Kylian had been interviewing Sir Reynard for a while before Ailn found them, and he made sure to catch him up to speed.

“Sir Reynard, is it?” Ailn asked, reaching his hand out toward the knight.

“Your Grace,” Reynard tried to kneel, but Ailn waved dismissively, before extending his hand again.

Reynard looked at his own hand with confusion, but after a long while reached it out in reply. With a friendly smile, Ailn took it and completed the handshake—even if Reynard’s participation was a bit limp-wristed.

“I heard from Sir Aldous you were wanting to speak to me, except I’m not sure I’ve got anything useful for you,” he said. “I hope I do, though. I’m ashamed I was right useless as a guard.”

He wore an expression of heartfelt gladness mixed with contrition, seeing Ailn alive and well, and Kylian instinctively felt it was genuine. Of all the knights, Reynard was the first one who seemed to care.

Was it simply because, as the nearest guard to the courtyard, he could be singled out as the most responsible in failing to protect Ailn? It was a possibility. But in Kylian’s eyes, he simply had a sincere nature.

This was how he’d always known Reynard, even if their paths hadn’t often crossed.

“Can’t be everywhere at once, Reynard,” Ailn said. “You were where you were stationed. That’s all you can really ask of a guard.”

The problem was that the castle had a thinly spread guard detail which reflected its mostly vestigial nature. There was a time long ago when it would have protected against conventional armies: archers, men-at-arms, and so forth.

Now that the empire was unified, the duchy had only shadow beasts to fear. And shadow beasts had never before last night’s attack actually reached the castle. There would surely be a re-evaluation of the wisdom in keeping the castle so sparsely protected, but even Ailn’s near-death had yet to spark any real sense of urgency.

“But since you were here, we’re curious to know what you saw and when you saw it.” Ailn gestured around the bailey. “So, you saw the shadow beasts yourself, then? Can you tell us a little bit about them? What they looked like, how fearsome they were?”

“I did.” Reynard’s eyes looked up and to the left as he remembered. “I saw four of them. I was the only one there, and managed to hold them off until help arrived. Killed one of them, myself.”

“For someone who held his own against four of them, you sound pretty calm. Calmer than Sir Tristan, at least.”

“When I realized those awful things were in the castle… well, I felt moved by duty,” Reynard said. “Sinful things like them shouldn’t be here in a holy place like this.”

“I’ve heard they were wolf types,” Kylian said. “Do you corroborate that?”

“Wolf types?” Ailn asked, curious himself.

“Shadow beasts come in many different forms, and we have certainly not seen them all,” Kylian said. “But shadow beasts akin to wolves are not uncommon.”

“They seemed like wolves, that’s for sure,” Reynard frowned. “They were terrible things… but they were smaller than the ones I saw while guarding the wall.”

“Interesting. Tell me Reynard, would you say you have a strong holy aura?” Ailn asked.

“Stronger than most,” Reynard said, standing taller. “One of the strongest that doesn’t belong to an officer.”

“That’s a comforting thing to hear,” Ailn said, glancing at Kylian. Kylian nodded in assent. “This may be a bit brash, but can I take a look at your sword?”

“Absolutely, Your Grace.” Reynard didn’t so much as question the request, and unsheathed his sword happily. “It cost me a pretty penny, you know. Half a year’s salary for this thing!”

“What an excellent blade,” Ailn said. He wouldn’t really have any way of knowing, but he nonetheless put on the show of gazing in admiration. “You’ve got ‘REIN’ inscribed here near the hilt. Smart way to keep another knight from claiming your sword.”

“Oh, it certainly is, Your Grace,” Reynard said with a righteous look. “The worst cheats in the entire duchy live in that damn barracks.”

“It’s a prudent thing to do,” Kylian agreed, making a point of showing Ailn the ‘KYL’ inscribed at the base of his own blade.

Now that he considered it, the missing material from the shattered sword blade could have been someone trying to hide their name.

Before he gave the sword back, Ailn took it by its hilt and raised it ever so slightly. With a smoothness that seemed almost genteel, he presented it back to Reynard with a warm smile, palm overturned like a king entrusting a treasure to his most loyal knight.

Kylian was not impressed with this bit of theater, but Reynard certainly was. He received his sword gracefully, as if he hadn’t given it for inspection in the first place.

