What Have I Gotten Myself Into? (Endlewood)

When Ebenezer first saw the feline, he didn't think much of her. The Duchess had called him to take a look at a cat with extremely grievous injuries and the likelihood the animal die was high. With the cloud of Obitus Energy around the bandaged and splinted form, he was pretty sure she wouldn't make it past the week.

He had thought those bright and vivid green eyes, so green the Duchess had named the cat after a jewel because of them, were rather unsettling but he dismissed it. Cats were such creatures, a steady gaze and less of a need for blinking than humans had.

A few weeks later, when he saw his old friend's amnesiac son—his medical assistant—with a familiar feline beside the young man, it had been disturbing. That the cat went behind the scanner and there was a lack of an aura rather than a white one, suggesting the animal was hiding it. That the black aura he remarked upon might have been its natural aura.

That it was intelligent enough to hide the conspicuous aura.

He avoided Mattheus Crown after, though the young man made it easy by getting the Duchess's favor and having the Court Healer title created so Mattheus could legally practice medicine. While the silver and gold energy that Mattheus now possessed was fascinating, Ebenezer had been too uncomfortable around the young man, who always seemed to travel around with the Cat.

As if it knew Ebenezer was suspicious, he always felt like he was stalked.

Jumping at shadows with green eyes.

Each evening, uneasily falling asleep as the dark loomed around him—maybe hiding in the corner of his bedroom. He never dared to open his eyes to look, suspecting he would find it silently sitting and staring with its glowing eyes.

…

One day, when he hadn't been expecting it, the Cat appeared in his home with a tall waif of a girl. None of the servants had noticed them.

They had been standing there for who-knows-how-long before Ebenezer felt a heavy gaze and spun around.

"B-bloody—" He sputtered before choking up in fear.

The commoner, who was an underfed girl now that he took another look, blinked before she introduced herself. "My name is Louise Avis, Baron Endlewood."

His eyes flickered to the cat, who was draped across the girl's shoulders. "L-Louise, was it? Why have you come into my home?"

There was a pause and Ebenezer recognized the expression from Louise with dread. It was something he'd seen with Mattheus.

As if they were listening to someone speak to them in a way only they could hear.

As if the Cat was speaking to her.

"I am to study to be a knight. Unfortunately, as I am an orphan, I need to be sponsored and it is currently inconvenient for Brunilda's owner to do so. So we came here to see if you can use your name to sponsor me to the military academy in his stead. The money has already been prepared for my tuition in addition to a generous donation to the academy."

Oh, good lord, the girl was repeating the words it was feeding her. Fully formed, human words.

He flinched when Louise called his name in a questioning tone.

"Yes, of course, considering his current position, a personal knight would be prudent." He swallowed thickly. "I can have arrangements made by tomorrow, I think. You can meet me at the entrance of the academy at around four in the afternoon."

As Louis thanked him and said she understood, the girl placed the beat-up briefcase down.

Ebenezer started to wonder if he should at least tell Earl Crown about this before he turned and saw the Cat.

It stared at him with its glowing gaze, as if knowing what he just thought.

He felt his tongue metaphorically get stolen by the Cat through that look.

A warning. A promise.

Almost an hour had passed before he was able to pick up the briefcase and do this favor for Mattheus Crown. Or was it a favor for the Cat?

Ebenezer wasn't so sure anymore.

…

He saw Mattheus after a long while, the Court Healer and young man who had a very short tenure as his apprentice having stopped by to look for him minutes before he came back from an appointment.

Unfortunately, the young man brought It with him.

For some reason, the pressure was not as bad this time, and Ebenezer had observed Mattheus enough to conclude the youngest Crown was not being controlled by It at all.

The old doctor still was not sure what It was though. It surely couldn't be a cat anymore, right?

While It hadn't done anything harmful but if Its aura was truly black…

…

Ebenezer was having breakfast when he next saw Mattheus after the young man's twentieth birthday.

"Apologies, Doctor Endlewood, but it is a bit urgent."

It didn't come with Mattheus Crown. A rarity since the young man was known to have the Not Cat always attached to his side in public.

"Yes? Is it Countess Marcel's case?" he asked. Was it to do with the Not Cat?

