Chapter 66 – Interrogation

When the dust had settled, Magistrate Ada approached Mirian. She still looked properly regal in her red coat of office, but the sleepless nights were apparent in her eyes. “The prisoner says he’ll talk to you,” Ada said. She paused, then added, “How did you know?”

Mirian looked past her, to the interrogation room where Idras was sitting, body still hunched. “I’ve seen other possible futures. They don’t end well.”

Already, her knowledge seemed to be otherwise inexplicable enough that Ada merely looked at her, and had no response.

“I’ll see him.” She was nervous with anticipation. How much would Idras tell her? And how much of it would be true? Was he truly shaken by the betrayal of his fellow spy, or was it just an act?

“We’ll be just outside, if you need assistance. Torrviol will appreciate what you learn.”

“My second home,” Mirian said, smiling. She wondered what Ada felt. How much would she trust a stranger with knowledge of the future, if she were in her shoes? Mirian walked into the interrogation room. It was strange. It wasn’t so long ago that she’d been sitting on the other side with Captain Mandez’s cruel eyes staring her down. This time, she was sitting on the other side of the table.

“Hi,” Mirian said, because she didn’t actually know how to interrogate someone.

Idras didn’t look at her, nor at any of the decorations around the room. He just looked at an unremarkable spot on the table. Finally, he started to speak. “You were right about one thing. I am a patriot. God as my witness, I have only ever served and loved Akana Praediar.” Mirian heard the crack in his voice as he swapped to Eskanar and said, “And now here I am, in my colleague’s room.”

Mirian had to think about the Eskanar word for ‘colleague’ to make sure she hadn’t missed a second meaning of it. “So Captain Mandez wasn’t just taking bribes.”

Idras swapped back to Friian as he said, “No. I may as well tell you his real name is Nathanial Hache. I don’t know how he ever managed to pass himself off as south Baracueli.” Idras winced. “He would have given the order for my assassination. I was at his son’s wedding.”

Mirian’s mouth went dry. That was a kind of ruthlessness she couldn’t even comprehend. She let Idras continue.

“It is not how the Republic Intelligence Division is supposed to act. Something has gone wrong. You say this all ends Akana Praediar. How?”

“It has to do with the Divine Monument,” Mirian said.

“Is that what you call it? I’m not privy to the classified information, but I know the name. We call it the Ancient Weapon.”

Mirian thought about what she’d learned from Nicolus about politics. “Powerful enough that Akana doesn’t even trust an ally with one?”

“Of course we don’t trust you with it. You’re already using it on us.”

“What? That can’t be right. No one on the project can figure out how it works. You must know that—with all the break-ins, you must have seen all the reports.”

Idras was still staring at that spot on the table. He ground his jaw a bit, lost in thought then said, “The reports didn’t add up with the information we got from the break-ins. They were… mixed. I assumed that one group of researchers was being deceived by an inner circle that had made a breakthrough.”

Mirian thought. “You know about the underground passages, but did you ever actually get into the room with the monument? Or Torrian Tower?”

“No, of course not. That would have been…” He trailed off. “Her code name is Specter, so that’s what we call her.”

“Adria Gavell. Or at least, her impostor.”

Idras nodded. “Then I was a fool. Never trust a double agent; they’ve already shown they have no reservations about betrayal.”

Double agent. So the Impostor is Baracueli? “You don’t know who the Impostor is?”

“Someone with pull. She outranked Adria, before her death, and Hache was ordered to take directions from her. The reports she gave us… does Archmage Luspire truly not know what the device down there does?”

“No one does. Or at least, they sure didn’t seem to. If Song Jei and High Wizard Ferrandus don’t know, then who would?”

Idras sighed. “I suppose the signs were there. They were desperate enough to put a Zhighuan on the project. Wouldn’t have been needed if it was working. Specter’s played us all for fools, then.”

Mirian bristled at the barb against her mentor. She’d been feeling all that sympathy for the man, and then his casual prejudice came out like bile. Remember that, she chided herself. She suppressed her anger. In the end, those comments didn’t matter. All of it would be erased. She continued. “Has Akana Praediar uncovered their own ‘Ancient Weapon’?”

“Something like that. It was Divine in origin, we know that much. The details are above my station.”

“Who would know?”

“The research was done somewhere near Arborholm, but the researchers must have come from Vadriach University. I can’t even begin to tell you all the layers of secrecy around… all of this. I’m not just talking about the Ancient Weapon. My cell is part of it too. It all fits under the banner of an operation secret enough I don’t even know the name of it. I’m actually not even supposed to know the operation exists, but my superiors aren’t as clever as they think they are. But if we’re starting to kill our own, then something has gone very, very wrong.” He shook his head. “Why? Has fidelity lost its meaning?”

Mirian knew enough of Akana Praediar’s geography to know Arborholm was one of the larger towns, at about the same latitude as Torrviol. Vadriach, of course, was the capital of Akana Praediar. Its university was doing cutting-edge research on magic, and was responsible for the fancy spell engines all the classrooms used to project illusionary diagrams. “So this is all part of… some other project?”

“I wish I could tell you more,” Idras said. He shook his head again. “Timmons was the only face in the second cell I knew. We coordinated. I don’t know the others. I can also tell you we’re not following the standard operating procedure, so I don’t know how many you’ll have to hunt down.” He paused, eyes still fixed on that point on the table, like if he stared long enough, it would tell him something important. Then he finally looked up at Mirian. “How does it happen? How does Akana Praediar fall?”

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“You do something with the Divine Monument. Blow it up, try to activate it, I don’t know, the Akanan army obviously doesn’t let me watch—and then the leylines start bursting out of the ground. Everyone dies.” There was no need to tell him about the moon falling. She needed Idras to believe his actions would stop what was coming.