Siqxhe woke to the gentle but firm touch of bloodied hands and the clamor of different people all shouting and stumbling around in the small room. Iri was huddling in the corners, bright eyes and steel skin dissuading anyone from approaching too close to her, but other than that there was no open area in the room.
So’kashi pushed him again, more urgently this time. “...we need you now. If you don’t come, then he’ll probably die… God, please…” He seemed shaken, but it wasn’t the rough way he was shaking him that brought him into full wakefulness. It was what he’d said-
Someone was dying.
Siqxhe pushed himself until he was standing, stumbling into So’kashi as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. Then he was running, following the guards through the warren of tunnels that was Laytaihishu, panting. Feet against stone, harsh thoughts- who’d been killed. Ididirchi? A guard, a servant, or- his mind wandered to a possibility he didn’t want to consider, but had to. It glued itself in the front of his vision, and he could almost see it every time he turned a corner, every time he saw So’kashi’s bloody hands. Maybe it’s been Laeo. God, let it not be Laeo…
They ascended until they reached the ground level, running through the wind corridors and the occasional dim passage, passing through rooms until they reached a place near the front of the fortress. It was the same place that Railoxhe had taken them when they’d left to visit the Ilyaochi village the first time, a side gate of stone that should have been impervious.
Instead, though, it was open- one of the hinges had been torn out of the stone by some force, and while some of the servants labored at repairing that their gazes inevitably wandered back to the most important thing in the scene- the body.
Railoxhe lay on the floor, bleeding out as Ididirchi desperately watched- not quite willing to do anything, lest he destroy So’kashi’s gentle work, but seeing his gateway to power, dying… Siqxhe, however, had no such reservations as he rushed in, kneeling beside Railoxhe and quickly inspecting the work that’d already been done to him. They’d cleaned the wound- a simple stab this time, deep into the chest but missing anything vital, as well as putting a cold cloth to stem some swelling on his head. Everything had been done well, but not well enough- “I need a knife, and I need a needle and thread.” So’kashi handed the requested objects to him, and nobody dared object as he sawed out the sutures, carefully cleaning the wound before he began to rebind it.
It was a delicate thing, working on the gut. Luckily- and he meant luckily, because this was the sort of wounds that doctors prayed for- it wasn’t that bad. The knife had almost completely missed everything, and not a single major artery had been cut. It was hard work, but by the time he was finished the blood had slowed down to less than a trickle and he was exhausted.
A small crowd of servants had gathered around them, kept at bay by Ididirchi’s ferocious glare and the blades of the guard. Anger seethed beneath the gathering, a quiet wrath undirected- not toward Ididirchi, because they were Ididirchi’s. Not toward Siqxhe because he’d saved him or really anyone at all. Just toward the fact that someone had come in and tried to murder Railoxhe.
Ididirchi picked up the pack Railoxhe had been carrying, looking into its contents. “He was running away.” He rustled through the effects, throwing a few of them on the ground. A small knife. A bundle of letters, a small piece of scrap. A tinderbox.
“No, my lord-” A guard withered back under Ididirchi’s rage, timidly holding up a single piece of paper. “We found this in your advisor’s rooms, my lord.” Siqxhe barely caught a glimpse as it passed between them, but as Ididirchi read it he seemed to relax.
“Typical. He was going to try and prevent a conflict.” Ididirchi’s voice was soft- loud enough for Siqxhe and those around him to hear, but beyond that it would have been quiet below hearing. “Siqxhe. Will he survive?”
Siqxhe paled… he’d been in too many situations like this to say yes. “I… don’t know, lord- there’s any number of things that can go wrong in the recovery process. His wound is at serious risk of getting infected. He needs intensive care, but it isn’t anything So Kashi can’t provide.”
There was the very distinct chance, however, that Railoxhe would die. It was probably likely, in the environment that Laytaihishu was in. The darkness, the village, and possibly war… it wouldn’t be very conductive for health. Siqxhe didn’t say that, though- he, at least, valued his sanity.
Laeo was the last to arrive, looking if anything more tired than he’d been the last time Siqxhe had seen him. Most of the people had left, carrying Railoxhe with them, joining Siqxhe as he stared at the blood on the floor. The blood of peace, its champion sacrificed to the anger and war. Laeo only shook his head, remarking about the death of great things.
………..
He couldn't find Laeo anywhere. They’d parted ways at the scene of the murder, and Siqxhe had intended to go and find him and talk to him after he’d slept, convince him somehow that the Ilyaochi were not the ones to blame. That there was someone pushing for war, some orchestrator… he couldn’t find him, though. Laytaihishu was bustling with all the preparations of war, soldiers moving through the corridors, gunpowder stocked and cannons cleaned. Blades shone in the lamplight, the sound of marching feet…
Eventually, he found himself standing beside Iri, who had managed to pull herself up from the bench and had been walking around the room, looking at all of the medical equipment and medicines that had been sitting in the cabinet. She’d open two of the particularly colorful ones and one of the activated charcoal, drawing an image on the ground- a little thing, kind of cute even. Golden circles, inlaid in black skies, fire above and below and…
“It’s drawing to a close. I don’t know if I can do anything…” Siqxhe sighed, leaning into Iri, who in turn leaned back and made him flounder for balance. To anyone else he might have gotten angry, but with Iri… he knew she just didn’t understand. Humanity was not her nature, no matter how much she spoke with that quiet, sibilant speech- “It’s too much. I came here hoping to have this over and done with, and now there’s a war.”
