3.37: Home

“Lydia!” Kylie knelt next to her mentor, fingers searching her neck for a pulse. “Guys, she – ”

“She tried to kill you,” Max said. His tone was clipped and neutral. “There is no point in trying to revive her. She paid a debt, and you won’t be able to let her body renege it now.”

“W-what? No, she… why would she kill me?”

“Your spell,” I said, but Kylie had clearly already figured it out, her fingers brushing the mark on her cheek. “She gave you some kind of poison in that chalice, I assume.”

“Runes and poison as a sword,” she murmured, eyes skimming the runes drawn around the room and then landing on us, seeing the confirmation in our faces. “But I’m not… but Saina?”

“We can explain later,” Max said. “We should get Kylie to Malas Aksoy as quickly as possible. While she should be safe now, if I understand my spell correctly, it’s best to be sure. My understanding of the spell may be incomplete.” His eyes landed on Lydia for a moment, and his neutral expression crumbled. He looked away.

“R-right,” Kylie said. She glanced at the raging sandstorm outside. “I should give you guys permission to be here, then.” She did, the sand died down, and we all went in search of one of the tiny portal-controlling flags.

It took us almost an hour and a half to find one with a little sword on it, out on the building’s roof. Sekura Refujeyo wasn’t where we wanted to go, but none of us wanted to keep searching in the hopes of finding a book flag and getting back to school. Besides, we were all definitely going to get arrested anyway. Might as well get that over with.

The four of us arrived in a large room full of people who immediately pointed fingers, staffs, wands and a few actual guns at us, all yelling orders that were, at least, not contradictory. Saina, sounding a hell of a lot calmer than I felt while we lay on the stone floor with our hands behind our heads, started to explain the situation, but as soon as she mentioned a dead body we were separated. I tried to look as nonthreatening as possible (which is, fortunately, quite easy for a scrawny, unarmed teenager to do) while two serious-looking sekuranti pulled me into another room.

The room in question had several desks and cabinets lined up around the outside, but they were all empty. Its most notable feature was a single metal chair bolted to the floor in the centre of the room, directly under a light. Around the chair were four vertical metal poles, about one and a half metres from each other, forming a square.

I was shoved towards the chair. “Sit,” one of the sekuranti grunted in Ido.

As I passed between two of the poles, the room disappeared, and everything went quiet. The space between the poles was a black wall through which no sound penetrated, forming a tall, opaque box. I wasn’t in the dark – the light above the chair illuminated it just fine – but I couldn’t see out of it. Experimentally, I leaned a hand against the wall. It was solid.

One-way soundproof, lightproof force fields. Interesting.

I sat down and waited. I figured I’d probably be there awhile. The purpose of this whole setup was pretty obvious; it was to intimidate and unbalance me. Well, not me specifically; whoever was going to be interrogated. I had no idea how many people were in the room with me, watching me; I couldn’t see or hear them, and I didn’t have enough space to do anything but sit and fidget. Presumably, if you wanted to make someone nervous and unsettle them for interrogation, you could just leave them here until they were nervous enough.

That wasn’t really going to work on me. I had nothing to hide and nothing to be nervous about, and I was too physically and emotionally tired to care. I’d almost lost one of my dearest friends today. I’d watched another kill someone to save her. And now, hey, possible war! All kinds of bullshit politics I didn’t understand! I wasn’t going to be bothered by a bunch of cops posturing. I knew I wasn’t in any danger from these people. Oh, I’m not totally naive – I knew that the Mysterious Police Force of the Mysterious Magical Society had probably ‘disappeared’ plenty of people, but they weren’t going to do it to us. Saina was too important. Kylie and I were too well-known. Max had his own little web of connections, and the school had already hesitated to expel him based on the potential backlash. No; if anything was going to happen to us, it would be big and public, after an investigation and trial, if only to assure Fionnrath that justice had been served. We weren’t disappearing into any little backrooms today, and there was nothing for me to be afraid of here.

The silence and confined space around the chair was odd, but not troubling. I’d been behind the soundproofed curtains around beds in the medical ward enough to be used to magical soundproofing, and I’d spent a significant portion of my childhood hiding patiently in cramped spaces for long stretches of time while people got out of my way so I could retrieve Chelsea’s tracker. This was easy mode – I even had a chair.

