Tarry Bennett:
Tarry had just barely exited the elevator up to his office when his assistant intercepted him.
“Sir! Apologies, I tried to ask her to make an appointment but she insisted she needed to meet with you!” he exclaimed, looking frantic, “It’s Alzira, she demanded a private audience and won't take no for an answer.”
“She rarely does. Let’s see what she has to say,” Tarry said, resigned to the fact that this day was already not going as planned.
“She’s waiting for you in your meeting room. Call me if you need anything.”
Tarry let himself in and opened his hands in a friendly gesture. “Alzira, to what do I owe the pleasure of you dropping in here uninvited?”
She smirked slightly but her overall demeanour was solemn. “Sorry for the intrusion. I wanted to share some insights I had into the tunnel collapse.”
“To the point as ever, though I’m afraid this could be a conflict of interest with the ongoing inquest. That is unless you’re coming forward with information that is being openly shared with the investigators?” he asked, frowning slightly.
“It’s not, and I think once you hear it you’ll understand why. Though I should say that it’s more of a personal suspicion rather than verified information,” she said, fiddling with a bracelet on her wrist.
He leaned heavily against the back of his chair, letting the front legs rise off the ground. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you that I legally have to forward any information related to this investigation to the inquest team. If I held onto key details, even if rooted in suspicion, and I could be viewed as being obstructive.”
“I know, and it’s dangerous enough for me to be here, but I needed to discuss it with someone I trust. Do with this information as you will.”
“Aww, you trust me?” he asked with a small smirk, trying to lighten the mood.
“Don’t push your luck, you’re as close as I can get at least,” she said, rolling her eyes, “Do you want to hear it or not?”
He considered saying 'no' for a moment, but he had known Alzira a long time. Normally she was confident and sure, and while outwardly she still displayed her usual characteristics he could see something was eating away at her. She picked at her fingernails absentmindedly, a habit that seemed twitchy and nervous compared to her usual calm and cool demeanour. He believed her when she said she needed to talk to someone.
“Go ahead, I’m all ears,” he conceded, hoping he wouldn't live to regret it.
She nodded gratefully. “I think the tunnel collapse was intentional, both of them, that is. I don’t know by whom exactly, but it certainly wasn’t a natural occurrence. My Guild has overseen many tunnels, those ranging from very old to brand new; they are sturdy. Routine maintenance is needed on occasion but it doesn’t make sense for a punch to go so wrong unless the locus was already tampered with. It also doesn't make sense for a tunnel to simply give out. Those are two entirely separate processes, and I don't think it could be a coincidence.”
He steepled his fingers, considering this. “All angles are being looked at as part of the inquest, not that I can give specifics away, but I have been briefed on progress to date. Certainly it’s fair to say your suggestion is being given consideration already. But what of error? Do you see no chance of something having gone wrong in the process when the first tunnel was punched?”
She shook her head. “The boy was green, but I doubt even a new Conductor could cause something so catastrophic. Even still, when I was needling my fellow Grandmasters the last time we met, I was trying to look for inconsistencies in their stories. They didn’t give anything away, but I don’t think that absolves them, yet.”
He saw the contentiousness of her concerns now. “You suspect one of them may be behind it?”
“Or aided and abetted. I’m not sure who, but whoever it is has to have something to gain by sowing chaos. That’s what I’m watching for now,” she explained, looking troubled.
“You mentioned you needed to tell someone you trusted, why not the investigation team?” he pressed, hoping that he could sway her to go directly to them.
She looked uncomfortable, another very uncharacteristic look for her. “I did. And I offered them any support I could think of. However, they have not followed up. I’m worried that they may be compromised.”
He groaned. This was a dilemma. “Alright,” he said after a pause, “I’m not withholding information, but I will give this some consideration before I take action. In the meantime please keep participating with the investigators as much as possible. I don’t want to know anything they don’t know, deal?”
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She dipped her head. “Deal.” She got up to leave but stopped at the door.
“By the way, what’s your interest in endorsing your friend’s nephew’s application to enter the academy?” she asked inquisitively, turning her head back to face him.
“Friend? What friend? Oh right, that. No, that’s part of a new initiative to assist youth from under privileged backgrounds in accessing higher education and prestigious career paths,” he responded smoothly.
“I wouldn’t call Elias under privileged.”
“I assure you, I don’t know what you mean. I was talking about the boy,” Tarry said with a shrug, playing dumb.
“I assure you, you do. And I’m not one to judge someone by their connections, nor am I criticizing you or him for that matter, but I am cautioning you that if the boy passes the aptitude test tomorrow, and especially if he starts making waves at the Academy, you’re going to want to clean up your story a bit more.”
