After continuous talks with Eisen, Marin decided to move forward with ordering all the ingredients needed for the immortality potion. This included expensive and rare reagents that were only grown during specific cycles, and would take months to be delivered.

  Of course, this also included the mythical flower known as the Hallicent Blossom. While the doctor had no book on the exclusive plant, Marin bet he knew someone that did, and that would be Nocturne’s own librarian, Marge Halkress.

  She was the only person Eisen was willing to leave his basement home for. Together, both Marin and Eisen entered the grand library of the castle to consult with her.

  Nocturne’s library had become nothing short of impressive. This was the only feature of the castle that Marin spared absolutely no expense for. He had tasked Marge with ordering nearly every bit of written information that was available to be purchased. In every topic, Marin told her to order nothing but the best – the most reputable authors, professors and greatly accomplished scientists who wrote their discoveries into books that sold for a pretty gold piece.

  The result was an outstanding collection of books that covered a vast array of information. It had become so well known, that many people from surrounding cities journeyed to the Nocturne Kingdom just to make use of the library. Marin knew with all the gold he had spent on it, she had to have something pertaining to the flower.

  They both passed rows of bookshelves, each towering and fully outfitted with knowledge. Marin appreciated them greatly. Despite the decent amount of people in the expansive room, you could hear a pin drop. The rule of silence in the library was well respected.

  At the far end of the library was Marge’s desk, and despite quite a bit of paper and book work she performed, she kept her work space immaculate.

  As Eisen and Marin approached her, she had an open log of borrowed books, and was cross referencing them with who had checked them out.

  When she saw two of the people she had the most respect for, she instantly stood up from her chair to greet them.

  They talked barely above whispers, respecting the peace of the library. After they said some greetings and formalities, Marin dived into the reason they had visited her.

  “The Hallicent Blossom…” Marge repeated. She pursed her lips as she searched her brain.

  “...Yes,” she said after a moment. “The flower that manifested from the elemental who made the amber crystal. It’s named after him, too. Something Hallicent, I can’t remember his first name. Let me check our section on ancient history to see if I can find more. There may be some mentioning of it in either our book on Saanvoleg Temple or…”

  Her thought process trailed off as she paced around the front of her desk to a section of the library. She walked at a brisk pace, and it took some effort from the two men to keep up with her.

  Marge passed several bookshelves before turning down one. She walked over to a specific section, and began running her finger across spines of books as she tried finding the exact one she needed.

  She had this entire library nearly memorized. For her to just casually walk to same area as the book she needed without much thought was impressive, Marin thought.

  It didn’t take more than a minute for her to finally pull out a worn book that had everything to do with the history of the abandoned ancient temple in the Ubora Desert.

  She handed it to Eisen, then began brainstorming what other books might have potential information. After a moment, she started walking to another section of the library. Without a word, they both followed her.

  She pulled several more books, one on prominent crystal elementals which was likely to have mentioned Hallicent, as well as one on exclusively rare vegetation.

  She had given the doctor four books to comb through.

  “Those are going to contain everything our library has on the blossom, if anything at all. I hope you find what you’re looking for,” she finally mentioned.

  “Thank you, Marge. You’ve been incredible,” Marin told her.

  She nodded and smiled.

  They spoke a few more words on the subject. After a several more minutes, they both exited the library and left Marge to her work. A decent line of patrons had lined up to be serviced in front of her desk, waiting for her return to the front.

  “I will read through all of these, and tell you the best course of action on retrieving the flower,” Eisen explained. “I need to find out if it retains its properties after being dried out and preserved. If it does, we can obtain some at any time. If not, we won’t be able to retrieve it until I can attempt the brewing process.”

  Marin understood. He parted ways with his doctor once again, and left him to do the research in the basement. It was slow to be made, but progress on the potion was moving along. It helped that Eisen was hellbent on figuring out the process, and his drive was most likely to gain immortality himself.

  Marin made a mental note to have a sincere talk with him sometime about taking the potion, and what his motives would be after cracking the formula. Whatever they would be, Marin would lenient in accepting them if it meant he could be cured.

  The day progressed in a usual sense. Nothing out of the ordinary, that was, until Loid ran into him in the main office.

  “Sullivan, you have a minute or two?” Loid asked him.

  The two walked into Loid’s office, that was just one doorway down the hall after the main one.

  Inside, they both sat down.

  “I know you didn’t want me to worry about investigating this ‘earth elemental’ that you claim is among our home, but I have found the time to do some sleuthing,” he mentioned.

  “That’s funny you brought this up. I had just been talking with Max about assigning a guard to the case,” Marin responded. “But that’s nice you’ve found time to do it yourself. Tell me what you’ve discovered.”

  Loid lowered his head, and interlaced his fingers on the desk. “Well, I had quite an intense talk with the boys about what they told me on that day,” he began. “Their story was that they had heard the loud explosion, but hadn’t seen it. But as you told me, the wall was rebuilt.

