CHAPTER 86: ON MT. HELENE

"Ms. Collin is not in Solarys yet?" Rolland Taylor raises his eyebrows.

"Well, she’s not here either. She left Arvion two days ago — she should be there."

He listens to the person on the phone, frowning deeper.

"Yeah, I’m sure. She hasn’t shown up for two days. If she’s not in Solarys, I have no idea where she is."

He hangs up and looks at his employee. "Ryn, Ms. Collin isn’t here, right? She returned to Solarys?"

Ryn Reinfeld nods. "Yes, Mr. Taylor. I booked her flight myself. Two days ago."

Rolland’s frown hardens. "That’s what I thought. But the Solarys office just called, she’s not there and they can’t reach her."

Ryn mirrors his frown. "That’s strange. I hope she’s okay."

Rolland chuckles lightly. "She’s a librarian, Ryn. She’ll be fine. Nothing bad ever happens to a librarian. Maybe she took an unpaid vacation and forgot to tell Solarys."

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Maeve Collin, the "missing librarian," is very much not on vacation.

She’s currently being chased by something she can’t see.

She crouches behind a large glowing tree, trying to make herself as small and silent as possible. Her hand clamps over her mouth, muffling her rapid breathing as she fights the urge to cry.

This...

This isn’t supposed to happen.

Things are not supposed to be like this.

Those words keep repeating in her mind as she struggles to understand how everything went so wrong so fast.

Hearing nothing, she slowly leans sideways, peeking out from behind the trunk to check if the thing chasing her is still there.

She doesn’t notice the pair of green, faintly glowing eyes creeping up behind her.

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"What do you mean it’s too dark? This is a matter of life and death! We can’t wait until daylight!" Liam’s voice gets louder and tighter by the second.

"Mr. Monfort, we understand the urgency," the ranger says, trying to stay calm. "But the sun has already set. We can’t see anything out there. We can’t search like this. It’s too dangerous. We have no choice but to wait until sunrise."

While Liam argues, Arthur hangs back, studying the ranger station. Only two rangers are on duty: one locked in a losing debate with Liam, the other hunched over a computer with a map spread across the table beside him.

Arthur moves to the second ranger. "Are those markings the locations where people went missing?"

The ranger looks up and nods. "Yes, sir. I’m trying to narrow down the radius. Once the sun is up, we can start searching right away."

"That’s a good approach," Arthur says.

The ranger brightens. "Thank you, sir. We’ve been getting missing person reports every day, but whenever we try searching, we never find anything."

"How many people are missing, according to your records?"

"Thirty-four. But I’m afraid the real number is higher."

"Why?"

"One of the relatives mentioned that Mt. Helene’s police station has received around forty reports."

Arthur frowns. "Why report it to the police and not here?"

"Location, sir. They think it falls under police jurisdiction. But since it’s all happening around Mt. Helene, it should be reported here."

He shrugs. "But we already have more than enough cases, so we didn’t... do anything about it."

Arthur pauses. "When did these disappearances start?"

"About two days after the Beachwalk dungeon was cleared."

Arthur’s eyebrows lift. "That’s over two weeks ago. People have been going missing since then? Why wasn’t this escalated?"

"We didn’t know the cases were connected until recently," the ranger mutters.

Arthur exhales slowly. This could have been prevented.

He turns to check on Liam, who is still locked in the same argument. Arthur scans the room for Aldriana and spots her outside through the window, standing still with her back to the building.

What is she doing out there?

Arthur hasn’t spoken much to her. In the car, she was quiet. She only spoke when spoken to or when she needed clarification about the situation. Neither he nor Liam had much to give her, so she eventually fell silent.

He knows he can trust her, but somehow, Arthur denies that. How can he trusts someone whom he hasn’t spoken that much and just met? But he knows he does.

He shakes his head as if to get rid of the thought. He steps outside and approaches Aldriana.

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When they arrived at the park ranger’s office, Aldriana didn’t step inside with them. She stayed outside, "feeling" the area with her limited mana.

