"No one calls Lord Rong by his first name." Emmy stated.
"No one calls him Lord Rong either." Patrick added.
"Eirian calls him Yuze." Finn defended.
"I would get thrown in the stocks if I called either of them that way." Emmy pointed out, but she could see Finn still didn't get it. He'd grown up in that world, he probably had no idea how far removed he was from the rest of them.
At least he seemed nice.
For now.
You never knew with rich people, Emmy mused. They looked great on the outside but had some terrifying hobbies behind closed doors. Emmy had heard about a royal Princess in Song and Snow who used to bleed her servants and bathed in the blood to maintain her youth.
"Look." Finn's eyes were wide, desperate. "Let's just move on. It's not any of those jewelry pieces. Furniture next."
He started a fast walk down the hallway and Emmy and Patrick shared a mystified look before hurrying to catch up.
The furniture was more of a challenge. Due solely to the size of them. They took up a large series of rooms in the back of the vault, more than any other category of object. There were even full-sized couches and beds in a few of the rooms.
And a mirror made of an odd black glass that made the reflection of everyone who looked in it severely demonic. Finn had taken one glance and backed out of the room.
Patrick had stuck a chair in front of the door.
"Half this stuff should have been burned years ago." Emmy shivered, checking another room and immediately slamming the door shut.
Finn scratched an enchanted vanity off his list.
It took them the rest of the day to locate all the random pieces Yuze had listed and none of them gave off any indication that they were responsible for the poisoning Eirian spoke about.
It was dark by the time they made their way out of the vault and Finn left Emmy and Patrick to return to their barracks to report the whole day to Eirian.
She was supposed to be recovering in her room, but when Finn knocked no one answered and roaming guard sent him to Chenzhou's room.
Something had happened while Finn was down in the vault.
There was a gaggle guards and maids outside Chenzhou's quarters, one of whom recognized Finn from Eirian's room that morning and notified Captain Li that Finn had arrived.
The grim-faced Captain brought him inside.
Chenzhou was still and pale in his bed. Anna clutched his hand, sobbing, as a teary Marian tried to comfort her.
On the opposite side of the bed, Eirian, still pale herself and somewhat skeletal, was examining Chenzhou as a worried Yuze hovered over her shoulder.
Healer Huang was huffing in a corner, alongside Healer Akari, but every time he looked like he wanted to speak a glare from Yuze silenced him.
A few high ranked members of the castle guard and the Camelia's court stood back in the corners.
It reminded Finn of the scene in his grandfather's room when he finally entered his death bed.
But Chenzhou had been fine that morning, even standing out on Eirian's balcony enjoying the sunlight.
Finn kept his head down as he crept around to Eirian and Yuze's side.
"What did you find?" Yuze demanded, but Finn could only shake his head in apology.
"We found everything on the list, but nothing seemed like you described." Finn handed him back the list. "The vault is a mess."
Yuze flipped through the notes Finn had been careful to make. "What? What do you mean?"
"The first rooms just have stuff piled in them. The older ones are more organized but some of them aren't labelled correctly and there are definitely some items that probably aren't in the Inventories."
Yuze groaned and Eirian flashed an I-told-you-so look over her shoulder.
"We found something that was missing too, but we don't know if it was still in the vault and just misplaced."
Eirian's eyes narrowed. "What was it?"
"A medallion, I think? Emmy said the label was written in an old language, but that it was dated to the right time frame?" Finn offered, trying to ignore the urge to look at Chenzhou.
The crushing feeling of failure was seeping in. Finn hadn't found whatever was causing the poison and now it looked like Chenzhou's illness had finally done him in.
Eirian looked thoughtful though. She was wrapped in a thick robe to ward off the chill that was returning to the castle now that night had fallen and despite her ill health, she still had the glow to her. Like a candle in the dark that refused to be snuffed out completely.
"A medallion." She murmured turning back to Chenzhou.
It was like she was seeing something the rest of them couldn't. Her eyes moved over Chenzhou, pausing at points where Finn couldn't see anything before moving on. Sometimes it seemed like her eyes were following something that was invisible and moving around the room.
Her gaze turned to Chenzhou's bedside table, fingers running over the polished surface.
The dark red wood shone in the lamplight. There were a few books stacked at the back and a small, simple jewelry box.
Eirian flipped the catch and opened it. A bed of empty white silk was the only thing inside, but Eirian again seemed to see something else. Her head snapped around to Chenzhou again and she dropped the box, Finn rushed to catch it because even if it looked simply, it had to be valuable if Chenzhou had kept it.
Eirian lunged across the bed to Chenzhou startling Anna, who shrieked, and tossed back the sheets covering him.
"What are you doing?" Anna's face was wet with tears, and she refused to let go of Chenzhou's limp hand.
Eirian didn't answer her, or anyone else who demanded to know what she was doing and ripped Chenzhou's shirt wide open.
Resting on his chest, hanging from a delicate chain, was an old medallion.
~ tbc