  This made me believe that the wall rebuilding and explosion events were not connected.”

  Loid leaned back in the chair.

  “For a while I had believed that,” he continued. “That was until earlier today, a guard reported to me that Rocko had been seen mailing a personal letter out from our post office.”

  Marin raised an eyebrow. “Rocko is literate? It was to my knowledge that him and Phil both couldn’t read or write.”

  “I know! That’s what I had believed! Aside from that though, who would he be writing to? He told me he didn’t know of any family members he had, or anyone of importance from before he arrived at Heroca Town,” Loid explained.

  He then chuckled, and continued on.

  “...So I had to investigate. I went down to the post office, and our postmaster explained that not only has Rocko been sending out mail, he’s been receiving it too, and from an unnamed source.”

  Marin instantly stood up. “We’re going to the post office. Right now. Follow me.”

  Marin almost couldn’t believe it. Could it be possible that this entire time Rocko and Phil had been faking who they were? If it was so, what an incredible job they had done.

  Why though? Why would both of them act like dummies for literal years? What was that accomplishing?

  All this was running through Marin’s mind as they both walked down to the post office.

  “What are you thinking?” Loid asked as they traveled to the far left side of the castle.

  “I don’t know what to think. Could it be possible that he’s dropping letters off for someone else?” Marin asked.

  “It wouldn’t line up with him receiving the anonymous letters back. They were directly titled for him,” Loid explained.

  Marin nodded. “Right. You’re right. There’s something very wrong going on.”

  It was silent for the rest of the time they walked. Even Loid was spiraling, realizing that there was a chance that everything he knew about those two boys – the two idiots he almost considered sons – were not who they had appeared to be all this time.

  With no regard, Marin swung open the post office door. He entered the room behind the counter of the post office.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  In the back was the postmaster, arranging letters that had just come in for the day.

  He turned around to see who had just barged in so rudely, but when he saw it was his King and boss, he threw the rest of the letters down onto the desk and hailed them.

  “M-my King!” The postmaster said.

  “You told Loid that Rocko has been sending and receiving mail?” Marin asked.

  “Yes sir!” He responded.

  “Tell me everything you know,” Marin ordered.

  “Uhh… Well…” The middle aged man’s eyes darted around in thought as he realized the situation had become quite serious.

  “Ever since we established the mail system in the castle, Rocko had been periodically sending and receiving letters,” he got out.

  “How often?” Marin inquired.

  “About every other week.”

  “What address has he been sending them to?”

  “Ah… He sent ‘em to… Uh, let me see!”

  The postmaster scrambled to a desk, and pulled out a thick leather book that served as a log.

  “Just give me a sec to find that out!” He added.

  The postmaster started going through lists and files of outgoing mail. It took him a while, and Marin and Loid stood in silence as the man scanned endless entries as quick as he could.

  “...Ah, here we go! Rocko. Address has been… A PO Box. In Alistana.”

  “Where’s that at?” Loid asked.

  “Sunset Forest, I believe.”

  Loid lowered his head. That was so far away, there wasn’t a chance that Rocko was casually mailing family members or friends of the past. He became deeply disturbed as he came to terms with the fact that the boys had betrayed him.

  “The post office in West Alistana. PO Box number 243,” the postmaster added, hoping the entire address would help them out.

  “It’s a PO Box, meaning that there’s no residential location its being sent to,” Marin realized. “Rocko is in contact with someone secret. How intriguing.”

  “WHY?” Loid demanded. He was going through so many stages one would go through about accepting their death. He was currently on reasoning.

  “I know you’re upset, Loid. Trust me, I am too. We trusted those two, we considered them family here in the castle,” Marin shared.

  “There’s… There’s a chance Phil has nothing to do with it. Has Phil been sending out letters? Has he been seen here?” Loid asked.

  The postmaster confirmed that Phil had not sent or received any mail, nor had he ever been seen at the post office.

  “Is it true the mail Rocko has been getting back has no return address?” Marin asked.

  “That’s right,” the postmaster solemnly responded, now seeing that some terrible discovery was occurring.

  “Listen closely to me,” the King told his postmaster. “You are to intercept ANY mail that comes or goes for Rocko or Phil. Do you understand?”

  “Yes sir!”

  “You are to tell me immediately when it happens. I will drop everything I’m doing to come here and retrieve it,” Marin carefully explained.

  “Will do, my King. You have my word.”

  Marin and Loid left the post office. They slowly walked down a hallway, completely alone. Both of them were still besides themselves about everything that had just unfolded.

  “...I guess we’ll go confront the two of them,” Loid finally said.

  “No. We’re not revealing to them that we know anything. You just keep acting like there’s nothing wrong. We’re not going to confront them until we find out exactly what’s happening. But I want to you to keep an extra close eye on them.

