Follow Your Passion: A Seamless Tumblr Journey
The thought of inviting her,
it didn’t even cross their mind, did it?
Heroine stared at the rest of her team, who never seemed to notice her existence. By the loud laughs and noticeable drop of seriousness, they were heading to the bar. Leaving her to be the only to work on their shared case. Again.
Who cares.
She will be the one who laughs at the end.
She might be the outcast here, but it only proved her worth. She works harder, she is more serious, she will solve this case. I will get to see the shock of her so-called teammates as she stares with cold, satisfied eyes.
She just needs to wait patiently until that happens.
Yet it somehow still hurts. And unwillingly, she caught herself stealing glances at the noisy group. Especially at one she thought would act differently. Her rival.
He laughed with the others, seemingly forgetting her existence. He just never acted that way. He always argued with her, competed against her, sent her way his grin when he cracked a case and eye rolls when she beat him to it.
Called when she was sick, noted her insights, listened to her
But apparently there was a company he liked better.
Heroine’s tension calmed a bit when the noisy group finally left. She went over her suspect’s files again, looking for a loose thread. Loneliness was her curse, but mysteries her blessings.
The man she suspected was a history professor.
He is known to lock himself in his apartment and write books, rarely interacting with his colleagues and students.
The victim was a writer who’s newly published first book became the crowd’s favor immediately.
The two have barely known each other.
But Heroine knew how deep jealousy could go. There were days she planned in her mind how she would hide the bodies of her teammates.
He had sent to someone else, the victim’s advisor- several ‘erroneous’ emails. They were clearly separated by words, but each was complete gibberish.
Still, it seemed too weird, and she never saw an ‘error’ such as that.
She had earplugs, a workspace all of her own, and the calming feeling of unveiling another secrecy.
Nothing could invade the mind,
block any worries and make someone forget about their existence like a good mystery.
She didn’t know how long she was in peace, until someone coughed from the other side of the room.
Rival stood there, with a lopsided smile, holding two cups of coffee.
“Something interesting?”
He walked to her desk and placed one cup beside her, having some awkwardness in his movements.
It was a cold coffee, with little milk and ice cubes.
He remembers-
“Oh, umm, thanks.”
Heroine cleared her throat.
“I have a hunch,”
She said, then questioned his motives.
“but it’s just a theory.”
He nodded slightly, getting the hint. But didn’t go yet.
“Well, you, want some quiet or-”
“Aren’t you going with the others?”
He blinked. Then shrugged, still having some awkwardness.
“I can’t let you be the only one who stays over. It makes me look bad.”
“Don’t blame your ugliness on me.”
“Ouch.”
He gave her a half-laugh, and sat in his place. There was silence for a little while. Heroine continued to go over emails, silently listening to Rival unpacking his equipment and playing with his pen.
“So, wanna share some ideas?”
He said it trying to sound unintrested, she noted.
Is this why you stayed?
“What’s it to you?”
“My job, actually.”
He expected a reaction for a moment.
Rival cleared his throat.
“I won’t take your credit.”
Heroine crooked an eyebrow.
“Promise. I wanna catch this bastard as much as you.”
Another’s comments may be helpful, and Rival, as cocky as he is, always kept his word.
“Come take a look.”
He came over, a little too quickly. Then leaned into her desk, right next to her chair. close
“The emails. There are several supposedly emails with errors, they make no sense and only contain one line or so, but there are too many of them.”
Heroine completely immersed herself in the mystery, trying to ignore the warmth she sensed from Rival.
“I tried to check some simple ciphering methods. The thing is, some words make sense when decoding them using straightforward letter-shuffling. But in each email there’s at least one word that never makes sense after deciphering.”
She passed him her papers, and he tilted down to examine it. For a moment, she could see his face from so close. Her gaze immediately turned to the printed emails.
“I highlighted these words. They are the only ones with special characters. If we decipher them, we might have proof that the suspect purposely wrote these emails to hide messages.”
“hmmm…”
His hand was quite close to hers, she realized, some part of her wanted to touch it. Learn exactly how warm he is.
Heroine took her coffee and drank almost all of it in one slip.
