Industry & Intrigue (5 page)

“
I wasn’t close enough to hear
anything,
”
replied Zuri. “I only noticed Kyle talking to him during one of the
lunch hours last week. I didn’t think much of it at the
time.”

“
Can you describe him?”
asked Brenna.

“
Of course
,” said Zuri and described the
man’s facial features to the watch officer. As she was doing so,
there was a commotion in the hallway outside

“
Get out of my way this instant
Rai.” Zuri recognized the voice of the Warded Spirals Archmage,
William Feyton. The door burst open and there he stood, dark blue
robes covering his tall and gaunt body. His grey eyes flashed with
anger.

“
Officers, you should have
informed me you were questioning one of my mastermages. It’s
essential that in a matter of this nature I am present!” he said,
his voice close to shouting.

“
Calm down A
rchmage,” said Brenna, “we’re
only asking routine questions. I have this Snar.” Zuri looked up
her comment and could see that the agorid had moved forward several
steps and was close enough to Feyton to grab hold of him if need
be. The agorid nodded and stepped back against the wall.

Feyton had also noted this and
while his voice dropped in volume it lost none of its arrogant
tone.
“Keep
a better leash on your pet sergeant. If that beast had so much as
touched me, it would have lost a hand,” he said.

“
Officer Snar was merely ready
to react, that’s all,” said Brenna
, “besides I think we’re done here
anyway.” She turned to Zuri. “Thank you for your time Ms. Abeliah,
you’ve been very helpful.”

“
Of course
sergeant
,”
Zuri replied. “Please let me know if there’s anything else I can
help you with.” She walked out behind the archmage and followed him
back to her class.

Feyton attempted to comfort
her.
“I’m
sorry Zuri, I know how you close you were with the boy. It’s a
tragedy, I want to be careful about this. I don’t want them to blow
it into a scandal.”

Typical
she thought,
he’s more concerned
about the Center’s reputation. But one doesn’t get to be archmage
without being pragmatic.

“
Yes sir. It was only routine
questions,” she replied. “I’m certain they’ll be discrete, it is
Imperial Branch after all.”

Feyton
nodded
,
“Yes, they’ll be answering to the Dunn family on this. No, it’s not
them that concern me, it’s the Justice Branch. That lot behaves as
if the city’s their own personal battlefield.”

“
Most likely Imperial
Branch called them in to consult. I should get back to my class,”
she said.

“
I would understand if you
need
ed time
off,” said Feyton, “and I’m happy to get Haig to take over while
you grieve.”

She didn’t want to do
that.
“No
sir, I’d prefer get back to my students,” she replied.

“
Always the teacher,” said
Feyton and smiled, “well if you need to talk, my door is always
open. I’m always available for all of the mages here, master or
student.”

“
Yes sir, thank you,” and she
went back into her class. She had no intention of moving past this
yet though. Kyle wouldn’t kill himself without a reason and she
intended to find out what it was.

***

“
So what did you think Snar?”
asked Brenna after leaving W
arded Spirals and the Imperial Branch
investigators.

“
About which aspect
ma’am?” he responded.

“
I would much prefer
you call me
sergeant,” said Brenna. “The way you say ma’am, it’s as if you’re
my butler or something. Any aspect or thoughts on the
case.”

“
As you wish sergeant,” said
Snar. “It appears to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play, no
forced entry, no trace of magic and he appears to have died of
tarcaine. Though the medical examiner will confirm
that.”

“
No need for that,” said Brenna,
“I’ve seen enough of overdoses to recognize the signs. The red
spots surrounding the iris on both eyes are a clear sign. Anything
else?” She wanted to see how Snar’s investigative skills
worked.

“
The sky
lord teacher, Zuri Abeliah, she is
far more upset than she let on.”

“
And how could you tell
that?” asked Brenna.

He explained
his reasoning, “Her
general body language, her left hand was clawed up the whole time
and her wings.”

That sounded odd to
Brenna,
“Her
wings?”

“
Yes sergeant
,” he replied. “When skylords
get emotionally distressed the top row of their feathers tend to
tremble, it’s only slight and barely noticeable unless you are
looking for it.”

Brenna was impressed, Snar definitely
went against all the preconceptions she had of agorids.

“
I see,” she said. “Regardless,
how upset his teacher is over his death won’t help Imperial Branch
or us. We do have one task which would wrap it all up.”

Snar asked “The dealer?”

She nodded. “Yes.
T
hat
description she gave us sounded familiar, we need to get back to
the station to confirm my suspicions and if I’m right then we’ll
track down this dealer.”

***

There was no way Zuri would be
able to get near Kyle’s room
right now. The watch officers had finished in
there but campus security still had it locked down. This meant she
had to resort to a more indirect method. She gathered all the
supplies she needed from the potion and herb storage when she was
getting materials for her class with no one the wiser.

Astral projection
wasn’t her area of
expertise but she was well-versed enough that she should be able to
get a glimpse into Kyle’s room. There were rules against astral
projection spells being used on the Center grounds of course, but
the students were the ones who were monitored not the teachers.
Besides she had good cause to do this.

She laid out all the materials
arou
nd her
in the correct order, then swilled the green potion she had mixed.
She sat cross legged and closed her eyes and spoke the word to the
spell, “
Asarari
.”

