Chapter 10
Since the summer solstice, the dynamics inside the house of the winds had completely shifted. The peace, the sweet, specific peace of our picturesque street was entirely gone, and Anemo's life had become an endless string of unannounced visits and unexpected phone calls from Arbalest or Trenci, or the distinguished Daisy Queen, who had made a habit of dropping by every time she took her precious dog, Lady Bell, out for a walk.
On top of that, there was Fleur, who wasn’t exactly a nuisance but had turned into a sort of editor, almost as nagging as Archibald, and Noel's pigeons had become incredibly noisy, accompanied by Skye's barking; Aura Gale called him but also visited daily, threatening him with a fresh, textbook-perfect deep clean, and his inspiration had fled somewhere, God knows where, despite the hours he spent on the living room armchair in front of his laptop.
Sleep eluded Anemo both night and day, leaving him with massive bags under his eyes.
Life wasn't any rosier for the furry residents of the house either. They were constantly watching for the right moment to study the contents of the khaki backpack, which had been hidden inside the living room recliner for days. What was the use of getting it down from the coat rack if they couldn't even use it?
Not a single wind in the house of the winds was in its element, and this had created an almost palpable tension throughout the entire home.
On the night between Saturday and Sunday, June 28th, though it was very late, Anemo could not sleep. Did I mention he is a Libra? Well, if I didn't, I'm telling you now. Anemo is a Libra, and falling asleep is a far from simple process for his kind. When thoughts jumble and crowd into his head at night, he starts counting. Not sheep—that would be too cliché; he counts things based on a certain theme or names... in alphabetical order. On that particular night, he had already counted all the verbs he could remember in Spanish, then moved on to Korean dramas, then to names of actresses starting with the letter A, then actors... only to realize it was already two in the morning.
"What if I make myself a coffee? No, better a lavender tea. Mom made sure to leave me a whole 'library' of teas."
With barefoot steps, wearing pajamas with little fish prints instead of his sheep ones (after all, he was wealthy, as Sirocco would say), Anemo walked down the thick gray-carpeted stairs in perfect silence. He didn't even turn on the light; the streetlamp outside provided enough illumination. He walked almost like a somnambulist, but as he reached the living room, small noises—a sort of rustling—caught his attention.
"What's going on here?" he thought, and pressed the handle of the living room door.
Bathed only in the light from the streetlamp outside, right in the middle of the living room on the plush carpet, his furry companions had formed a circle around something... like a chart on a piece of linen cloth, on the corners of which they had placed several figurines—replicas of real artifacts.
A council of the "wise," completely far-fetched...
"What is going on here, right in my living room? What are you doing? My God, either I'm losing my mind or I managed to fall asleep and now I'm dreaming."
At the sight of him, the furry animals reacted neither with surprise nor fear. Only the white Bise walked toward him and curled up like a muff on his bare feet. Instinctively, like any cat lover, Anemo picked her up and began to stroke her to calm her down.
That was all it took.
The moment Anemo's fingers sank into the long, silky Angora fur, a fine vibration, like a warm electric current, started from the hidden bead around the cat's neck and shot straight up his arm, settling behind his ears. The semi-dark living room seemed to spin just once, and inside his
exhausted head, the white noise of the night was suddenly replaced by a cascade of incredibly clear voices, all speaking at once.
"Mon Dieu, Anemo! Watch where you step so you do not hurt yourself! There are probably several bliz-bitz scattered around here... You have arrived at the opportune moment!" an elegant, deep voice with an unmistakable Parisian accent echoed from the circle on the living room carpet.
Anemo blinked rapidly, convinced that his mother's lavender tea should have been drunk much earlier. But the hallucination did not stop there. From the bottom corner of the cloth, a high-pitched, innocent, and extremely rushed voice continued:
"Aha! I told you Anemo was rich! See, Miss Remi? He has a whole collection of pajamas."
Sirocco agitated his orange, question-mark-shaped tail, staring at the scarab statue with wide, amber eyes. On the gray carpet, right in the center of the circle drawn with sepia ink, a tiny ball of gray fur stood up on its hind legs. It was Aeolus, clearing his throat with pure academic solemnity:
"Agent 003.5 reports: the data on the linen is clear. Geometric synchronization points to September 23rd. The Autumn Equinox is our window, but we need a human calculator to approximate the coordinates from Cairo."
Anemo felt his legs turn to gelatin. In his arms, the white Angora cat looked up, her blue eyes blinking languidly a few times as she addressed him in a warm, calm, perhaps slightly rehearsed voice:
"Has the cat got your tongue, Mr. Writer? Or should I call you Indigo Soul?"
The white cat didn't have time to say more before our man fell flat on his back, having no time to avoid any bliz-bitz or artifact replicas. He fell right onto a necklace featuring the Eye of Horus—which was far from comfortable.
*
When he opened his eyes, the light from the streetlamp outside projected long shadows onto the ceiling. His head was throbbing like a broken pendulum, and a warm, white weight sat on his chest. Bise had perched herself there, looking both like a protective and a commanding goddess at the same time.
"Are you back with us? I must stay here to keep the connection open. Please do not faint again! It's me, Remi! Old Nick possessed me to put a necklace I found in your Japanese cherry tree around my neck and... here I am. You're the only one who can untangle this mess, you absolutely must contact your father!"
"O... okay, I won't faint. To hell with the lavender tea! I want a strong drink!"
Remi-Bise laughed softly.
"Fine, but remember, only my collar keeps the connection open!"
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