It Must Be Admitted That To Enter A New Field Is As Much As To Deny A Place To The Patient Practitioner
Even so, a matter of conscience still bedeviled the latter and had precedence over his new worry. “Therefore I hesitate to bring this to Stanops Bodan-Tin despite the inescapable consideration that to refrain may be a comfort to participants in an unjust undertaking.” That clear statement of the situation satisfied Dirant and inspired him to check his status to be sure he had not missed the reward of improved Drastlimez proficiency. No, it was still Basic, but his XP showed undeniable improvement: 360/1000 to level 9.
“We have a saying for that,” Takki stated before she reconsidered. “No, that isn't quite the same. Ressi, what's your guess about, 'A tall cliff or a taller cliff?'”
“Either one is the end of you. The implication may be enlarged to refer to any equally undesirable options. The perfect form of it must be that the options appear unequal at first so that careful reflection alone reveals the identity.”
Takki held her arms straight left and right for a moment like a Drastlifan tennis judge calling that a ball landed within the play area. “You figured it out, Ressi. That doesn't get us anywhere, does it? I'm sorry about the distraction. Do you remember what I said about lieutenant-governors?”
“That many historical incidents have failed so far to disprove the hypothesis . . . ah, there it is.”
> Ability Drastlimez (Intermediate) gained.
“I achieved Intermediate proficiency in this excellent language,” Dirant clarified.
“Congratulations, Ressi!”
“It's a pleasure to be here for it.” Loigwin leaned over to shake his hand.
“Thank you both.” Even the trees waved at him to acknowledge the progress made, or so someone might have surmised if unaware of the existence of wind. “That lieutenant-governors have their headquarters burned down surprisingly frequently, and also that we must deal with the authorities we have,” Dirant resumed. “I did and do find your argument persuasive, and if Stanops Bodan-Tin were a judge, the thing would be simple.”
Takki pulled at her head scarf. “I really think we should go straight to him and denounce Mr. Helsodenk, but if you're still not sure, we could, just to hire the last cellist, confront the other suspects with what we learned.” The prelude came out normally enough, but the manner in which she rushed through the actual suggestion while she blushed with shame made clear how much she wanted to do that instead of what was correct.
The delay inherent in her plan appealed to someone unconvinced about the correctness of shoving a man into a lion's open maw based on hints and suggestions. If nothing else, remunerative secrets might spill out of Chisops Dogai-Brein or Keiminops Bodan-Tin if they were shaken a bit. “You talked to the Kairs? Whatever they said, I simply wanted a loan to start up a business based on this new ritual that turns gold into better gold. The evidence is this scroll with the instructions. Look at it as much as you want.” Something of that sort. Dirant endorsed the plan without pausing to reword that scene more in line with the usual idiom of those gentlemen, so eager was he to proceed to the real thing.
As for Loigwin, he had already done his duty as an oligarch's relation and moved on to personal concerns. “Is Onerid, excuse me, Seifis Paspaklest, well, how much does she know about the situation? Does it intrigue her?”
“She is unaware so far as I know. Takki, have you noticed otherwise, or?”
“That sounds right to me, Ressi.”
“Oh.” With that one sad word ended the just-begun career of Loigwin Nein-Cadops-Bain, private investigator. Drastlif was the worse for it, judging by how well he had done in his first case. Barely did he hear about the alarming crimes about him before he solved them all, possibly, and put two powerful families in minor debt to him, definitely. The latter portion carried a greater financial significance than the former. Moreover, none of that was a matter of good fortune; everything went as he planned and predicted. Dirant considered saying so, decided his relationship with Loigwin to be insufficiently intimate for him to offer career advice, and then did it regardless.
“We have roundups, family security, and private investigators enough. What do I add, a man of no exceptional ability nor renown apart from my name?” Loigwin objected.
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“That is it exactly,” countered Dirant. “Tell me if I am mistaken in my guess that few of your station pursue that occupation. Likely your country's detectives lack the social connections and familiarity with the practices of upper society which they ought to have to serve their clients best. The supply and the demand must be entirely unequal. There is your chance to enrich yourself and all society together.”
“Now that you've brought it up, Sajaitin, I haven't heard of any such, but neither did I have reason to seek one out.”
Sensing a potential convert, Takki enlisted herself as an aide in Dirant's campaign. “In Pavvu Omme Os, professionals usually include in their advertisements the highest rank they ever held and whether they own a house. It's important information. Don't you think a person's background can be crucial?”
“There's no doubt about that Seifis, not even for dullards like me. But still . . .”
