We walked down the corridor to the same room we had used the previous night. Present was also much the same group who had been at the information council the previous night – the two academy leaders, Minister Greenfield, and a staff member who had never been introduced to me. They were in subtly different clothing, but did not look well rested. I wondered just how early they had been woken up to deal with the matter. They fell silent when we walked in, and Assistant Oxenden explained my presence. The lack of surprise from any of them was telling.
“Hero Percy,” greeted Academy Leader Silver. “It is good to have you here. There is unfortunately even more to be considered than the death of the poor girl. Because of where she died, this also has implications for the bonding ceremony itself.”
Just what I wanted to hear.
“Is there difficulty in using the area after a death?” I asked.
“Yes,” he agreed. “Not purely removing the actual blood on the sands, but in clearing the area from the psychic damage of the victim. It is one thing if the death was instant and painless, but quite another if she suffered. We can’t afford to get that wrong. We will be relying on you to pursue those matters with the butchering staff and others so that we can determine our next actions.”
The butchering staff? That had to be some sort of failure of translation. I had sudden black humour about some of that mystery meat I’d been eating. It was fortunate for my paranoia that none of it had, in fact, tasted like pork.
> I can likewise reassure readers than no cannibalism is practiced on this world whatsoever. Even in extreme survival situations it is considered too serious a sin to justify.
“Ideally,” continued Academy Leader Silver, “we’d like to keep the same time slot. Otherwise, we’ll also have to do a new Purification Ceremony with the new details.”
“I think that ones probably a lost cause,” said Minister Greenfield, tracing something from a notebook. “Things have already changed. The numbers of candidates, at the very minimum.”
Blunt, but true.
The central lantern, hanging in the centre of the room, sputtered. Academy Leader Silver gave it a sharp shake, and I was tempted to suggest he try switching it off and switching it on again. When the second shake was no more effective than the first, he looked up and finally seemed to realise it was after sunrise. I couldn’t fault him too much – there wasn’t a great deal of light outside either.
“Can someone open the curtains?” snapped Academy Leader Silver.
“Leave them closed,” said Minister Greenfield. “We don’t need to be distracted by those dragon antics.”
“I’m much more concerned with being able to see,” said Academy Leader Silver.
The staff member silently opened the curtains. Minister Greenfield had no cause for complaint. The mist outside prevented us from seeing much of anything.
“I still think we need to confine the ceremony to just the heroes,” said Academy Leader Darkwater.
Academy Leader Silver waved a hand. “You’re worrying too much.”
“You’re not worrying enough! You have three dragonets that approached the body. The tracks are perfectly clear.”
“But no evidence they did anything but look at it,” said Academy Leader Silver. “The body looked undisturbed.”
“And no evidence that they didn’t consume some of the blood that wasn’t on the body. It might have pooled for any length of time before it drained into the sands.”
“I’m not killing three dragonets based on that!”
“I’m not suggesting you do,” said Academy Leader Darkwater. “I’m saying that you need to keep them isolated for a few months to see if we spot any behaviour changes. Bonding them when they already have a taste for blood would be catastrophic. Sending the candidates home to wait for the next bonding ceremony would merely be mildly embarrassing.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Embarrassing for me,” said Academy Leader Silver. “I don’t think you’d be so quick to suggest it if the shoe was on the other foot.”
“I wouldn’t have to. Because we protected our ceremony grounds from negative influences.”
If the suggestion had been to wait on bonding us heroes, I might have become involved. As it wasn’t, I left them to their argument. The rest of the room also seemed to lack any interest in either stopping them or following what they were saying. Minister Greenfield was paging back and forwards in his notebook, and Assistant Oxenden had found a notebook of his own, and appeared to be in the process of writing a list. I drifted over. I had gathered enough to know that my purposes would be more easily fulfilled if this was taken as a crime rather than an accident. It was worth trying to make that happen.
“Do you have the note available?” I asked Assistant Oxenden quietly, while the academy leaders continued to argue.
Assistant Oxenden retrieved it from a wooden box, indifferent to fingerprints. I took it carefully, even though I knew it was probably a wasted effort. It was, as described, a handwritten note expressing Bethany’s crisis. It was heavily smudged, but even that was no match for the translation magic, and I had no problem reading it.
