Abbey House Dining Hall | 5:55 AM | Third Day

After that, nobody said anything for quite a while. A part of me wanted to know how other people had reacted to what I'd just seen, or if most of them had managed to avoid it altogether, but it probably didn't matter, ultimately.

"I'm, uh... I'm glad that you're alright, at least, Su," Linos eventually said. "For a moment, we were all worried you'd been attacked."

Ptolema nodded weakly. "Y-Yeah..."

"Oh," I said, and let out an incredibly uncomfortable laugh, scratching the side of my head as I glanced away. "S-Sorry, I probably made things worse, huh..."

"No, no," Linos said, looking downward. "It's not your fault."

Silence returned for a few moments after that. It looked like a couple people were trying their best not to cry, their faces occasionally cringing in odd ways - Seth, Ophelia, and of course Theo in particular looked they were trying to suppress the anguish welling up in their breasts, which made sense, since they'd been the closest to Bardiya in the class. I understood Ophelia had even known him before we met at the academy, though I didn't really know the details.

Not that anyone looked remotely positive about the situation. Even Fang's usual aura of unabated positivity had dimmed considerably, and they looked almost angry about the situation, staring at the table with their brow furrowed furtively. And though Ezekiel didn't look exactly upset, he did look frightened, having gone very, very quiet.

Eventually, Seth ran a hand down his face firmly, pulling the skin around his eyes a little bit as he let out something between an exhausted gasp and a sigh. "I just... I can't believe he's gone."

"It's..." Kamrusepa hesitated, shifting in her seat. "It really is dreadful. I don't know what to say."

"He was-- He was right there, behind us," Seth said, gritting his teeth. "If only I'd checked to see if him and Theo were with us.. If I hadn't been such an idiot..."

"You shouldn't say that," I said. "We were all freaked out. What happened, happened..."

"I dunno." He ran his fingers through his scalp, frustrated. "I just... I dunno."

Another moment passed as he held his face in his hands again. Then, he continued.

"I remember the first time I met Bard... It was when they were doing interviews for this stupid course, before the big application exam. He was sitting in the waiting area reading some gossip booklet they had lying around-- Y'know, the sort of thing you'd see in any waiting room in the world. I tried to talk to him and he seemed, like, so formal, sitting there and reading that thing, I thought he was doing some weird bit. I didn't know what the hell to make of it..." He smiled bitterly. "Eventually, I asked him about the magazine. Like, if he was into that sort of thing. You know what he said?"

No one replied. Ptolema, alone, shook her head.

"He said... 'No, but I find that it's important to keep abreast of the social climate in all circles'." He snorted. "And I was like, 'is this guy for real?' It was the most pretentious thing I'd heard in my life. So I asked him if he was screwing around with me, and he said he wasn't. And then this long moment passed, awkward as hell. And then, like it was a totally normal conversation, he just said, all matter-of-factly, 'although, I do like some of the fashion articles.'"

Seth did an impersonation of Baridya's self-serious tone with the last quote, and a few people snorted out some laughs. But it was pained. It was too soon for something like this.

"What a guy, though," he went on. "When push came to shove... I've never known anyone more dependable, y'know?"

"He... Was really nice," Ophelia said, her words very weak. She sniffed. "He was a very kind person."

"Yeah," Seth said. "Yeah."

"It's selfish of me to say," Kamrusepa said, "But, it makes me sorrowful that our last real interaction of substance was... Well, what happened the other night."

"I'm sure it wasn't a big deal to him, Kam," Ptolema said, trying to sound warm. "He never let stuff like that get stuck in his head."

"The class will probably never be able to go back to what it was now," Kam continued. "Even if nothing else happens. It's all... Sort of spoilt, isn't it?"

At that, the room once again fell still, people gradually breaking eye contact and drifting into their own thoughts.

I wasn't feeling as bad as some of the others. The emotional suppression that had already been keeping my reaction to Neferuaten's death bottled away had quickly adapted to encompass this event, too, leaving it all feeling as though I was watching a drama rather than being really here. Still, if I made the effort to look at it plainly, it was incredibly sad. Even though we hadn't been close, Bardiya had always been kind to me, and I'd enjoyed talking about some topics with him that usually frustrated me with others, like politics.

