Timothy was about to knock on the door again when Emmu finally came out of his room. He was wearing the brand new white coat the Marquise had left for him, but with the brown leather pants and knee-high lace up boots with which he had come. Looking at him from top to bottom, Timothy thought he looked a Don mixed with a Sky Pirate.

"I'm impressed," said Timothy, drawing a wide smile at his sapphire. "You look..."

"Ooze-free?" Emmu interrupted him and Timothy simply smiled.

"Not what I was going to say, but close enough. Come on, we're late."

"Look at you trying to impress the Marquise and her Master," Emmu said and Timothy laughed at his very obvious jealousy.

Indeed, ever since he boarded the blimp, Timothy had caught his sapphire throwing suspicious looks his way. Initially, he thought it was just his imagination, but every time he spoke to the Marquise, he could see Emmu grinding his teeth or rolling his eyes. Timothy couldn't help but laugh at Emmu's childish behavior but he understood. Most of the time, Timothy only had eyes for him, so to have a new and unexpected presence must've been particularly hard for someone as competitive as Emmu.

"I'm not trying to impress anyone, meathead."

"Right, because you have absolutely no interest in our hostess," Emmu's voice was more acidic by the word, yet he kept trying to disguise it behind a mask of humor. He was failing.

"I have the same interest in her as you. We're all here for you, Emmu, you keep forgetting that." Timothy was being sincere but he knew Emmu wouldn't believe him. Emmu always had to be right.

"Very well, if you don't want to tell me, don't tell me. Your choice."

"Jealousy really doesn't suit you, Emmu."

"I am NOT jealous."

This time, Timothy had to laugh and not even a very strong punch from Emmu could shut him up. "Whatever you say, Master."

"Dick."

Emmu's voice was more relaxed and Timothy smiled at a job well done. He knew he could always bring a smile to Emmu's face, even at the worst of times. Lately, this little talent had been most convenient, especially with all the life-altering news they had received.

As they climbed down the stairs, he wondered what Emmu would think of the Master that waited for them in the parlor. He had only shared some brief words with Master Nilla, but they were enough for Timothy to realize she was laid-back and good-natured. However, she also struck him as the type of woman who had no time for nonsense or games, and he wondered how she would react to Emmu's particular brand of humor.

When they finally reached the parlor, the two women stood up to meet them. The Marquise, wearing one of her very uncomfortable-looking dresses, walked up to them, the same anxious look in her face as when she first met them and scolded them for their tardiness.

"You are late. Again," she spoke in a sharp tone, giving them her best stern look.

"I can explain, dear Marquise," Emmu was quick to say. "But I think you'll find this was actually your fault. You see, in order to look presentable for you and your Master, I took a bath and I must say it was the single best bath I have ever taken. Everything about it was so gloriously over the top, I mean, even the water smelled of nobility. And I really wanted to make a good impression. It's not fair that Timmy here gets all the attention, don't you think?"

The Marquise rolled her eyes at him and turned to walk back to the second woman, who remained silent and looking at them with a mix of curiosity and disbelief. For his part, Timothy, who was rather enjoying Emmu's little show, turned to his friend and whispered.

"Unnecessary jealousy really doesn't suit you."

Emmu pretended not to hear him. "So, where's this wonderful Master we've been hearing so much about?" Emmu approached the two women and his eyes focused on the second one. Frowning, he turned to face Timothy as if looking for some explanation, but found nothing other than a mocking smile. "You can't possibly be her, can you?"

"And why is that?" the second woman spoke in a thick Petrol accent.

"A fellow Petrol," Emmu continued, seemingly ignoring the woman's question. "My parents were from Petrol, or so I've been told. I never met them and I've never been to Petrol myself but I'd recognize the accent anywhere. And to answer your question, you'll have to forgive me but you're not what I was expecting at all. I was hoping for an old lady, you know, like Don Osgood, but you... well, you're not old at all."

Timothy understood Emmu's point; Master Nilla was nothing like Don Osgood.