The potion began to take effect
immediately and she felt her head spinning. Once the feeling had
stopped the blackness slowly began to fade until she could see her
room again. But now it was through the spectral eyes of her
invisible mental projection. Next came the hard part, she
concentrated and with willpower moved herself forward, It was slow
but she soon became accustomed to it. She practiced moving for
several minutes then decided to get down to her purpose.

She focused on Kyle’s room as
strongly as she could, pictured it in her head. In astral
projection one could travel instantaneously to a place as long you
had a clear picture of it in your mind. Fo
r a split second her vision blinked
black, then she was in Kyle’s room.

His body was no longer
here of course, but
everything else had been left untouched, except for the package of
tarcaine the watch had found in his drawer. She searched long and
hard as much as she could but she couldn’t see anything out of the
ordinary.

Then she remembered something. When he had
been younger Kyle had kept a diary, she did not know if he still
did, but it was all she could think of. She had only seen the
outside cover of it once but could still picture it well enough. As
she did so, she was suddenly drawn to the small book shelf against
the wall.

Her astral projection could see
a glowing
light, which indicated the object she was thinking about.
It was coming from one book but it didn’t look like the diary. Then
she realized, he must have hidden it inside the much larger book.
She would have to get inside that room somehow.

Chapter 4

Cassandra sighed,
she was stuck on
another question. This latest round of tutorial work was difficult.
She glanced up briefly and saw many of the other students
struggling with the questions while Professor Xerin wandered around
the room giving small tips without giving away the answers.
Cassandra was resolved to finish this one on her own, which she
would be able to do thanks to her new study friend. She looked over
to see Reese, who was focused on the questions but more with
determination than stress.

He had finally decided to approach her
last week during the afternoon taxonomy class. The professor had
them go out to the university gardens with folders of birds that
they were likely to spot and had them pair off and wander around,
noting down the different avian species they spotted.

Reese
happened to pair off with her and
they had walked around in the hot afternoon sun admiring the exotic
flowers while trying to spot birds. After walking for quarter of an
hour they had progressed through half of the gardens and were near
the small stream that ran down the middle.

“
Cassandra
,” Reese said, slightly
nervously.

She had loo
ked up from jotting down a
blue-back starling and said, “Yes?”

“
I was wondering if after
class today you wanted to go down town and get dinner?” he
asked.

Cassandra had seen it coming
and already had a response
, “Sorry Reese, but that’s not a good idea.” She
winced upon seeing the dejected look on his face. “It’s not that I
don’t like you but I’m not interested in dating.” She hoped he
would take that as enough of a response.

He had nodded while appearing to think to
himself for a few seconds and said “I see, well…” and he didn’t
seem to know what else to say.

“
Look” s
aid Cassandra “it’s…”

Reese
nodded, he looked eager to at least
hear the reason for her rejection. “I’m interested in women, not
men” she said.

She’
d been told how beautiful she was
many times and had grown practiced at politely turning men away,
but the first few weeks at university she had been approached far
too many times. Male students excited at the prospect of the number
of stories they had been told of campus life no doubt.

T
here over and done with
she thought.
Better that it’s
out.

Reese said
, “Ah, ok,” he paused as if
unsure what to say to her answer. “Well, fair enough. In that case,
sorry to put you on the spot like that. It can’t be easy with all
the intolerant people out there.”

“
Thank you,” she replied, “I
wouldn’t mind getting dinner as friends if you’re fine with that.
Plus I’d love a chance to pick your brain. You know a lot about
primeval zoology.”

Reese
then smiled, “That sounds fine.
There’s a Yarali restaurant that I’ve wanted to try on Bridge
Road,” then he had suddenly pointed. “Oh wow. Look at that, it’s a
V-Tail, do you know how rare they are? Note it down!”

S
he looked up in time to watch it fly off
before making a note in her book.

“
I doubt
the other groups will have that
ticked off,” said Reese and he grinned. They had a pleasant dinner,
talking about their studies and come to realize they had a lot in
common. Cassandra had talked about the trouble she’d gone through
when telling her family and friends about her sexuality, her father
hadn’t been bothered by it much, simply shrugged and said “Whatever
makes you happy.”

H
er mother was tougher to deal with, she
thought her eldest daughter was ‘going through a phase’ and her
time at university would see her right. Cassandra hoped that her
mother would be accustomed enough to finally accept it by the time
she graduated.

While Alkos was far more liberal than most
parts of the world, there was still intolerance and bigotry from
certain sections of the population when it came to same-sex
relationships, though Reese had not treated her differently, which
she was grateful for.

She was always thankful to live
in a nation like Alkos where she could at least be safely open
about who she was
, even if she wasn’t fully accepted by everyone. If she had
been born and lived in conservative Galria or Tal Feros, she would
be avoided like the plague or actively despised by her own family;
to say nothing of the Kordate Union which had state-run
‘re-education centers’ for anyone caught breaking its draconian
moral decency laws.

Since then they had studied together
several times, with Reese’s intelligence impressing her
immeasurably. She learned that he was majoring in history as well
as zoology, which made sense given his interest in ancient
life-forms. He certainly was taking on a big workload with two
majors.

Looking over at him
again
she
could see he had finished the tutorial problems and was waiting for
the drakon professor to tell the class to stop.