“He is not a mathematician, isn’t he? or a puzzler?”
“An historian.”
“It’d be tough to convince he made up a cipher.”
“True.”
“What did he research?”
“He had a fondness for royal families. He’d write about grand schemes and falls and such.”
“Did he write anything about Mary, queen of the scots?”
She tilted her head, trying to remember if she read about such character.
“She’s been the queen of Scotland since she was six, but also wanted England. She got imprisoned and plotted to assassinate Elizabeth the first from a cell.”
“Well, you are knowledgeable, I’ll get you a paper star later,”
Rival rolled his eyes.
“but how does it help us?”
“She communicated her plot using a cipher.”
Heroine’s eyes widened.
“What kind?”
“Quite simple, but hard to decrypt- she used letter switching like you did, but she also made special symbols to refer to people.”
“So if we try to assign to each special character a possible name-”
“We’ll reveal the message.”
She was smiling. This mystery could be solved. Her hunch might be right. Oh, the looks on her teammates’ faces will be wonderful
“This is so much better than a drinking night.”
Rival chuckled, probably amused by my rapture as always.
Only now she noticed that he was smiling brightly, too. But it looked different. It looked softer.
She cleared her throat.
“We should get into it. I made a chart of how the letters shuffle, here, take, just think of things he’d want to hide and see if the texts make sense.”
She leaned over her desk, making a list of possibilities that jumped into her mind.
“Mind if I’ll work here?”
“Sure”
It only took an hour.
Heroine eagerly showed Rival her findings. A possible interpretation of the messages, in which the victim’s name and the place of the murder had code words.
Her hand rushed to her cup, only to see that it was empty long ago.
So this was it. She looked at Rival, and and he seemed a bit saddened, too.
“You can take some credit, you know.”
He waved his hand dismissively, packing his things.
“Nah. You’d figure it out anyway.”
“Oh, absolutely.”
Heroine started packing as well, already realizing she’ll immediately miss… whatever this is that they have now.
“Still, we… we did this together.”
Rival froze for a moment, staring at her with something akin to… awe.
“It’s yours,”
He smiled, incitement returning to his features.
“the fun is enough for me.”
They started walking together towards the door.
“More fun than drinking night?”
“Much more.”
Fortunately, their cars were in the same direction. There was still one more mystery.
“Why did you stay?” “Hm? I told you-”
“Seriously. You never stay overnight. You could actually be drunk right now, with, you know…”
The more amusing parts of our team
There was silence for a few moments, growing more noticeable every second. Rival was rarely out of words.
“It’s kinda nice when it’s just us”
Heroine stopped mid-walking and stared at him. It was her turn to be speechless. Is this…? Is he really…?
“It is”
She agreed, eventually. Both of them stood on the road, blushing.
“We can… um… be tog- ”
She took a big breath.
“We can hang out the office. If you want.”
A small smile came back to Rival’s face.
“Yes. Sure. Great.”
MUCH better than drinking night
I was grateful for the warmth of my horse's neck. I held on to her as she galloped through the city, skillfully going around people who ran everywhere. Searching for shelter in the night, but Only worsening the chaos.
Another lighting struck a building me, causing another yell of screams.
"EVERYONE HOME NOW!"
I shouted, praying that my voice is heard to all through the thunderstorm.
"DIRECT ORDER FROM THE KING!"
"HOME NOW!"
My horse, steadfast as she was, ran through every street. Inspired by her persistence, I kept yelling to the crowd. Ignoring the thunders, the pouring rain and my rattling sword.
We kept going until the crowds dissapeared. I whispered to my horse to slow down, caressing her neck. I allowed myself to lead her to a small market stall, where we could rest from the rain.
Maybe, just maybe, we finished our part. Maybe our night now ends.
"HELP!"
Of course.
I jumped down and ran towards the voice.
"My sister!
She is stuck under the fallen tree!"
I turned and searched for a tree in my eyes, but there is no... NO
The sound of an unleashed sword stood out against the rain.
I sprut towards my horse, but my sheeth was already empty.
Of course. Someone will try to use this disaster.
This will be a long night.