Tarry’s mouth twitched in annoyance. “And if he doesn’t get in? What concern do I have then? Optically I haven’t done anything wrong.”
She shrugged. “I suppose you should talk to your ‘acquaintance’ then about his motives. My understanding is that he has been putting effort into seeing the boy succeed. There’s also rumours regarding a potential magical ability.”
“How do you know all this?” he questioned, feeling suspicious.
“You’re not the only one with associates in lower boroughs. And, judging by the look on your face now, I assume you didn’t think he was going to make it. I wouldn’t bet against Elias, he’s sharper than a dagger and twice as dangerous. I’m surprised you would do so now after having known him for this long. He’s an interesting one, even my people don’t know that much about him, despite him basically running the sixteenth borough. He keeps it clean normally but he’s been a bit sloppy lately, I think it’s because the kid is involved."
Tarry tried not to let his surprise show on his face. He kept Eli close, but didn't keep tabs on what he did exactly. That knowledge was too dangerous to have; both Eli and Tarry knew it. But they also mutually benefited having the other around, and, not that Tarry could ever admit it, he liked having Eli around.
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked, finally.
"Consider it a sign of my gratitude to you for hearing me out," she said with a small smile, "He would’ve made an excellent politician, but it sounds like he just never seemed interested in it. Interested enough in remaining in the wings, associating with you, but I get the impression there will come a point at which your usefulness to him will run out and at that point I would be cautious.”
Tarry fell silent, and she gave him an almost sympathetic look.
“You know how the game goes, trust no one,” she chastised him, though it was lightened by the hint of amusement in her voice.
He found himself smirking in spite of her warning. “I trust you,” he said lightly, “Sometimes.”
“You shouldn’t, but I appreciate it nonetheless. And believe me, there are very few people I’d want to see sitting in your chair, so don’t do anything stupid and keep your head about you. See you at the opening ceremonies for the aptitude test tomorrow."
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Olly Briggs
It was the day before the aptitude test and Olly couldn’t sleep.
His uncle had closed down Hijinks for the week leading up to the test so that Olly could remain focused and unburdened by work. Not having something to distract himself with almost made it worse, but at the same time Olly knew that the games room could also become a disastrous situation. The last night Hijinks was open a few of the regulars got into a heated debate about the safety of the tunnels. Before anyone knew it, the argument came to blows. If his uncle hadn’t intervened and quickly broke them up it could have gotten really ugly. Neither Eli or Olly needed that type of attention on them right now, so it was an easy to decision to shut it down.
Olly could recognize that there was a growing sense of distrust of everything around them. People in the sixteenth and other lower boroughs had been growing increasingly distrustful of the government, tunnels and Guilds. The most recent fight started when one regular suggested they needed to restrict movement in tunnels and become more self-reliant, and then another regular had called him an idiot and claimed he was trying to cut them all off from the outside world. It had been blown out of proportion and neither could accurately articulate their concerns in a way that didn’t devolve into insults so they decided to settle it outside of words.
Eli had told him that night that people were afraid of what they didn’t understand, and that magic had always been poorly understood, so now that something had gone wrong they were panicking.
He tried to put it out of his mind but found he could not. He tossed and turned and tried in vain to fall asleep.
His tutor had told him he was as prepared as he could be, and that he needed to just relax and trust in himself. He wasn’t so sure. He didn’t feel his practice scores were consistently high enough over the benchmark, and if he didn’t meet the minimum then he wouldn’t be granted any offers. If he did meet the benchmark, but didn’t score high enough for the Cartographers, then they wouldn’t even look at him. He might catch the attention of the Conductors or Controllers if he was lucky, or the Labourers if it was lower still, but he still couldn’t be sure.
This all depended on his magic, however. That was the other issue. He hadn’t experienced anything unusual since the day he saw the shimmer on the hike. And even then he had no idea if that had anything to do with him. The last time he actually had anything to do with magic was when he saw the Reader, but that was earlier still.
He flopped over again.
Worst case scenario, if he couldn't produce any evidence of magical sensitivity, but he scored high enough, there was the added benefit of taking the aptitude test and receiving an offer from a non-magical Guild, such as the doctors, lawyers or engineers. He would similarly have to meet their benchmark, but at the very least he could have other options if he failed to be noticed by the magical guilds. It was a small consolation, though not his first choice.
He realized through his tutoring that he did want to understand magic - his magic - more thoroughly. But it seemed that the harder he tried to control it, the less available it was to him.
An uneasy sleep finally took him, far later than he had hoped, and he drifted off thinking about what the future might hold.