Wall

The walk back to the Chapterhouse stayed uneventful. I noticed a lot more coughing than I had before. Each time I thought I heard it, I turned out of habit. Knowing another person had it didn’t help me. It didn’t add to my knowledge. It just stacked up the statistical percentage that probably all had it.

Did this many have it? Was I this blind to it before? I guess I was. Dammit.

Stepping into the House, I contemplated how I was going to approach the situation. I hadn’t even had a conversation about Louise’s condition with her mother. That felt like where I needed to start, but I didn’t know how much of an Orthodox Scien they were. They attended the Basilica regularly, I knew that much. So this could be a difficult chat.

However, I didn’t see anyone at the desk when I came in. I looked around for anyone. It was empty. “Hello? Mrs. Lalonde? Louise?” Nothing.

I glanced at the door to their home. Without a good reason, I couldn’t just barge in there. Leonce had to be working still, so I went to the place where I was welcome, maintenance. And yet checking each of the rooms, I found no one. They were all missing. A family event?

Apart from all being missing, I didn’t hear anything that seemed off. So I should give them their privacy until they return. For all I knew, they were doing repairs on the damage that Louise caused.

For the rest of the day, I had no luck in catching them. I didn’t stake out the lobby as that felt a little inappropriate, but I did check a couple times in the remaining part of the day. Either I had terrible luck with catching them or something happened.

My mind couldn’t help but create worrying images of what it could be. I just hoped that Louise hadn’t gotten any worse. The picture of the corpse in the Basilica came back to me. It didn’t feel right to assume that was the end result for everyone. I felt like even if the Basilica hid something fatal even they would have said something by now. I hoped.

Sleep wasn’t great with the doubt in my mind. I forced myself through it and woke up less than rested. This was all going to catch up to me, but I’m young still, right?

After taking part of the morning for my routines, I went down to see if they were finally available. To my relief, she was at the counter. I waved to her as I came down the stairs.

“Morning, Miss Valeria!”

“Mornin’” The lobby didn’t have anyone else. I sort of hoped to see Louise, just to know how she was doing. Arriving at the desk, I was already getting a bit of a stare down from her. I guess I had made myself a bit of a troublemaker for them. “How’s Louise doing today?”

“Full of energy and a terror.”

“Glad to hear it.” I glanced down trying to find my next words. If Louise was healthy, that was a good thing, but also made it a little more difficult to bring up. Even Louise acted like it was just a normal thing. It shouldn’t be.

Adelphe however, in my hesitation, stepped forward first. “Is there something I can help you with?” A bit of a biting tone ran under her words. She kept cordial, but clearly wanted me to leave.

This was going to be even more difficult than I expected. I pushed myself too hard before. Hindsight and my nosiness kicked my ass now. But I couldn’t let it hold me before. Mistakes or no, I wanted to do something. “Yes actually. I was wondering if you or your husband might know anyone in the Basilica.”

A confused and slightly lowered guard came over her. I think that it had nothing to do with Louise or intruding on them dampened things ever so slightly. “Why? Is there some specialized maintenance that you need?”

“Yeah, I’ve something complicated that is not functioning properly, but it’s got pretty special needs. I usually have the Basilica take a look at it because they got the machines to give it a once over.” If I was being honest, I did have a couple things that fit into that category, but none at the moment that needed that work. “If you’ve got someone good you can recommend, that’d be a great help. Someone you trust.”

Some of her confusion cleared up a bit, but took a moment to think about it. She still appeared to be trying to judge me. I didn’t think she felt I was lying, just I think trust was what stuck for her. Did she want to send a troublemaker to someone that she knew? I could hurt their reputation if I did something to offend the Basilica. And they did rely on staying in good standing with them.

However, before she could start, she leaned over suddenly coughing roughly up from the core. I pressed on the counter in surprise. It didn’t have the same deep rattling sound that I heard from others, but it wasn’t a clearing of the throat either. It sounded like she had a cold.

It took a little bit for the coughing fit to clear. The longer it lasted the worse it started to get. Was this the start of it? Is it really transmittable? Did Louise give it to her?

Once the woman fully recovered, I lowered myself back to my heels. “Are you okay? That sounded bad.”

She nodded and waved dismissively to me. Adelphe quickly went to a mental ritual touching her right hand to five points in prayer. “It’s fine. It’s just going around.”

“Going around? What do you mean?”

I realized after I spoke that I sounded more aggressive in my question than I meant. It set her back a step. I think the only thing that saved me is that she thought I was being paranoid about catching it. “A bunch of people I know have a cough. It just happens and goes away.”

“Goes away, like never comes back?”

“I wouldn’t say that. Just not persistent. It just happens. Ya know, like ever so often in the day.”

“So you’ve had a cough for a while?”

“No, no, it only started today. I guess it was my time.”

It was your time? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Did you think this was fate? Breath and calm down. “Is it something that the Basilica can fix?”

She shook her head again. “No, it’s just a cough, what are they going to do?”

“But that’s not a normal function of an augment. They should be able to tell you what’s wrong.”

“There’s nothing wrong.” She leaned forward, getting more insistent on her position. I noticed that I crept forward some and I think my voice started to raise as well. Dammit, I let my emotions go out of control. She’d gone defensive.

But how can she not see this is a problem? Her husband works on augments for a living. She should know what isn’t normal. Why is she willfully ignoring it? “Even your husband could check you out to see, right?”

“ Nothing is wrong! Sol take you if you say anything more about it.”

My hands clenched into fists. She fell back on dogma, dammit. I’m dealing with a wall once more. It’s that guy outside of the Basilica all over again. Is the Basilica just telling everyone that it’s fine and normal? What is their plan in all of this?

I was getting sharp glares from her now. She demanded that I leave her alone. What could I do? She wasn’t going to let me press the issue anymore. And I had no contact to talk to at the Basilica. I was just going to be stuck with every single one of these zealots blissfully ignoring obvious warnings.

For a moment, I considered if her husband would be any better. I hardly talked to him other than at dinner, but I doubted he was any less of an ardent follower. He likely was even worse due to his work.

I took a couple steps back from the counter to show her that I wasn’t going to press the matter further. Our relationship was already tense and I couldn’t hurt it anymore. But what could I even do?

Suddenly, a loud smash echoed through the lobby. It sounded like something crashed into a wall or heavy machinery failed wildly. Either way, we both stared back at the disturbance. It came from their home.