Page 51 of Vilest Things
“Oh. This one.” Savin turns around her papers, which are folded to the third page. There, Calla photocopied a small etching she had found at the top of a village registry. A triangle with a line down the middle.
“I’m very glad you said that,” Calla said, “because I would have been curious why you were lying if not. Turn to page eight, please.”
After scouring the inventory books for sigils, Calla sent Joselie to find Matiyu Nuwa in the surveillance room, working the predawn shift. They needed a cross-reference. She figured there wouldn’t be many instances of the palace logs using the wordsigil. They didn’t have the time to look through every suspicious occurrence logged within the kingdom to find when sigils might have popped up in their history. But if Leida was telling the truth and any marking before the war could be a sigil, then it was easy enough to type certain words into the palace system and see what came up once they had their suspicions.Triangle. Line down the middle. Jumping.
“Ayden Junmen, thirty years old,” Calla reads aloud from the page. “Entered San-Er as a legal lottery entrant two years ago, his fourth time applying for the draw. He emigrated from Laho in the autumn, and by winter he had joined the Crescent Societies. Three weeks later, he was executed.”
Half the councilmembers around the table lean in.
“I don’t remember this coming before us,” Rehanou says, almost sounding disappointed that he hadn’t signed off on it.
“It would have been private,” Anton interjects. It’s the first thing he’s said since the meeting began.
Correct, according to the Weisanna files that this account was pulled from. Public executions are ruled on by the council when the crimes are deemed serious, kingdom-wide affairs, like treason or mass murder. There hasn’t been a public execution in years. Most daily crimes in San-Er are sorted with a callous sign-off by only the king, and then the Weisannas put those sentences into effect. Calla remembers her parents flipping through the stack of sign-offs within minutes before breakfast, back when the Palace of Heavens was still around.
“He was charged with the crime of excessive, illegal jumping, and apprehended when he attempted to pass as Daine Tumou, the head of the Evercent Hotel in Er. Some of you may also know Mr. Tumou as Number Seventy-Nine in the most recent games.”
Anton visibly experiences a flash of recognition before smoothing down his expression. He and Calla almost lost their lives fighting Seventy-Nine’s hired men in the games. They ended up fleeing instead of finishing the battle.
“Ayden Junmen occupied the body for a few days before getting caught, when one of Mr. Tumou’s men finally got a good look at his eyes. Here’s the kicker: among all the men giving statements, not a single one saw a flash of light, though there wasn’t any moment Mr. Tumou was left in public without accompaniment. Ayden Junmen was extracted under torture, placed back into his birth body, and executed in the palace. He didn’t give up any accomplices.Under duress, he claimed he acted alone. When his body was processed, they found a marking on his chest drawn in blood, resembling ‘a triangle with a line down the middle.’?”
“This sounds like the Crescent Society experiments,” Mugo says immediately. “Leida Miliu’s work.”
“Perhaps.” Calla flips to the next page and continues reading from the quotes. “Ayden Junmen’s record was clean when he was granted entry into San-Er, but upon further investigation from Councilmember Savin when asked how something like this happened, Laho’s yamen found that he had two cousins with connections to the Dovetail.”
Councilmember Savin sets her papers down. She’s taken off her thin glasses and propped them atop her head, massaging the bridge of her nose.
“Yes,” she confirms tiredly. “That is true.”
“Just to be very clear…,” the councilmember seated next to Anton cuts in. Deep-green eyes. A member of the Farua family, perhaps, but Calla doesn’t remember which province they govern. “This is the same Dovetail group that is now committing attacks across the provinces?”
“Indeed,” Calla says. “So what seems more likely, that Leida put in a random assignment through the Crescent Societies two years before she began her conspiracy against the throne, or that the Dovetail have known how to manipulate qi for a while now and taught this man two years ago?”
“Calla, speak plainly, would you?” Anton demands. He lifts his volume, an echo reverberating through the room. “I’m hearing story after story of context, but no reason as to why we are discussing this.”
“In conclusion,” Calla snaps, “I find it convenient that a rural group with remarkable capabilities is striking the provinces right when we hear the crown is false. The Dovetail are making their presence known to the kingdom after hiding for years, perhaps decades, and suddenly the Crescent Societies in San-Er are also yellingNo throne without mandate? Something triggered that first attackin Rincun, and I will be the first to connect the dots aloud: Otta Avia is behind this.”
Anton shoots to his feet. “That’s enough.”
“Will you deny it?” Calla returns just as quickly. “Will anyone in this room deny it?”
“I do ask,” Savin interjects. “When would she have plotted this? In the few days since she’s awoken from her seven-year coma? Or before she fell ill, when she was a mere teenager? There is no communication into the provinces from San-Er.”
Calla scoffs. “As if a little lack of telephone wires is going to stop her.”
“While I don’t deny the aspects that line up,” Councilmember Rehanou says, leaning back in his chair, “do you accuse her of making a play for the throne? What other reason is there to cause kingdom-wide chaos like this?”
Anton is shaking his head. Refusing to acknowledge what’s in front of him. “This is ridiculous—”
“She’s known the crown has been false for however long and bided her time until it was right to go after it,” Calla says. “We are wasting time arguing about her motivation. She needs to be removed from this delegation—”
“This isherdelegation, Princess Calla.” Councilmember Mugo stands. “And forgive me, but it is starting to sound as though you bear a personal grudge. Of anyone in the room, you are the one who poses the biggest threat to the succession of the throne. Otta Avia has no blood claim. It would take a coup that eliminates every member of this council if she wants to wear the crown.”
The room falls quiet. Calla, too, falters momentarily, scrambling to counter Mugo’s point.
“I will increase security and ensure there’s no intrusion from the Dovetail during our journey, given they are a real threat,” Mugo continues before she can summon a retort. “But let us not invent further dangers where there are none, lest we think ourselves too self-important.”
“Are you serious?” Calla demands.
