Chapter 177 – Looking for clues

"Well in a way, I am happy you had a bad dream, My Lady." Said Trisha to the groaning Holy Lady rolling in the bed while throwing a tantrum, which was quite unlike her behavior.

"Still." Thought in her head Trisha "It may be better for her to throw out emotions in this way. A lot of stuff weighed on her lately."

"Huh? What the hell are you talking about? Didn't you hear me? I fucking wasted another divination." Said Saintess raising her head from the pillow to look at Trisha.

"Umm… I mean it's good that it was just a bad dream. Would be really unfortunate to waste it for real." Said Trisha in an apologetic voice.

"..."

"..."

The two women stared at each other in total silence for a few seconds.

Saintess willed her system window to open and stared at her skill list. There was no cooldown on divine skills.

"I did not waste it?" Thought Saintess.

"I did not waste it." She said aloud a second later.

"No, you didn't." Said Trisha, confirming her words.

"Why?" Asked, Holy Lady, dumbfounded.

"As I said. You had a bad dream. You didn't use the skill. I would not miss something like that. Besides, would you sleep through the whole night until morning if you used divine skill?" Answered Shadow Commander shrugging.

Saintess turned her head in the direction of the window looking at the bright sky, blinking her eyes.

"It was a dream?" Asked the Holy Lady, as an entirely new realization finally dawned on her.

"Yes." Confirmed Trisha once more.

"Why?" Asked Saintess.

"Why, what, My Lady?" Asked Trisha confused.

"Why did I…" Started to say Holy Lady but stopped as her eyes went wide. The last words of the crazy girl from the dream just clicked into her mind making just a bit of sense. "And just so that you know. This is not my dream and I was not the one controlling it." Muttered Saintess.

"My Lady, are you okay?" Asked Trisha with a worried voice. "Do you want me to scan you?"

"It was my dream!" Exclaimed Holy Lady in reply. "I did not come to her, she sneaked into my dream!"

"Who is she and what are you talking about?" Asked Trisha still worried.

"I need to write it down." Said Saintess nodding without giving a sane reply and started to slide out of the bed, but froze as her bedsheets started to slide down her body. She immediately grabbed at the sheets and pulled them over, pressing them to herself as she scanned the room with her squinted eyes. The disturbing sense was very faint, but she could still feel it.

"Tsk." She voiced with annoyance and willed a silent order to her magic.

White light shone from within her body covering her as bright cloth and when it disappeared she was already wearing her silken dress.

She immediately moved to the table near the window, taking a piece of paper, and started to write something down. Once she was done she picked up the paper sheet and gave it to Trisha who looked at her confused.

"That's what happened in the dream." Said Holy Lady.

Trisha read through the whole text a few times with her eyebrow raised before she looked back at Saintess.

"Umm…You sure this wasn't just a dream?" Asked Trisha.

"No, I am not. But it does make a bit of sense. That story that Jakob told me about. In it, Hero bumped into Seer by accident. But that is only the Hero's point of view. If she can see what others can not, could it be she stood in his way on purpose, knowing he would be there?"

"Sounds like an oracle." Said Trisha mulling Saintess' words in her head.

"Or divination." Said Holy Lady nodding. "I was going to use divination to find her, but what if she sensed it or predicted it and came to me herself."

"Why?"

"To save me from wasting it?" Said Saintess. "I don't know. She was really strange. Cute in her childishness but still strange.

"So what are you going to do, My Lady? Use divination to find her?"

"Hell no! That would be a waste for sure." Said Saintess.

"In that case, we did not really learn anything. This all…" Said Trisha giving the sheet of paper back to Holy Lady. "Is just a load of nonsense. If this girl is real, there's a few screws loose in her mind. No normal person would make sense of any of this."

"No normal person…" Muttered Saintess. "Maybe you are right. What if it wasn't meant to be heard by normal people?" Asked Saintess raising an eyebrow at Trisha

"Fumi?" Asked Trisha

"Let's see if she can make any sense of it." Said Saintess taking out a far-talking device out of her pocket space.

*****

Hysterical laughter sounded from the device as Saintess stared at Trisha with her lips pressed tight in an expression of total annoyance.

Commander stood at her side gazing back at her with a placating look.

"Well…" Said Trisha. "At least she recognized the words."

"Should have guessed she would." Said Saintess. "After all half her speech can't be translated even though she has language proficiency skill. No wonder she recognizes that word." She added turning back to the far-talking device, hearing that the person on the other end started to calm down.

