Chapter 29 – Disappeared

To Mirian’s surprise, it was Professor Torres who sought her out, that Thirdday evening. Or rather, Torres sent an Academy messenger. Most towns did something like it; spry youngsters looking for a little money let it be known they could be hired for short messages to people. Running about town didn’t need one of the official Couriers. The boy knocked on her door just before dinner, surprising both her and Lily.

“Message from Professor Torres,” he recited. “Please meet me at the same place as last time for dinner tonight. End of message.”

“Thanks,” Mirian said, and gave the boy the customary coral beadcoin tip. When he’d left, she turned to Lily and said, “Sorry, I really need to talk to her.”

“Yeah… I guess it’s probably important. Hope it goes well.”

Torres hadn’t asked her to bring her notebook or anything, but Mirian packed her spellrod pieces, the scroll she’d taken off the spy, the glyphkeys, and her notes, just in case.

Upon her arrival at the diner, Mirian was once again overwhelmed by the succulent smell of cooking meat and vegetables. The waiter, upon seeing her, gestured for her to follow, and led her to the same table. By now the sky was darkening, dusky light painting the horizon in shades of glowing gray, so the view now was more of silhouettes and distant glyph lamps. The warm light of the porch made it seem more like an island in a sea of dark. This time, though, she noticed the faintly glowing glyphs along one of the posts in the railing, then glanced up and saw another along one of the rafters that held up the porch’s roof. Privacy spells, she realized. They didn’t entirely suppress sound coming from the area, but they did mute it considerably. Apparently she’d missed seeing them the first time. No wonder the noises of the kitchen had seemed distant.

Professor Torres was looking out at the lake. She turned when Mirian approached.

“It seems I must take your claims more seriously,” she began, demeanor serious as ever.

Mirian nodded. She wasn’t sure what to say. “Is Professor Jei okay?” she asked.

“I was hoping you could tell me.”

That made Mirian’s heart race. So it wasn’t just that Jei got extra busy or had to clean up after a break-in like Viridian. What had happened? “The students all pass around a rumor, that Professor Jei is working on a secret project. She never has office hours, no one ever saw her outside of class, so it at least made sense that she was busy. I always assumed she just… got busier.”

“Not the case, unfortunately. Do you still have that scroll?”

Good planning, Mirian, she thought to herself. She handed it over.

“The irony,” Torres said, looking it over with a sigh, “is that Song Jei would be the best one to decipher this. It’s probably using a trick of math she knows about.” She placed it on the table. “The last anyone saw of Song was two days ago, just after the exam. When she didn’t show up for the… project, there was considerable consternation. Her apartment wards were intact, but she was not there. Her usual locations turned up nothing. The guards claim no reports or sightings either, though they are investigating.”

“Captain Mandez can’t be trusted, and his subordinates are loyal to him. Well, until he runs off.”

“Yes, you said that before. I was skeptical of that too, but there are a number of suspicious things that might explain. For example, why the only person ever caught in the break-ins to the Academy was on the 1st of Solem. By you, wasn’t it? I surreptitiously inquired as to what was learned from the man’s interrogation. Apparently, they have made no progress in learning anything. There has been no explanation for how he was able to acquire a set of Academy glyphkeys, but the guard I talked to also told me that aside from a lockpicking set, it was the only thing in his bag.”

“I bet he had more wands. One of the spies has a minor disguise wand. Also, they’ve been carrying around seeker-stones, the kind with glyphs that make them easy to track. They put them inside a metal mesh in the bag so they’re not detectable, but I bet they’re slipping them into people’s pockets or bags so they can follow them.”

That made Professor Torres’s eyes go wide. “Then that’s how,” she muttered. “Do you have one of them?”

Mirian grimaced. “I panicked when I found it in the bag I got off a different spy. I didn’t want them to track me, so I threw it into the gardens north of the Myrvite Ecology building.”

“Damn,” Torres said. “They’ve probably picked it up by now.”

“I waited after class to see where Professor Jei went, because I was curious. I know she doesn’t use the front door to leave. And I know there’s a network of passages under Torrviol, and connecting to Bainrose. I also know….” Mirian hesitated. But if she couldn’t trust Torres, who could she trust? She told Torres about falling asleep in Bainrose on the 2nd of Solem, and told her about the staircase, and the colossal door. “But this cycle, that spy never showed up on the night of the 2nd. The place where the door is just… it’s just a wall. I couldn’t get in.”

Her professor’s face grew grim. “Damn. Damn. Five hells. How long have they known? Damn!”

Mirian had never seen her this emotional. “So you’re part of the project too? I might… I might be able to help. This is all connected to the attack. There’s a reason Akana hits Torrviol. Viridian said it had to do with buried secrets.”

“Selkus said that? Strange. He’s not involved at all.” Torres tapped her fingers on the table, clearly agitated. “I’m quite loathe to reveal anything about the project,” she finally said. “All of us are sworn to total secrecy. But you’re right, it must explain the activity. Then why is Medius sitting on his ass? Damn that man.”

Mirian was taken aback. She hadn’t expected Torres’s curses to extend to Archmage Medius Luspire. “What can you tell me?” she asked. When Torres was still silent, she added, “I don’t know how to stop any of this yet. I still don’t know enough.”
Instead of answering her, her professor said, “May I see your progress on the spellrod?”

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Mirian dug the pieces out of her satchel and laid them on the table next to the scroll. Torres took her time examining each one. “And I got combat certified, for the record. Besides, I already know it works. I killed two frost scarabites with it during the evacuation.” Killed maybe was an exaggeration. They had run off, though.

Torres said, “This is good work. You did research.”