Daybreak's Crest: A Zodiac Story

Chapter 16: Drawing Out Conclusions

Where would I hide...?

Virgo walked along the shop front down to the dark alleyway next to it. The only thing that seemed to be visible was a pile of trash lying at the end, and the horrific smell of rotting food seemed to agree. Even so, the dark-haired girl decided to step inside anyway, pinching her nose to block out the smell as she knelt by the piles of trash.

It's just rotting food. What should I have expected?

Virgo rose to her feet, breathing out shallowly through her mouth as she turned around to head back out into the main street. However, something seemed to tug her attention back to the trash; something she hadn't initially seen but perhaps she had noticed it at the edge of her vision subconsciously. Right next to the piles of trash was a scrap of paper, caught underneath a hunk of badly-chopped wood.

Virgo tugged it free and studied it.

It seemed to be a drawing – a very well done one, at that – of a face. Dusted upon the page in charcoal were the curves and contours of a girl's delicate features, with the barest hints of charcoal to hint at the appearance of pale hair. Written below were words that trailed off the torn edge of the paper: in curling font sprawled across the page they read 'esse' and the first and last half of the word was lost. Beneath, in tiny print, lilted the words 'Historical Cycle of...' and that, too, was lost to whatever trauma the scrap of paper had gone through.

Virgo stared at the face.

There was that feeling again – of something straining at the edges of her mind, like how the scent of the perfume in the shop was oddly familiar.

"Esse..."

Is it a name? Am I imagining things, or is this person... does she have a connection to my past? Without really thinking about it, Virgo tucked the scrap of paper into her pocket, feeling her mind whirl uncontrollably with possibilities and ideas as she turned to head back into the shop.

And what... what does Historical Cycle mean? Is it a title? A name? Why is it on there? Maybe the girl is just a famous person I might've seen before I lost my memories, or just a random girl. Maybe I'm invading someone's privacy. But... if it gets me closer to knowing about something... I'll be satisfied.

And as an afterthought: It was is the trash already, so surely whoever drew this didn't want it. I suppose they wouldn't mind if I took it...

-x-x-x-

Libra wasn't quite sure what he was doing.

Sure, Scorpio had briefed them to look for 'suspicious things or people' – but so far, Libra wasn't quite sure what was suspicious and what wasn't. Was the shopkeeper suspicious, or was she just finding their presence strange? They were foreigners, after all. Or was the selection of goods on the shelf suspicious – tiny clay statues of lizards and birds and rodents – or were they just handcrafted goods that held no other meaning? (Libra didn't know whether a clay statue of a lizard would be able to hold any, er, 'malicious intent'.)

The shop itself was rather large for what it seemed in the beginning, too. After descending the stairs embedded in the side of the slope down into the shop, they had ended up in a fairly warm, homey room made of oak. A glass jar of clear liquid sat by the shopkeeper's desk with several sticks standing up inside, producing some sort of floral scent.

The towering shelves around them created a labyrinth of assorted, seemingly random products that proved no help in navigating around. After taking one turn, Libra had found himself hopelessly lost and separated from the others.

It's just a shop, after all. I'm not going to get lost in a shop, am I? I'll end up at the entrance eventually. Libra chided himself. Virgo, Scorpio or Cancer will call for me if we have to leave.