Younger-looking than she probably was, Master Nilla was a very attractive woman. Provocative would be the word some men would use to describe her, as she had one of those full and curvy bodies men usually went crazy for. She had shoulder-length wavy and purple hair, thick eyebrows and full lips. She also was quite short; she barely reached Timothy's shoulder, despite her high-heel boots.

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" Master Nilla spoke in an amused tone that suggested she was used to men's clumsy advances.

"It actually was. A very awkward and stupid one, but one nonetheless," Emmu said before making a short bow.

"At least you admit it was stupid, that's something." She answered his bow with a short and simple curtsy and a smile that barely touched the corners of her lips. "It's nice to finally meet you, Master Eldon."

"Our friend the Marquise tells us you've been looking for us for quite some time," Emmu said as he walked back to Timothy.

"We've known about you for some time now, but we didn't want to contact you until we were sure it was necessary. We had hoped there'd be no need to recruit you, but when Ara started having her dreams, we knew the time had come. Ara tells me you two have had a somewhat different dream than hers. She tells me you both have seen a mechanical bird, no?"

"Yes."

"Well, that confirms our suspicions. For over a Gear, we have been tracking the group known as the Steam Scorpion. We have reason to believe they might be working with our enemy."

"The meteoric rise of the Steam Scorpion coincided with the start of my dreams, and yours too, for that matter, so it did not take long before we confirmed their relationship," the Marquise said as she sat down next to her Master.

"We fought a group of them in Millingford," Master Nilla continued. "Three of them were even Royders, which took us by surprise. We sustained heavy injuries but we managed to come out on top. We captured one of the Royders and, after a few days, he cracked and talked about a project under construction at the outskirts of Ravenport."

The Marquise poured four glasses of wine and handed two of them to Timothy and Emmu. "We have searched the entire outskirts of the city and found nothing, which can only mean one thing."

"They're hiding underground," Timothy guessed and the Marquise nodded. "That's how they're getting away with the construction of the bird."

Master Nilla continued. "Indeed. Before Ara went to see you, we had several guesses as to what sort of weapon they might be constructing down there, but now we're certain."

"Those things that attacked us at the blimp," Timothy began, the sight of them still fresh on his mind, "the Marquise said they were Royders. Don Osgood used to mention them too. He said they were our enemy."

"No shit," Emmu said as his fingers instinctively went to his face, where the blue ooze had been just hours ago. "What are those things? Because they sure as fuck aren't human."

Master Nilla stopped to think for a moment. "They are human, but they have changed. They are more now."

Timothy sighed, tired of this game. "Do you people have something against speaking clearly?"

Master Nilla spoke in a far too patient voice. "They are human, Don Timothy, they're just sick."

Emmu snorted. "Like hell they're sick. A cough is being sick, a fever is being sick. Spitting blue shit out of one's mouth goes beyond the realm of being sick."

"They have something inside of them that's making them sick, Master Eldon," Master Nilla replied, her voice unaffected by Emmu's crude remarks.

"A parasite," the Marquise, now on her second glass of wine, intervened. "Neither of us are physicians but I trust we have all heard of Estomitis, correct?" They nodded. "Good. Estomitis is a highly infectious disease caused by a parasite that enters the body and nests on the liver, where it rapidly reproduces."

"Marquise and Biology Master? Color me impressed."

The Marquise ignored Emmu's taunt. "The disease that affects Royders, like Estomitis, is caused by a parasite. However, this parasite directly enters the blood vessels, using blood as a mode of transportation to rapidly invade the entire body."

"That's why their veins look like that," Timothy remembered the Royders from the night before and his skin crawled at the thought of a million little bugs moving inside the men's bodies.

"Indeed," Master Nilla nodded. "We call this parasite Indigo, because of the blue color it gives to its hosts' blood. When Indigo has completely taken over an individual, the blood will be too much for the host to contain, and soon he will begin to secrete it constantly."

"So you're saying that the Royder from last night spat... blood at me?" Emmu was on the verge of throwing up.

"I am afraid so," the Marquise replied with pity.

"This parasite, how do you catch it?" Timothy asked, wanting to take Emmu's mind out of the numerous gross thoughts he was probably sinking into.

