Next week?

Next week, I reckon. I'm just about the book these plane tickets... have you any idea how much these cost? Especially for a woman with no wages...

I must be entirely insane. But never mind, there's no turning back now.

The empty abyss that is my life

Well, that response was overwhelming. Not.

But I'm not letting it get to me. I've still got to go back to England, I just can't bring myself not to. That stupid rock is out there somewhere, and I swear I'll get it back or die trying.

I'm nearly there with the plane ticket fund. Not far to go. Then I'll be off into... who knows. I've no idea. I feel maybe I should do some more research... if any of you are still out there listening and have any ideas, do let me know.

*hears echoing noise around empty Internet*

...sigh.

Happy New Year? Not Flippin' Likely.

You wouldn't believe the Christmas I had. Seriously. I don't even want to go into it, but if I want your help again, and something tells me that I'm going to need it soon, then I suppose I owe you at least this much...

Flynn threw his toys out of the pram totally on this one. You know I said he'd got that plane booked? Well nothing materialised before the weekend so off he dragged me, practically kicking and screaming back to America. "It's only a stone, Darcy. Don't get so attached to it. We lose stuff all the time."

Well you might, Mr Librarian, but I'll have you know that I don't!

...except that, well...

Flynn kicked up a proper fuss when we got back. I mean like the volcano erupting kind. There was lots of shouting, and a sort of tension-thick-as-treacle afternoon. At the end of which, I got informed that my probationary assignment hadn't been successful. Oh, yeah, they fired me.

Hence the rather rubbish holiday.

But I've decided. I'm not letting this stop here. No way. They can fire me if they like, but I can't stand thinking that my one and only assignment in the world's most freakishly amazing job ended in complete and utter failure. So I'm not giving up. Give me a little time to save up some money and I'm back to England. I've been tracking the weather patterns across the world and doing some research on this lapis tempestas. I reckon I can find it, given enough time, intelligence (that's where you come in!) and luck.

So. Who's in?

Is this thing on?

Uh... are you guys still out there?

I haven't heard anything from you in ages and... well...

I think we're going to have to find this thing soon, or at least find a lead on it. Flynn's mood hasn't improved much and he told me today that he's booking the plane tickets back for Saturday. So, either we find something before then, even if it's just a reason to stay a bit longer or... I guess we're just giving up.

I don't want it to end this way. Not after all this. I feel like we're so close to ending it, you know?

So if you're there... please? Help?

Cities in the Black Country

Hi guys! I've emailed a couple of you but I figured it's only fair I post on the blog too, right?

Some of you clever people suggested that I wasn't look for a black country at all... but THE Black Country, which is an area of England. Check out wikipedia for a bit more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Country

From the looks of it, the only city in the Black Country is Wolverhampton. Birmingham is near by, but doesn't seem to be IN it, as such... still, without any keener clue than a general area, I'm not sure what good it would do us to find the right city now anyway.

Flynn seems convinced that they must have the stone already. I hate to agree with him, but I think it seems only logical. So, really the question is... how do we get it back?

Numerologica will sell anything to the highest bidder; money is their motivation. So either we need to find them and take it by force, or we somehow need to convince them that we can offer them something more than they're being offered at the moment.

Any ideas?

Victorious!

Congratulations everyone! You'll all be pleased to know that I am no longer alone here in my little hotel room.

Er, not in that way. Maybe I should start again.

I'll begin with earlier in the week. The weather has been horrid, but still I managed to find some time to trek up to Stoke, to that place you sent me. It's just outside of an old coal mine, called Chatterly Whitfield. It seemed, from the looking around that I did, that there was a museum there at one point too. Dodging the raindrops I was able to get a good feel for the place, which really helped me to prepare for yesterday evening.

I got there just before six o'clock. I wasn't sure what to expect, but you'd obviously all done your job because there were only three Numerologica agents at the place; they turned up about quarter past six. Then, pretty much exactly at half past, two more men turned up in a van with a suspiciously Flynn-shaped person in the back.

Well, I'm not one to toot my own trumpet or anything, but five minutes later we were precisely five agents shorter, and Flynn and I were making tracks into the sunset.

I think he's a little mad, you know. Not at me. At Charlene and Judson, for not telling him he had someone following him. Not that he can really complain, you know, because of how I rescued him and all. With a massive amount of help from you guys, of course!

Anyway, we're still none the wiser about the location of the Lapis Tempestas. Flynn seems to think that the Numerologica know, or at least have some idea. He says they kept talking about "the city", and something about a country which was black... that didn't make any sense at all to me. Somewhere on the equator, maybe?

It's been a very tiring day or so, so I guess that's it for tonight. Maybe we'll have an epiphany about the location of this Lapis Tempestas in the morning. Or, you know, if you guys have any ideas... you know where to send them!

I have a plan...

So, I have a plan guys.

Since we know exactly where Flynn is going to be at 6.30pm on the 30th, I think that's the best time for me to try and get to him and rescue him.

But, I need your help.

I really don't need all of the Numerologica Corporation waiting for me when I turn up. I mean, I'm good, but I'm not that good, and besides, who wouldn't want to even the odds a little? So, I have a plan that will hopefully help me out a bit.

We know that Numerologica want the Lapis Tempestas. We know what they probably don't know what it looks like, since we have the notebook with the picture in, and they don't. So, what I want you guys to do... make something. Anything. Anything that could be the Lapis Tempestas. Maybe it looks like the picture, maybe it doesn't... that doesn't matter, since Numerologica don't know what the thing looks like anyway, do they? Then once you've made something that could concievably be the Lapis Tempestas, take a picture of it and email it to Five and tell him that you have it, and that you'd like to request a meeting with one of the Corporation, to verify your finding. And, oh, you'd like it to be Monday 30th November, at 6.30pm. Preferably some place that's a long way from Stoke-on-Trent.

You'll need to make your pictures look convincing enough for Five to agree to send some people out to "meet" you. But with everything you'd managed so far, I'm sure that you can do it! Oh, and it's probably best if you don't send them all on the same day... you know, to make it more convincing.

Meanwhile, I'm going to see if I can sneak out of here and get up to this location you've pointed me to, to do a bit of scouting around. A bit of advanced recognisance work is never a bad thing...

Good luck everyone!