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“Why can’t you just leave?” Iri seemed so genuine about what she’d just spoken that Siqxhe couldn’t help but laugh. It was as he’d thought so many times before… she just didn’t understand. Humanity was not her nature…
“I can’t… you’re here, for one, and I don’t think Ididirchi will let me go until you agree to fight for him.”
“He doesn't understand.” Siqxhe glanced up, but Iri’s gaze was dark through brightness, burning white feverish luminosity, quiescent star-fire. “I can’t fight for him. Polarity Light calls- I cannot let Arctic find it first. It is of the utmost importance.” She swirled a finger through the drawing she’d been making with the medicines, a pattern in the orb, layered atop all the other remnants of patterns that seemed to make it stretch on forever. “The world needs it. You need it… Humanity.” She made a sweeping gesture, and for not the first time Siqxhe was reminded that she was something more than human. She didn’t just not understand humanity- she lived beyond it.
“You’re here, though…” He let the argument die unsaid. She wasn’t ready to walk into the enemy's stronghold and drag someone out to Ididirchi’s justice. She was still just sitting here, drawing circles in circles and whispering about white walls, the barriers between man and eternal skies that stretched so far away. “...you said that you knew who did it.”
“No… I’m not sure who’s done anything, now. My memory is… scattered.” She shifted, as if this was an uncomfortable topic, and Siqxhe didn’t press her. If she didn’t want to talk, then she didn’t have to talk… “All I was certain of was that it didn’t make any sense. I don’t know…” And that last word was said with such a force of conviction that Siqxhe could almost feel it-
An idea.
It came to him almost suddenly, the sort of ideas he knew probably weren’t the best but that’d he needed to ask anyways. It was a possibility, however faint it was, that they’d be able to escape the fate they were barreling toward. “Iri…” he paused, uncertain. She was still weak- if he asked her this… the darkness, though, demanded it. “Can you help me find who’s responsible? Walk with me, and I’ll show you what happened?”
It was a plea, but Siqxhe’s face lit up- literally, her eyes glowing brighter with a cheery intensity. “I… I might be able to do that- to find out. Only to find out. I might be able to do that if you promise me something.”
“What?”
Iri looked down, then wiped a hand across the drawing she’d been making on the floor. “I’m… weak. My thoughts are scrambled and there’s just so much… I can’t really remember where Polarity Light is. I used to, but I can no longer. Please, promise me you’ll help.”
Faced with her sincerity and the death of so many people, so many innocent Ilyaochi that had nothing to do with this, Siqxhe nodded. It was a promise, a deal made beneath the ever-watchful eyes of God itself. “Very well… let's do this.”
……….
“So… you followed a trail of blood here, to the rooms beside your own?” Iri knelt on the floor next to where their blood had long since been scrubbed away, but from her intense focus Siqxhe got the impression that she saw more than he did. “I don’t know… it’s just not adding up.”
“Our killer ran away from the scene of the crime to the same exit he came in through. There’s not much other than that.” Though, she made a good point. This particular exit was halfway across the fortress Laytaihishu, farther away from the garden than a good many other concealed exits. In and of itself, though, that wasn’t much… “What about Railoxhe? He was murdered at the gate.”
“That’s even more suspicious.” Iri Laughed harshly, eyes bright as they walked through the halls to that location where only the faintest remnants of blood and broken vows remained. “There’s not a very large chance that someone would have run into Railoxhe right as he left. Only a few Ilyaochi servants have made their way back to the village, right?” She was continuing before Siqxhe even completed his nod. “Then the only reason why someone would be coming at that exact time was that someone in the fortress wanted to prevent Railoxhe from making peace with the Ilyaochi.”
“But that doesn't make sense. Everyone wants peace.” He frowned, trying to imagine someone that wanted the war, but he just… couldn’t. “Even Ididirchi wants peace- he’s weighed down by grief, but…” He paused as Iri held a hand to his face for quiet, demanding a quiet-
Iri slowly brought them up to a corner, an intersection between interior and exterior passages. A place where, despite the best ministrations of the servants, shadows grew and white stones faded black. They peered around it, into the empty passageway that was just that- a passageway.
Empty, that was, except for Laeo. He stalked with an easy grace through the passageway, passing them neatly and continuing on to their rooms. Siqxhe frowned- it didn’t make any sense. He’d thought Laeo wanted to get some sleep.
“There.” Iri’s voice was laden with all the power she’d spoken with during those first moment of lucidity, everything except for that deep tone that’d defied all expectations. “There’s your killer, Siqxhe.”
“Impossible. That’s-” Siqxhe tried to come up with a rebuttal, but couldn’t- not for lack of trying, but just because of the sheer shock. He knew Laeo. He’d never do… never… frowning, he thought. Horrified, he thought- and as he thought it slowly began to come together, a symphony of evil he hated, despised with all his soul.
A symphony he despised all the more for its truth.
“...thing about it, really. He… he is of the dark places. He is the descendant of humanity before. They… he claims to sleep, but never sleeps. He loves the conflict. I can tell it- he’s spoken about it before.” She went on and on, listing a hundred good points that he couldn’t refute. It made so much sense, but it… couldn’t. “Do you know why he came with you in the first place?”
“Because he was a surgeon's apprentice, and he knew the Sakaxhy…” But there were other surgeons out there, full doctors who’d come from the Sakaxhy court to study in the university in Laeo. It wasn’t as if there weren’t people out there that didn’t know the Sakaxhy mannerisms while also being able to practice medicine. “Don’t tell anyone about this, yet… I need to think about it. If I ask him, he’ll confess. He’s not a bad person…”
There was another reason why Laeo had come to the shadow of God, and Siqxhe had his killer.