Chapter 48 – Something Different

There was no hiding what just happened. Mirian had already attracted a few strange looks when she’d started casting in the alley. Then there was the loud crack of the body hitting the paving stones, and then the contents of the spy’s satchel had spilled out across the pavement into the street. Now Mirian was standing next to a very obviously dead body, with a crowd of students staring at her, gaping.

Mirian thought fast. She needed to act surprised. That was easy, she was surprised. “Holy shit!” she said. Brilliant, she thought.

“I was… I was just trying to… I was trying to….” she stammered, and she was only half-faking it. Her brain was racing with what do I say, I can’t fuck up the cycle this fast! She could kill herself; it was an option. But if the cycle only truly reset when the Divir moon fell—she couldn’t do that to Lily. She needed an excuse that made sense.

By now, the guard from the plaza had run over. “Move aside,” he commanded, pushing a first year who was too slow to react out of the way.

“My friend—uh, my friend said they put my bag on the roof, as a prank, and so I was getting it with lift object but the—and it just fell! I swear it wasn’t me!” Mirian blurted out. It wasn’t a great lie, but it was plausible. Was it plausible?

The guard wasn’t even looking at Mirian though. He was better at hiding his shock then the students gathered around, but his gaze was fixed on the dead spy, and his eyes were wide. He knows him.

Then, to Mirian’s surprise, Professor Seneca joined the crowd. “Bertrus, what’s going—oh my,” she said, noticing the body. But before that, she’d been talking to the guard. Wait, how does Professor Seneca know the plaza guard?

The crowd around the alley was growing. Mirian could hear that more guards had shown up near the back and were trying to get a clear path through it. Mirian felt the panic rising. Just a moment ago, she’d been thinking that logically there weren’t any consequences to the break-in, and then she’d gone and felt the worst pain of her life. That memory would live forever in her now. Worse could happen to her now if she didn’t get this right.

“Professor! Someone put my bag on the roof because—well, anyways, it was on the roof. And when I pulled it down with a spell, there was… he just came down! I didn’t—you have to believe me!” She had to get Seneca to believe her. If it was just up to the guards, they’d cover it up like they did when that other spy was captured.

Professor Senca said, “It’s okay Mirian. I’m sure the investigation will—wait. Bertrus, those are Academy glyph keys. Why did this man have Academy keys?” Sure enough, when the satchel had disgorged its contents, it had scattered the three keys too.

“I… I don’t know, Sefora. But I’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“Like the other investigations?”

That’s right, Mirian remembered. There’d been loads of break-ins. Every professor probably knew about them, and knew they weren’t getting properly investigated. She needed to leverage that this cycle.

But as she was contemplating what she needed to do next, Mirian realized she wasn’t the focus she thought she was. The guard—Bertrus, apparently—and Seneca were staring at each other. Then Seneca picked up the scroll that was next to the glyph keys and also unrolled it. She blinked, no doubt recognizing the Eskanar script.

“This might explain… quite a bit,” Seneca said, handing it to him. “If you need someone to assist on the cryptography, I know someone who can help.”

The Akanans probably know too, Mirian thought. I have to make sure Professor Jei is protected this cycle. Somehow, she’d stumbled on a new path she’d never considered. Perhaps she’d spent too much time looking for magical solutions to problems better solved by people.

Surreptitiously, Mirian inched away from the body and closer toward the crowd.

“Alright everyone, move back. Move back!” Bertrus called. By now, three other guards had arrived to the front, and were none-too-gently urging students along. “You all have classes to get to. Move along! Not you,” he said to a group near the front, and he grabbed onto Myrian’s cloak. “I need witness statements. You all saw it?”

To Mirian’s surprise, Seneca stayed there, even though the belltower was chiming on the hour. “Tell the class I’ll be delayed,” she told one of the students as they headed inside.

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With four guards and four students, they all gave their statements simultaneously, repeating what they’d seen in a big jumble. From what Mirian could hear, they’d all seen her channeling a spell, then the body falling, but not much else. One thought they’d heard a yelp before he fell. Three didn’t. Then Mirian repeated her own story to him, heart still racing, but projecting some semblance of calm.

“I’ll need to take you to the guard post,” he said when Mirian had finished, almost apologetically.

It was Professor Seneca who said, “No you don’t.”

“Pardon?” the guard said, and his companions didn’t seem to know how to react either.