"Oh God, Lyra, she seriously skadooshed you? I can't believe it!" Said the girl's voice from the device still chuckling.

"Should I call you back when you have enough of this inside joke, no one can get?" Said Saintess in an angry voice, finally losing her patience.

"No, no. Sorry. I am ok now. Gosh, that girl had you there. But it makes me wonder. How does she know all these things? I mean she literally speaks the language of my world. Pippi Longstocking the redhead silly girl with pigtails and different long socks on her feet that called herself the strongest girl in the world and dreamed of being a pirate, wizard of Oz, and even Kung-fu panda references. Even music you described was definitely from The Pirates of the Caribbean. These are all stories from my world."

"So you recognize most of what she was talking about, Fumi?" Asked Lyra.

"Yeah. I know these stories." Answered from the device voice of Fumiko Kobayashi, the holder of the Heroic system and traveler from another world.

"Tell me all you know about it. If we translate her words we may find The Sage that your team is missing." Said Lyra.

"There may be no need to waste time retelling you all the stories right now. I think I know where the Sage is."

"What? Where?" Asked Lyra excited as Trisha also leaned toward the device in expectation.

"Umm… before that…" Said Fumiko's voice with an awkward intonation to it.

"What is it?" Asked Lyra.

"Do you… ummm…perhaps know of some…. Strange… castration… incidents in the Guidestar Kingdom?" Asked Fumiko with an uncertain voice.

Lyra's and Trisha's eyes went wide with shock as they gazed at each other. Trisha immediately sank into the shadow and Saintess felt her presence disappear. A few seconds later she was back holding a few paper reports in her hand that she brought from Holy Lady's office.

Fumiko clearly misunderstood the silence from the other side of the device as a sign of Lyra's silent condemnation.

"It's that! You see, Lyra! Don't misunderstand me. I just interpret one of the meanings of her words!" Started to chatter the young girl trying to quickly explain herself. "It's just that, the Munchkin Kingdom is a country from the story. It was in the East and all kinds of beasts lived there. So that's whatshemayhavemeantin And..And.. And you see. There is this word…" Gibbered the young girl quickly, her words starting to be illegible.

"Calm down, Fumi. I am not angry or anything. I was just thinking. Please explain it calmly." Said Lyra.

"Well, you mentioned something about woodman. There is such a character in the story but he doesn't chop trees there. But in your dream, the girl said he chopped morning woods right?" Said Fumi.

"Yes, what about it?" Asked Lyra thoughtfully.

"You see morningwood in the slang means a hard-on that males have in the morning. So that's why I was wondering…could it be that what the woodmen chopped was not actual wood." Said Fumiko. "I know, it sounds stupid. It's just a slang word and…"

"No, you are right." Said Lyra, interrupting the young girl.

"I am?" Asked Fumiko surprised.

"Fumi, it's clear that this message was not meant for me but for you. I want you to go to the Guidestar Kingdom immediately. My agents are already investigating the case but I think you might be able to see what they do not notice."

"But my training…" Said Fumiko quietly.

"It's important, Fumi. We must find the Sage." Said Lyra with a serious voice.

"Alright." Said the girl.

"Thank you. My agents will meet you there. I'll call your ship captain to give him coordinates for where to take you. Please hurry, Fumi." Said Lyra pleadingly.

"I will, Lyra. I'll find him, I promise." Said Fumiko, reassuring Saintess.

"Good luck." Said Saintess, disconnecting the call. At this moment Trisha gave her one of the paper reports that she just brought from the office.

Saintess quickly scanned it with her eyes as her pupils moved from side to side with superhuman fast speed.

She found him. The traces of the Sage led to the Guidstar kingdom

*****

The massive solid wood throne-like chairs standing around the long table were mostly filled with people dressed in dark mantles covering their faces under the capes. All head members of the Dark Association sat in their spots, except for one.

"Lady Night Breeze is not joining us again?" Asked the voice from across the empty seat adorned with a picture of a moon surrounded by falling leaves carved into its backrest.

"Fortunately, I might say." Said the person sitting right beside the empty chair. "Meeting will go smoother without her hysterical outrages."

"Her state is quite understandable." Said the person at the head of the table. "She has lost her best vessel candidate at the most crucial time. She may not have time to find an even slightly compatible vessel now. Who of us wouldn't lose his calm in such a situation?"

"I told her to have several prepared. Betting everything on a single vessel as if possessed and now blaming everyone around her because her bet lost is disgraceful." Said the person sitting at the furthest from the empty chair corner of the table.

