“Were you trying to scare me off?” With an easy smile, she plopped onto the straw mattress and leaned against the pillow.

“Not at all, but after you disappeared…” he shrugged. "To be honest, at first I thought you'd robbed him."

"Why I never," she gasped in mock indignation. “But no, you didn't scare me off. I enjoyed myself, if that’s what you’re worried about, and if you don’t believe me,” a sly grin slipped across her face, “you can just use your spell. Scales of Justice, is it?”

Jasper stilled. “Who told you about my spell?”

The captain only chuckled. “Relax, Yas̆peh, we're not enemies."

"Nobody said we were, but who told you about that spell," he replied a bit more aggressively.

She ignored his question and counted with another. "Tell me, what is the story of Tsūraddin?”

Why? Jasper's mind whirled as he tried to piece together what little he remembered from the bard’s story last night. Damn it - I didn’t know there’d be a pop quiz. “Uh, he fought the, uh, enemy back on the Djinn’s homeward of Zaginnu.” He felt proud of himself for remembering the last name, which hadn’t been mentioned in the bard’s poem.

“Yes, yes,” she waved her hands impatiently. “I listened to the bard last night too, Yas̆peh. But that is not what I meant. Why don't you hear the story of Tsūraddin told in the capital?”

For a brief moment, Jasper considered making up some wild story in the hope of bluffing his way out of her trap. Then he realized there was no point; Gūla clearly knew he didn’t know the answer and, besides, there was only one conclusion he could draw. “You're the royal agent my uncle mentioned, aren't you?”

“You admit you don’t know?” She said, sidestepping his accusation.

He shrugged his shoulders with fake casualness. “Guess I never paid attention in school.”

Fascination glimmered in her eyes as she stared up at him. “So it’s true then,” she muttered to herself.

“What's true?” he asked resignedly.

“When S̆arrābī’s ‘nephew’ showed up, the gossips around the court immediately decided that you must be his long-forsaken bastard.”

“Why would they think that,” Jasper protested with a snort. “We don't anything alike.”

“It was a reasonable guess,” she retorted. “You had to come from somewhere and, despite not having a male heir, the old man’s always been so uptight about not taking any consorts, everyone just figured that he was too embarrassed to admit he’d finally given in. Even I believed it."

"Well, that clearly wasn't the rumor that was true, so what you are referring to?"

Gūla grinned. "There was a second, much quieter, rumor that claimed you were one of the summoned. Honestly, it was so outrageous it was hard to believe, but then that second summoned, the broken scout appeared, and now…I do believe it's true, isn't it?”

He plopped down on the bed beside her. “I guess the cat's out of the bag," he admitted. "What gave me away?”

“Tsūraddin is the same as Nūraddin,” she replied, as if that explained anything.

“Nūraddin? Who’s that-?” The story he’d heard when he’d gone to hunt the dorēsah came flooding back to him. “Oh yeah, the guy who brought the Djinn over to this world. But if they're the same, why would that make a difference?”

“The S̆addu’â tell a similar story of how the Djinn came to this world, but in their version, Nūraddin is called Tsūraddin and he’s one of them, not a Djinn like us.”

“Tsūr…like stone,” he asked, suddenly making the connection.

“Sort of,” she confirmed. “The name refers to Tsūrah, goddess of the earth back on Zaginnu, though she's worshipped here as Ummadammah.”

“So like Nūr and S̆ams̆a then,” he clarified.

“Exactly,” she agreed. “The Royal House claims Nūraddin as their direct ancestor so, of course, they take offense to the suggestion that he was actually a S̆addu'â."

Curious, he interrupted her. "Is it true?"

"I haven't the foggiest idea," she said with a shrug. "It all happened so long it's barely more than myth now."

"It seems like a hell of a coincidence that the bard just happened to sing that song. Unless..." Jasper frowned. "You didn't"

She offered him a smile as smug as the Cheshire Cat. "I paid him off."

"Holy hell," Jasper swore, recoiling from her. “You were just manipulating me the whole time? Why?”

“Why not?” She repeated his words from the previous day back to him with a smirk. “Didn't you find it awfully convenient that there was just one table in the tavern left open?”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“I guess, but why? Just….why?” He asked in bewilderment. “If you wanted my help, all you had to do was ask. S̆arrābī already told me about you.”

“I know that," Gūla replied, "but I wanted to see what kind of man you are. You are a bit of a mystery back at court, you know.”

“Not really,” Jasper replied with a shake of his head. “I mean, I’m hardly there.”

“Exactly,” she laughed. “You do realize that for most members of the Royal House, there’s a comprehensive history detailing everything from their very first hiccup to their first broken heart. Sure, most of them aren’t important enough to be constantly watched, but if you look hard enough, the information is there to be found. If nothing else, you can usually just hire an ectomancer and the spirits themselves will blab. But when I looked into you, I came up curiously empty.”

He frowned, “I thought my uncle had whipped up some documents.”

Gūla rolled her eyes. “Tell me, Yas̆peh, are you particularly fond of maqta made with waraq petals?”

“Should I be?”

“According to your file, yes. I’m sure the documents your uncle prepared were good enough to stall most questions, but once I had looked at them I realized you were a ghost until a year ago. And since then, you’ve been quite the busy boy, if rumors are to be believed, yet you still had barely spent any time in the capital. Other than a few glancing introductions at your aunt’s parties, I couldn’t find anyone who had actually interacted with you. I wanted to get a feel for who you were before I decided if I wanted to include you in my investigation.”

