Enchantment of the Sacred Relic

"What do you mean, 'canceled'?"

The face on the other side of the window smiled. "I apologize for any inconvenience, but we must cancel your ticket."

I blinked. "But why? I don't understand."

"We are sorry, miss. Tickets to India are extremely difficult to acquire at this time. We simply cannot risk selling your ticket to someone else while there is a chance that you may never arrive. We have no desire to hold onto useless tickets, or have them expire if they remain unused past a certain date." The agent behind the glass shook his head sympathetically and shrugged.

I stared back at him, feeling my heart sink into my chest as I sank down onto my bags in despair. It was one thing to be told that I couldn't fly out this morning, but now they wanted me to wait two whole weeks just to buy a new ticket? What was I supposed to do in the meantime?

I'd only been in Europe for three days. Three days since I left everything behind, including my work and my apartment and all of my belongings, so that I could find him again. And now it had all gone wrong... again! My eyes stung with tears of frustration and anger at myself as I sank further down on my bags, wishing that somehow I could simply disappear like him and never return home again. After all, what was there for me in America, anyway? There were no such things as detectives there – it was just me and him and the truth we'd discovered together so many years ago... but then he'd disappeared without a word and took those memories with him! Why had he done it?!

And yet here I was, still chasing after him long after he was gone – because he wasn't really gone at all! No matter how much I tried to distract myself with anything else, some part of me knew that he wouldn't just abandon our investigations like that... he was out there somewhere, and one day soon I would find him again! But today had been the day! Today! The next flight leaving London's Heathrow airport for Delhi was departing in two days' time – but instead of boarding that flight I had just spent an hour of my life waiting in line at the British Airways counter while they told me that they couldn't let me leave until some magical date in the future when they decided they didn't need their tickets anymore...

What did they think would happen if I went home again? Did they think I was going to steal their tickets or something? Maybe they thought by canceling my trip they could keep me here indefinitely so I could go and help them sell more tickets instead? What kind of logic was this?! They hadn't even asked for any identification from me before telling me about their insane policy – what if someone had stolen my identity?! Did these people not know who Sherlock Holmes was?! He had solved cases around the world from America to China – how could these Europeans *not* know who he was?? Didn't any of them read their history books?? Hadn't any of them heard about the great detective who saved England from itself by exposing her dark secrets through science and logic... how could *anyone* forget someone like him?!

My hands shook with rage as my mind raced through the possibilities – none of which were very good. Obviously someone had canceled my ticket; otherwise why would they have moved up their departure date by almost two weeks? It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened: someone had found out about our investigation and put pressure on British Airways to stop me from leaving England before we could finish our work! Which meant... it must have been Arthur! After all, he'd been at John's funeral yesterday evening when we'd arranged our plan; which meant he knew exactly where we were headed next! He'd probably figured out that we were going to India next so that we could finish our research into those ancient texts collected by Sherringford Holmes himself way back when... which meant he must've guessed why *I* wanted to go there too! And once he knew where *I* wanted to go, then all he needed to do was call up everyone we'd ever worked with over the years until he found someone willing to make me stay home... except even worse than staying home was being stuck here in London while everyone else flew off into the sunset without me!

It wasn't fair!! None of this made any sense at all – if Arthur genuinely believed we were getting closer every day towards finding "the truth", then why would he want us separated from each other?! It made no sense whatsoever! And yet here I sat with nobody but myself for company as everyone else flew off without me - because John had been right: Arthur clearly wasn't playing by normal rules any longer... which meant his motivations might not be normal either! If Arthur truly believed that "the truth" existed somewhere outside reality itself... then maybe Arthur thought it would