Assistant Oxenden he resecured the suite of Candidates Shanelly and Bethany against male intrusion. “We didn’t find anything.”

He sounded disappointed in our failure, rather than vindicated. It sounded like he was also of the opinion that Candidate Bethany had cheated to enter the dragon rider academy. He certainly wasn’t indignant about the very possibility.

“That doesn’t mean there was never anything to find. I should have secured her bedroom earlier,” I said, projecting as much guilt as I could. “If nothing else, to protect Candidate Shanelly from false accusations.”

“Is Candidate Shanelly being suspected?” asked Lilianna. “Why?”

I was embarrassed to realise that we hadn’t explained the matter before co-opting Lilianna’s assistance. I explained the theory that she had retaliated after a lifetime of bullying, and Candidate Shanelly’s defence of the cheating documents we had been looking for.

“And you think the bullying never happened,” said Lilianna.

I paused and honestly considered it. “Not… not that cleanly. I think that Candidate Bethany has been the target of bullying most of her life due to her disorder. Going by her behaviour yesterday, I suspect that Shanelly neither participated nor defended Bethany much. I think that Bethany lashed out at the people she felt least threatened by, and that included Shanelly. All in all, I suspect Shanelly felt pity for Bethany, and Bethany hated her for it.”

> Once again, we see how His Devotion, Saint Percival the Investigator, pays attention to the details of the people around him, even when he claims to be entirely disinterested.

“This will be confusing for Candidate Shanelly now,” said Lilianna with quiet sympathy. “She could not have been pleased to be sharing a suite with Candidate Bethany. She was probably considering whether or not to try to get her expelled for cheating for her own selfish reasons. And now her hopes have been fulfilled in the worst possible way.”

We murmured agreement. Death was always complex.

I turned to Assistant Oxenden. “Can you organise another interview with Candidate Bethany’s parents? I think we have more to talk to them about than we realised when I spoke to them earlier this morning.”

Assistant Oxenden had urgent work that could not be postponed any further, but I convinced him that the Fairbanks might be more willing to talk to me if he wasn’t present. We walked up the stairs to the top meeting room I was starting to think of as ‘mine’. My leg and butt muscles put in a polite request that I did not repeat the previous day’s activities. I was attracted to the window like a magnet while I waited. The dragons were back to base jumping, some with riders and some without. I wondered if someone had cast some sort of magic on me, because I was looking at them and thinking that it looked fun. The pair entered and sat down stiffly, and I sat opposite.

“You have more questions?” House Holder Fairbanks stiffly.

“A few, yes,” I said with a smile. “House Holder Fairbanks, our records show that you didn’t attend the purification ceremony.”

“It wasn’t required,” he said. “It hardly matters, does it?”

“Come now,” I said. “If you really believed it didn’t matter, you wouldn’t have lied about it this morning.”

“I meant to attend,” he said, “but when we started preparing, I felt unwell. I decided to make an early night of it instead.”

“You felt unwell?” I repeated with disbelief.

“I drank too much, alright?” he said. “Does that satisfy you? That dragon-bait Greenfield was pinching my tail all supper, and I ended up consuming more than I intended.”

“You didn’t see Candidate Bethany again.”

“No. I was hardly about to go wandering around the school half-drunk, was I? Why are you even asking?”

“You and Candidate Bethany did not have a good relationship,” I said, as if it was a fact and not a wild speculation. “It’s best to have all the explanations laid out so no-one has any cause to suspect you.”

“That’s ridiculous,” he said. “My relationship with Bethany was fine. Just normal childish rebellion. She just needed a little more encouragement from time to time.”

“How can you say that?” exploded Hearth Keeper Fairbanks. “You barely know our daughter. You were so ashamed of her that you couldn’t even stand to be in the house with her. You’re probably happy that she’s gone.”

Oh. Oh. Hearth Keeper Fairbanks had wondered if her husband had killed her daughter. Not for long – when she had seen the note, she would have known it wasn’t him – but the emotions were still there.

“I was working,” defended House Holder Fairbanks, ignoring the last accusation entirely. “Working to keep this family afloat, and maybe have some hope of finding a good marriage for Bethany. The gods know she wasn’t doing anything for herself. The academy was best chance, and you know how keen she was to just throw that away. If I hadn’t spent so much time hustling with the food deliveries here, we wouldn’t even have had that chance.”

“You were on academy property frequently?” I interrupted.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

“Well, not frequently,” he said. “But often enough, yes.”

I followed up with questions about how that worked and managed to acquire some of the details of what I really wanted to know. He knew absolutely nothing about the food storage situation, unfortunately. The food delivery system turned out to be a long, difficult, but navigable carriage path… into a natural cave system, and then up an internal funicular that came out in one of the unidentified buildings the old section. The existence of those caves and daylight holes had been the reason this spire had been chosen for the academy in the first place. But the funicular was not suitable for humans.

