Curiosity on Clotho

Corvo helped Dreezle dock the rowboat as Quark looked over the scene. A weathered, sun-bleached building stood on the shore of Clotho, the smallest of the Three Fates. Dreezle had mentioned that it was after hours and Ferb's shop would be closed, but considering Ferb lived above his shop, the place was dark and seemed empty.

Quark knocked on the front door, but no answer was forthcoming. "Maybe we should look around back?" he asked. Dreezle looked a little hesitant. 

"I dunno if we should really hang around here. I've got a bad feeling about this."Quark nodded, and acknowledged the hurwaet's anxiety. 

"I just have some questions. Some very IMPORTANT questions..." He started around the back of the building, with the other two reluctantly following behind.

Quark found a small patio off the back door. He knock, and after no one replied, he scanned the back yard for something, anything that would provide a clue. He spied the privy and, lacking any other place to investigate, went to investigate. Perhaps Ferb had fallen asleep on the loo.

The outhouse stood among a cluster of trees about thirty feet or so from the main building. It had the typical crescent moon carved in the door, for style and ventilation. Quark tiptoed up silently and peeked in. It was nothing but a void of blackness.

"Strange," he whispered to himself, as he tried the handle.

It wasn't locked. It was frozen. Immovable. Almost as if it had been sealed up by magic.

"Can you hand me my mace?" he whispered to Corvo. Corvo's brow furrowed in the gloom. He was used to his mentor having strange ideas at weird times. This was possibly another one of those moments.

"Are you sure you want to do this? Right now?"

"Nope," he grunted as he swung the glorified pipe at the door of the privy. The wood panel buckled and cracked with a loud, very noticeable THONK! Encouraged, Quark took another couple swings at it, and soon, an eerie, purple light poured forth from the crack that he'd opened in the wooden door.

"Curiouser and curiouser..." he said as he knelt to peer inside. What he saw both shocked and didn't surprise him at all. A tiny, round bush was sitting in the ground where the pit should've been. The bush had jagged leaves any tiny clusters of wispy fluff. "I think I've met one of your relatives," he said as he reached up to unlatch the door from within.

What he saw made him blink in surprise. On the ceiling of the privy, a long black box housed a glowing tube of purple light. The light itself was unremarkable, but the light that it cast was far from that. The light seemed to have weight, it seemed to flow from the bulb that emitted it. Quark couldn't quite express it,  but the purple light had a quality about it that felt... not totally unalive. 

Quark looked down at the bush that Ferb (or someone he knows) had gone to great lengths to grow, nurture and protect. He knew deep down in his bones that this was significant; the thing was he hated not knowing why.

He reached down to examine the plant more closely, and resisted the urge to not reach out and touch it. He gingerly took one of the leaves between two fingers. He suddenly felt very thirsty, and trembled with fear. He wanted to back away from the plant but found his feet rooted to the spot, completely unable to move or cry out. His leaves trembled with fear as he tried to break the grip of the two fingers that held him. He tried to change into something like a cactus - something with needles and spikes to keep unwanted curiosity-seekers away, but it was no use. He was firmly planted in the ground and nothing was going to free him and keep him away from the man who reached out to touch him on the shoulder was Corvo, and he had a concerned look on his face.

"You okay, boss?" whispered in his most calming voice, looking Quark in the eye.

"Yeah, um, sure, I..." He stood to his full height, and looked around. The light was still on, but now there were two plants in the ground, not just one. "We need to get out of here," he whispered. "Let's fix this place up."

Some sweeping and a mend spell later, the privy had beed sealed back up and looked normal. Except for the two plants inside. "Maybe he'll be glad we contributed."

Emboldened by this little escapade, Quark led the party to the back of the house. Quark summoned an unseen servant just inside the back door and instructed it to lift the latch. Surprisingly, it worked.

The interior of Ferb's house looked exactly how Quark had pictured the house of a dealer in curios would look. Leather heads, metal fish, exotic ashtrays and strange lamps were collecting dust throughout the house. Old cigar stumps lay bobbing in ancient wine glasses. Oil portraits of long-dead people lined the walls of the stairwell. Upstairs was carpeted in shabby rugs brought in from afar. And one door in particular caught Quark's eye. One door had an eerie green light pouring out from underneath the door.

Curiouser and curiouser and curiouser..." he muttered as he reached for the doorknob.

Surprisingly, it opened.

And there, on the bed, lay the slumbering figure of Ferb, his long green beard spilling down over his long green robe. The robe blended into his green bedcovers, as the bed stood on a green rug in a green room. But this was no trick of a pair of glasses in the Emerald City. This was the result of a long, black box that was attached to the ceiling above Ferb's bed. Within that box was a long, green tube emitting an odd, very perplexing green light. The light, just like the purple one in the privy, had an eerily solid quality to it. Disconcerting. Strange. Interesting.

It was then that Quark noticed something strange, even for a room full of strange things. On what looked like a dresser, there was a set of scales. In one of the trays was a pile of what looked like silvery-gold dust. The other tray was empty. What was so strange about this was that the two trays were in balance. Quark couldn't help himself, and he reached his hand out to touch the scales, ever so gently.

The tray he touched bobbed down, slowly and smoothly, and then back up again, into balance. How could that be? he thought, unless it was an illusion? He reached out to the dust and lightly touched it. 

It most definitely existed. 

In fact, a little avalanche formed and spilled a small amount of dust over the tray, where it... stopped - and hung, like a frozen waterfall, not quite touching the dresser. 

Strange. Very strange indeed...

Dreezle gurgled, and Corvo gasped. Quark had the presence of mind not to cry out "Eureka!" and instead backed slowly, carefully towards the door. 

"Maybe this isn't the best time to disturb him," he whispered to the other two. "Why don't we slowly, quietly, get the hells out of here?"

The three backed their way out of the bedroom and quietly closed the door. As they made their way downstairs and out the back door, Quark couldn't help thinking he had discovered something lurking underneath the surface of life here on Mea'ngaro. The only question he had now was, what was in it for him?