Chapter 89: Vanna
Vanna nodded as her glasses reflected information she was reading from outside the projection’s view. "The Phane City nightlife generally goes up to eleven or one am."
Reinhard nodded while filing the information away.
"Which building are you going to?" Marie asked, leaning forward slightly.
"The storage buildings." Reinhard said after thinking for a minute
Joseph’s brow rose in surprise. "Not the orphanage?"
Reinhard crossed his arms as he leaned back in the chair. "I doubt Phineas would place Anasha, his main actor, in an orphanage for his performance in an orphanage. There’s no way he’d put her at risk in orphanages."
Marie blinked before confusion appeared on her face. "Is something wrong with orphanages? Or do you mean she might get adopted?"
Reinhard’s eyes closed while he gritted his teeth briefly before he spoke. "Not all orphanages are the same, but some of them can lead to kids being hurt and neglected. That isn’t a risk Phineas wants to take, especially since those things tend to be covered up until it’s too late. So he won’t send her there."
Images surfaced in Reinhard’s mind without invitation. Grey walls that seemed to leech heat from his bones. Dormitories crammed with rickety cots, their threadbare mattresses bearing the stains of previous occupants. The other children’s expressions that haunted him the most were eyes that had learned to expect pain rather than comfort whenever adults appeared.
His own arms had carried secret patterns of purple and yellow beneath his clothing. His stomach had known emptiness as discipline for rules broken or merely suspected. He’d watched the older orphans’ perfect invisibility, shrinking into corners, because to be noticed was to be chosen for cruelties that made simple abandonment seem merciful.
He remembered Anna crying quietly after a caretaker had grabbed her arm too hard, leaving fingerprint bruises. He remembered Klein developed a stutter that appeared only when certain adults were nearby. He remembered himself, learning to position his body between his siblings and danger, always ready to take whatever came first.
Not all orphanages were like the one he used to be at and weren’t as severe. But even a bit of this was enough to create trauma in orphan kids. Far too many operated under oversight that was inadequate or deliberately blind, their abuses hidden behind closed doors and falsified records until something catastrophic forced attention.
"That’s terrible. How could they..." Marie’s voice carried genuine distress, her hands clenching in her lap.
Reinhard didn’t respond because he couldn’t, and he wasn’t sure if he could without emotions obscuring it. There were no words that would adequately explain the systematic failures that allowed such places to exist.
And above all else, if I keep talking about it... I would want to burn it all down... Again. Reinhard thought as he summoned Mimir instead, needing the distraction. A streak of black moved from the back of his hand, flowing upward until the crow materialized on his shoulder. Its weight was minimal but grounding.
Marie and Joseph both blinked in surprise at the sudden appearance.
Reinhard glanced at Mimir and said. "Mimir, is there a way for you to let me hear people’s conversations from afar?"
Mimir tilted his head. "That isn’t part of my ability. But I can read lips and relay what they’re saying back."
Joseph’s eyes lit up. "Great, so you won’t need to put yourself at more risk by moving close to listen in."
Reinhard nodded before directing his attention back to the projection. "Vanna, inform the Four of Hearts that we might be followed or being spied on by Phineas’s men."
"I will let them know and we’ll go from there," Vanna confirmed. "I’ll send the suit and mask now."
Reinhard nodded as a small smile of appreciation appeared on his face.
Space began twisting beside him before a silver portal opened. Then the white hawk emerged, flapping its wings as trails of specs came off it. The clothing bundle dangled from its talons, and it dropped into Reinhard’s waiting hands before dissolving into fragments of light.
Reinhard then examined the contents.
A black suit that seemed tailored for stealth rather than fashion, with a mask fashioned to resemble a crow’s face, having a curved beak and empty eye holes. He held up the mask, nodding approval at the shape and features.
"I will contact the Four of Hearts now." Vanna said before the projection faded, her image dissolving into nothing.
Marie and Joseph moved immediately to Reinhard, positioning themselves on either side. Marie placed her palm against the Harrold Mark on Reinhard’s left hand, and Joseph mirrored her on the right.
Warmth flooded into the mark as they channeled their magic and skills. Reinhard saw the familiar sensation of foreign energy integrating within the necklace, the mark absorbing and storing it for future use.
