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Xerxes Break was many things, but
unobservant
was not and never had been one of them. This was obvious: this was something that his masters had known about him since he was very young, and that he’d been trained specifically for. This was why Break, out of all the servants of all the aristocrats under the Vessalius family, had been chosen to be adopted by Rainsworth; this was why Break, out of all the spies Duchess Ada Vessalius and Duchess Shelly Rainsworth shared between them, had been chosen to keep watch on former serial killer Gilbert Nightray.
But Gilbert Nightray was not the only person Break was keeping an eye on. For one, Vincent Nightray, who was technically Gilbert’s employer and yet described himself as Gilbert’s younger brother, seemed to have loyalties beyond the scope of the organization Pandora and his own plots going on. For two, Oz the B-Rabbit shared far too many physical similarities with the dead Oz Vessalius to ignore, and seemed to have the same mixed feelings on Gilbert Nightray as Duchess Vessalius did, even though, if his story was to be believed, he was merely the Chain of the teenage girl who had been sent by the Core of the Abyss to supervise Gilbert. For three, Alice Baskerville, despite her name, seemed to have absolutely no connections to the Baskerville clan, and often her goals seemed to conflict rather extremely with theirs, despite the fact that, ever since her appearance, Baskerville-Pandora conflict was at an all-time low.
Adding this all onto the fact that the
B-Rabbit
was out of the Abyss and the dukes and duchesses of Pandora were whispering about the fact that it was said to have stolen Jack Vessalius’s body in the Tragedy of Sablier and you had a serious mess, a worse one than Break ever would have dreamed of getting involved in when he’d first agreed to spy for Duchess Vessalius all those years back. That wasn’t to say he didn’t enjoy his job—he loved it, and he loved Lady Sharon Rainsworth like a little sister, and he quite enjoyed Gilbert and Vincent Nightray’s company, as well—but though Break was passing fond of all of them, he was not at all fond of the idea that something might be brewing beyond all of their sight.
As per usual, though, he kept his feelings out of it as he stood before Duchess Vessalius and gave his report, and at the end of it she nodded, her Contractor-young hand tapping on her desk almost absently.
“The fact that the B-Rabbit has decided to make his appearance again now bodes…strangely for all of us,” said the duchess. “Xerxes. You don’t know anything else about their goals other than to destroy the remaining pieces of Jack Vessalius’s soul?”
“Nothing, Your Grace,” said Break. “But if the Abyss is working separately from the self-proclaimed Messengers of the Abyss, then we might have a conflict on our hands soon enough. And…I am not sure who the Baskervilles will side with.”
“They have assisted Pandora in our work to resurrect Jack Vessalius these past hundred years,” said the duchess. “According to the Baskervilles, resurrecting Jack may help them with their goal of removing Sablier from where it’s been frozen in time, which will return their leader to them. They have no problems with being seen as the villains until that time, and they cannot make any large moves until they have Glen Baskerville back. If it comes down to a conflict, they cannot pick a side: so I’ve heard from their acting leader, Charlotte.”
“And you trust them, Your Grace?”
Duchess Vessalius smiled. “Of course not, Xerxes,” she said. “But I know that they’re paralyzed and powerless against Pandora. There are only six of them active at present; though I’ve only officially met Charlotte. Unless they somehow manage to return Sablier to its former state, we overpower them greatly. You don’t need to worry.”
“And if they do manage to restore Sablier, Duchess?”
“They aren’t anywhere near as close to that as we are to restoring Jack Vessalius,” said the duchess. “You continue watching Gilbert, and alert me if he gets close to any pieces of Jack’s soul. Do not worry about the Baskervilles.”
“Very well, Your Grace,” Break said, bowing.
“You are dismissed,” said Duchess Vessalius. “Have a good day, Kevin.”
“The same to you, Your Grace,” Break said, and left.
As he walked away, the Duchess Ada Vessalius watched out the window. “Not much longer…” she breathed.
“No, it won’t be much longer at all,” said a voice from her desk, though nobody moved. “Though I hope you won’t change your mind about helping me out now that Oz has returned from the Abyss, Ada.”
The duchess did not turn. “Don’t be silly, Jack,” she said. “I want this world destroyed as much as you do. Onii-chan’s return just means that we have one less step in our plan, that’s all.”
“That is true!” said Jack. Though the duchess did not turn to look at him and thus did not see it, his reflection was clear, in minutiae, in a silver pocket watch resting on the woman’s desk. She smiled in the window; Jack behind her did not see it. “We don’t need to locate him, we just need to take control. You can do that, can’t you, Ada?”
“Onii-chan has no reason
not
to trust me,” said the duchess. Outside, Xerxes Break was not walking to the carriage waiting for him; Ada felt certain that the spy she’d personally selected for his diligence and his loyalty and his complete inability to be controlled was off somewhere else, getting information he would desperately need if he wanted to stay by her brother’s side. “You have nothing at all to worry about, Jack.”