Completed The Cost of Closure

[Zinnia]

Days had passed since the news had dropped. Caeso, the once proud noble heir of House Diemut, mutilated and strung up dead for all Vel Anir to see. "The elves did it!" That's what so many had said. That he'd been captured and tortured by those given shelter within the elven quarter as some sort of message. That the "savage knife-ears," those "wretched outsiders" had done this all as...what? Protest?

Even to Zinnia, a mere child, the inconsistencies were abundantly clear. The elven refugees would only bring greater suffering upon themselves if they truly committed such an act. But that realization only left more questions. If not them, then who? How could they have captured Caeso within the safety of the Academy? And why him?

All of that, irrelevant. Zinnia sat on her bed, curled into a ball with Seri in her lap, as she had for the last several days. She hadn't felt like eating or exercising or talking to anyone. Kristen and Silas had made their worry abundantly clear, and while she appreciated their checking in on her it did little to encourage her exodus from this space. She was simply too upset to do anything else.

Perhaps the worst part was that she didn't even know why this all had affected her so deeply. Caeso was, frankly, a jerk. One who clearly had little to no respect for Zinnia, given some of their interactions. And yet...Zinnia had still come to see him as the truly noble soul that he was, in spite of all his flaws and misgivings. Pernach, Cerak, Vel Yuna, and even right here at the Academy...countless close scrapes they'd endured together as allies. As friends. As family.

That was truly the tall and short of it. Someone had robbed Zinnia of a brother, of her chance to reconcile with him, and they'd done so in a horrid, gruesome way. Zinnia glared daggers into her wall, her eyes red as angry tears rolled down her face. Those responsible--those truly responsible--surely had to pay.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

"Bad news," Soleil said to Komuni, her chameleon. The lizard was sitting on the window sill of her dorm, having freshly returned from crawling about the Academy to hunt bugs. Good hunter. Soleil felt some approximation of pride for him.

"Plan? Didn't work."

Her master plan involving the death of Caeso Diemut. It had not been enough merely to claim revenge upon him for all his slights against her, no. She had wanted to use his body to incite the destruction of the Elven Quarter. The crowd was huge! Angry! Full of Anirians! But the Republic's handling of the civil unrest was far better than she expected. Even those Councilors and Nobles who were in support of the Elven Quarter's dismantling had their efforts come to nothing. The general anger gripping the city was left to peter out, and day after day the fire of rage dwindled down to smoldering embers. Even Sabian Diemut (and secretly, Quinctus Diemut as well) departed from Vel Anir and made for Annuakat, as was his own plan. It was all Soleil could do to make her final bribe with Captain Murrick, the shady drunkard Guard Captain who was her alibi during Caeso's capture and murder, and return to the Academy from her "mission" without any further blood on her hands.

"Good first try though!" she said to Komuni, who with one of his independent eyes looked at her.

Cleverness was good, but sometimes it wasn't perfect. Things need to be learned. Experimented with. And Soleil had learned much here. Importantly: who stood against the destruction of the Elven Quarter and who did not. This was very good to know. Not only for the purpose of war, of opening up free rein for killing in the Quarter and renewing hostilities with the Elven Kingdoms of the Falwood, but for Gilram, and more specifically, Erodin. First it was Gilram who had promised her war, and then it was Erodin. Erodin made her the better offer. And she knew that those personages who opposed the dismantling of the Quarter would be the fiercest opponents to Erodin's designs. Now, one by one, they could be removed. Just like she had done with Caeso.

"Academy? Made promise to me. Republic? Wants to break promise." Soleil trilled her tongue. Then to Komuni she said, "Don't worry. Found better promise. Us? What we want? We'll get."

Komuni went crawling over one of her folded arms and over to the opposite side of the sill, using then his little mitt-like hands to climb down and toward Soleil's bed.

"Stay here," Soleil said. "Free period almost over."

With that, Soleil departed from her dorm room. Walked down the hall of the dormitory. Ahead, another door opened.

And out stepped Zinnia in front of Soleil. She had to stop briefly for the other Initiate's arrival in the hall.

"Hi!" Soleil said, making that popping sound with her lips after.

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

Zinnia stiffened visibly, the surprise of being greeted fairly obvious by her stilted initial reaction. Getting greeted by her fellow initiates was something she was still getting used to after her self-imposed exile, even after several months. If she hadn't been so tired from crying then perhaps she'd have reacted with even more shock, but she couldn't muster the energy.

She turned towards Soleil, circles beneath her eyes.
"Oh...h-hi, Soleil..." she replied with a weak smile. More antics to ensue shortly, assuredly, if their past ventures had been anything to go by. "Wh-what's up?"

 

[Soleil Verdane]

"Nothing," Soleil said, smiling, looking as aloof as she so often did. Yet inside, her mind was unsheathing its daggers. Because she was observant. She knew what other Initiates said about Zinnia, about how she craved Caeso. Soleil had not herself seen direct evidence, but loose tongues, especially when it was thought that no one was overhearing, were more often right than wrong.

Zinnia liking Caeso, then? High probability. So this presented to Soleil the prime opportunity to do one of the things she loved best: dangling a secret, something she knew that others did not, right under someone's nose. Flaunting her knowledge through duplicity, double-meaning, and selective substitution. Nothing stroked her ego more.

She dropped her smile.

"No. Not nothing. Sad."

Soleil put on frown. Looked down. Said, "Elves kill Caeso. Elves get away with it."