"Let us not discuss her while she is not present, ladies and sirs." Said the rough voice at the head of the table closest to the previous speaker. "Her obsession with that vessel was understandable, Sir Night Game. Among all of us, she is the only one who found the best-suited one. Even I would feel extra attached to it had I been in her shoes. Let us forgive her recent bad mood and absence, and continue with the agenda of today's meeting. Guild master, please." Said the person nodding at the person sitting across from him on the other side of the long table.

"Very well. However, the first agenda would still be related to the Lady Night Breeze problem. Red Bull clan. Has there been any new information on the cause of our failure, Lady Night Knives?" Said the man turning to the person that sat right beside him in the corner of the table.

"Unfortunately there is no helpful information on this matter still. We…" Said the calm female voice on the seat adorned with a picture of a moon and knives.

"Are you even searching?" Said the old lady-like voice with a tone of outrage from one of the seats interrupting her. The sigil of the cauldron with a picture of the moon in its middle that was surrounded by a snake was inscribed on the backrest of her chair.

"The whole damn town woke up to find themselves castrated and crippled so hard that it was impossible for them to heal. Their dicks fed to the dogs. All the God damn slaves that composed the greatest part of the town's population are fuckig gone. Only their clans of sluts were left. Even if all these whores are placed in factories instead of their slaves they would not amount to a damn one percent of the milk production. The whole fucking plan went bonkers in a single night. And you can't find the culprit? How big of a fucking evidence it should have for you to find it? We need to know it! And we need it now!" Shouted an old lady covered by the cape.

"Calm down, Snake Granny. It's not an entire failure. The situation is still salvageable. The result may be less than we hoped but we are still continuing the plan." Said another caped person.

"Less than expected? You seem to have your all-seeing eyes closed, Lady Night Owl. We wished to spread new guild influence into all Kingdoms, but now we have to struggle to realize the plan at least in the East. And it is only thanks to the specificity of their nomad lifestyle that it is still possible. Other countries can't even be discussed in the next decade or so." Grumbled the Old Lady at the person from across the table.

"Enough." Said the Guild master at the head of the table stopping Lady Night Owl's retort. "Lady Night Snake is of course right." He said, turning to the woman at his side. "We need results in that investigation. And we need them fast. Whoever ruined our plan may do it again if we don't know how much they know." He said calmly and the Lady Night Knives nodded silently. Seeing that, the Guildmaster turned his head back to the table. "Lady Night Owl, however, is not wrong either. The plan is not a failure as long as it is still in motion. One country we take down is one country in our pocket. This is the reason why we have several groups and several plans. If one idea fails we skip to another and continue to our goal, but until then continue the plan."

Everyone around the table nodded in agreement.

"Now then to the other topic. What is the situation with high noble families infiltration?"

"Several plans went according to the scenario and we pocketed a dozen families in different countries. However, there have been accidents as well. The appearance of the heir of Count McDaniel is one. With it, the conflict between McDaniels and McAlisters turned around. They are allying once again despite our previous attempt to separate them. The gossip of the marriage being back on the discussion table has been spreading."

"Until we find out the situation with McDaniels heir survival, we must distance ourselves from them to not let Royal Investigator follow the lead toward our members in their region. Monitor them but don't interfere" Said the man across from the Guild master.

"Indeed." Agreed Guildmaster.

The person near an empty seat chuckled loudly.

"If Lady Night Breeze was here she would have screamed that she told you to use professionals like those Wild mercenaries. We are lucky she is not here though." He said, continuing his chuckle.

"Now that the Sir Night Tide reminded us about them, what can be heard from our agents regarding the situation with the Wild team, Lady Night Owl?" Asked the Guildmaster.

"We lost their traces on the outskirts of Silver Gale village. Investigating further is too dangerous at the moment. Church people are all over the place there now. We know that the church has not been able to trace them either. They most likely went into hiding. But their resources are limited. We will find them in time." Said Lady Night Owl.

"What about the incident of the Black Market?" Asked the Guildmaster.

"Evidence led to a betrayal of one of the Auction house's high executioners, named Vernon. He was successfully disposed of. The cause of the disaster is still being investigated, but there are no results. The loss of the best Black Market dungeon threw us behind the plan schedule. But the main goal was a success and we have the Wraith Mother under our control. Getting control over all underworld dungeons is just a matter of time." Said Lady Night Owl.

"Glad to hear at least some good news. The recent streak of misfortune following all our plans is greatly disturbing. We must strive to work better and safer." Said Guildmaster, talking to everyone. "Let us continue with the next topic. Hero." He said, attracting everyone's attention.