That'd been how we'd first met. I'd come upon him in the library, which was one of the parts which had been rebuilt after the bombing. They had some condescending plaque set up there across from where we'd both gone looking for a required textbook, and had got to expressing our frustrations. I'd spent most of my life without feeling like my beliefs were really fleshed-out-- Too busy worrying about other things. So hearing it from him, I'd started to feel like a whole new world was opening up for me.

But now, I wondered if I'd go back to being completely without conviction. Well, depending on how this all ended--

No. Stop thinking about that. Save it for later...

Save it all for later, when I could handle it. For the time being, there were implicit questions hanging in the air about what happened that were going unaddressed. Ones which, when thought through, raised a single, grave question.

My eyes scanned the room, looking at the others again one by one, seeing if there was anything - even something slight - that seemed amiss. But then, as if reading my mind, Ran suddenly spoke up.

"I don't want to say this," she said, her tone firm. "But we need to talk about what happened."

"She's right," Linos said very quickly, giving a firm nod, like he'd been waiting for someone other than him to say it. "We might feel safe now, but now we know for sure that there's someone around us who's willing to kill. The longer we rest on our laurels, the more danger we're all in."

"Are we in danger now?" Mehit asked, her tone tense.

"I--" Linos hesitated, biting his lip. "I don't believe so, but I don't truly understand how this happened to begin with. The entire area was encompassed by the barrier..." He frowned doubtfully. "No, that's getting ahead of ourselves. The point is that we made a mistake letting our group get divided, even slightly. From now on, we should make sure everyone stays within each others line of sight, no matter what."

"Sounds like something Bardiya would say," Seth said sadly. "He was always a really tactical thinker, that guy."

"C'mon, Seth..." Ptolema said weakly.

"I'm sorry," he replied, shaking his head. "It just-- My mind just keeps going back to it, no matter what anybody says."

"It's rough," Fang said, speaking up for the first time I'd seen. "There's no getting around it. All of this, it sucks. But..." They looked upward. "Maybe I don't have a right to say this. I don't know you guys as well as you know each other-- We haven't hung out much outside of the academy, and I know I'm always busy with stuff? But from everything I knew about Bardiya, he wouldn't want us to just sit around feeling shitty. He'd want us to get to the bottom of it."

Linos nodded again. "Well said. Even if what just happened feels... Impossible, and frightening, I believe if we pool our accounts, the truth may well come to light."

"Don't you think it might be better to delay this matter until we've made it to the tower?" Kamrusepa asked. "There's nothing useful we could surmise here , and this room is hardly defensible. It would be better to move forward and try to gather more information about the situation as we go."

"I think you need to read between the lines of the situation a bit, Kam," I said. "It could be dangerous to do anything requiring coordination as things are."

Because someone here could be the killer.

"Wh-- Su," she said, leveling her gaze. "I do understand the situation. You should read between the lines of what I'm saying."

She means that it's obvious there isn't enough evidence to establish absolutely what happened. So the most that can possibly result from this is us casting suspicion on one another and compromising our ability to work as a group, the logical part of my brain explained. It's all in the way she said 'useful information'. As in, we might learn things, but only enough to make things worse.

But even with that premise in mind, I wasn't sure that I agreed. It wasn't as though there was nothing we could figure out, whatever insight we were able to infer, whatever justified suspicion, could be the difference between life and death when we were all watching each others backs.

"I get where you're coming from, Kam," Fang said, "but we're not idiots here, y'know? That's kinda the whole, well, premise of the thing. People are gonna be drawing conclusions in their own heads even if we don't say it out loud. So..."

"We might as well say it out loud," I said.

"Yeah." They nodded. "It's two kinda bad options, but this is the better one. Bottling up our thinking is only gonna divide us more than anything."

"I suppose," Kamrusepa said, frowning.

"It would be better if we tried to... Approach this in a structured way, I think," Linos said. "Break what happened down into individual events, and then get everyone's perspective piece by piece." He glanced around. "Agreed?"

Everyone seemed to assent, except for the members of the group in borderline unresponsive states.

"Okay, then," Linos said, nodding. "First things first... Let's talk about the pistol shot. First, I'll say the event as I experienced it." He cleared his throat. "First, I heard the shot, and my incantation reported an impact against my barrier, if a fairly slight one. I said as much, but then Utsushikome and Ophelia reported that they couldn't identify anyone in the direction of the blast, or at all. After that, I tried to calm everyone down, then sent out the group to investigate the sound... Which ended with the pistol retrieved, and in this odd state."