"Yes," Mattheus replied. "The cursed object was found and I wanted to see if you knew what it is?"

He was a bit disappointed the urgent matter wasn't about It but the way Mattheus acted seemed to just reconfirm the young man wasn't influenced by It in any obvious way.

Maybe the two were as Mattheus said. That It and the youngest Crown were… friends.

Ebenezer's eyes moved to the necklace the twenty-year-old pulled out of his pocket, focusing on the swinging black pearl-like pendant.

He squinted before making to move. "Let's get a scan, shall we? I have my suspicions but I want confirmation first."

A few minutes later, the two doctors stared at the necklace through the window of the machine.

Ebenezer was distracted by the silver aura with gold swirls shown by Mattheus's hand, looking almost like sparkling stars, before the young man prompted him with his name.

He looked at the black aura of the pearl and exhaled.

"It's a miasma pearl."

"A miasma pearl?" Mattheus repeated, obviously never having heard of it.

"You might be more familiar if I say Pelerin's Miasma."

"Oh." Pale-gray eyes lit up. "Yes, it was one of the potential poisons I considered Countess was ill from before dismissing it since it is a gas and only see seemed ill instead of the entire Marinell House occupants. I've read that indoor Pelerin's Miasma is also very obvious, hazing the surroundings."

"That's only from an outside perspective. Say a sealed room while the observer looks in. But yes, a miasma pearl is a condensed form of Pelerin's Miasma. This one seems pretty inert though. Not something I would suspect to be the source of a curse."

Mattheus's gaze flickered to a corner before remarking, "It seemed to only become active during the witching hour, which is how it went unnoticed for the longest time."

Ebenezer barely registered Mattheus's explanation, turning to glance at where Mattheus had looked.

His heart nearly jumped out of his chest when he saw It sitting there as if It had always been present.

In fact, he was staring right at It but could barely discern them.

Perfectly hidden.

Did It purposely let him feel their watching gaze before? What in the world were they…

"Doctor Endlewood. Actually, would you have a method to… help me find a duplicate?" Mattheus asked. He looked a bit sheepish. "Actually, Brue stole the necklace last night and I don't want to announce this was what was causing Madam Marcel to be sick. It was originally Count Marcel's pin too."

Ebenezer jerked his head up in alarm. "What did you say?"

"It was originally Count Marcel's pin," Mattheus grimly repeated.

"This… is concerning."

"I am on the case, Doctor Endlewood. But it would be difficult if I were found with this necklace, or that the necklace is found missing after the night I spend at Marinell House."

Ebenezer was a bit troubled. He looked at the student he had for not even a month before his mind brought up the image of the Not Cat nearby.

Mattheus Crown had saved General Grant. The Crowns have sided with Duchess Sophily Morgaine. He had also healed Countess Ophelia Marcel when the final vote for the engine and emission standards of machinery and factories would be taken later today.

There was no reason not to trust Mattheus Crown, even though he was only a young man of twenty. In a way, Mattheus was truly a chip off the old block, considering what Ebenezer recalled of Albert when the earl himself had been twenty.

"I see…" Ebenezer thought for a moment. "I have some miasma pearls around but I would not have a copy of the necklace."

He flinched a little when there was a soft meow.

"I have a chain, Doctor Endlewood. I just need to use your engineering tools to mimic the setting. It just needs to look similar."

Ebenezer appeared a bit doubtful. "Is similar enough? Would it not be easier to switch the miasma pearl out with another? I have quite a few duds."

Though that was mostly due to him trying to study black auras thanks to Its existence.

"I have a way to make it look exactly like the original—but, uh, don't tell Father?"

Ebenezer twitched. "I think I've helped you in far too many ways that I wouldn't know how to face Earl Crown by this point."

Mattheus looked a bit confused but seemed to conclude Ebenezer would keep the secret.

And, he was.

Never mentioning the oddity of It.

Sponsoring Louis Avis, who turned out to be a bit of a wunderkind, even if she still insisted on fighting dirty, and was going through lessons at the academy at a rate that might set a record.

Helping create a counterfeit necklace of what seemed like a memento of the late Earl Marcel because it was killing the countess and quite possibly also the reason the count died.

"What have I gotten myself into?" Ebenezer whispered to himself.