A Crossroads Island AU Spirit Box Mysteries Story
by @mushrooms-x-moss x @serialsforbellara
"Hmm, New Year's resolutions…" Gemma wondered aloud.
The end of the year was fast approaching, and she eyed Rook where the two of them sat at their respective desks. "We need to be organized in the new year! Just look at all these notes." Their pile of sticky notes had turned her side of the desk into a multitude of neon colors, bleeding down one leg and even encroaching onto the edge of Rook's own desk.
"Fine," Rook grumbled. She pushed a shifty-looking sticky note back to Gemma's desk before picking up a pen and a fresh notepad. "RESOLUTIONS."
Rook pushed the pen so hard into the paper Gemma wondered if the words would be imprinted into the desk underneath it. Sliding onto the desk, ruffling the sticky notes as she did, she tried to read Rook's words upside down.
"Stop swearing so much?" she asked, trying not to giggle.
Rook jumped. "Shit! You scared me! How are you always so damn quiet all the time, and why are you on the desk?" She blew out a frustrated puff of air, blowing a dark, unruly curl out of her face. "Fu—geez, this is hard!"
Grinning, Gemma returned to her chair. "Rook. These are resolutions for the FBIS. You can swear all you want. It's allowed in the guidelines."
"Oh, thank fuck for that!" Relieved, Rook smirked and sunk further into her chair, the front feet precariously lifting off of the ground as she leaned back into it to put her feet on her desk. "Okay—you write. I'll yap."
The box was safely locked away in Gemma's office safe behind a combination lock, along with three sets of wards, a slime monster baby, and a sticky note with the warning, 'Do not tell Sabi.'
"It's shiny, like treasure," Rook offered. "We can ask Xiqaa if they've seen anything like it before."
"Good idea!" Gemma scrawled a reminder to ask the treasurer hunter on a sticky note and then added a second name. The island did have a magical archaeologist. "Cyri may know something too."
"Jericho too! Teachers always know stuff."
Rook added his name to the list. "That's a good start since we can't ask Emmrich." Filomena's cryptic words were still at the top of her mind. And since the local mystic hadn't seen them go directly to Emmrich in her vision, they had to continue down the longer, yet fated path.
They both looked distrustfully at the answering machine in the corner.
It was an abomination. Ancient, loud, and apt to cut off callers. But they couldn't unplug it—the number was still out there on the island. And they couldn't let anyone down. So the two of them begrudgingly allowed it to live in a corner of their office under a blanket.
Well, there had been a blanket, but it had since been confiscated by Assan, who was now adorably curled up and sleeping on it under their desks.
The answering machine blinked at them menacingly.
"Well, that's a Wintermarch problem!" Gemma declared, waving her hand. "What's next?"
Apparently many islanders shared their feelings about the answering machine from their side of the phone too, and had begun to simply leave them hastily scrawled sticky notes on the office door. Rook had been regularly grabbing them (without reading them) and dumping them in a pile on Gemma's desk before Neve noticed.
Seven notes were from Maeve asking for updates.
One note was from Tavi, asking if his message had gotten through…Most of it had.
Three notes were from Sabine with little flowers and hearts on them. Rook's face lit up upon spying them, and she casually shifted them over to her desk, a smile growing on her face.
Gemma cocked a curious eyebrow in Rook's direction. She knew the tavern was clear of malicious spirits; she lived there. "You and Sabine spent so much time watching Nugflix holiday specials the past few weeks, I was afraid you didn't even know where the office was anymore," Gemma teased.
A blush ran up Rook's cheek. "What? Oh, uh…yeah. Nugflix! Right—that's what we've been doing..."
Gemma rolled her eyes, smirking at Rook's consistent inability to lie. But she decided to give her friend a break—it was the holidays after all—and continued to work on their list.
"I heard that Akela may be interested in helping out," Gemma said thoughtfully. "Though he tried to tell me his name was Akela Tiezz. I'm pretty sure he's a distant de Riva relation."
Rook closed her mouth and kept it shut. Mentioning Gemma's estranged family never went over well. But after a moments pause, she opened it, when an even more important piece of information came to mind.
"Magic and undead freak him out though," Rook said, warily.
Gemma nodded. "Then with us is the safest place for him to be, right?"
Rook gave Gemma a doubtful look.
"So everyone knows how to find us," she said, hurriedly moving on to the next item without looking at her friend.
"Lydia made those great spirit seeing glasses," Gemma mused. "She said they might not work all the time but they should help."
The whole island now had stories of Lydia dragging them out of bed in the middle of the night just after the box was open which had originally seemed promising. But so far, their research showed that most of these events were unrelated to the released spirits.
"Didn't you see spirits in Lilya's shop?" Rook asked.
She nodded. "First one located!" Gemma noted it on a second sticky. In a move that no one would call subtle, Gemma then stuck it to the underside of her desk.
"What the hell did you do that for?" Rook asked, pointedly.
"It's in a safe place." It was the second time Gemma refused to meet her eyes.
Rook narrowed hers. "This is about Illario, isn't it?"
"Fucking Illario," Gemma muttered. Then she perked up. "Oh! That reminds me."
"What? What do you mean?? What happened to Zalan?!" Rook asked, shooting straight up in her chair in concern.
"He left the message the first day we hooked up the demon," Gemma said, not looking at where it lurked in the corner. "I'm sure he's fine."
Rook continued to gawk at her, but Gemma pressed on. "What's next?"
"Ans made it sound like we need to find and identify them first," Rook said, nodding.
Gemma let out a long sigh. "We may need to make business cards for all the civilian consultants we're going to need," she muttered.
"Yeah…I don't think we do," Rook argued.
"We might," Gemma stubbornly replied.
Assan woke up long enough to chirp his support of the resolution.
CREDITS | CAST OF ROOKS 🎬
SUPPORTING ROLES / mentioned by name
Sabi @seaglassmelody
Xiqaa @genjyoandgojyoandhakkai
Cyri @mythals-whore
Jericho @sandcastlekings
Filomena @quaksi
Maeve @wolfmoonwildflowers
Tavi @jouskaroo
Sabine @guacamolleee
Akela @brightbreezeblog
Lydia @sorcerousadventurer
Lilya @serensama
Zalan @blackwall-my-tiny-husband.
Anselm @vishantikaffar
Need to catch up? We're now on AO3 too!
👻The Spirit Box Mysteries