He gestured at the object, which was still sitting at the table near where Fang left it. I didn't know the first thing about guns, but I had to assume someone had been sensible enough to put the safety on or something by now.

"Anything anyone wants to add?" Linos asked.

"Uh, you didn't mention the incantation Fang performed," I said, hesitant. "...but otherwise, I think that was everything important."

"Alright," he said, with a nod. "Now let's hear from someone who was part of the group doing the investigating."

"Alright! Guess I'll step up," Fang said, and punched their other palm. "Let's see-- There's not a lot to tell, really? We stepped outside the room, and from the smell and the blast holes in the wall we realized straight away what'd happened. We followed the trail down to, uh, Bardiya's room, and then found the pistol underneath the bed, facing the incriminating direction." They swivelled the pistol around where it sat on the table, then flicked upward, showing it to everyone observing. "I wouldn't really call myself an expert, but I know some odds and ends about this stuff? So I took the liberty of making sure that the refraction setting made sense for the power of the blast, just in case someone was getting fucky with us. It does; we've got two focus lenses down, plus all three intensity lenses. That's gonna produce a thin, powerful shot that'll cut through just about anything."

"But Linos said he barely noticed it," Seth said, engaging in the conversation in a very reluctant tone.

"Well, if you'll forgive the lack of modesty, I am an expert in this field, master Ikkuret," Linos spoke. Even this very slightly humorous tone felt forced; hollow. "Plus, I'd expect going through several walls took a lot of power out of the shot."

"Yeah, that'd be my guess," Fang said, with a nod. "I guess this whole part is pretty cut and dry. The only mystery is how the shot went off at all, when there was nobody there to do it."

"We're certain there was no one present?" Kamrusepa asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I cast the Anomaly-Divining Arcana at a strength big enough for the whole building a few minutes ago," Ran said. "Other than the ambient ones the sanctuary still have active, there were none in effect recently other the ones we cast openly... And two specifically in the kitchen." Her eyes flickered towards the door. "We'll get back to that. But the point is, unless both Su and Ophelia botched their incantations completely, then there wasn't anyone else in the building."

"I didn't botch my incantation," I said defensively.

She eyed me. "I'm not saying you did, Su. I was just framing the possibilities."

"Just from taking a look at it, it's preeettty easy to figure how the shot went off," Fang said, still toying with the object. "The real question is how it went off in that moment."

"You're talking about the weird band wrapped around the trigger," Ptolema said.

"Yep," Fang replied, nodding. In an action that proved the pistol did have the safety active (but still managed to make me jump), they pulled back on the band where it gripped the trigger, stretching it away and causing it to release, before letting go, whereupon it snapped sharply back into place. "It's elastic. Super tight."

Oh, I get it.

"This isn't hard to figure out," Ran said. "In fact, you've probably seen a trick like this in one of your mystery novels, Su."

"Y-Yeah," I said, nodding. "Uh, basically... You put something firmly behind the trigger to stop it from going all the way down, then attach the band in place. Then, the moment the 'something' is gone, it'll be pulled the rest of the way and go off. It's a pretty well-known component of traps."

A few people made noises of understanding to this, nodding.

"Uh, hold on," Ptolema said. "Does this really explain anything...? I mean, if it was just lying under the bed, there was no trap. How would the 'something' end up gettin' moved out of place to begin with, especially when we know nobody used the Power?"

"I mean, there's a pretty simple way it could work, though it raises some more questions," Ran said. "Just use an object that's unstable and will either get displaced or break after a few minutes. The ideal would be a tough chunk of ice, but anything that would bend slow enough would work."

Linos rubbed his chin. "Which one of you picked up the gun?"

"That'd be me," Fang said.

"And did you notice anything odd at the time? Was anything damp?"

"Nnnnope, I'm pretty sure it wasn't," they said, with a shake of the head. "I didn't see anything stuck in it, either. The others can mostly vouch for that, I think?"

I nodded vaguely, but though Kamrusepa did the same, I also noticed her narrow her eyes slightly.

This makes Fang uniquely suspicious, I realized. It's true that we saw the pistol, but not at all clearly until they'd physically handled it, giving them the unique chance to flick or wipe away the evidence. And judging by the word 'mostly', they're aware of this.

Well, there was no point throwing out accusations this soon.