  I understand you don’t use your shadow element anymore, but this would be a fitting time to watch them from the shadows if you see them doing something suspicious.”

  Loid sighed, then nodded. “I will.”

  “Listen, Loid. There’s a chance that this isn’t as bad as it seems. While its clear that Rocko is smarter than he’s been letting on – especially with this apparent literacy – he could just be mailing a secret lover or long lost friend and didn’t want to share with anyone about it.”

  “What would be his reasoning for all that though? Why go through all the effort of acting dumb just so no one knows you’re mailing someone?” Loid responded.

  Marin put his hand on his shoulder.

  “I’m just saying, don’t jump to dire conclusions so easily. Let’s catch the next letter, and go from there.”

  Loid nodded, and took a moment. “...Alright. I’ll try to see if I can find anything else out. Don’t bother trying to hire a guard at this point, I’m going to take care of it.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll talk with you tonight in my quarters,” Marin finished with.

  The day progressed, but Marin had a lot to ponder about. If Rocko had been hiding some intelligence, there was also a chance that he could be the earth elemental as well. Since the elemental’s work occurred in their room, it was fairly likely to be the case.

  Marin prepared himself to have an encounter with Rocko at some point, and get the truth out of him about everything. If he refused, Marin would have him banished from the castle.

  At the same, he wondered if this was all Rocko’s doing, or if Phil played a role in it as well. Marin knew at some point soon though, the answers would all come to light. The timing would be in Rocko’s next letter the post office would process.

  Loid returned to the main office to talk with Helva. As usual, she sat at in her chair behind the front desk, ready to greet and serve anyone who came in.

  “What do we have Rocko and Phil doing as a job here? I know they do miscellaneous work, but is there a typical workload they follow?” Loid asked the secretary.

  “They work for Fern. Anytime we need something built or repaired, they’re the ones to do it. The orders have been often enough to keep them busy doing just that,” she explained.

  “Do we keep a history of what they worked on?”

  If Rocko was an earth elemental, there was a chance that he might have used some of his abilities to free himself from extra manual labor. If he could find suspicious rock or brick placement, he could have Marin confirm that Rocko was indeed the elemental.

  “Not a detailed log, no. I can go through the projects we’ve ordered though, and can guarantee they’ve worked on at least 80 percent of them,” Helva said.

  Loid nodded. That was not good enough, he was looking for concrete evidence on the work they’ve done.

  “Okay, don’t worry about it. Would you have an idea where Fern’s at during this hour?” Loid continued.

  Helva checked the time.

  “He’d still be on the clock with Rocko and Phil. My guess is that they’re still repairing the pipes from when they froze several days ago. I’d check in the storage room.”

  Before Loid stormed out the room, Helva snagged him with a quick question.

  “Is everything okay, Loid? You seem troubled,” she asked with concern.

  “Oh, sorry. No, everything’s fine. I’m just concerned about the pipes. I hope the damage wasn’t too bad,” Loid tried.

  Fern was going to be the next person Loid would interview. Since he worked so closely with Phil and Rocko, he would ask him if he ever noticed anything odd about the work they did, or any suspicions he might have about them.

  Loid remembered Marin’s words, though. He had to be careful on how he conducted his investigation. If Rocko took notice that Loid was reading deeper into the events that happened, he would attempt to cover up any evidence he could.

  He would have to wait until they were off the clock, and could get Fern alone to talk with him. If Rocko was sloppy and had used his element enough times, Fern might’ve noticed something he shouldn’t have seen. Loid could then bring the evidence to Marin and confirm his theory.

  Back down in the basement, Edward Eisen sat in front of his desk. He had all 4 books open that Marge had pulled for him. He was flipping through the pages, trying to find any information he could on the Hallicent Blossom.

  The book on Saanvoleg Temple yielded no results. It talked about the foundation of the building and what purposed it served in the ancient days, but nothing about the crystal elemental known as Hallicent and his growing of the flowers.

  The book on crystal elementals did indeed talk about Arno Hallicent and how he was known for inventing the amber crystal skill, but had no mention about what occurred in Saanvoleg. Despite not finding what he needed yet, Eisen didn’t count it as a loss. He was getting a decent history lesson.

  The next book finally brought some useful information. On Rare Vegetation, Eisen found the entry about Arno Hallicent’s special flower he grew, and some of the properties on it. In the history of the Hallicent Blossom, it dated the creation somewhere to be in the late 500’s. It also listed the people involved in growing it, and speculations on what purpose it might have served.

  Eisen read the names of the people associated with it.

  The widest grin stretched over his long face.

  “...Well, that wasn’t something I expected to see…” Eisen mentioned to himself.

  The three people involved in growing and developing the flower were Arno Hallicent, Pyreth Inforgus, and Sullivan Marin.