The forest is pitch black. There’s no light coming from the hiking trail or the mountain side.

She has scanned the area a few more times, carefully. Her findings remain the same: the mountain has almost no living creatures. No humans, no animals in a certain stretch of the slope.

No humans she understands.

But no animals?

This is a dense, wild forest. There should be plenty of wildlife. And according to Arthur, this mountain even has mountain lions.

But when she scanned it, she found nothing. No birds. No insects. Nothing.

To her, this screams anomaly. And combined with the missing people, it’s a dangerous anomaly.

With the limited mana her body has right now, Aldriana can sense a faint mana residue in one area. She could go there right away. She doesn’t need lights. She can "see" with mana.

But she can’t leave Arthur and Liam without saying anything. They’d follow her.

And they should. She can take them.

But first, I need more information about the area.

She turns to enter the office just as Arthur steps out.

"Well? You find anything useful?" she asks.

Arthur doesn’t answer immediately. He stops and stares at her.

Then, after a beat: "You sound more worried than I am. Why is that?"

Aldriana scoffs. Typical Arthur. So suspicious. We can talk after we save Julian, okay?

"And it seems you’re not as worried as you should be. This is your brother. You don’t care?" Her voice has a hint of challenge in it.

"I just don’t like having an X factor I can’t calculate. And you are an X factor," Arthur says, tone cold and steady.

"I might be. But I’m an X factor that is actually useful."

"How?"

"I can guide you to where I believe Julian is."

"Bullshit. You’ve never been here. You don’t know his last coordinates. We didn’t share anything with you. And now you claim you know?" Arthur challenges her.

She exhales sharply. "I don’t care if you don’t believe me. You didn’t call me. Liam did. And I will help Liam. I can take you there, but first I need to know the area."

She walks past him without waiting for a response and steps into the ranger station.

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The moment she enters, Liam breaks off mid-sentence. He immediately leaves the ranger and goes to her.

Arthur follows behind.

"You need something?" Liam asks.

"Yes. I need to see a map." Aldriana scans the room, spots the same map Arthur saw earlier, and heads straight for it.

She studies the markings, then presses a finger on one particular section.

Arthur stands on her right. Liam stands on her left.

"This area here," she says, pointing. "Is there anything unusual about it? Anything we should know?"

The ranger at the computer swivels, looks at the map, sees where her finger rests — and scratches his head slowly.

"I didn’t know people already heard about that. Who told you?"

"What information?" Arthur asks, though the sinking feeling in his stomach tells him he already knows.

"That area is the centerpoint of all the missing people. If you look at the markings, they cluster around it."

He taps the exact spot under Aldriana’s finger. "Right here. That’s where everything converges."

He continues, "We haven’t searched that zone because it’s inaccessible. No trail leads there. People don’t go there. They shouldn’t go there. But... every disappearance still points to it."

He looks at Arthur, Liam, and Aldriana in turn.

"Which means going there in the dark is suicide. No path, uneven terrain, deep drops covered by underbrush, and after the rain, the whole area is slick. The soil is soft. One wrong step and you’re done."

He crosses his arms, firm.

"We wait until sunrise. That’s final."

Aldriana smiles faintly. "Thank you. That’s all I wanted to know."

She lowers her cap, turns, and leaves the station.

Arthur and Liam exchange looks — not fully agreeing, not fully disagreeing — then thank the rangers and follow her out.

Aldriana is already seated in the car when they get in, eyes forward.

The moment the doors close, she says, "We need to find a parking spot where they can’t see us. I’ll take you there."

Arthur scoffs, drenched in sarcasm.

Liam, on the other hand, leans forward, eyes bright. "Really? You can take us there?"

Arthur turns and gives him the are-you-an-idiot look.

"Yes, I can," Aldriana answers simply. "But you need to be ready."

Her eyes flick toward the mountain, sharp under the brim of her hat.

"I believe we will find a gate."