Chapter Text
Hey Elle Belle?” Millie Thrush leaned forward on the train seat. She and Ellie had been summoned by the council for a new assignment, and they had been traveling for nearly a whole day at that point. Miss Glassbill had taken to watching the children in the loop for the pair so they could go together. The council stated it would be a 2 person project, as they phrased it, but neither Ymbryne knew why.
“Hmm?” Eleanor Nightjar glanced up from her reading. “What?” She repeated, looking at her partner from across the bench. Her dark brown eyebrows scrunched as she pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to mitigate the growing migraine as she waited for her partner to ask. Why did Millie always want to interrupt her right when she was in the middle of a Psalm as opposed to when she was done? Ellie gave her a look as she waited.
“Do you want something off the snack cart?” Millie finally asked, looking at the desert cart left at the back. No one else was in their train car thankfully, but that would soon change as morning dawned upon London. The pair could already see the hillsides awakening as people started burning their oil lamps, the cook stoves smoke billowed from the homes to get the day rolling.
“No thank you." Ellie leaned back, trying to get comfortable, but failing miserably. The train cars always left something to be desired, but this one was even worse than the normal trains Ellie took at night across London.
“But you haven't eaten anything yet! Sense like, at least yesterday!" Millie plopped down and leaned over onto Ellie's shoulder, teasing her scarred hand to the feather book mark and placing it into the book crease “C’mon, I'm sure there is something on the cart you would like? For me?” She asked, shaking Ellie's arm well above her gloved hands, earning herself a glare. Millie had learned over her 2 year period of working with Ellie not to touch her hands or even wrists, even if they had been gloved up, lest Ellie chastise her the entire trip home. Millie glanced down at the light violet silk glove holding the well worn Bible right that closed iimmediately.
Ellie glared at her, but finally set the book back in her carpet bag. “we will be at the station to get off soon. I'll just get some tea before we get to the council” she turned, looking out the window. The rolling hillside was beaming with the fresh rays of dawn, leaving a few deer still lingering on the bottoms of the hills, slowly trotting towards the forestside. “What passive and ridiculous creatures…but yet…” Miss Nightjar pressed her face to the glass, savoring the cool touch. It didn't do too much for her headache, but it provided a small bit of relief.
“Brought you a molasses cookie and some lemon balm tea” Ellie jolted as her eyes narrowed onto Millie like a tiger to their prey. The Thrush in question was bouncing on her heels in front of her, putting a cookie on her lap and the tea on the small table between them. When did she even get up and go over to the cart? “But you better promise me you will eat a real meal once we are home.” Millie continued, sitting down with her own chocolate cake and a cinnamon cookie.
“Thank you….” Eleanor grumbled, taking a small bite. It wasn't overly sweet, but had a rich butter taste with hints of cinnamon and clove. She leaned back, only eating half the cookie and wrapping the other half up for later. It did very little to make her head better, but Millicent was right, having something in her stomach was going to fare her much better than trying to ride out the migraine without any calories. She might as well try to eat what she could now before the headache strengthened to a point of nausea at even the smell of food.
“Of course. I have to keep you upright and walking or our loop would fall into Chaos!” Millie laughed light-heartedly as the train rolled into the station, the whistle cawing out into the dawn. Millicent grabbed her newest hat off the table, one that was made of dark brown felt with a beige bow sewn on the side with white flowers attached to it and pinned it to her large Gibson girl- esque bun. “What category does this child fall under?” Miss Thrush asked more to herself as she grabbed her small carpet bag up off the velvet seats, awaiting Ellie to step out into the aisle.
Miss Nightjar glanced down at her partner as she stood and stretched her legs. Millie awaited under her, her cerulean eyes examining her every move with a touch of childlike curiosity the woman seemed infamous amongst the council for having. What did she mean by category? The woman cupped her mouth as she yawned, moving her head as gently as she could to the side. Ellie let her out into the aisle first, then followed alongside her.
“I've categorized each child we have into a category!” Millie held out the sheet she had been scribbling on the whole way there. Ellie took it, reading over the top.
“Miss NJ’s and Miss Thrushes loop for hard cases” she read off, giving 5the Thrush a glance at the title, then going back down to the writing, having to squint at the cursive. “Category 1, Medically/ emotionally complex children” which had their current 2 children's names listed. “category 2, peculiarity unstable children. And category 3, Misbehavers.” Ellie mused at her partner, a thin lipped smile donning her rosy cheeks as she looked down at the sheet "Well, color me shocked, I'm surprised you had the fortitude to write this, but I'll give you credit, it's well made.” she tapped the paper with the back of the dull pencil “but you forgot someone.” Ellie commented.
Millie huffed “I'M ShOcKeD YoU HaD ThE FOrTiTuDe!”” she repeated in a high pitched voice, mocking her partner, but settled back down “Who did I forget?” the thrush asked as Ellie took the paper back and used the sharper pencil that was skewered into her bun to write out the final name, then she handed the paper to the thrush as she twisted her bun back up. Millie quickly scanned it, gasping as she saw the penmanship that was near unreadable.
“MISBEHAVERS!? WHY AM I LISTED UNDER THE MISBEHAVERS!?" Millie scoffed, but quieted down as she heard someone fuss with the door. "One day, I'm gonna get so sick of you and finally go off and start my own loop!” Millie took Eleanor's arm in her own as the attendants opened the door to let them off.
