Candlelight Back Home
Candlelight goes back home to his little village, meeting a more-than-friend along the way. Incidents happen and the once-friendly villagers are turned against each other.
- Main Cast
- Time period
- 2031
- Complete
- Tags
- Nameless village, Westavia
Candlelight, disillusioned and worn-down from his SPF job, decided to quit and go back to being a farmer. He moved from Area 1 back to the nameless village near Area 29 in which he was born.
Contents
At the train station in Area 1, he met a nervous little guy, apparently new to Westavia, asking around for directions. He introduced himself as Curly. Candlelight figured that Curly might be going to his own village, and invited him on the same train.
When they got home, he met his childhood friend Mooncake, who was also a cop and faring way better than him. Curly also met his distant relative, Helsinki. Candlelight found that the other villagers had long ago sold every removable furniture at his house, including the pot of wine in the basement, and divided the spoils which had again long ago been spent.
So for the time being, they stayed in Helsinki's.
Candlelight noticed that many families he used to know had similar things happen to their houses — run-down and sold empty. He wondered why. The curt answers Thyme gave him was that the old members had died and the young ones were away in eastern Westavia. Their land? Thyme's now. Well, you see, the kids don't know how to work it anyways. Thyme could take care of it better than they could.
Ember's return
A couple days later, Thyme got a call from the police, saying that Ember was due to be released from reeducation soon. Not because he actually changed his mind or anything, but because he was the last person in the camp and they couldn't afford it running anymore. They asked him whether Thyme could find Ember's relatives to go get him.
What a coincidence, his son had just come back!
So apparently, Ember and the band of terrorists he ran away with got caught. The other members were either sentenced to jail or executed, but as Ember didn't directly participate in the attack on the Area 29 market, he was only sentenced to reeducation. Candlelight never knew this, but he knew he would absolutely refuse to meet Ember again. It took the entire rest of the already-quite-empty village — the same people who stood by and watched as Ember slowly forced Muscat to her death — to convince him to at least go get him home from the camp.
So he did. And boy was he still the same. After he learnt that Candlelight was a cop in Area 1, he tried getting Candlelight to send him money every month; but immediately grew mad again when he told Ember that he quit already.
He still demanded money though, and Candlelight was legally obliged to pay him, by virtue of being his child. But there was a way out. If he could prove in court that Ember was a bad father, he could be freed of this obligation.
To court
Candlelight formed a plan. He would go to the hospital to find evidence about Muscat's abuse; and then he'd find Sundew to have her testify. Potentially they can both be freed of the obligation.
He also had other witnesses in mind, like Mooncake and Thyme. But Sundew would be the most important one.
He did eventually find Sundew in People's Vanguard, but she didn't want to go back to the village, much less meet Ember again. And as long as Ember doesn't find her, she can't be extorted.
Candlelight only got Thyme to testify on court, since Sundew didn't want to come, and Mooncake wasn't able to, being busy. The only evidence about Muscat he got was a report of suicide with no mention of domestic abuse. He was relying on Thyme alone to prove the entire thing.
And Thyme didn't. In his testimony, he said Ember was a good guy and the only mistake he made was on the day of the attack, where he was coerced by the terrorists to turn on his fellow villagers. Candlelight lost the case.
And now, Candlelight also realized why Thyme said what he said. Ember was the only reliable way to funnel Candlelight's savings into village funds.
The factory
Dial the time back a little. Things were going on in the village. A textile factory is planned to be built next to it. Many villagers was excited about the prospect — this can increase employment, attract the young people back, and potentially grow the place into more than a village. Area 30 — think about that!
Thyme, however, was not happy, because the factory would take up a lot of land. His land. He rallied Pumpkin into siding with him, but Pumpkin was just a stranger here.
One day, the WIS came for a certain curly-haired man. The ticket salesperson had apparently tipped them off about a stranger parading around old city names. They spotted Pumpkin, who introduced himself as Curly and gave them the cover story he gave Candlelight. The story was mostly true, as it can be the most effective type of cover story. His grandparents immigrated from this village to Bauhinia — Helsinki was his distant relative — and this was why he didn't know about the city name changes. He showed them the documents his grandparents had. They let him keep a copy, and took the originals. Where did you live in Bauhinia? Coastline. Occupation? Didn't have one. What about your parents? They didn't want to leave, but approved of me going. Siblings? None. Do you know someone named Pumpkin? No.
That was how he knew the WIS found out about his attempted murder by Halcyon. Damn. Did they know Pumpkin was still alive? If they found out he was ex-MSS… Pumpkin was certain they were going to go back and verify his cover story — and if they found out it matched too well with Pumpkin's, they might just put two and two together.
Later, Thyme asked Pumpkin about the original name of Nameless Village. Turns out, with all these leaders whispering, the name had long been misheard. Thyme thought it was "A Mocking Silence," when it was in fact "Amoxicillin," as evident from Pumpkin's grandparents' documents.
The lockdown
Eventually the factory started construction. When they were digging the foundation, they dug up more than dirt. They found the skeletons of around a dozen people, all in their twenties and thirties, some having clearly suffered heavy injuries. A quick DNA test proved they were the children of the dead old people who were supposed to be off in eastern Westavia for opportunities.
Thyme immediately fell under suspicion, though no hard evidence had been found. The village went into lockdown; no one could enter or leave, the construction was paused, and Mooncake was handed a rifle to guard them alongside the soldiers stationed at the roads. This was on the day Candlelight returned from the court, so he got locked in too.
And that was when Candlelight had a plan. He would murder Ember and frame Thyme. If they couldn't get him for the murder of all these families, they could still send him to jail for the murder of Ember.
One day the WIS came to the village, but was promptly stopped by the lockdown guards because no one was allowed to enter. The WIS agents cursed and left, leaving a contact method for when the lockdown finishes.
Now Pumpkin really wanted to flee Westavia. He plotted to sneak past the lockdown, but Candlelight begged him to stay just for a bit longer. He needed Curly for his alibi.
The murder was simple. Candlelight and Pumpkin were sleeping at Helsinki's while Ember slept at Thyme's. And knives in Westavia had to be barcoded with your information, so you get in trouble if the knife is used to stab someone, even if you weren't the one stabbing. He'd simply sneak into Thyme's, murder Ember with his knife, and bury the body — in Helsinki's yard, making it look like Thyme was trying to frame her. He just had to wait for a day Mooncake was on night shift.
The ploy succeeded with Pumpkin's testimony that Candlelight never left during the night. In addition, Helsinki happened to help by saying she had been locking the door every night ever since the terrorist incident and only she had the key (Candlelight went out through the window). Thyme was arrested, and Helsinki temporarily took on his duties.
The lockdown was over and the WIS agents returned for Pumpkin, only to find that he was gone.