"With blood," Master Nilla simply said. "If any drop of infected blood enters the body, Indigo will quickly find its way into the bloodstream."

Timothy felt his stomach fall to his feet. His eyes immediately went to Emmu, whose face had turned entirely white.

"If I'm turning into one of those things, I swear to God I'll spit the shit out every single one of you," Emmu said, matter-of-factly.

"Worry not, Master Eldon. Even if the Royder's blood entered your body, you will be unaffected," the Marquise said, this time using a more delicate tone.

"How can you be sure?" Timothy tried to hide the anxiousness in his voice, but he knew he had failed when Emmu turned and looked at him with visible fright.

The Marquise and Master Nilla exchanged mysterious looks, as if they were communicating with each other without using words. After a few seconds of silence, Master Nilla was the one who spoke.

"Because you three are immune to Indigo. It cannot affect you, no matter how hard it tries. It's the reason why you can sense it and why you dream of it when it starts growing stronger. Speaking in extremely literal terms, you are meant to fight it because you're the only ones that can."

Timothy felt his head spinning. A part of him desperately wanted to believe Master Nilla, the same part that had always been protective of Emmu, ever since they were children. But another part, his most cynical and logical, the same one that was helping him duplicate the earnings of his late father's factory, told him he should grab Emmu and head to Ivoryport, to get him the best physician that money could buy.

"How can you be certain?" Timothy finally asked, deciding against any brash actions.

"It's quite simple, Don Timothy. When days pass and Master Eldon is not leaking blue blood out of every orifice, you'll know he's Indigo-free."

Emmu almost laughed. "Are you serious? That's your reasoning?"

"Master Eldon, Don Timothy, I'll be very honest with you." Master Nilla stood up and circled her chair, standing behind it, her glass of wine gently balancing on her delicate hand. "I could tell you the answers to your questions. I could tell you everything you wish to know, but chances are, you wouldn't believe me."

"Try us," Timothy dared her, but she shook her head.

"Tell me, Don Timothy; if Ara would have told you about Indigo when she first met you in Slatehallow, would you have believed her? If she had told you about the existence of a parasitic entity that possesses people and gives them blue blood that they subsequently ooze out of every single orifice in their body; would you have simply accepted her words as true?"

Timothy remained silent.

"Of course not. We would've thought she was batshit crazy," a snarky Emmu admitted.

"Maybe we still do," Timothy muttered to himself.

Master Nilla smiled victoriously. "Precisely. You would've thought she was crazy and you would've thrown her out of your manor. You needed to see the Royders for yourselves, you needed to fight them and experience their considerable strength. Now that you have, our words don't seem so crazy, do they? Some things are meant to be learnt, not told. All these answers, the two of you need to learn on your own, just like my Ara did."

"Do you know why we're immune to this?" Timothy asked the Marquise and she whispered a gentle Yes from behind her glass of wine.

"You will have to do better than that if you want us to stay," Timothy said, standing up and walking towards Emmu. "Tell us one good reason why we shouldn't leave this place and go look for a physician to treat this so called parasite."

"Things like these are not meant to be told, Don Timothy. They're meant to be seen."

Master Nilla hand's went inside the pockets of her petticoat and took a small vial from out of them. Timothy immediately recognized the blue ooze inside and both him and Emmu walked back at the sight of it. The woman slowly opened it and Timothy was prepared to jump at her to try to knock it out of her hand.

But the woman didn't throw the blood at them. Instead, she unbuttoned her sleeve and without hesitation, poured the entire content of the vial into her exposed forearm. Her face contorted into an expression of deep pain as the ooze began to slide on her skin, smoke coming out from it as it spread with alarming speed.

With a swift move, the Marquise took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood away from Master Nilla, who looked on the verge of tears but hadn't made a single noise while the blood was on her skin. The Marquise then took out a small gun from her own pockets and pointed it at the handkerchief. She shot it but instead of a bullet, a small bolt of lightning came out of it and burnt the piece of cloth in an instant. Before it completely disintegrated, Timothy swore he heard a small scream coming out from it.