No; nothing about this place made me nervous, or off-balance, or afraid.

It made me angry.

It made me angry, because Max wouldn’t be handling a place like this nearly as well as I was. And Kylie had nearly died less than two hours ago, attacked by someone she trusted, and shouldn’t be alone right now. They were playing these stupid intimidation games for no reason when we –

Huh. I supposed that this was getting to me, albeit not in the intended manner. I leaned into old habits of avoiding strong emotion and let my mind skip to something else. The scars on my arm, healed by a potion that had never been put on them. I went over that timeline again, trying to figure out what had happened, until the silence of my tiny room was broken by a stern voice.

“Kayden Mark James?”

I jumped. “Yes?”

“Why were you at Duniyasar tonight?”

The question was asked in Ido, because of course it was. I wasn’t sure if that was just general policy or if they were deliberately trying to put me at a disadvantage, since I wasn’t fluent in the language. I answered in English, hoping they’d switch. They didn’t; for over an hour of endless questions, the interrogator stuck to their language, and I stuck to mine.

I didn’t explain everything. I left out the part about the months sitting on a prophecy foretelling the murder of the “heiress of Duniyasar”, leaving the date of Kylie’s prophecy vague. It’d come out – presumably they’d separated us so that we couldn’t collaborate in misleading them – but if Kylie and Saina were going to get lectures on that then it wouldn’t be because I told on them. I also didn’t describe our ascent of the tower in detail, feeling like the hidden staircase we’d used was probably supposed to stay secret. They didn’t push for details on either of those things; I wasn’t sure if they’d gotten the details from the others, or if they just weren’t interested. After all, what mattered was Lydia’s death.

I explained every detail of that that I could remember, going over the whole thing detail by detail. Then again. And again. On the third explanation, a new person started asking the questions. Then we went through it a fourth time.

I was well and truly sick of telling the story when a familiar voice cut across the interrogator asking me for specific details on the fifth explanation. “Alright. That’s enough.” Casey. The lawyer.

The interrogator protested. “Ka vu – ?”

“Every minute that field stays up between me and my client is going to turn into another day of very annoying paperwork for you. How difficult do you want to make this on yourself?”

The black walls around me vanished, and the ambient noise of a full office flooded in. About twenty people were in the previously empty room, scattered around the desks, talking quietly, taking notes. Most of them were staring at me. Frankly, I’d preferred not knowing that they were there.

Casey marched across the room toward me, looking annoyed. Their hair, usually neat and styled, stuck out at odd angles, and looked like it hadn’t been cut for awhile. Their robes, normally impeccably neat, sat at an odd angle, the sash tied a little wonky.

“Did I get you out of bed?” I asked.

“That’s not important,” Casey snapped. As they got closer, I could see that they were even more pissed off than I’d thought, and that it wasn’t directed at me. “Come on, we have work to do.”

I got up. “Where are we – ?”

“Home.” Casey led the way through some long stone corridors, completely ignoring the occasional sekuranto, until the bright white lights were replaced with the familiar green of the school. Casey relaxed.

“The kuracar has been forewarned of your arrival,” they said. “You should probably go and get checked over, and then get some sleep. I’ll meet with you in, let’s say, twelve hours? I should have revised everything in your statement by then and we can talk about how to deal with… all of this.”

“If it helps,” I said, “I don’t think I committed any crimes this time.” I had enabled some trespassers, was that a crime? Even though Kylie gave them retroactive permission?

“Probably. Let me analyse all of this and I’ll let you know.”

“Th-thanks. For coming, and everything.”

“I told you last time, I’d be here if you had further legal trouble. I expected the next time I saw you would be to defend you from Malas Aksoy’s nonsense, not the assassination of a foreign politician, but this is where we are, I suppose. I’ll see you in twelve hours.”

I didn’t go to the kuracar. I hadn’t exactly been kind to my body, but there was nothing wrong with it that a lot of rest wouldn’t fix. I dropped by Saina’s room to pick up my tablet and other stuff I’d left in there, then knocked on my door, hoping someone would be in to open it. (I still had a bed claimed in Saina’s room, from bodyguard duty. Ugh, I hadn’t slept since bodyguard duty. That felt like forever ago.)

