Chapter 81: Across the Road

They all watched the door open. Two officers wearing battle dress uniforms came in without any hesitation in their steps. Both of them were wearing masks. One swept the room with a glance, while the other shifted slightly to the side of the doorway.

"That’s open..." one of them said, "the back door."

"Hmm." The other officer just nodded.

Rhovan and the others did not move. He warned the others that the concealment hid their bodies and the sounds originating from within the gold light, but it could not hide changes they could cause to the environment.

When the two uniformed officers confirmed that everything was clear, Marek heaved a sigh. ’At least this place is safe now... I don’t know what could’ve happened—’

A <anno data-annotation-id="1491f3b9-fb91-319e-7337-4468c6011bdb" data-title="dosette box">dosette box¹</anno> suddenly moved. The physical pills inside rattled, creating noise.

’Shit!’ Kellan cursed inside his head. ’I didn’t mean to touch and move it with my foot! I was just so sleepy! Fuck!’

The two uniformed men stopped in their tracks and looked in his direction. They squinted and looked at that area.

"Did that box just move?" one of them said.

"It moved. I’m sure of it," the other one said. "Its one side was about thirty degrees farther out than it was before."

’A Scorpius?’ Silas tensed.

"You must be imagining it, or it might be some rat that moved it..." the other replied. "After all, we already checked. There’s no other person here, and they can’t hide from your eyes."

The other guy gave a skeptical look at the box. Then, he shook his head. "Perhaps..."

The two officers eventually left the clinic after several more minutes of checking the bulletin board. However, Rhovan still kept the golden concealment up. He waited until their footsteps faded completely from the front of the clinic. After confirming, the light around the group thinned out and disappeared completely.

"Wooooh! That was so intense! My groin is sweating!" Nadia remarked.

’Do you really have to say that?’ Marek asked in his mind, wondering if there were any other people here who would be as sensible as he was. They were getting worse day by day.

Silas then positioned himself near the entrance door. He did not relax one bit. He kept his attention on the street. With them, there were several civilians—most probably those that have been looking for their family and were promised that they would find them. They were not here earlier, so they must be ones found by the officers.

Well, if they wanted the easy route to finding their families, they would immediately choose this path, unlike Marek, who was down and dirty with finding his family. A nineteen-year-old with such resolve was something Silas would admire.

He then turned around and told them about the situation.

"There was someone else across the road while they were inside," he said. "A woman in silver-white clothing. Her hair is dark. Other than that, I have nothing else I could probe into. It was like something was obscuring me from looking into her identity further."

"That same woman?" Marek’s attention was immediately piqued.

Silas nodded, though something about his expression made Marek wait before asking anything else. "She never entered the clinic. She stayed across the street almost the entire time the patrol was here. Rafe could confirm it for me."

Rafe just nodded in agreement.

"Almost?" This sparked Marek’s curiosity the most.

"She moved once." Silas glanced back through the doorway as though checking the street once more. "Another woman walked past her with a bag in one hand. For a moment, they were beside each other. When they looked at this place, they turned their heads at the same time."

Marek’s brows drew together.

"Do they look the same? Why haven’t I sensed her?" Rhovan narrowed his eyes, and soon his eyes slowly widened. "If she was truly there... no... if that was the same woman whom the Ophiarch’s lovely sister was always with... if Silas really saw the same woman, then either she concealed herself from me... or what he saw wasn’t her entire presence..."

Silas ignored his remark, but he felt the shivers crawl over his spine. He then continued, "Same speed. Same angle. Even the way their shoulders moved was almost identical. Then, the other woman kept walking like nothing happened and disappeared into thin air."

Rhovan’s previous amusement disappeared entirely. "Either Silas never saw her the way he thought he did... or she’s just strong enough to decide what part of herself people are allowed to notice."

Marek clenched his fist as he listened to both of them. "Did you see... d-did you see my sister?"

Silas just shook his head. "She had no one with her, but the other one was still there."

He folded his arms before he continued, "The moment they were far away enough, she walked between two buildings."

"What do you mean?" Marek looked confused.

"We checked before the patrol arrived. Rafe and I. The passage ends against a wall. There’s a service door, but it was locked from the outside. Perhaps she went through there and disappeared like the other one."

Marek immediately moved toward the dusty windows. He opened it slightly, just enough for him to have a clearer view of the street.

’So that woman was just there... the timing is just...’

She wasn’t there anymore.

Marek leaned back from the window and closed it. "It seems like she’s following the records, too."

Rhovan frowned. He then replied, but he did not immediately agree—very unlike his usual self, especially when it came to Marek.

"Perhaps. We know someone matching her description was previously connected to the group traveling with your sister, and now someone matching that same description appeared near a message between you and your mother. That makes the coincidence suspicious, don’t you think?" He paused and then continued, "It still doesn’t explain why she allowed Silas enough time to notice and observe her. What was her motive?"

"She should be powerful enough to obscure everyone’s senses... but she chose not to with Silas," Marek analyzed. ’Why? Is she not good after all? But why did Mom trust her so much that she left Mara with her?’

<annotations style="display: none;">is frequently referred to as a compliance aid or medication tray and is a compartmentalized storage device utilized to arrange pharmacological doses according to a prescribed schedule.</annotations>