Lottie wondered around the kitchens of the manor wondering how she could create her next masterpiece,
“Inzpiration, I Need Inzperation”
That creature of Lord Kane, #74 I think she was called she must know where I can find Inzperation for my Masterpiece she mused to herself
So taking a guard she headed over to the Hanover Camp to procure the services of his faithful homoculi
The bottles rattled and clinked together loudly in the crate as Leo shifted his grip to get a better hold. The bottles that filled the box were an assortment of different colours, shapes, and sizes (whatever they could find really) and had all been vigorously scrubbed then boiled to sterilise them for use in the infirmary for the various medicines Moss had been busying herself preparing the last few days. They had been gone from the camp for almost two months and a lot had happened in that time here on Skye.
Leo rounded the corner of the building into the wind and across the courtyard beside the taverna he saw Esther moving off with Zek past the abulation block towards the northwest barracks and the laboratory. He opened his mouth to call out to his friends but then thought better of it. It was Zek’s tongue that the demon prince Moloch had cut out but since his return Leo found it was actually he who couldn’t say anything. He could not find proper voice to the swirl of conflicting emotions that he felt at his dear friend’s mutilation; sorrow, relief, fear, anger… guilt. Guilt that he hadn’t been here to prevent it. He and Moss had left Skye to find Zek and Ivy after receiving news that they were both dead and had travelled half way around the world. It had all been for nothing though as their loved ones had made it back on their own. If Leo had been here maybe he could have stopped what had happened, maybe Zek would still be whole and poor Mitaslav and others would still be alive. Hanover Refugee Camp was his command, his responsibility, the people here were his family and he’d hadn’t been here when he was needed. Leo was resolved that he wouldn’t be be leaving it again.
He headed up the ramp into the dim interior of the taverna, through the corridor into the infirmary and over to a fluttering curtain in the corner. Pushing it aside revealed his wife sitting cross legged on the floor, a mortar and pestle before her with which she ground away furiously mixing some exotic smelling concoction. Moss looked up from her work at his arrival with wide bright eyes and a smile radiated out across her beautiful face and Leo felt his worries melt away in its warmth. It was over a year since they’d found each other again, and over six months since they had married, yet her effortless ability to lift his soul still surprised and awed him. He set the crate of bottles down on the table beside her.
“There we go my angel,” he said with a smile of his own and leaned down to kiss her forehead.
Zek sat down on the chair in his cramped corner of the lab and looked up at Esther, who leaned back against the workbench, studiously ignoring the jar of eyeballs that someone had left out. Zek frowned at the jar. #74 was usually more relentlessly tidy than that. Maybe someone had been considering a replacement for Dray, he thought. He became momentarily entranced by the eyes staring back at him, and then he realised that Esther was still there, looking at him expectantly.
He fished out his notebook and flipped it open to the page where he’d scrawled the alphabet. It was faster to tap out a message than write it, and besides, he was starting to run out of paper. He’d been meaning to ask Leo to request a consignment, but he was a little worried about talking to Leo. It seemed that Zek’s condition was having a severe impact on Leo’s mental state, and Zek had elected not to remind Leo of it. Better to stay away from Hanover.
‘I’ve been thinking about the grenades’, he tapped. ‘If they’re used for artillery purposes, then you’d only need standard holy water.’ His message was actually ‘I’ve been thinking grenades. If artillery, then only need standard hw,’ but Esther seemed to grasp his full meaning.
He paused, and then added ‘How’s Harriet?’
Esther dug through her bag. Her search for a pen proved fruitless, but she produced a knitting needle. That would do.
Somehow, it seemed more efficient to communicate with Zek using the same medium he did, when possible- Probably, she suspected, because of her own years of silence when she was younger. She still remembered the writing systems, the private codes, the shortcuts that she had used with her uncle and governess, and they came back to her with surprising ease.
“Good news about the grenades,” she tapped out. “Then anyone could make them. Any thoughts on explosive material? Would be better if we didn’t need demon blood. Does anything else combust when it makes contact with water? I don’t know anything about chemistry. Maybe we should talk to Orpha.”
[quote=“musicforwolves”] ‘How’s Harriet?’
[/quote]
Esther closed her eyes and massaged her forehead. “Loud!” she tapped, then, “Everything seems normal, at least. She’s with Margaret now. How are you?”