After answering a few of Silas's questions, the Magic Mirror Arrodes seemed rather drained.
It was like a sparrow clutched in someone's palm, terrified, yet not daring to flee, able only to keep its eyes fixed on the man's every move.
"Honored Master, do you have any other questions?"
it asked cautiously.
"I do."
Silas thought for a moment. "How do I advance to Sequence 3 of the Secrets Suppliant pathway?"
Of the three questions he'd asked, Arrodes hadn't been able to give an answer to any of them, so he decided to ask something less pointed instead. Although the Night Church had already promised to provide assistance, it wouldn't hurt to have a backup option if one were available.
Unfortunately, the mirror's answer still failed to satisfy him.
"Great Master, you may be able to obtain the corresponding formulas and potions from the Aurora Order, or from certain True God churches." Arrodes's pale, ghostly script surfaced on the mirror's surface.
Certain True God churches?
Which meant that besides the Evernight Goddess Church, there might be other channels through other churches as well...
But in that case, the most he could do was swap one immediate superior for another, trading the Goddess for some Storm Lord or other such existence... and the latter's temperament clearly wasn't as good as the Goddess's.
Never mind. Judging by how Arrodes looked, pressing further might be more than it could bear.
Silas thought to himself.
"I have no more questions. As a matter of reciprocity, if there's anything you'd like to know, you may ask me now."
he said to the mirror in his hand.
The ripples of water on the mirror's surface brewed for a moment, then slowly and tentatively a sentence surfaced.
"Great Master, I would like to know, how did you come to obtain the means to summon me?"
"Someone told me."
Silas answered. He'd gotten this information from Klein, and given Arrodes's fawning attitude toward Klein, even if it found out, it likely wouldn't cause much of an impact.
The mist was quiet for a moment, then a second question slowly surfaced on the mirror's surface: "Your relationship with that person..."
Silas thought about it before speaking. "Friends."
His answer remained brief.
The mist on the mirror's surface shuddered violently, as if it had just heard some piece of news too unbelievable to accept.
Silas and Klein, one an existence Arrodes feared to an extreme degree, the other an existence it strove desperately to please... and the two of them were actually friends?
The Magic Mirror took some time to digest this news.
Silas waited quietly.
After a while, it posed another question: "Great Master, if there's nothing else you wish to know, may humble Arrodes be permitted to leave?"
The fear and caution in its tone were almost bleeding through the mirror's surface. Counting the "is there anything else you'd like to know" from a moment ago, this made the fourth question it had asked in turn, matching exactly the number Silas had asked.
Silas smiled.
"You may."
he said. "That'll be all for today, then."
As for whether he'd summon it again in the future, that would depend on whether it proved necessary.
"Please allow me to take my leave, Great Master..."
Arrodes seemed to have caught the implication hidden in his words as well; the pale script surfaced weakly, then faded away just as weakly.
The bone chilling wind that had filled the room ceased along with it, and the surrounding air no longer felt so gloomily cold: it had left.
"That mirror is quite interesting."
Ma'am M, who had been watching the whole exchange, said with a smile, "Did it manage to answer your questions?"
"What do you think?"
Silas shot back.
He tossed the now-normal mirror aside and stood up, glancing at the clock in the room.
Between attending the Tarot Club and summoning Arrodes for questioning, the whole affair had taken up over half an hour combined.
It was now nearly a quarter to four, and Silas still hadn't reported to his workplace.
Fortunately, as a Senior Deacon he wasn't bound to fixed working hours, otherwise with an attitude like his toward work, he'd have been thrown out by his boss long ago.
Better go make an appearance at the church first.
Silas thought to himself.
Skipping the whole afternoon entirely really would be pushing it too far; having become a servant of the Evernight Goddess, he ought to at least maintain some professional ethics. While he was at it, he could also look into the church's internal personnel, and see which one might be the mole.
With this thought in mind, he made his way to St. Samuel's Cathedral.
"Your Excellency."
"Lord Ishmael."
"Good afternoon, Your Excellency."
From the moment Silas entered the cathedral, everyone who caught sight of him greeted him with respectful deference.
This was partly due to his relatively high position, and partly due to the accomplishments he'd achieved in the previous operation: killing a demigod who'd lost control, saving a team member who'd been split in half... it was only natural that someone of such formidable strength would be shown respect.
"Mm."
Silas couldn't tell who any of these people were, so he simply kept up appearances, nodding with an air of aloof indifference.
When he arrived in front of his own office, he happened to see a Night Watcher standing there waiting, holding a clipboard and some documents. Upon seeing him, the Night Watcher's face lit up with relief.
"Lord Ishmael, you're finally here!"
The latter hurried over.
"Something the matter?"
Silas took the clipboard, and saw that it held two documents: one was a release order for a group of Sanguines, the other was an application to retrieve items from behind the Charnes Gate.
He picked up the pen and looked at the documents, momentarily lost in a bit of a daze.
He hadn't expected that, with the passage of time, he himself had become the one signing off on such things now.
"Has the Sanguines's bail all been paid?"
he asked casually, and instinctively began to write out the name "Alexander Gascoigne," only to catch himself just after starting the first stroke, correcting it to "Ahab Ishmael" instead.
"All paid in full. The four of them, eight thousand pounds total, the Sanguines transferred it into the church's bank account in the name of a donation for church construction," the other replied with a smile.
"Lord Alai Sandro, who handles the finances, was delighted about it, and was singing your praises openly in his office."
The three great churches didn't have to pay taxes; whatever came in was theirs to keep in full.
Silas had no idea exactly how this money would be distributed, but presumably most people in the church would benefit from it in some way.
"He should be praising the Sanguines instead."
Silas said flatly. Once he'd finished signing the release order, he flipped to the item retrieval application underneath.
"Items being held in custody for the Sanguines?"
He read the contents aloud.
"Yes."
the Night Watcher explained. "When those Sanguines were arrested, some of them had Beyonder items on their persons.
We confiscated all of it and have been holding it in temporary custody behind the Charnes Gate. Now that they're being released, these items need to be retrieved as well."
Silas lowered his head to look at the detailed descriptions of the items.
A palm-sized notebook, its casing resembling bronze-colored metal, suspected to possess a "recording" ability... Ah, right, this was the "Lenormand's Travel Journal" that the Magician had been renting out at the Tarot Club...
If he remembered right, renting that notebook cost 50 pounds a day. With Emlyn stuck inside the church and unable to return it, quite a lot of pounds had gone to waste...
Thinking of this, Silas privately felt a bit of sympathy for Emlyn.
But at the same time, another thought occurred to him as well.
Perhaps he could take this opportunity to go behind the Charnes Gate himself, and take a look at that notebook belonging to the Antigonus family.