Chapter : 1361

"Lord Wilfred," Lloyd said, dropping his voice. "He isn't just a collector. He's a hoarder. My contact, Silas, told me Wilfred has been trying to buy the Golem Heart for years. He offered double the market value. Triple. The museum kept saying no because it's a 'national treasure' or whatever. But here is the kicker. Wilfred didn't stop at asking."

"He stole it," Mina said. "I figured that out yesterday."

"Yes, but it gets worse," Lloyd continued. "Do you know what Aethel-Quartz is?"

Mina frowned, searching her encyclopedic brain. "Aethel-Quartz. It is a crystalline mineral. Rare. Expensive. It is mostly used for high-end jewelry or decorative windows because it refracts light beautifully. It has very low mana capacity, so mages don't use it."

"Exactly," Lloyd said. "It's basically glittery trash for mages. But guess what? Wilfred has been buying all of it. Every single scrap. For six months, his mining company has been buying Aethel-Quartz from every mine in the region. The price has gone up four hundred percent. He has warehouses full of the stuff."

Mina stared at him. "Why? If it has no magical use, why hoard it?"

"That is the question," Lloyd said. "Why does a man steal a robot brain and then buy a mountain of useless crystal? Unless the crystal isn't useless to him."

He looked at the book in Mina's lap. "I showed you my cards. Your turn. What is in the book?"

Mina looked down at the cover. She traced the letters with her finger. She took a deep breath.

"I found a fragment," she said quietly. "In the archives. It was a piece of Anubis's personal journal. It was burned, but readable. It talked about the Heart."

"And?" Lloyd leaned in.

"The Heart isn't powered by normal mana," Mina said. "Anubis wrote that mana is 'poison' to it. It needs a specific frequency. A vibration. He called it the 'Song of the Earth'."

"Okay," Lloyd said. "So we need a singer? That seems easy."

"No," Mina shook her head. "He wrote that the only thing that can amplify this song, the only thing that can bridge the gap between the stone mind and the ether, is a mineral he called the 'Whispering Crystal'."

Lloyd froze. "Whispering Crystal."

"It is an archaic alchemical name," Mina said. "I checked the cross-reference in this book. The modern name for Whispering Crystal is..."

"Aethel-Quartz," Lloyd finished for her. The realization hit him like a physical blow.

The pieces of the puzzle slammed together with a terrifying click. Wilfred wasn't crazy. He wasn't just collecting shiny rocks. He had the manual. He knew exactly how the Golem Heart worked, and he had spent months gathering the fuel before he stole the engine.

"He knows," Lloyd whispered. "He actually knows how to turn it on."

The silence between them stretched out, heavy and cold. The fountain burbled cheerfully, oblivious to the fact that two people were discussing a potential catastrophe.

Mina looked pale. "If he has the Heart," she said, her voice trembling slightly, "and he has the Quartz... he can activate it. The legends say the Heart controls the Guardian. A construct of immense power."

"Yeah," Lloyd said, rubbing his face. "This isn't a theft anymore. It's an arms race. And we are losing."

He looked at Mina. She was smart. She was capable. But she was an academic. She wasn't a soldier. He wanted to tell her to go home. He wanted to tell her to run back to the safety of the Siddik estate and let him handle the monsters. That would be the noble thing to do.

But he couldn't. He needed her. She had the knowledge. She had the books. She understood the history in a way he didn't. His engineering brain could figure out the how, but she understood the why.

"Mina," Lloyd said seriously. "We have a problem. A big, fortress-sized problem. Wilfred isn't just going to put that Heart on his mantlepiece. He's going to use it."

"To do what?" Mina asked.

"To build a weapon," Lloyd said. "Or to wake one up. Either way, it ends with a lot of people getting squashed."

He took a deep breath. "I need to stop him. I need to get into that fortress and get that Heart back. But I can't do it alone. I don't know enough about Anubis's tech. I might break it. Or worse, I might turn it on by accident."

