Chapter Text
The curtains were drawn. Hardly any light found its way into the study, which was illuminated only by the dim glow of smoldering candles. The Dukes had little love for light—and even less for the noise of the streets. Here, so close to the city limits, the servants did not retire to their quarters even in the dead of night. Instead, they gathered for evening revelries, filling the air with songs.
Eight figures sat around a round table. The ninth seat stood empty. Gargantua had never cared for their pointless meetings. He was the only one who truly considered them pointless.
“This. This is what I was talking about.” - Raum suddenly broke the deathly silence, holding out a folder bearing the title “Universe №...”. The number field beside it was blank, the space where neatly printed digits should have been left empty. Just one among hundreds of thousands. He had long since stopped counting.
“Raum, I’ve told you before. We’re not in the charity business anymore. It’s too late. This world can only be severed from the common branch.” - Panteleimon tried to put a stop to him, but suddenly swallowed hard, choking on the words that followed. Several sheets of paper and a couple of photographs had been tucked inside the folder. A dossier. - “This… Is it the one? Is it really…?”
“Exactly.”
“Well, I’ll be damned… I never thought we’d see them again.” - Larra spoke with a faint, almost wistful smile as he glanced over Panteleimon’s shoulder at the papers.
“Then we must hurry. We have to get them out of there before it’s too late.” - Belladonna spoke in a voice of steel, though she uncharacteristically flinched. It had been a long time since she had been this nervous.
“Easy for you to say, Bella. You really think they’re just going to come with us?” - Lurker challenged with a short laugh. But that laugh meant only one thing: somewhere in his mind, he had already come up with something that would solve their problem.
“It doesn’t matter how. They must be saved before it’s too late.” - Kobal’s words put an end to the argument once and for all.