Ancestor's Request

"Senior, someone left this for you." A woman passed along a piece of talisman to the leader of the Alchemy Association. The leader took the talisman and read it quickly.

"Sigh, failure again," he said softly.

"Is everything alright, senior?" the woman asked.

"Oh, no. Everything is alright. You can leave, thank you," the leader said and sent her away. After the woman left, the leader sat back on his chair and read the talisman again.

The talisman had come from a group of investigators he had employed to find Alex's father. Every month they sent him all their findings up to now and every time it had been a failure. This time was no different.

'He has to be dead, right? What other explanation could there be?' he wondered. If as Alex had mentioned, the man had not been returned back to the wasteland, then he had to have been found already.