The next morning Mika went for a run and mom kind of let me help her with the garden, She was spending so much time in it, more than I've ever seen. I noticed that any time i cam outside she would immediately move away from one certain spot, it was so strange.
"Mira, can you please go grab a white bag of fertilizer from the shed? The plants here need it but the bags are starting to get to heavy for me."
"Sure mom," I said as I put the spade down.
I loved moms shed, it was the last thing dad was able to build for her before he get really sick. But as I walked into the shed I let out a shriek. I saw two tiny little eyes peaking out at me from around the corner of the table. As I stood there with my hands over my mouth, I saw what had scared me as it came out from around the table.
"Meow...meow..."
"Oh my goodness, look at you," I said, looking down at the tiny black kitten. I gently stooped down and waited for the kitten to approach me so I could pick it up. I headed outside with the kitten, forgetting about the fertilizer right now.
"Mom, look at this little guy. I wonder how he got in your shed."
"Oh you found Salem, he loves to hide." Mom said as she took him from me and snuggled him close. "I found him a few days ago sleeping under the leaves of the flowers over there. I got him checked out at the vet and then adopted him since he wasn't chipped. He loves being in the garden with me, when he's not hiding in the shed."
She set him down by her feet and he clumsily walked between the plants in the garden. I grabbed the fertilizer from the shed and we got back to work. After we finished in the garden, I took her to sell most of her harvest. Since she couldn't handle a normal job now she became a self-employed gardener. Then we went to the local consignment store to look around. While browsing I found a few items for my workspace at home and they were all priced pretty cheap. That evening we had steak for dinner and then watched the news for awhile.
When mom went to bed Mika went upstairs to his room and I headed to the basement. I needed to start practicing my alchemy more and the new book I found would help me. Within an hour I heard loud footsteps right before Mika burst through the door.
"Mira!" Mika shouted to loud. "I just got off the phone with Abbey. She needs us to meet her at the abandoned warehouse by the docks at 3 a.m., while nobody else is around. So go get some rest."
"This is great, she must have some information." I said before heading upstairs.
I was excited to finally meet Abbey the next morning. Mika talked about her a lot and I could see why. She was stunning and obviously very intelligent. it didn't take long for me to also figure out that they had something going on, there was definitely chemistry between the two of them.
"What's going on Abbey?" Mika said after introducing us.
"I was able to track down one of Ricardos lackeys', and informant." She began "He was lousy at covering his tracks, I tricked him into talking to me. Then I cloaked his tracking device with a spell, put him into a trance, and brought him here."
"Good job Abbey! Where is he now?"
"Follow me," She said, heading towards the back of the abandoned warehouse. "I'm also going to wipe his memories before I return him to Granite Falls. You guys might want to create an illusion so he doesn't see the real you before I bring him to."
We quickly changed and then Abbey brought the man out of the trance. he was in a state of shock at first until he looked at her. He realized what was going on as soon as he tried to move his arms, which made him become angry quickly.
"Where is Ricardo hiding? What is he planning? What are his intentions with those scientists?" Mika demanded, becoming more angry with every question.
"Who's Ricardo? there's scientists missing?" The man asked, pretending to not know what Mika was talking about.
With each interrogation attempt we became more frustrated, especially since the man was beginning to find it funny. We went through about ten spells before he finally began to talk.
"The scientists that Ricardo kidnapped are building a machine for him. I have no idea what it is or what it does. He is in San Myshuno looking for something but he travels to Mt Komorebi a lot in the past month. I have no idea what he is planning, I swear! He only uses me to attempt to find some family that he is obsessed with. He has at least a dozen people looking for them but won't tell us why. The search is literally driving him crazy, yet he becomes more powerful every single day." the man said, showing signs that he was not done yet. "Ricardo will not let anyone in the coven house either unless it's an emergency. Rowan and Daisy have also been missing for over a year. Anytime someone questions where the real boss is at, they end up missing too."
When he was done talking Abbey put him back in a trance, wiped his memory, and took him to her truck. We got rid of our illusion, then Mika went over to Abbey and talked to her for a few minutes before she left. We went back home and talked about what we found out.
