ASTURIAN ISLAND
10.01.8462 - 1:28 PM
Lunch was served, and all the guests who had spent the morning on the kitchen table, cooking and trying to make Vaughan forget about bad memories, decided to go upstairs to their rooms. Mário thought it best to accompany Vaughan to his room and stay with him until the vampire slept. Nair arranged a room for Marta before retiring to her room, just across from the Greater Atrium in the East Wing, which connected to the hallway where the guests were allocated. Mila pulled Scarlet aside before she entered her room.
"Listen, what do you think of going to Jeannie's room? Take a look around there?" Asked the girl, her blue eyes brighter than usual.
"Really? I'm terrified of being here; I only came because of Van. Isn't it better if we go into our rooms and protect ourselves?" Said Scarlet, discouraged and shrunken.
"Yes, it would be the best, but I don't know if it would be correct," said Mila. "So far, no one has been there, no one has searched her room, and maybe we find some hint. Let's go, please! I went to the Kitchen and got stabbed for you..."
"Oh, what an absurd drama, don't talk like that. I'm already feeling extremely guilty; if you had died, I would have killed myself..."
"Wow, who is being dramatic now?"
"It is true! Imagine, I would have been responsible for my sister-in-law's death. It's an unbearable situation," Scarlet spoke seriously. "You almost died because of me; you were hurt because of me..."
"Scarlet, it makes no sense; the responsible is the one who stuck the knife in me. I saw a strong yellow light and heat before fainting. You tried to attack whoever stabbed me; it was courageous of you," said Mila. "And we don't know what would have happened if you hadn't done it; maybe the killer would have finished killing me. You probably saved me that night," Mila hugged Scarlet carefully. "Thank you for saving my life, sister-in-law."
Scarlet gave an awkward smile.
"Looks like now we're really going to call a 'killer' whoever is behind this," said the blonde girl.
"Indeed," Mila said, staring at nothing. "Someone has actually died. By the way, my attack is yet another strange thing, my wound has healed enough to reduce the blood loss, and I only felt pain when the knife came in; right after, it was a huge feeling of dizziness. It wasn't pain, it was like I had taken sleeping pills; when I woke up, I no longer felt any pain. Now I do feel pain and discomfort, but something at the time anesthetized me very deeply. Why would that happen?" Mila questioned, putting her hand instinctively over the wound.
"It's true, Mila; it doesn't make sense," Scarlet replied.
"And that's why we need to try to find answers," said Mila. "If someone has just been murdered in Ástur, the killer would not have time to arrive on the island, unless it was by plane, ship, or Vidde, and we have ways of monitoring it, if something enters here on the island by these channels, we will know...
"Wait, you're talking about something important, which we also did not assess, how someone entered the island?" Scarlet questioned. "We need to confirm with Richard and Vaughan all the ways to enter and leave the island."
"Yes. We need to pay attention to this too. We were calculating as if the killer were here, but it is now on the mainland."
"Mila, and if there are more than one? What if there is one here on the island and one on the mainland?" Scarlet asked.
"I was going to get to that point now. That's one of the reasons we need to go to Jeannie's room. All the horror and thriller movies we grew up with are fiction. What Nair and my mom said makes sense; we don't know what violence is. What we know is through horror movies made to scare us. And who was the person most fascinated by horror books, historical serial killers, and thrillers?"
"Jeannie," Scarlet replied.
"Exactly! We need to go to her private library. If there is a diary or a note, we need to understand. I also thought, just like you: it could be two people, that would not be new, not in fiction."
"Ok, ok, you convinced me. Let's go to Jeannie's room," Scarlet spoke, walking along the corridor towards the smaller atrium in the east wing.
They walked around the Atrium and stopped in front of Jean's bedroom door. They took a deep breath and opened the door. All the air they put into their lungs disappeared when Mila opened the double doors, and the girls faced the room's interior.
MOTTAMOTOR
10.01.8462 - 12:56 PM
Lélia was recovering and wiping the tears from her face. She went back to looking at the name in the spreadsheet through her computer: Felício Arcanjo.
"I can't believe it. How am I going to make this public?" She asked herself.
Her MC rang, it was Lúcio, and she answered already saying:
"Who has access to this spreadsheet?" She asked.
"Just you and me."
"Okay, I'll see what I do. For now, this information is top secret; if you leak it, I will exonerate you with a treason allegation. This is something politically important," Lélia spoke seriously.
"I understand perfectly. Do you want me to disable the site and permanently delete the data?"
"Please do it now."
"Doing it."
"Thanks. I will see what we do to try to contain this damage," Lélia hung up without saying goodbye.
She selected to update the page information with the Dashboard, but an error message appeared indicating that it no longer existed. Lélia then went to her downloads on her computer, selecting the file and clicking Shift+Delete. She leaned back in her armchair and thought for a few minutes. This could indeed be a murder that would generate a severe state crisis for Ástur. The power couldn't just be in her hands. She should call Charlotte. She lifted her body back to the table and called Charlotte.
"Hi, Lélia," Charlotte answered, "I am now boarding my ship to go to Arkadia," she lied. "What happened?"
"I found out who was murdered," Lélia spoke.
"Who?"
"Felício Arcanjo," Lélia spoke.
"I can't believe it. Lélia, do you understand the problems that this creates?" Charlotte asked.
"Perfectly. That's why I'm calling you. What do we do?" Questioned Lélia lost.
"We will do the usual, we will be transparent, hiding will only be worse, when the information is released, it is very likely that there will be a tsunami of problems, but we will deal with them. I will support you on this."
"I'll need it," Lélia assumed.
"Authorize the disclosure, Lélia," Charlotte spoke as she entered her ship.
"I'll do it. Do you want to revoke my responsibilities?" Lélia questioned.
"No, you're the right choice. As I told you, I'll support you. If you were the person behind this, it would be too obvious to murder Felício, wouldn't it?" Charlotte's question was not rhetorical.
"Yes."
"Well, authorize the disclosure. And then it's damage control," Charlotte spoke. "You've been through worse, and I would never revoke your powers less than twelve hours after I chose you to lead Asturias. That would be more my mistake than yours, and you know, I never make a mistake," Charlotte spoke.
Lélia took a deep breath and spoke.
"Okay, I'll authorize the release. I will keep myself off today. Tomorrow I'll be back with you, and we'll already have an ocean of things to solve. We can organize by theme, color, and alphabet," Lélia spoke, trying to break the ice.
"Yeah, let everything come today during the day, and tomorrow we will select by priority," said Charlotte. "But I believe that a public note from me will be enough to calm things down. The problem will be totally speculative. But anyway, you are a public figure, the most important in Asturias today, so we will have to treat it very gently. Well, I'm going to hang up, we're going to explode through the sky in a little while. Kisses and good luck," Charlotte spoke.
The line was muted when the Supersovereign disconnected. Lélia remained seated, extremely worried, Charlotte said she would support her, but the Queen didn't show that much concern with the situation. It was as if Charlotte asking for the disclosure was a trap for her. She soon pushed those thoughts away and selected Lucius' contact.
"Hi, I talked to Charlotte. We are going to make the information public," Lélia said. "Arrange for it to be personally given to Felício's family by our agents. Explain that we will treat him as a homeland hero. And only after we have confirmation that everyone close to him has been notified will we reveal it to the newspapers. OK?" Lélia spoke.
"OK. This is an important decision. Are you sure I can go on with it?" Questioned Lucius.
"Yes, you can," Lélia replied. "Thank you, see you later."
"See ya."