Max opened the door and stepped back to let me pass. “Are you alright?” he asked.

I blinked at him. “Of course I’m alright. They didn’t hurt me.” I frowned. “They didn’t hurt you, did they? I’ll kill – ”

“No! No. I’m fine. I just wasn’t… I don’t know how they are with people without a mage family behind them.”

“Oh. No. I’m fine. Kylie?”

“Under medical observation for the night. Because of the poison.” He handed me a glass of water, which I drank in one long gulp. “Saina sent a message, if you still have your tablet. She’s with her family.”

I nodded, claimed my usual bed, and flopped down onto it, ready to sleep for ten billion years. Well, twelve hours. Instead, I stared at the ceiling. “What happens now?” I asked.

“A criminal trial, probably. They’ll probably interrogate us under a truth spell. It’s not going to be fun.”

“I already went through a criminal trial over Matt. I’ve fulfilled my life quota of criminal trials.”

“If it helps, Refujeyo does things very differently, so it will at least be a new experience for you.”

“Oh, fantastic. At least everyone’s innocent. I mean, I assume everyone’s innocent. I don’t actually know the laws.”

“I did kill somebody today,” Max said quietly.

“You saved Kylie’s life today. From a murderer. They’ll believe the truth, right? If it’s under a truth spell and all, and just because of the way your spell works in the first place – ”

“Whether the truth matters is… out of our control.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Max didn’t answer for a long time. I broke off my staring contest with the ceiling to sneak a glance at him. He was sitting quietly, staring at his own hands.

After a minute, he said, “Promise me something.”

“Promise you what?”

“Promise me that you and Kylie won’t let Fionnrath bully you. If you want to go live there, that’s your choice, but only if you want to. Don’t let them… don’t let them, or Refujeyo, use me against you.”

I sat up. “What are you talking about?”

“Guilt or innocence are… one part of the equation. Not the whole equation. You might remember that we were threatened with expulsion last semester?”

“Yeah, and you said they wouldn’t expel us, because it’s better for Refujeyo to hold onto the living mage and human familiar and the scientist who created that bond than to throw us away, risk angering your family, and look like they’re punishing success that they feel threatened by.”

“And that was true. Before it came to light that Kylie was Fionnrath’s prophet. And before I killed Lydia. Skolala Refujeyo love word-changing success… after the fact. They’re not actually all that big on risks. I’ve brought the school nothing but headaches so far, so this will probably be too much. They’ll probably throw me under the bus to appease Fionnrath.”

“I won’t let them.”

“Yes, I was worried you’d say that.”

“Of course I’d say that! I’ll find something to – ”

“There is already something you can do, and they’ll suggest it right away, and I want you to promise me that you won’t do it. I doubt very much that Fionnrath cares all that much about justice for Lydia. I doubt that the town as a whole would approve of her choice to murder a child, and they certainly wouldn’t approve of such a thing publically. What they want isn’t me. It’s Kylie. And, for as long as that familiarity link holds, you. Promise me that if Refujeyo decides to sacrifice me, and if Fionnrath makes that offer, and if Refujeyo pressures you to accept… you won’t. Don’t trade away your lives for this.”

“What? Of course we’d accept. You honestly think we’re going to throw you under the bus? That’s crazy talk. You’re clearly sleep deprived.”

“Kayden – ”

“Don’t ‘Kayden’ me. You can put your reputation and position on the line to defend me, you can risk expulsion or prison to save Kylie, but we’re supposed to just stand by and do nothing if you’re in trouble? That’s bullshit. If I have to move to the weird religious murdertown to save you, I will. I can’t speak for Kylie, but I think she’d hesitate even less. That’s why you’re talking to me while she isn’t here, isn’t it? Because it’ll be easier to get us to promise if we can’t gang up on you?”

“I don’t want you to give up your futures for me.”

“I don’t want to, either. But if it comes to that choice, I will, and I can’t promise you otherwise. What I can promise you is that I’ll do my level best to stop things from getting to that point.” I stood up. Grabbed my tablet. Made for the door.

“Where are you going?”

“To do something really weird. That’s always worked for me before.”

I strode out of the room. It was time to burn some bridges and dance in the flames.