Recovering her composure, Master Nilla walked over to them and showed them her forearm. Where the blood had just been, an ugly-looking blister now extended over the vulnerable and red skin. Master Nilla waited for a few seconds before accepting the wet towel that the Marquise was offering her.

"Royder blood burns human skin," she said as she pressed the blister with the towel. "You received not a drop, but an entire rain of it just last night, Master Eldon. Tell me, does your face look like my forearm?"

It was a rare occasion when Eldon Emmanuel Elmstone had no words. This was one of them. Timothy could see his sapphire trying to make sense of what he had just seen, his fingers travelling his own face, as if he was looking for any sign of blisters or scarring.

"I was kind of looking forward to the whole spitting blood thing," Emmu finally said.

"Do you take anything seriously?" the Marquise talked down to him, arms crossed and brows raised.

Emmu's eyes sparked maliciously. "Jokes."

"You didn't have to do that. I'm so sorry." Timothy chose to ignore the two of them and instead turned to Master Nilla. His entire body was shook by a wave of regret but he still forced himself to face the woman.

"Yes she did. Otherwise, you two dicks would not have believed us."

Both Emmu and Timothy were taken by surprise by the Marquise's words. They turned to her, speechless, and she gave them a That's right sort of looked that did a lot to break the tension.

"Do we know how to kill it?" Timothy asked, once the image of Master Nilla's burned arm came back to him.

Both the Master and her pupil shook their heads.

It was Master Nilla who spoke, like a mother addressing her children. "Not entirely, but we have an idea. Like any parasite, Indigo needs a host to survive."

"So we kill all the Royders? Sounds like my kind of plan." Emmu's seemed like his normal self again and Timothy couldn't help but smile at the sound of his friend's regular, acerbic voice.

The Marquise, now on her third glass, agreed. "Basically. Royders have a higher resistance to wounds and general harm. They, however, are vulnerable to a shock of lightning."

"As opposed to regular humans who are quite resistant to those," Emmu said, and the Marquise shot him her most hateful look yet, which only seemed to encourage him more.

"That gun you used, can I see it?" Timothy had been waiting for the right moment to ask and he reached for the silver weapon that the Marquise was handing over.

The gun was quite small and it felt hot to the touch. At first sight, it looked like a regular pistol; however, upon closer examination, Timothy saw that, instead of bullets, the cylinder housed five small but vibrating bolts of light. Suddenly and much to his chagrin, a small spark shot out of the gun's mouth and Timothy almost dropped it.

"I think that is quite enough," the Marquise said, reaching out for the gun, and Timothy gave it back as the heat climbed to his face and settled on his cheeks.

"We need to find the definitive host," Master Nilla said, smiling warmly at Timothy. "The very first person Indigo infected, and in whom it grew strong enough to start inhabiting others. If we manage to kill him, then Indigo's hold over the Royders will weaken."

"Do we have any suspects?" Timothy asked, trying to move past his embarrassment.

"Some," answered Master Nilla, still pressing the towel against her skin. "The definitive host must be a powerful man, a member of court even. No one else would have the necessary resources to fund the construction of a weapon like the bird. We're talking about a man with sufficient influence to coerce the Steam Scorpion into working under him."

"And fortunately for us, I have just been presented with the perfect opportunity to confirm our suspicions," the Marquise happily declared.

"What do you mean?" asked Master Nilla, seemingly shocked at her apprentice's words.

"I was sent a royal invitation today, from Queen Estella herself. It seems news of our attack have reached the capital and she has invited me to spend a few days in her company, to make sure I am safe. I depart tomorrow at dawn. While at court, I shall look into our primary suspects."

Emmu raised his brows and spoke in his most serious tone so far. "Leave? I thought the entire point of us coming here was to train for the battle."

"The point was for you to train, Master Eldon. I have been training all my life and it would not be an understatement to say I am far better that the two of you."

"Combined," a proud Master Nilla added, adopting a lighter and more playful tone.

"Oh really? Because I think, I think you weren't part of my dream or Timmy's. Maybe it's because you die before the battle takes place."