> Fingerprints are unique identifying marks that can be left behind by touching things on many technological worlds. Even the most basic protection wards prevent this from happening.
“Who has seen this?” I asked. “Seen it personally, I mean, not just heard about the contents?”
Assistant Oxenden thought a moment. “The staff member who found her body, me and now you, I think. Unless someone removed it while I was out the room.”
“And this is how it was when it was removed from the body?” I asked.
“Yes, as far as I can see,” said Assistant Oxenden.
I returned the note to him, and he placed it back in the box.
Minister Greenfield looked over. “We might as well destroy that. It can’t do anything but bring pain.”
“Do we want to pretend this was an accidental death?” I asked, without any judgement in my tone, pro or contrary. “Let Candidate Bethany Fairbanks have an honourable burial?”
Someone would come up with the idea sooner or later, if they hadn’t already. I needed to get out ahead of that for my plan to work.
After a long beat when I thought I might have to push matters, Minister Greenfield said, “No. As tempting as it is, I’m afraid I can’t support that. It is one thing to give the deceased the benefit of the doubt, but I could not allow a burial to go ahead when I knew it to be false. It would be a violation of my oaths.”
“Then we need to tell the parents about the note,” I said. “The death does not look like a suicide without it.”
There was a knock, and the door immediately opened to let Hearth Keeper and House Holder Fairbanks enter. The two academy leaders finally stopped arguing, and we all turned to look at them awkwardly. It seemed that Minister Greenfield was the one who had drawn the short straw. He stepped forward and broke the news that their daughter had committed suicide. He expressed his condolences with every sign of sincerity and every evidence of a great deal of practice. He went through the details of the case simply, mentioning the existence of the suicide note but implying the contents were limited to a statement of intent. It seemed a validation of my suspicions as to why Assistant Oxenden had been put in charge, when Minister Greenfield seemed like a far superior candidate. Then I caught sight of Academy Leader Silver’s expression and realised why he wouldn’t have been placed in charge no matter what the circumstances.
Hearth Keeper Fairbanks collapsed into chair, staring blankly at the far wall. House Holder Fairbanks had the opposite reaction, pulling himself to his full height and walking closer to Minister Greenfield.
“You did this!” said House Holder Fairbanks. “You’ve always hated us and now you’ve murdered my girl.”
“I realise this has been a great shock to you,” said Minister Greenfield diplomatically. “Perhaps you would like to return to your rooms to process the matter.”
That just made House Holder Fairbanks angrier. “Don’t you dare try to drive me away. I’m not leaving until we find out the truth. What did you do? Did you push her off, or just threaten her into doing it herself?”
“House Holder Fairbanks,” said Minister Greenfield “Control yourself. I am here purely as a representative of the All-Faith. I didn’t have any contact with Candidate Bethany Fairbanks.”
“You would say that, wouldn’t you?” asked House Holder Fairbanks rhetorically.
That was enough to get Minister Greenfield to lose his temper as well. “I say that because it’s true. I was leading a ceremony in front of half the academy yesterday evening, and I was in this very room, with witnesses, both before and after. And besides, what possible reason is there for me to kill a young girl? She was no threat to me, I can assure you. What are you going to accuse me of next? Being the secret lovechild of the Heartland’s emperor?”
“I wouldn’t put it past you, you—”
“House Holder Fairbanks!” interrupted Academy Leader Silver sharply. “Please refrain from making slanderous statements within the Academy. This is not how we do things.”
Stop being on my side, you’re making us look bad, I translated.
Hearth Keeper made a muffled sound, and for the first time House Holder Fairbanks seemed to remember she was with him. He sat next to her and patted her hand.
“Academy Leader Silver,” appealed House Holder Fairbanks, “Surely you must see there is something wrong with this. Please promise me you will have this properly investigated.”
“Of course,” said Academy Leader Silver. “We luckily have an expert in Hero Percy with us. I’m sure you can agree that he can be trusted to be impartial.”
If anything was going to be my cue, that was it. “I promise that I will take this very seriously. Not least because House Holder Fairbanks is right about one thing. Candidate Bethany Fairbanks did not commit suicide.”