Ruban had agreed to send him a copy of the video through Brij, his informant.

But he’d done so fearfully, with bated breath. It wasn’t just that Viman might refuse to release the footage. Ruban was giving him almost exclusive access to (and knowledge of) a vital piece of evidence, long before anybody else knew about its existence. A piece of evidence that could alter the trajectory of the entire trial. And he didn’t want to imagine what havoc Viman could wreak with it, if he was sufficiently motivated to do so.

In the end, his fears had proved to be unfounded.

Although visibly conflicted about it, Viman Rai had released the video on his very next broadcast. He’d even done his own due diligence on the DNA evidence Ruban had collected, and presented his findings in the following broadcasts with little bias.

Viman was not happy about what he’d found, and nobody who watched his show would doubt the extent of his frustration. Not for a moment did he try to hide his dislike for, or distrust of, the Aeriel prince.

But neither did he make any attempt to bury or obfuscate information that contradicted his position. Having spent hours proclaiming Ashwin’s guilt in Simani’s accident at the Komini Fair Hunt, he’d accepted the evidence presented to him and altered his stance with remarkable grace. Certainly far more than Ruban would’ve considered him capable of.

So, Ruban truly was grateful to the man. Not only for his role in clearing Ashwin’s name – which was pivotal – but also for distracting the media’s attention away from the source of the video.

The spotlight was on Viman Rai and his fraught relationship with Prince Shwaan, whom he had somehow ended up defending. Few in the media were willing to look away from the drama long enough to track down the provenance of the video that’d started it all. Neither was the public keen to question the veracity of the evidence, when it was presented by a man famous for his hostility to those he was defending.

Even when the vendor’s identity was finally uncovered, it was mentioned only in passing, as no more than a footnote in the unfolding spectacle that was the trial.

It was Viman Rai’s sneering rejoinder that pulled Ruban back to the present. “Just because he didn’t try to kill her that one time doesn’t mean he never will. Or never has before, for that matter.” Viman’s eyes flicked to Simani, then back to Ruban. “You’re playing with fire, Kinoh. And by the time you realize it, you might be too badly burnt to fight back. That Aeriel is not your friend, nor are any of the others of its kind. And the fact you don’t realize it might just get us all killed.”

Shifting Hiya’s weight in his arms, Ruban lifted one shoulder in a slight shrug. “I’m not saying you’re wrong. But wouldn’t you say there’s a more immediate threat we should be focusing on, right now?”

Viman raised an eyebrow, saying nothing.

“Ashwin didn’t try to kill Simani during that Hunt in Central Ragah, but someone did,” Ruban said. “Someone pushed her in front of that shell, deliberately.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“And it wasn’t any of the Aeriels that did it,” Simani chimed in. “Which only leaves us with a handful of potential suspects.”

“You suspect that kid from the Central Ragah Division,” Viman surmised. “Siyal, isn’t it?”

“You tell me,” Ruban said. “You have access to all the same evidence as we do. Besides, it’s not about whether or not Siyal was the one to commit the act. Even if he was the executor, he certainly wasn’t the mastermind behind the plan.”

“Siyal had no reason to want Simani dead,” Vikram agreed, stepping up beside Ruban. “As far as we can determine, that Hunt was the first time he’d met her in person. He had no history of violent or criminal behavior, prior to this. Nor is it likely he held a personal grudge against someone he was meeting for the first time. Even if he was opposed to the alliance with Vaan, and was willing to kill for his beliefs, wouldn’t Ruban have been the more obvious target? After all, he's been much more vocal in his support of the alliance than Simani. She has yet to publicly take a stance on the issue, one way or the other. Killing her over it makes little sense.”

“So, you think it was a distraction tactic?” Viman asked, frowning.

“I think the point was to frame Ashwin for the murder,” Vikram said bluntly. “And the fact that my wife hasn’t been vocally supportive of the Vaan alliance was exactly the reason she was attacked. Because it wouldn’t make much sense for Ashwin to kill someone who was openly supportive of him and his goals. Simani’s reticence on the matter was what made her the perfect target. After she was dead, it wouldn’t be hard to claim that she’d been secretly opposed to the alliance and working against it, thus provoking Ashwin to attack her.”

Ruban’s heart clenched in his chest at the thought of Simani’s death. They’d come so close. Those first few harrowing days at the hospital still haunted his nightmares.

Gathering his thoughts, Ruban continued along Vikram’s line of reasoning. “It’s unlikely Siyal came up with such an elaborate plan to discredit Ashwin on his own. Besides which, he had no way to ensure that Simani would be assigned to oversee a Hunt in Central Ragah. They worked in different divisions. In the normal course of things, Siyal would never be involved in the same Hunts as Simani.”

Vikram nodded. “Someone much higher up the food chain than Atbin Siyal had to be pulling the strings here.”

Not so long ago, they’d thought Viman Rai was that person. But Ruban didn’t have to like the man to acknowledge that he’d been wrong about him. Viman distrusted Aeriels and disliked the idea of an alliance with Vaan. But his antipathy, though powerful and intransigent, was straightforward.

The man had integrity; Casia hadn’t been wrong about that.

Viman’s voice, when he spoke, was skeptical. “You believe that somebody in the higher echelons of the Hunter Corps deliberately planned to murder Ms. Vaz?”

Ruban smiled sardonically. A couple of months ago he wouldn’t have believed such a thing was possible. It sounded like a crazy conspiracy theory. And even now, he was half sure that was all it was.

“The Hunter Corps or the IAW,” Vikram said, his tone matter-of-fact. “Or perhaps even the Department of Defence. Somebody who had the power to influence the case allocations among the different Hunter Quarters in Ragah.”

His lips pressed into a thin line, Viman looked away. Clearly, he didn’t want to believe what he was hearing. But there weren’t a lot of ways the events of the past few weeks could be explained, and they all knew it.

Earlier that day, the IAW had initiated an official investigation to find out who was really behind the attempt on Simani’s life.

The problem was, if their assumptions were correct, the real culprit would have the means to influence the investigation – either misdirecting it or blocking it outright.

And for that same reason, none of them would be truly safe until they knew who it was that wanted them out of the way.