The process took a couple of minutes, both Marie and Joseph maintaining steady output until the mark reached capacity. When they finished and pulled away, Reinhard held up the necklace to see golden-white and gray swirling energy inside of it, with a small amount of black-blue energy stirred. He smiled and then began pouring his own magic with the image of Drasil Step.
After a couple of minutes, the black-blue energy grew to the same size as the other two magical energies.
"We should absorb some souls stocked up by Mimir before we go," Reinhard said as he stretched his arms. "We have a couple of hours to waste."
"That’s true, and this should push me over a hundred." Joseph says, while Marie giggles.
"Hopefully Rein can reach a hundred, too." Marie said in a teasing tone, leading Reinhard’s lips to twitch, but nodded as he hoped so as well.
Reinhard turned to Mimir, who tilted its head in silent question. "Send out the Mensis Town souls. We’ll continue devouring from that big one."
Mimir nodded and then its beak opened impossibly wide, far beyond what should have been physically possible for a crow.
A stream of grey energy rushed out, flowing upward and outward before gathering into a massive sphere that hovered in the air before them.
The soul of Mensis Town.
It was an enormous ball that was composed of swirling grey energy shot through with darker streaks. Hundreds of faces appeared across its surface, all of them were small enough with no gap and unique from each other. Yet Reinhard could see the bits of their true Phantasm Beast form on their face, such as their eyes and fur.
Reinhard, Marie, and Joseph positioned themselves around it, each placing a hand against the writhing surface.
The soul’s energy rushed into them immediately.
Emotions slammed through Reinhard’s consciousness as if he were being punched. He felt burning through his body before he realized it was the fury of people who’d realized too late what was happening to them.
Then came the bottomless and suffocating feeling of despair, the hopelessness of those who’d known they couldn’t escape. And the relief of being able to do something for the person whom they all came to love and care for.
Reinhard’s hand flew to his head, gripping hard enough that his nails dug into his scalp. Beside him, Marie’s arms crossed over her chest, her body curling inward defensively, while Joseph gritted his teeth together as he trembled.
Then the images came.
Through another’s eyes, Reinhard watched young Anasha darting between cobblestones, her cropped blue hair catching sunlight as she led a pack of children through Mensis Town. He felt himself laughing too, not his own laughter but someone else’s, the person whose memories he was experiencing.
The image changes to people dancing in a town square, all of them smiling and enjoying themselves. Music played from somewhere, instruments creating melodies that made bodies sway.
Another image appeared in a cafe interior, packed with people eating and laughing. Conversations overlapped with each other while someone told a joke, and the whole room erupted in laughter.
Then, there was another scene where there were two men fighting outside the inn. They were drunk and throwing clumsy punches while onlookers shouted encouragement or derision. The violence didn’t amount to anything, as by the end, both of them laughed and ended up buying each other drinks.
The images faded gradually, releasing their grip on Reinhard’s consciousness. He blinked, finding himself back in the hotel room, and his breathing came hard, and his hands were shaking slightly.
Marie had tears streaming down her face, though her expression suggested she wasn’t fully aware of them. Her lips were pressed into a tight line, grief and anger flashing across her face.
Joseph’s face had gone pale while he was still gritting his teeth. His eyes stared at nothing, still processing what he’d experienced.
They all sighed simultaneously and then grimaced, and none spoke. What could be said? They’d just experienced fragments of lives that had been stolen, twisted, destroyed. Words felt inadequate.
Silence settled over the room as each of them leaned back in their chair and worked on adjusting.
Two hours passed in quiet preparation. They absorbed more from the massive soul in smaller increments, building their strength while avoiding the overwhelming flood of emotions that larger doses brought.
Reinhard reviewed the building layouts Vanna had provided. Marie and Joseph discussed their meeting with the Four of Hearts, planning routes and contingencies.
The clock reached nine PM.
Reinhard grabbed a small black bag, placing the suit and mask inside along with a few basic tools. He glanced at Marie and Joseph, both of whom nodded readiness.
"Be careful." Marie said quietly.
"Always am." Reinhard replied, a faint smile touching his lips before he headed for the door.