“Reynard, perhaps you’ve heard this,” Ailn talked softly, even conspiratorially. “But I’ve lost my memory. I’ve heard that I was not always an upright man. I desire your honesty most of all.”

“Of course, Your Grace,” Reynard said, face solemn, eyes unwavering.

“I want to amend my ways. But how can a man truly make amends if he remembers not his sins?” Ailn asked.

Reynard nodded, now his confidante in the path to holiness.

“Now, as many people have attested—I was apparently meeting my sister’s maid, Sophie,” Ailn said.

“I’ve been witness myself, yes,” Reynard said. “I didn’t always see you, but I reckon you two were always meeting on the days of the bestowal ceremony. Must be the only time Sophie has a chance to spread her wings from Lady Renea, them being so attached and all.”

“Did you see us together on the day of the attack?” Ailn asked.

Reynard paused.

“I saw her with you after. With your, er, unconscious body Your Grace. I think she must’ve thought you were dead… well, being truthful about it we all did,” Reynard said, sounding quite sad about it. “She was the one screamin’ for help, so I saw you first. But…”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“But?”

“She was real out of it,” Reynard’s words slowed, and he took on a lingering cadence as he recalled Sophie’s reaction to Ailn’s body. His eyes were softly sorrowful, as if he could still see her now. “Completely mournful, eyes glued to the ground, and well, to you lying there on the ground. I had a hard time talking to her.”

“Did any of the other knights talk to her?”

Reynard shook his head.

“I felt terrible just leaving her there with you, but she wouldn’t budge,” Reynard said. “When I ran to grab another guard, and told her I’d be back, well, she must’ve taken off ‘cause I didn’t see her back there.”

“Did you see the two of us together before I was attacked?”

“Not directly, no, on account of me helping out with the gate’s de-icing since it was such a cool and humid night. But I did see both of you. A fair span of time before the ceremony, I was out here in the bailey when I saw Miss Sophie heading toward the courtyard—holding a lantern, now that I recollect it.”

“A lantern? Was it already dark?”

“No… it was still a couple hours or more from sunset. It was a mite odd, I suppose. But I could see her as just being the careful type.”

“And did you see me pass through the bailey?”

“I saw you pass through the gate, to be particular with it. I saw Miss Sophie, then I went to de-ice. When I was de-icing the gate, I saw you pass through—to go meet her in the courtyard, I imagine.”

“This all matches our expectations,” Ailn said, pausing. He seemed to have a momentary crisis, wincing a while before he finally came right out with his question.

“Was I having liaisons with my sister’s maid?” Ailn asked.

Kylian felt his stomach drop.

Here was another set of circumstances that Kylian hadn’t considered in concert. First, that Ailn was supposedly seeing the maid regularly, and there were rumors of it being illicit. Second, that Sophie was very probably the child of the Saintess, born out of wedlock.

Third, that this would make Sophie Ailn’s half-sister. Potentially capable of conjuring the holy aura, and even of murdering him.

Put it all together, and suddenly Ennieux’s utter disgust with Ailn did not seem so unreasonable. Just how much worse would the gossip be if all those moralizing busybodies found out Ailn and Sophie’s blood relation?

No, that wasn’t the biggest issue. What if the rumors were true, and they really were meeting romantically? There were infinite scenarios that gave a plausible motive for murder.

Reynard was silent for a while, and Kylian couldn’t help but imagine the worst. His mind was not one to wander, but the implications were like caltrops in a grassy field. Walk straight, and gouge your foot anyway. Live honorably, avoid gossip, and find yourself nonetheless embroiled in a scandal of infidelity, illegitimate children, and… well inc—

Kylian just stared at Ailn. Even Ailn seemed to sweat.

“Look, we have to know. It’s not like it was me. I mean. I guess it was. Dammit,” Ailn tussled his own hair in frustration and groaned. “This sucks.”

“I don’t believe it was like that,” Reynard said after a long time. He looked Ailn in the eye. “I hear all kinds of whispering things, Your Grace. And I have no proof. But whenever I caught sight of you and her, I never felt nothing like that. No romance. No anything past that. I’d be honest with you if I did.”

Ailn and Kylian collectively let out a sigh of relief.

“What makes you think that?” Ailn asked.