He extended his hand across the space between them. It was a gesture of peace. A gesture of partnership.

Chapter : 1362

"I propose a truce," Lloyd said. "A temporary alliance. We forget about the awkwardness. We forget about the proposals and the wives and the drama. Right now, we are just two people trying to stop a madman from turning on a doomsday machine. You help me figure out the tech, and I will handle the violence. Deal?"

Mina looked at his hand. She hesitated. He could see the conflict in her eyes. She wanted to stay away from him. She wanted to protect her heart. But she was also a Siddik. She was brave. And she knew the stakes.

She sighed, a long, exasperated sound. "You are impossible, Lloyd Ferrum."

"I know," he smiled. "It's part of my charm."

"Fine," she said. She reached out and shook his hand. Her grip was firm. "A temporary alliance. Until the Heart is recovered. After that, we go back to being strangers on a train."

"Agreed," Lloyd said. "Strangers who saved the city. It has a nice ring to it."

He stood up, his energy returning. He had a plan. Well, he had half a plan. But he had a partner, and that was a start.

"Okay, partner," Lloyd said. "What is our next move? We know what he has. We know how he plans to use it. But we don't know where the weapon is. Is he building it? Did he dig it up?"

"We need more information," Mina said, standing up and clutching her book. "We need someone on the inside. Or someone who used to be inside."

"A disgruntled employee," Lloyd said, snapping his fingers. "Rich guys like Wilfred always treat their workers like dirt. There has to be someone he fired. Someone angry."

"I can check the employment records at the archives," Mina suggested. "See if there were any high-level dismissals from his mining company recently."

"And I'll talk to Silas again," Lloyd said. "See if anyone in the lower district has a grudge against the Lord. Between the two of us, we'll find a loose thread."

"Then let us get to work," Mina said. She adjusted her glasses. "And Lloyd?"

"Yes?"

"Try not to blow anything up yet," she said. "I would like to study the fortress before it becomes a crater."

"No promises," Lloyd grinned. "But I'll try to keep the explosions to a minimum."

They walked away from the park together, not touching, but walking in step. The awkwardness was still there, lurking beneath the surface, but it was buried under the weight of the mission. They had a job to do. The soap merchant and the historian were going to war. And Lord Wilfred had no idea what was coming for him.

The search for a disgruntled employee took less time than Lloyd expected. Apparently, Lord Wilfred was not a very nice boss. Who would have guessed?

Lloyd met Mina at their designated rendezvous point, a small noodle shop near the edge of the mining district. It was noisy, steamy, and smelled of garlic. Perfect for a secret meeting.

"I found him," Lloyd said, sliding into the booth. He grabbed a menu. "I also found that I am very hungry. Do they have spicy beef?"

Mina ignored the menu. She placed a piece of paper on the table. "I found a name, too. Jory. He was a foreman at the main quartz processing plant. He was fired two weeks ago for 'insubordination'."

"Jory," Lloyd nodded. "That matches my intel. Silas told me about a guy named Jory who has been spending his nights at the tavern, drinking cheap ale and shouting about how Wilfred is 'dooming us all'. Sounds like our guy."

"Where is he now?" Mina asked.

"The Rusty Pickaxe," Lloyd said. "It's a dive bar about three streets over. He's there right now, probably on his third pint."

"Then we go," Mina said, standing up.

"Wait, can I get a noodle bowl first?" Lloyd asked.

"No," Mina said sternly. "The fate of the city is at stake. Noodles later."

Lloyd sighed and followed her out. "You are a cruel taskmaster, Mina."

They walked to The Rusty Pickaxe. It was exactly as charming as the name suggested. The floor was sticky. The air was thick with smoke. The patrons looked like they chewed rocks for breakfast.

Lloyd and Mina walked in. They stood out immediately. Lloyd looked like a lost professor, and Mina looked like a librarian who had taken a wrong turn. The conversation in the room died down. Fifty pairs of suspicious eyes turned to them.