Dirant came back in. “This is something I have only read. The claim is that little of what the investigator does has its resolution in the courts or anywhere public. Most often he is a negotiator between parties who all wish to keep the matter quiet. Really it is a noble occupation in its way.”
Through all those urgings and recommendations, neither proponent of the career switch felt free to advance what both believed to be the most salient argument, that being he needed something to distract him after his romantic disappointment. That had not happened yet, but having met Keiminops, they trusted it would.
Loigwin did not embrace their vision of his future before they reached the town of the Bodan-Tins. Naturally the persuaders had not hoped for so swift a success as that. A tree must be planted before it may grow and grow before it may leaf, and indeed his objections which started weak became insubstantial. It was a contemplative Nein-Cadops-Bain who dismounted at the gate of Koshat Dreivis and resumed the investigation as if paid to do so. “Let us see quickly to our interrogation lest a delay in its reporting causes doubt where should be gratitude. Ho, Eizesl!” The hailed sentry stood at attention, a more involved maneuver down south than in Kitslof or Pavvu Omme Os considering he had been sitting in a chair and fanning himself with his hat. “Tell me this and relieve me from ignoble ignorance. Where might Eizeur Nifkleskir be?”
“Oh, Eizesl, you don't have to worry. He already went.”
Without a horse to shake his head for him, Loigwin stood stiff. “Went whither?”
“To your meeting, wasn't it? He asked where you had gone this morning, you, Eizesl, and you, Sajaitin, and left town after getting the answer.”
“I see. Thank you, Eizesl.” Loigwin led his horse into town, and one of the pair looked like she knew what was going on.
“And there is the end of my moral qualms,” Dirant remarked as they walked. He had dismounted out of a sense of camaraderie. “Which were all a waste, though I felt highly virtuous for having them.”
“The Eizeur's action does add weight against him,” Loigwin concurred.
“I know we can think of some exculpatory explanations, but if he does turn out to be innocent, at least he has a good start,” Takki noted.
“And now? To press suspects still appeals.” Dirant said it, Takki nodded, but Loigwin demurred.
“I would be accounted by every last man an armiger undeserving if I interfered with you, but no less if I took part, for nigh is the time that I inform the Stanops of the outcome of my mission. The testimony should please him well, and if it does not, he had time to send a messenger and insist on his own terms. I hope not to have cause to reproach him with that.” Few in Drastlif were able to say such a thing and not follow it with, in thought if not words, “because I'm scared of him,” but Loigwin was fearless in that sphere at least.
“The gods are kind when man is not, Eizesl.”
“We'll see you again, Eizesl.”
With those parting words, the two saw him off and set about finding other people to bother. First, they checked Chisops Dogai-Brein's guest house. “Likely he is in the field,” Dirant admitted. “Even so, when is the day for optimism if not today?”
“You're right about that, Ressi.” Takki skipped ahead and turned back to talk to him, which proved her enthusiasm to be even greater than his despite the absence of any belief she had made progress on a divine mission. “We might run into one of the Seifises, or the . . . Seffifs? Do you know what that is?” From Takki's quick reconnoiter before she said it and the near-whisper she used, she either knew the meaning or feared it.
“I thought perhaps I would upon reaching Intermediate proficiency, but the result is otherwise. Do you know, or?”
“No. I really shouldn't say it again.”
Deprived of master detective Loigwin Nein-Cadops-Bain, they failed to find anybody to question. “I still want to hear about those chunks,” Takki said with about as much melancholy as missing a sale on butter deserved.
“Is there any suspicion left in you regarding Eizesl Dogai-Brein?”
“Not really, no.” They passed children in the street playing an exhilarating game of poolfoot and Battler. If the popularity of the former role compared to the latter bothered Takki, nothing of it showed. “I'm pretty sure Seifis Kwin and Seifis Oimer had no idea what was going on with that monster those kids aren't doing a very good job of imitating.” That did bother her, and it did show. “Their employer probably doesn't know onsio exists or why that company wants his chunks.”
“He knows it pays him. Can he be entirely ignorant of the practical value of his finds?”
“You're so mercantile sometimes, Ressi. Eizesl Dogai-Brein isn't at all. He may not be an academic exactly, but he's that type. You know? The type that wants citations, the respect of their peers, and speaking engagements. They want money, granted, but not if regard doesn't come with it. Does that sound insulting?”
“It does resemble the descriptions in satirical publications.”
“Oh.” In that one word was despair found, just as with Loigwin earlier. Before however her companion devised a method to recover Takki's mood, she did it on her own. With vehemence she declared, “It's better than being a criminal!” That would show any eavesdropper hiding just out of sight beyond curtains or a window with its wooden panels flung open, eager to hear passersby taking it to those snooty academics.