Page 54 of Guiding Reason
Niyada nodded. “It’s been saying you’re its liaison. I think it likes you and that the team you’ve built is so very successful is something it seems proud of. Either way, we are still doing our best to identify those who perished at Starlit Stage.”
“Who were murdered. Let’s not remove the gravity of the action,” Col said.
Niyada regarded Col and then nodded, an approving smile on her lips. “I think I like you, Coldis. Yes, the insurrectionists murdered their own, and they murdered regulars. We have a list of those who are still missing. It’s most likely an issue of identifying all of them now, if there’s enough left to identify. One of the insurrectionist pyromancers was…thorough.”
Col nodded.That pyromancer. The one who hurt Karmine?“Also, I think you should make sure there are no extra bodies. We don’t know who they brought into the city with them. There is a possibility some of those who worked with them initially changed their mind later. They might have tried to hide people’s identities to obscure where their co-insurrectionists originally came from.”
“You’re thinking of Loquin,” Hyran said, instinctively reaching out to take Col’s hand.
Col let him. “Yes. And I think what you said about their recruiting, what I have heard of it, some of those Guardians and even Conduits will have come to regret their decision. If there are more dead than there should be, we have to have them identified. This cannot have been something aimed at just Argentea and Ferrea, and even if the Op-AIs feel confident that the worst is over, we saw where that led us.”
Niyada had listened with concentration, her back very straight now. “You know a lot more about this situation than I do. But Guardian Loquin, he asked to be taken to the Judiciary. We also moved a Conduit there, but I’m not sure that was the right thing to do. Except we were at a loss at how else to help her.”
“Linar.” Hyran and Col spoke at the same time, exchanged a look of matching sadness and despair.
“She is a friend,” Col said. “And I thought Loquin was as well. Niyada, I can see that you’re extremely busy, but there is one thing—a very important thing—that I need you to do.”
She nodded. “I would like that to be moving my son to Argentea, but I can tell from your face it’s not.”
Col nodded. “No. I suspect he can move himself. So far, he has been competent around me. But humor aside, there are deaths I would like you to investigate, in the way you would outside the Grounds. Two deaths and one attack.”
Hyran cocked his head. “The psionomancers, you mean.”
“We did hear that the Judiciary AIs were waiting for psionomancers, but I wasn’t aware that was because they were deceased. And you suspect murder?”
“Three psionomancers, one in a healing coma and two no longer breathing, all of that shortly before this attack? Anything but murder would be statistically unlikely.”
She nodded. “Yes, I have to agree with that. And you suspect it was the insurrectionists. That they had access well before the attack.”
Col started scratching his head, then stopped when he brushed too roughly across the cut there. The stabbing pain was even more sobering than the conversation.I suppose I’ll have to take more meds for that soon.
“I don’t know. In fact, do you know how badly hurt Durgo is?”
Niyada cocked her head.
“The Guardian that was attacked, Mom. By his Conduit. Linar?”
“That one.” Niyada folded her hands on her lap. “I noticed she lives in your building.”
Hyran nodded. “She does. Or did. She was imprinted upon in case you weren’t aware.”
“Oh, I am. She very nearly beat her Guardian to death. Believe me, that is not something I would have thought possible, ever. I’m not sharing that information, and those who tore her off the Guardian have been ordered to maintain silence. For her protection as much as his, I told them, but…”
She let the words peter away.
“I get the feeling everyone is going to learn things about Guardians and Conduits they wouldn’t have thought possible,” Col said.
“I see. Well, the last I heard about this Durgo, he was in a healing coma as well. I don’t have any more details than that right now.”
Col nodded. “I think—there was a…someone was killed in Hyran’s building. Durgo’s imprinted had a long-term lover. He knew and hated the thought, or so Hyran tells me.”
The Guardian nodded. “The two of them—the three of them—all were unhappy in this, and then Undora was murdered. Ithought about everything you taught me about those who are willing to take another’s life.”
Niyada cocked her head. “Are you telling me I need to have Guardian Durgo moved to the Judiciary as well once and if he recovers?”
Col shook his head. “There is no investigation. The Op-AI decided there was no more threat there and concluded the death. I was thinking that Durgo made a bargain for someone else to kill his imprinted’s lover. And that person we’d want at the Judiciary.”
Niyada nodded. “Because that is someone who might have also killed our psionomancers.”
