Dread Realizations

Garrick dodged backward as Tobias lunged at him and swung a meaty fist at his head. The barkeep was even more enraged as his attack missed but seemed to think better about trying to land another punch. "Who the hell are you really?" Tobias demanded, sticking his face a mere inches from Garrick's and jabbing a thick finger into the Nascentian's chest.

"Well, I already told you my name," Garrick replied. He shifted his spear to the crook of his arm and summoned his Chimera. "This should explain everything else." He had to step back a couple times to let Tobias actually see what he held in his hand, and each time, Tobias had closed the gap until finally Garrick stepped back and thrust the computer in the space between them before Tobias could fill it again.

The blood raced out of Tobias' face. There was a flickering of motion in his jaw as it worked, clenching and unclenching. Otherwise, he was unmoving, all of his fight having fled him.

Garrick pressed a button to dismiss his spear, and then he dismissed his Chimera. "I feel like I should have flashed that at the door, but I didn't want word going around that someone with a Chimera had been here."

"Why is there a noble doing all the way out here?" Tobias asked. There was still lingering gruffness in his voice and a sense of demanding in his tone, but it seemed more out of an attempt at consistency than anything, as though he didn't want to do a complete change in personality at the mere sight of a Chimera. But Garrick did notice that Tobias suddenly was speaking with a little more formality and somewhat less crassly.

"I was looking for a relative of mine, and I have reason to believe he's been out this way somewhat recently," Garrick answered.

Tobias' eyes narrowed, but he stayed silent.

"About my height, and his name is Conrad, though he might be going by something else," Garrick said. "Bit of a braggart and an alcoholic. He probably holds a lot of drinking contests and wins them all. Notably, he should have a quiver with six arrows in it, whether or not he's wearing a bow."

Tobias scowled.

"Look like you know him," Garrick said.

"No, actually," Tobias muttered. "Conrad's just a common name in the next city over. Rumor's say that a strange man by that name showed up about the same time those rains were falling and flooding the area."

Garrick raised a brow. "Well, the timing sounds promising."

"Well, if that's the case, he's an old man by now. Probably dead even. The rains fell about fifty years ago."

"Either way, continue," Garrick prompted.

Tobias grunted. "The guy vanished but supposedly brought with him pegasi, and that's what ended the rains. There's a family out there that claims to be his descendants, and they're all Pegasus farmers. The name's good luck, so a good number of them have his name."

"Huh."

"What?"

"If that's the case, then I would've expected to have been guided to this other town," Garrick answered.

"Well, I'm pointing you in that direction now."

"Not what I meant." Garrick crossed his arms over his chest and lowered his head as he thought. "Wait, did any of these descendants move out here?"

Tobias sniffed indignantly. "Yeah, my sister's dad. He was a Conrad."

"Wait, you mean Dante's grandfather?"

"Yeah. Speaking of Dante, where'd the little shit go?" He poked his head into the closet and picked up a shattered piece of the door and dug through the blankets underneath. "Dante? Where the hell are you?"

"Oh, I took him away from here," Garrick said. He ignored Tobias' glares and continued. "Speaking of which, I was tasked with fetching a piece of his property. Some sort of wind chime."

"The wind chime belonged to my sister," Tobias said through clenched teeth.

"Well, I was told that he wanted it," Garrick said, "and I want to make sure he gets it."

Tobias muttered under his breath but went over to his bed, where he produced a wind chime from under his pillow. He held it out, clutched roughly about the metal pipes.

Garrick took the chime gently, muffling its sounds by cradling it against his chest. "What happened to your sister?" he prompted.

"The plague got her when Dante was a kid. I was his closest relative, so he got dumped on me. I tried shoving him onto the Conrads, but they took one look at him with his silver hair and refused. Said he was cursed."

"And yet, Dante is alive while I'm willing to bet they're all dead."

"Wait, what?" Tobias stared.

"It's a long story," Garrick said. "And to prove my theory, I'm going to need a horse and some directions to this pegaus farm."

"Yeah, sure." Tobias stood there expectantly.

"I already paid you," Garrick reminded him. "And I also took your cursed nephew off your hands so you don't need to worry about him anymore."

Tobias muttered something under his breath and left the room.

Garrick took the moment to slide the chime away carefully into a pouch. It wouldn't be any good if he went through all that trouble to fetch it for Dante if it was crushed before he got back to the Nascent.

But he hadn't been lying to Tobias. There was only one thing that would explain why his Chimera led him to Dante instead of to the Pegasus farm. Conrad had indeed been through here fifty years ago – nearly one hundred Nascentian years earlier – and had clearly left behind children. But if he had been drawn to Dante instead of the farm, then that meant that they were all dead.

Garrick remembered how the Hound he had just faced against had torn through what must have been Dante's bedroom door. It had somehow known that was the room that belonged to a descendant of Conrad.

Someone out there was trying to wipe out Conrad's blood. It would explain why one of the creatures even ended up in his tunnel, since he had set it to look for Conrad.

The thought left a chill in the base of Garrick's spine. Whoever was behind this was powerful and had immense resources at their disposal. He couldn't help but be reminded of the time that Olivier had attempted something similar, although he had started with assassinating the eldest generation and worked his way down to the younger. It was he who had been behind those rains that Tobias had mentioned, using them to misdirect and confuse, and the effect on morale had probably been intentional as well.

Someone familiar with the history of the Nascent seemed to be recreating this last conflict, and Dante was lucky to be alive. For the moment, all Garrick could do was check his hunch, and if it were right, he would need to redouble the security around Dante.

But for now, he should be safe enough. If one of those monsters was here in Dante's bedroom, then they didn't know yet that he had escaped, nor could they know where he had gone. He had managed to escape just barely in time, which proved that he had the same innate luck that the rest of the silver-haired family members seemed to have.

Garrick trusted his daughter. He was sure Dante was in good hands and that she could keep him safe.

He was certain of it.