"Mm," Linos said, looking thoughtful. "What did you mean when you said that it raised more questions, miss Hoa-Trinh?"

"Well, the main one would be what exactly whoever did this hoped to accomplish," Ran explained. "In retrospect, it's easy to see this as part of a plan to distract and divide us so they'd be able to... Well, so that what happened could happen," she said. "But it's not as if there's a specific way to time a piece of ice melting. The whole idea is based on a total leap of faith."

"Mm-mmm, I think you might have this whole thing kinda the wrong way 'round, Ran," Fang said.

Ran narrowed her eyes. "Tell me, then."

"Think about it from the perspective of the culprit," Fang explained. "You're trying to create an opening to make a move, and you've got a chance to do so with this pistol if the timing works out. Once you've figured that part out, well, there's already no reason not to do it, y'know?" They sat back a bit. "The worst thing that can happen it that it fires at a bad time, like when we were all out in the hall talking about clocks, and even then you haven't lost anything."

"Untrue," Kamrusepa said. "For one thing, you've given everyone you're trying to get at rather a big hint about your identity just by where the pistol is. ...in fact, I'm afraid to say it, but that's happened already."

"Finally," Ezekiel said, his voice slightly shaky. "Someone says it..."

Ophelia seemed to withdraw further into herself as this subject was raised. But as much as Ezekiel annoyed me in principle, he was right. It had to be discussed sooner or later.

"...we should probably face the facts as they stand, I think." I looked up to Linos. "Uh, sorry, this probably happened already when I was unconscious, but... Sir, can you confirm that this is the pistol you brought with you? The one you were carrying earlier."

He let out an expectant sigh. "Well, it's from our stockpile here rather than being a personal item, so it's not as though there are any identifying features... But the one from my chair has clearly gone missing. So yes, I'd say it's practically a certainty that that is my pistol."

"Then, uh..." I hesitated, feeling somehow like it wasn't right to say it. Like I was crossing a line that couldn't be un-crossed.

"It's obvious, I'm afraid," Kamrusepa said. "The pistol went into the room with you, grandmaster, and you did not once exit until we all made our way here. And that room was shielded firmly by a barrier for the whole time in which you were present. Ergo... The only party who could have stealthily taken it and set it in place... Would have to be someone together with us now."

After that, there were a few moments of silence. Ptolema looked deeply uncomfortable, and Mehit grew more tense then ever, gripping her daughters hand tightly.

"Could... That really have been done...?" Ophelia asked, her tone pained. "We were all packed so tightly in a tiny room..."

"Eeeh, I didn't wanna say anything, but I can think of a couple of points it could've happened..." Fang said, scratching the back of their neck.

"When we first entered the room, we were all far too occupied by what was playing out on the logic bridge for us to pay any attention," Kamrusepa elaborated. "That would have more than sufficed, but timing the pistol shot would have been far more difficult. So the smart money would instead be on when we all gathered around the table just before departing. If someone had subtly removed the pistol from-- Pardon, where did you have it stashed, grandmaster?"

"I... Just had it in the little bag on the side of my chair with the safety off," Linos explained, with a note of guilt.

"...indeed," Kamrusepa went on. "If someone had subtly removed it earlier, it would have been possible to quietly set up the affair in the background, then toss it into position as we all departed."

Ophelia nodded, lowering her head so much that her blonde hair flopped a little over her eyes, darkening them.

"But I don't believe there's any way to guess at who is truly responsible," Kamrusepa added. "...which is why I was hoping not to bring any of this up."

"If we're looking for someone good at setting up little devices, there's one easy candidate," Ezekiel said, eying Lilith.

At this, Mehit looked to him with an expression I hadn't seen her make before. Her face contorted downwards into a scowl of utter contempt. "... Mister Ilaadbat. I would very much like to hope you're not suggesting what it seems you are."

Lilith, for her part, didn't seem to react. Ever since this had all started, it was as if something in her had just... Shut down, and now was barely even present mentally. All she did was anxiously look at her logic engine occasionally, only to seem disaffected, her eyes unfocused.

I wondered if she was having an anxiety attack.

"I'm n-not suggesting anything, old woman," he replied, with a cold look of his own. It was remarkable how aggressive and unpleasant Ezekiel could stay even when visibly anxious. If anything, it intensified it rather than the inverse. "It's like the Saoite said. I'm just framing the possibilities."