“Of course,” Ellie smiled, looking out towards the pink morning sky. “Let's just get to the council and get this over with.” Ellie’s face fell back to her normal cold expression as she walked up to the slightly icy steps of the Archives.
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“So like, do you think bats can taste vanilla frosting?”
Miss Nightjar's eyes narrowed onto her partner who was rocking in her chair. The thrush’s cerulean blue eyes fluttered about as she waited for her answer. Did Eleanor even know how to answer? “Millicent Andrea I swear on my soul if you somehow produce another bat, I will actually request to have you transferred to another loop as soon as Miss Wren walks in that door I swear-”
“No no!” Millie’s hands shot up in defense “I didn't kidnap one this time! I learned!”she huffed, crossing her arms. “Rabies, rabies, whatever!” She crossed her arms. ,”I just saw one outside Miss Glassbill 's office, her little pet one, I think Suki, or Yuki is his name? and I saw a vanilla cupcake in the kitchen as we passed.” The thrush scoffed. You made me write 200 sentences about the last bat, and I won't be re-writing those again!”
“That was, in fact, the point of the sentences.” Miss Nightjar pinched the bridge of her nose, but dropped as soon as the heavy wood door clicked shut. Both women stiffened up, especially Millie as the younger woman sat in front of them, tapping her papers together.
“Good morning” Miss Wren smiled, moving a lock of dulled black hair behind her. “Thank you for meeting on such short notice.” The leader of the council grabbed a file before leaning in her own chair which creaked with each tiny movement. “We have been getting…. Interesting reports from the slums of London, and I think you are the best Ymbryne for this case El.”
“What about me?” Millie asked curiously “am I good for this case?” she leaned forward on her seat, her smile never leaving as she waited.
Miss Wren pursed her lips as if thinking it over, but then nodded, but still remained silent a moment as she seemingly mulled over the answer. “yes…..I believe with Ellie you will do fine” she nodded as if affirming that statement to herself as well. Millie stuck out her tongue, but leaned back, waiting for Ellie to speak.
“Do please be quick, Balenciaga. My head is aching and the sun is already treacherously high” Miss Nightjar held her straw bonnet tight in her thin fingers. Miss Thrush swiped off her own hat, placing it on her partner's head and moved closer in a poor attempt to block the sun from her partner's eyes from the huge glass windows of the office.
“I'm too short to do much, but I hope this helps a little” Millie patted Ellie's cheek as Balenciaga Wren cleared her throat.
“I'm sorry dear. If I knew it was gonna be this sunny, I would have made time for a loop visit, but some strange occurrences in Russia have led me to be on call for the Asian council for a few days now.” Miss Wren admitted, but her hand fluttered up dismissively. “But on with this case” she opened the small file. “Multiple reports of a peculiar person who is going around and……well stealing corpses. No one knows what he is doing with them, but they are returned a few days later, the bones picked clean through.” Miss Wren leaned back, giving them a moment to digest.
“Why not have a normal Ymbryne take care of this? It's probably a teenage dead raiser with nothing but time to use the corpse and then clean them off to try to scare the locals? "Miss Nightjar reasoned. “Seems very cut and dry?”
“Why would they spend so long picking the bones clean?” Miss Thrush asked Miss Nightjar, shifting towards her. “That seems rather frivolous to do, even if it was a teenage peculiar trying to scare the locals. Why do it multiple times over if that was the case, wouldn't they get bored after picking one, maybe two of them clean?”
Miss Wren nodded “I would've had one of the council women deal with it, but we are now receiving reports of a few people being bitten by a teenage boy who was acting rabid. He has been noted to be always lingering around before these corpses were taken, before the city changed locations to hold the bodies elsewhere for the time being.” She stood up, moving to gaze out the window
“Huh rabies!” Millie whispered excitedly to Ellie who nudged her shin, giving her a look. “What!? I studied it extensively as my last immunology journal docu-”
“Don't sound excited about that!” Ellie hissed as Balenciaga stomped her walking came down, forcing the attention back to herself.
“If this trend does seem to continue, I fear it will put peculiars in the area at risk. A few men are already playing watch dog at night, trying to catch the fellow. If it continues, they will only get bolder, and start targeting peculiars. And perhaps…..best not to dwell on what hopefully won't come to pass.” Balenciaga raised her voice to get the ladies attention, then turned back from the window, her green eyes glittering in the dawn. “But they are not ones to waste a good excuse, let's put it that way.”
Miss Nightjar tilted her head. “Perhaps….,” her words died as she started to think over the case. Who could be doing such a ridiculous thing? “Sounds similar to something I've experienced before.” She shifted topics quickly, but not before Millie caught the strange look on her partner's face. “So you're sending me to get bit and figure out who is messing with corpses?” She adjusted her bonnet, stating the matter as if it was a plain fact.
Miss Wren rolled her eyes, but nodded, returning to her seat. “If we don't catch the one responsible, the public will. It's already giving the peculiars in the area varying amounts of trouble” Miss Wren slid the file over. “And you're the best for this Ellie.” Miss Wren stood up as the phone rang “you know why they kept you.”
Millie glanced at both the women. What did the last line mean? Whatever it meant, Eleanor already seemed to know, but kept her head down as she got up.
“Let's go Millicent.” Miss Nightjar stood up, giving Miss Wren a final look “We have a biter to catch.” She grabbed the door handle and flung it open, her smile gone as they approached the council doors to the main street outside the cold loop.