“I’m not too observant, so I don’t quite know,” Reynard said. There was tenderness in his eyes. “I’d only seen you occasionally. The two of you walked close. But not that close. Not in that kind of way.”

Reynard’s eyes looked around the bailey as if he were watching them walk by again. He thought back to all the gossip throughout the years, the nosy interest and embarrassment knights and servants alike took on.

If you’d heard them tell it, Ailn was shamelessly seducing one of his sister’s maids, while she was a maid resentful of her lady and her place. Lots of people talked.

But Reynard had actually seen them.

And to him? Everything seemed perfectly innocent. With his honest nature, it made his heart ache to hear how people talked about the two. It did look like they were trying to be discreet. It did look like they were close, and that they cared for each other.

Yet, even if he couldn’t explain it, it never looked the way all the vicious whispering said it did. All he ever saw were two people spending time together, grateful and happy that they could.

He seemed frustrated that he couldn’t quite articulate it. But after a few moments, the right words finally came.

“You know, crazy as it sounds, the two of you always just looked like brother and sister to me.”

----------------------------------------

By the time they reached the courtyard, the sun had set. To their surprise, they found Aldous.

“Huh. Look who’s here,” Ailn said.

“Your Grace,” Aldous said sheepishly, perhaps still embarrassed from the morning, “I had thought I’d find you back here.”

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Ailn said. His eyes skirted around the courtyard, noticing the shattered pieces of sword still hadn’t been cleaned from earlier in the day. “Did you come to do some investigating?”

“I certainly did. Sometimes it takes a wakeup call to shock you out of deskwork, drudgery and uselessness,” Aldous lamented. “A lifetime of protecting this duchy in earnest, wiped clear of my mind by the endless rolls of parchment.”

He laughed at himself, not bothering to hide the strain of self-loathing in his tone: “And here I am now, having been moved to remembrance by a young knight decades my junior. I have considered it earnestly, and realized there may be something quite dire afoot—just as Sir Kylian said.”

“You’re saying you suspect my family as well?” Ailn asked. Aldous paled in response.

Nonetheless, he responded in regretful affirmation: “I have been forced to consider them as one of many alternatives. And I’ve come to examine the scene of the assault myself, to see if this mind of mine has any sharpness yet.”

“Well, have you found anything?” Ailn asked.

“Not a thing,” Aldous said, almost feebly. “Perhaps I’ve let myself dull for too long.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ailn said. “I just came to check something out. It might… take me a while, though. You guys should do your own thing in the meantime.”

His demeanor had the slightest tone of sending children off to play, but that slightest of tones was quite noxious.

“It’s good to have you, sir,” Kylian said. “Forgive him.”

“A vassal is never in a position to ‘forgive’ their lord, Kylian,” Aldous said sternly.

“...Of course. You’re most correct, Sir Aldous,” Kylian said, with a rather thin smile. “At any rate, the investigation has turned up surprises and confusions in daunting measure. I should bring you up to speed.”

Kylian related the facts of the case to Aldous, leaving out Sophie’s ignominious origins for when they could talk in a more appropriately private setting. Still, what he did tell Aldous shocked him, and he reacted with particular dismay when he heard how the divine blessing had been perverted for the foul purpose of murder.

“It’s a puzzle,” Aldous admitted. “And a painful, fiendish one at that. For the rot to point at our very order… ”

The man looked tired and broken by it all. For a while, he seemed simply stupefied into silence.

Then Aldous spoke again: “I’ll share some information of my own, Kylian. Just after the peak of noon today, the knights discovered that the kennel had been attacked last night. Or so we believe.”

Kylian blinked. “The kennel?”

“Correct. On account of all the chaos, a proper inventory of the castle was not completed until today,” Aldous said. “Not only is Sir Envont, the master of the hounds missing, but so are a number of hounds. We suspect… they were eaten by the beasts.”

There had been precedent for shadow beasts killing humans and eating their corpses. In fact—wolf types were known to do it.

The kennel was largely unused in Varant, as hunting was simply not a popular sport for knights who risked life and limb against shadow beasts. Moreover, the kennel itself was an appropriation of an old dungeon built into the lower walls. It was a dingy place which courted more rats than people.

Kylian closed his eyes and tried to sort his thoughts. Did this change anything? This case was getting more complicated and sordid by the hour.