"Knock it off, Ezekiel," Seth said, his tone betraying more sadness and anger than his usual reprimands.

"Or what, Seth? Or what." He crossed his arms. "A man is dead, and someone sitting here was probably a part of it. This isn't a group therapy session. We can't mince fucking words."

"L-Let's stay focused. I understand the situation... But there's no point in any speculation before we have all the facts."

"Shit," Ezekiel said, running a hand down his face. "We need to be paying attention to what people are even saying in this conversation, in case they're trying to lead us down the wrong track."

"Honesty is one thing, but this is not helpful, Ezekiel," Kamrusepa said.

"Yeah, see? Shit like that." He crossed his arms tightly. "Someone here is working for a bunch of sicko death cultists. We need to keep our wits about us."

"Hey, the old man is right," Fang said, speaking up louder than both of them. "We gotta stay focused. Right now, this is all hypothesis. We're not even absolutely sure that it was set by somebody in our group. For all we know, something could be going on that's completely over our heads."

Appeal to uncertainty wasn't much of an argument, but still, I understood why they said it. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like the situation was a delicate balancing act. If we shied away from reality too much, it could doom us. And if we let ourselves fall into infighting, that could doom us too. There needed to be push-and-pull from everyone who still had a level head.

"Speaking of which," Linos said, "Let's put the pistol aside for a moment and move on to the more difficult part." He clasped his hands together. "That is to say... What happened in the kitchen."

I looked to Theodoros. He looked in no apparent shape to talk, barely seeming aware of even the surrounding conversation. Linos, who must've been having complicated feelings considering their relationship, seemed to notice this and looked to Ptolema instead. "Miss Rheeds. Why don't you give us your account?"

"Uh..." She blinked a few times. "I dunno. There's not much to say, y'know? We all went in, and Seth started saying what we should pick up. Some tinned food, drinks... Theo and Bard headed towards the back to look for the gas switch since it was so dark, and to find some oil like you asked for, but we could still see okay from the light out here. I knew where all the tinned food was 'cause I was in there for a bit yesterday when dinner was getting put together, so I went straight for it and just started packing a bag." She swallowed the air, tense. "Then we heard the shot. Seth said something, uh..."

"I think I said, 'oh, shit'," he informed her, helpfully.

"Yeah, something like that," she replied, nodding. "Then we all just left. And that was it."

Linos nodded, but looked wary. He'd probably been hoping the explanation would go on for longer. "I see..." He looked to Ran. "Miss Hoa-Trinh. You mentioned that you detected two incantations in effect."

"Mm-hmm," she said, nodding. "Both of them were cast at about the same time, when Ptolema and Seth stepped out of the kitchen, if I were to guess. One was the Object-Manipulating Arcana, and the other the World-Deafening Arcana, used to lock the door and to silence everything in the kitchen for about four minutes."

The World-Deafening Arcana had been one of the ones Neferuaten had used, hadn't it...? Could the culprit have stolen her scepter? It hadn't been on the body.

"You, uh," Ptolema hesitated. "You can't tell where they were cast from, right?"

Ran shook her head. "Just the nature of the incantation, where and on what it was active, and when it was cast."

"That's still enough for a pretty good picture," Fang said. "Just, uh, to be certain, somebody shared this divination with her, right?"

"I did," Linos said, with a nod.

"Okay, just checking. Phew," Fang said. "Okay. So it feels like what happened was that the culprit waited for as many to get out of the room as they could, locked the door and silenced everything, and then, uh, did the murder. Pretty simple, I guess."

"Ptolema, Seth," Kam said, looking towards them. "Was there anyone else in that room, that you saw?"

"I'm pretty sure there wasn't," Ptolema said, though she didn't look absolutely certain. "I mean, I guess they could've fit in one of the cabinets if they were a kid or, like, shorter than Ran. They're pretty small, though."

"It's hard to imagine how it could be possible," Linos said. "If there was anyone in there when I expanded my barrier, it should have come into contact with them and either hurt them quite a lot, or else broken the incantation." He clicked his tongue. "Probably both, frankly."

"Sheesh. No dice on easy solutions, huh," Fang said.

They said that, but in truth, I imagined they'd known where this was going. Where all of this had been going, since the start.

Slowly, eyes started to turn to Theo.

"In that case," Fang went on, "...well, I guess there's no choice but to hear it from the horses mouth, huh?"