Before I could pursue that any further, Assistant Oxenden let himself in to the meeting room. House Holder Fairbanks stiffened up.

“Finished ‘protecting’ my daughter’s room?” he asked.

I was surprised that he brought it up again, instead of pretending it never happened. If it was something improper, I would have expected him to distance himself from it.

“Please do not enter the student floors again without a proper escort,” retorted Assistant Oxenden.

“I know what I saw!” said House Holder Fairbanks. “When I was coming down for lunch, I saw a male come out of those rooms. And that was before Candidate Shanelly arrived, so you don’t have to get indignant again. I’m not accusing her of anything improper.”

“It’s impossible for a male to have entered that suite,” explained Assistant Oxenden again.

“You went in there, didn’t you? Not so impossible then.”

“I have an override key,” said Assistant Oxenden.

“And are you the only person in the academy with an override key in the entire academy? No, I didn’t think so. Are you going to have a word with all those people as well? I bet there’s at least one who also missed the purification ceremony."

“Are you really accusing our staff of—”

“Everyone,” I interrupted. “It’s getting late. I think I’ve learnt everything I need for the time being. I’ll be sure to let you know if we discover anything.”

I started to push myself out of the chair, and then had to carefully readjust my weight to only use my good arm. My ‘battle wounds’ from that morning did not appreciate being moved. I’d have to watch that. The others, abashed, also left without further complaint. Assistant Oxenden and returned to the sitting room to free up the meeting room – which did indeed have people waiting for it. Our sitting room was starting to take on a little of a lived-in smell with our constant presence. The bathing facilities were very clever, but they weren’t quite up to the standards I was used to. I wondered if I could request a miniature smoking dragon of my own. I tried to ignore it and summarised the Candidate Bethany part of the conversation for Assistant Oxenden, with Lilianna and Branneth as interested spectators.

Lilianna was surprised by the goal of becoming a dragon rider to secure a marriage, “Doesn’t their service delay marriages for dragon riders?”

“Not typically, no,” said Assistant Oxenden. “Dragon riders are released by twenty-five, unless they make an additional commitment.”

Meaning that couples typically married in their late twenties. That made me wonder if I had misunderstood the society somewhat. Land-owning society married young, to ensure they acquired territory. Merchanting society married late, to ensure they acquired talent. Couples who had to earn money didn’t marry until they were financially secure enough to support children. Couples who relied on rents didn’t have that obstacle.

“And what happens to female dragons when their riders get married?” Lilianna asked suspiciously.

“Most are released for breeding. Some continue with rider duties in their husband’s clans. Some are kept in honour, without duties.”

I wondered if ‘released for breeding’ was the equivalent of ‘being sent to a farm’, and I could see Lilianna had similar scepticisms.

> ‘Being sent to a farm’ is a euphemism for an animal being killed due to ill health or old age. While sometimes dragons were genuinely used for additional breeding, His Devotion, Saint Percival the Investigator, is correct that it was usually implied death.

To move past that, I suggested to Assistant Oxenden that he check with all the key-holders who’d missed the ceremony. If nothing else, so I would have another excuse to go back and talk to House Holder Fairbanks with our ‘findings’.

By the time he came back to escort us to supper, he already had answers. “The only person unaccounted for was Assistant Altengart, so I had a quick word with him. By some unfortunate coincidence, he was on that floor at lunch. He was checking in on one of the male students was too ill to attend lunch. What probably happened is that House Holder Fairbanks saw either him or the student coming out and mistook the room.”

“Assistant Altengart is even less of a suspect than Minister Greenfield’s assistant,” I said. “But that’s hardly likely to reassure House Holder Fairbanks. Let’s keep that information to ourselves for the moment.”

It was clearly time to cast a wider net and explore the rest of the academy. After all, who could tell whether a trip to the kitchens or the funicular or the storage rooms would have a clue to the death or not? I’d see what I could unearth after supper.

Memo to Self

Stuff to avoid

· Becoming a dragon rider Joining the official dragon rider forces

Information gathering

· Find out about alternative occupations and opportunities

· - Speak to Minister Greenfield in private

· - - Find out when he is due to leave before he leaves in four three days

· Investigate other countries and cultures to see if they’re a better fit

· - Determine just how far heroic independence goes

· - - Legally, very far: complete diplomatic immunity

· - - Practically: assistance can be withdrawn

· Track down itinerary [no point]

· Check safety / security of funicular

Opportunities

· Sneak out when harvesting night flowers [7 6 days]

· - Walk out down dry river bed towards Cammions

Preparations

· Beg, borrow or steal clothes of a different colour

· Delay the bonding ceremony as much as possible

· - Extend investigation

· - Imply maximum psychic pollution

· Acquire or fake travel documentation?

· Find way to transport food and water

· - Talk to House Holder Fairbanks about food [done]