"What Emmu means," Timothy quickly intervened, noticing the heat rising in Emmu's face, "is that maybe it isn't such a bright idea to go right into enemy territory. If you're right, then the definitive host will be at court. It's obvious he already suspects you, since he sent those Royders to kill you. What's to stop him from trying to kill you again?"

"Oh, it will most certainly try to kill me again, I am counting on it." The Marquise's face lit up at the prospect of another attempt on her life and Timothy wondered just how sinister this seemingly normal woman really was. "We need to figure out who the definitive host is, otherwise, we will not prevail, even if we manage to win the battle against the bird. Besides, strange as it may sound, court is probably the safest place not only for me, but for you too. We are almost certain that all the attackers died with the blimp explosion, but if even one of them survived, then the definitive host will be alerted to your presence. Nevertheless, if I am at court, there will be no need for the definitive host to look elsewhere, which will give you the privacy and liberty you will need to train under Master Nilla. I am a grown warrior, I am more than capable of taking care of myself. Lastly, even if I wanted to, I cannot deny a direct invitation from my future mother-in-law."

Emmu spat his wine and the Marquise looked at him as if he had just hit her on the face.

"I'm... sorry," Emmu said as he cleaned his face with his coat. "Future mother-in-law?"

"Yes, I am betrothed to one of the princes," she replied, still looking at Emmu as if he was a leper. "I thought you friend would have told you by now. You two seem to tell each other everything."

Not even bothering to hide the gigantic grin that had invaded his face, Timothy found Emmu's reproachful eyes and simply shrugged before turning back to the two women. From the corner of his eye, he saw Emmu draw a shy and ephemeral smile.

Master Nilla brought the conversation back to topic. "It's settled, then. Ara will go to Ivoryport where she will carry on the investigation about the definitive host. We will stay here and train while we try to find the hiding place of the Steam Scorpion. Hopefully we'll be able to get rid of them before they finish constructing the bird."

"I will be helping with the construction of the blimp," Timothy quickly added, feeling like a small child as he heard his own words.

Master Nilla gently smiled. "Alder and I will be happy to have you."

"As promised, you two will have full access to our personal library." The Marquise got up and walked to the stairs that seemingly led to a bottom floor. "Down the stairs to the left. A warning: you are not to mistreat the books. Some of them date back to before the Millennium of Ice."

Emmu was about to open his mouth, certainly with a snarky comment at the Marquise's expense, but Timothy was quicker. "Thank you, Marquise, I'm sure Emmu will find all the answers we're looking for."

"If there are any developments with the investigation, I shall immediately let you know," the Marquise said as she smoothened her dress. "I suggest the two of you go to bed now. Master Nilla's training will be very tough and you will need all your strengths if you want to survive."

********

As they walked back to their rooms in silence, Timothy felt a mix of relief and anxiety.

The knowledge of Indigo's existence gave their fight a more uncertain and dangerous tone, but it also gave their enemy a name and a purpose. The self-torturing act that Master Nilla committed also made him less weary of the two women. He had his doubts about them up until their meeting, but now he could actually see himself trusting them. For the first time since he started having the dreams, Timothy thought he might actually sleep the entire night without waking up panting and covered in sweat.

"You should've told me," Emmu said as they arrived at their rooms. "About the Marquise."

"And miss the expression on your face when you found out? No way. Timmy likes his fun."

Sensing the punch that was coming his way, Timothy docked and watched in delight as Eldon hit the wall instead.

"You okay?" he asked, feeling a tad guilty.

"I'm fine. I'm great, actually. At least we now know what we're fighting. This may not make a lot of sense, but I'm less anxious than before. I think it was the uncertainty that was getting to me."

"I know what you mean. I feel the same way."

Emmu opened the door to his room and lit up a candle. Before he disappeared, Timothy said something he had been dying to since the Marquise's big reveal.

"Emmu?"

"Yes, Timmy?"

"I told you there was no reason for you to be jealous."

Emmu smiled.

"Yes. I guess there wasn't."