Arion was packing his open suitcase on the hotel bed, carefully folding his clothes between a pile of papers and notes. The distant hum of traffic in Marais drifted through the half-open window, mingling with the buzz in his mind. The last few hours had been intense—Elric, the name now echoing as a new piece of the puzzle—and he tried to keep his focus on what mattered: their next destination.
He was about to zip the suitcase shut when the bathroom door burst open.
"Arion!" Lior shouted, stepping out with his phone in one hand and his hair still messy. "Man, you won't believe what I just found!"
Arion turned, frowning."Wait… were you doing research in the bathroom?"
Lior blinked, offended."So what? It's a calm environment, great acoustics… and sometimes inspiration hits where you least expect it!"
Arion stared at him in disbelief."Lior… you were researching mysterious disappearances in the bathroom!"
"And I found more in ten minutes than you did in two days!" Lior shot back, pointing his phone like a trophy. "So shut up and listen!"
Arion raised his hands in surrender, suppressing a grin."Alright, Doctor Bathroom. Go on."
Lior huffed, but there was a gleam of excitement in his eyes."So… I decided to dig a little deeper into Elric. And I found something really strange."
"That's new," Arion said, crossing his arms. "What now?"
"The art circle is small, so when something happens, it doesn't make much noise. The news surfaces but quickly gets buried under everything else."
Arion frowned. "That's why you didn't find it the first time you searched for him?"
"Exactly. I'm not exactly an art guy, so I didn't know the right places to look. Luckily, it was mentioned in a newspaper—in one of those quick news columns."
He swiped his finger across the screen and showed a half-saved headline:
'Prodigy painter accused of marble sculpture theft — Elric Vaël denies allegations.'
Arion blinked."Marble sculpture? Theft? Why would a painter steal a sculpture?"
"Yeah. Apparently, besides being a prodigy painter, Elric was also fascinated by marble sculptures. And…" Lior's excitement grew as he spoke, gesturing wildly. "A year before he disappeared, Elric was accused by three classmates. They claimed he had stolen a rare sculpture from the shared studio. It was a scandal. But then—" he lifted a dramatic finger "—nine months after his disappearance, those same three people took it all back."
"Took it back?" Arion repeated. "You mean… they regretted it?"
"Worse." Lior sat on the edge of the bed, tossing his phone to Arion. "They appeared at a press conference and said they lied. That they were the ones who took the sculpture—that it was all a 'revenge prank.' And the strangest part? The three of them were close friends of his. They had access to Elric's private studio."
Arion sat down, processing the information."So he was falsely accused, and by the time they tried to clear his name, he was already gone."
"Exactly." Lior leaned against the wall, his tone darker now. "And no one ever saw that sculpture again. Not before, not after."
Silence lingered for a moment. Arion rubbed his chin."What did the sculpture look like?"
"No one really knows. Those three refused to talk about it after everything ended," Lior replied. "There are vague records saying it was an unfinished piece—something experimental. Black marble, gold det—" he stopped and grimaced. "You know what? Forget the gold. I'm getting triggered already."
Arion chuckled quietly, but the laugh faded quickly."Black marble… you realize that sounds exactly like something Seraya would have painted?"
Lior looked up."I thought the same thing. And more than that—if he was working with sculptures, and Seraya started to change while painting that canvas… maybe it wasn't a coincidence. Maybe both were dealing with the same kind of 'inspiration.'"
Arion stood, pacing back and forth."You think that sculpture could be connected to what happened to him?"
"I think it's more than that," said Lior. "Maybe it's the origin. The common point. Something that passed through their hands… and changed them both."
For a moment, the room felt colder. Outside, a cloud covered the sun, and its shadow slipped through the window like a veil. Arion stopped, staring at his reflection in the glass.
"So that's it," he murmured. "The sculpture disappeared, Elric disappeared… and five years before that, Seraya disappeared. Do you think—besides her—one of her paintings also vanished? Like Elric's sculpture?"
Lior slowly locked his phone screen."I don't know… but if we follow this trail, we might find the next step."
Arion looked at him, determination sharpening his voice."Then we find out where Elric studied, who those people were… and what happened to the sculpture."
Lior smiled, trying to lighten the mood."Deal. But first—a new rule: no mocking my bathroom discoveries."
Arion raised his hands, pretending to be solemn."I hereby swear to respect the temple of knowledge and its sanitary revelations."
Lior threw a pillow at him."Idiot."
Their laughter broke the tension for a moment—a brief pause before the inevitable.