“And you had to sleep with me to decide that?”

“Do you really mind,” she asked with a smirk.

Jasper rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Yeah, a little bit. I feel kind of used,” he replied honestly.

The smirk on her lips slipped away. “That wasn’t my intention, Yas̆peh. If it makes you feel any better, sleeping with you wasn’t part of the test. I just felt like it - and given your performance,” she coquettishly, “I might just feel like it again sometime soon.”

Jasper frowned, unaffected by her flirtation. Sure, she was hot, but the ease with which Gūla had deceived him was disconcerting and he had no idea what, if anything, he could believe of what she’d said. Rather than respond, he decided to just get down to business. “Alright, so you were testing me and since we're having this conversation, I assume I must have passed. So what is it you want from me?”

“I’d like to start by testing your skills,” the firebird replied. “I need to get a sense of how accurate they are.”

“What do you mean? It’s just a truth spell.”

“Not all truth spells are made alike,” she explained. “With all the different classes out there, there are an untold number of truth spells that can vary considerably in accuracy and precision. Unfortunately, some of the more popular ones, like truth seeker for Bards, can also be rather easily tricked, as long you know how. Since I’m not familiar with your particular spell, I want to get a feel for how it works. I’m going to give you a number of sentences, and you’ll tell me if they are true or false.”

“I guess I can do that,” Jasper agreed. His fingers twisted as he summoned his essence. “Let me know when to begin.”

“You can begin now,” Gūla replied after a moment’s pause. “I have three brothers and seven sisters.”

Jasper frowned as the feeling of the spell reverberated in him. “Trrruuueee…” he spoke hesitantly, stretching the word out to an unnatural length. “But I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something…I don’t know, inaccurate about the statement.”

“Good,” she nodded approvingly. “It’s the best sort of true - technically true - but it’s definitely misleading. I have five brothers and six living sisters.”

This time, the unsettled feeling in Jasper’s stomach went away. “That’s a lot of siblings.”

“Next statement. I particularly liked that thing you did with your tongue.”

“True?” He croaked out, feeling his cheeks burning, although thankfully his red skin hid his blush.

She laughed at his discomfort. “Was that a question?”

“True,” he repeated more firmly.

The next few examples Gūla gave him were more difficult. A few of the statements were obviously false, a few more just as obviously true, but the vast majority fell within the grey line of half-truths and omitted information as the agent tested the limits of his spell.

It wasn’t until he’d nearly run out of essence that she finally called a stop. “Alright, I think I’ve got a good sense of your limitations. You’re pretty good at figuring out when someone is being misleading, but your spell doesn’t give you any sense of what they’re being misleading about. It’s certainly not the best truth spell I’ve seen, but it will do.”

“And what about your other spell, Speaker of Aldāru?”

“I’ve never used it,” Jasper admitted. “It seemed like it might be useful when I picked it, but I guess I haven’t gotten around to interrogating any fresh corpses.”

Her lips twisted in disappointment. “A shame, but I suppose there’s no easy way to test it now. We’ll just have to figure it out if the circumstances arise.”

Jasper nodded. “So do you have something you want me to do?”

“I told you the nobles from Kubarru are our chief suspects, right?”

“Yeah, you mentioned it, but you were also playing a part at the time. Are they really your main suspect? They seem almost too obvious.”

“That’s true,” Gūla acknowledged, “If this was one of those mystery dramas that have been sweeping the capital, then they couldn’t possibly be the guilty party. But in real life, I’ve generally found the obvious suspects are obvious for good reason. I haven’t ruled out other possibilities, but I’ve been trying - rather unsuccessfully - to investigate them over the last two weeks.”

“Found anything incriminating?”

“Not a thing,” she shook her head, “But I have noticed something strange. There are three Kubarran lords - Kas̆dam, Nas̆ru, and Atrû - that never seem to interact with each other in the camp.”

“And that’s strange why?” he asked.

“On its own, I’d write it off as nothing more than some feud between their beliefs. But, I’ve also had my agents watching who comes and goes from Nūr-S̆ams̆a. These lords have each only visited the city four times, and each time on the same day the others went. I don’t have enough agents to track there any movement, so I don’t know for certain if they met, but it seems likely.”

“So you think they’re co-conspirators?”

“Maybe. It certainly doesn’t seem a coincidence that every time they’ve met, a fire has been set the very next day, but it also doesn’t line up perfectly, as there have been more than four attacks. I still think it’s the best place to start, though.”

“And you want me to interrogate them?”

“I certainly wouldn’t phrase it like that,” she laughed, “and, frankly, they’d never agree. But fortunately one of the lords, Nas̆ru, has invited me to attend a party he’s throwing tonight, a sort of final hurrah before we leave Nūr-S̆ams̆a. I was hoping you would attend as my escort. I’ll ask a few careful questions and you can use your spell to see if anything’s amiss.”

“That’s it?”

“For now. I doubt we’ll solve anything tonight and, who knows? Perhaps once we leave Nūr-S̆ams̆a the attacks will cease. So will you be my date?” She asked with a smirk.

“Why not?” Jasper quipped back. Gūla just rolled her eyes.