The old gentleman suddenly began to stammer a little. He did not even know why, but right then he suddenly remembered something Mr. Duncan had said to him during their last visit to the antique shop:

“A girls’ school is fine too…”

“Father?” Heidi looked at her father’s strange expression and could not help calling out.

“Ah, it’s nothing.” Morris snapped out of it, feeling that his thoughts just now had been a bit too wild. He hurried to pull himself together and tried to change the subject so his daughter would not notice. As his eyes shifted, his gaze suddenly fell on Heidi’s wrist.

The bracelet that represented the protection of the God of Wisdom Rahm was missing a red agate bead.

The old man’s expression changed sharply, but then he noticed how completely normal Heidi looked. He forced himself to get his emotions under control, calming down as he spoke in a seemingly casual tone: “Did you lose a bead on your bracelet? Did you knock it off by accident?”

“Bracelet?” Heidi froze for a second and raised her wrist to look. She saw the empty place in the string, but her expression was perfectly natural: “Hasn’t there always been one missing here?”

Always been one missing?

Morris slowly brought his breathing and heartbeat under control, and also tried to steady his feelings and his flow of thoughts, as if afraid that thinking too intensely might draw some dangerous gaze. At the same time he began to remember, to recall what the bracelet on his daughter’s wrist had looked like the last time he saw it.

After two seconds, he finished stabilizing and shielding his own thoughts. Only then did he ease his expression and ask in his usual tone, as if casually: “By the way, you only went to that antique shop today, right?”