I saw the blade's shine from above me, and recognized a person climbing the nearby stone building.
She balanced herself on a window, then swiftly brought herself to the next.
"Halt!"
Whether she heard me or not, she made no sign to care. So be it.
I got on my horse and stood up on her saddle. My legs shook, but I managed to hold on to grab at the side of the closet window. I tried to move legs up to it, thankful for the empty street. There was no crowd who saw me wobbling in my armor. I looked up to the stranger, she watched me from afar. I couldn't see her face well, but her head was tilted to the side in an amused way.
I let go of the window's side and started taking off my armor, leaving only a dirty shirt to fend me from the cold. Slowly but surely, I climbed up.
I was cold, clumsy and sluggish, but had a small smirk as I managed to make my progress. This troublemaker picked the wrong knight.
The roof was just above me.
I raised my hand to climb there, and a lighting struck above it. It was the closet one I saw. I would want to believe that it's power made me tremble, but nothing but my own terror caused me to lose my grip.
I fell and- No.
A hand caught my arm, and I grabbed the roof tightly. I felt myself being pulled up signed in relief as rested on concrete matter.
The woman crouched down next to me. Her hood's shadow covered her eyes, but I could see her cocky grin clearly.
"You screamed a little, sir craven."
This could go unmentioned.
I inhaled and looked right into her.
"Thank you,"
The cold was taking it's tall at my exposed skin as I tried to keep my voice confident.
"But I cannot let you steal a weapon of the king's knights.
Tell me where the sword is and we both can go home safely."
Just let us go home.
"I have no evil motive,"
She said assuredly.
"It is right there."
She turned around and I could see my sword.
It was a few meters behind her, emedded in the center of the roof.
"And it needs to stay here. This is the only way to keep the lightings at bay."
She did not sound like she was lying.
And if she had any intent to harm me, she would have already done so.
But danger wears many faces.
I started getting up.
"I am sorry, it is my role t-"
A radiant white light crossed from the sky to the roof.
By incstinct, I tackled onto the hooded woman and placed myself between her and the light. I stayed above her, careful not to let us touch and make us both defensless.
Shaking, I waited for a strike.
"We are safe, craven."
Her voice was so sweet, I could barely tell it was the same person.
"Look."
I slowly opened my eyes.
Her hood fell, and revealed a freckled face and a beaming, knowing smile. Her sparkling, green eyes gestured to the sword.
I unwillingly turned back to it.
It was magic.
The very next lighting struck it as well.
"How?"
Her smile grew brighter.
"A witch never tells."
The white lights only highlighted her eyes. She was far more mirthful than I ever thought a witch would be. Far bolder and kinder, too.
I realized that I was smiling as well.
"Also, you have an awful method to protect someone from a lighting."
She said, deciding I was too happy.
"But, thank you, you are..."
Her smile turned softer.
"Yes?"
I urged her to continue. It was my turn to smirk.
"You are not as much as a craven as you seem."
I tilted my head, still smirking.
"Try not to drool too much, my lady."
She merely rolled her eyes and I laughed. Feeling safe for the first time since the night came.
My smile died down when she started getting up.
"Thank you for your chivalry,"
The witch said, pushing dirt of her cloth.
"and the amusement, of course."
I moved aside to let her stand, yet my eyes were unable to let go of her. I did not even know her name.
"But it seems like your duty is done and mi-"
"Wait, just..."
She did.
The cold barely mattered anymore. I searched for a reason, an excuse, for her not to leave. The way her eyes stared into me made it seem like she was looking for an excuse, too.
"Tell me what is needed to protect the city,"
I said then. Praying that the glint in her eyes was not just my imagination.
"I can get more weapons, and people who will embed them wherever is required."
The witch merely stared at me. Looking for any sign of dishonesty. Then her childish grin came right back.
"If you manage to climb down without fainting, I might just cooperate, sir craven."
Her taunt only made me smile.
"Your challenge is accepted, my lady."
I gestures to the roof's end, bowing a bit. She bowed dramatically, holding her hood with both hands as a dress. Her movements were swift and gallant as she jumped to the window, and soon I started following her.
There was a long night ahead of us.I did not mind that at all.