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

Briefly, Zinnia had hoped that the conversation would end at "nothing." Soleil was trouble. She always had been. Zinnia was ready to walk away at that, but then Soleil expressed something Zinnia didn't know she was capable of: sadness. But was it performative?

"I've...also been p-pretty torn up about the whole th-thing..."

Elves get away with it.

There it was. Not remorse for the dead. Disappointed at the lack of retribution, perhaps. Not that Zinnia could blame that notion. She wanted to see the culprit torn apart by dogs.
"I...r-really don't think the elves d-did it, Soleil. And I'd rather the r-real murderer see j-justice, than more c-cruelty come to the innocent."

 

[Soleil Verdane]

"Elves? Always been enemy."

The daggers in her mind.

"Me?"

Twisting.

"Care more about Caeso."

Turning.

"Than you."

Deep in the wound.

And she smiled. Trilled her tongue.

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

Creeping, crawling sensations rippled across Zinnia's skin, threatening to overtake her face if she let them. Heat burned in her cheeks and that uncomfortable tightness summoned itself on her scalp. Half of this was from anger at the very audacity of saying such a thing in the wake of someone's death. The other half was from the wrongness of that statement. Every instinct in Zinnia's mind spoke to something more lying just beneath the surface.

Uncanny valley.

Zinnia reeled against the feelings coursing through her as she lowered her head, hiding her eyes beneath hair and hood. Her fists balled, and her tone was low and steady. She had to know. She had to.
"Why the hell would you say that?"

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil tilted her head slightly. Noticing. And also, aside from noticing, delaying any answer Zinnia sought was also delightful to her.

"Where stutter?"






Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

Zinnia kept her head down. Her knuckles whitened.
"Answer me!" she shouted, the words echoing into the Academy's halls.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil made a clicking sound with her tongue against her teeth. Yet another of her tics; tics which usually manifested with increased frequency when she started to become excited.

"Craved him. Wanted him," she said. And it was only true in the most basic, carnal sense. A sense which she still would have been eager to satisfy before she killed him.

"Caeso? At Dance? Come with girl. Noble girl. Alice. Much talk of this! Me? Jealous. But! You? Hear what happen?"

Soleil made that popping sound with her lips again.

"Alice killed herself. Me? Glad. Goodbye, girl! Caeso still dead. But happy Alice dead too. See? I care."

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

"Craved" him. Of course. The only context Soleil could ever put to a boy, just lust. Maybe there was some kind of karmic justice in that; she wanted the touch of a man, but she was made of the most unpleasant material in nature. Gods, Leander would be perfect for her...they were both equally terrible.

But...wait...

Alice...killed herself?

"You're sick."

Zinnia turned. She needed to get away from this girl before she did something she'd regret.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

"You? Don't care," Soleil said as Zinnia turned, smiling that self-same smile as always once more. "You were there. At Dance. Not even jealous. Boys? How many you dance with?"








Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

Zinnia began to walk away, even as Soleil continued taunting her. That wrongness again began to creep through her body, and a chill shot through her when it clicked. She stopped, not looking back at the walking sand sculpture behind her.
"...Yeah, I was there. But you weren't. How would you know any of that?"

 

[Soleil Verdane]

"Like Alice. Much talk. Many mouths speak," Soleil lied. Truths covered for lies, and lies covered for truths. One of the many axioms by which her clever mind operated.

"Problem? Different numbers!"

She laughed in that lilting fashion of hers.

"Caeso? See you dance? Maybe think: goodbye, girl!"


Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

She was lying. Zinnia was certain of it. Those jeering laughs could mean nothing else. Whatever. It didn't matter. Zinnia wasn't going to fall for this goading any longer.
"Just shut up!" she spat, taking a few steps further before stopping again.
"If I ever find anyone who was involved with Caeso's death," she looked over her shoulder at Soleil, her iris burning gold, her pupil a furious razor. "I'll kill them myself."

With that, she walked off. She'd nothing more to say to Soleil.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil stood in the hallway. Just watching Zinnia go. Watched and smiled that airy smile as she did. And when at last Zinnia disappeared around the far corner's bend, Soleil trilled her tongue.

I'll kill them myself, Zinnia had said.

Now this was something which could be leveraged for Soleil's advantage. With just the right set up, and just the right push...maybe it could look like Zinnia attacked her. And then? Soleil would have every right to act in "self-defense." She would even be praised for it.

Yes, Soleil found it so very hard to resist a free kill.

For now though, class. Boring class. Soleil walked down the dormitory hall and left.

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

Some time later...
​

If someone was actually going to do something about Caeso's murder, it had to be someone willing to push past all the bureaucratic red tape. That's how Zinnia had begun to see it, anyways. For some reason the official investigation was dragging, and she didn't understand why. In a city full of powerful Dreadlords and nobles wielding influence beyond her imagination, no one was doing anything productive to get to the bottom of the case. Maybe that was a sign of conspiracy, or maybe the powers that be just didn't care.

Whatever the case was, Zinnia knew of someone who cared enough to act, someone with the ability to slip unnoticed into places she shouldn't be: herself. Soleil had been the last straw of motivation she'd needed.

So it was that Zinnia had begun to make frequent trips to nearby sources of authority outside the Academy, as often as her schooling would allow. She hung around and sometimes even in guardhouses and barracks when she felt able to sneak by, eavesdropping on every mundane conversation she could. Someone, somewhere, had to have a lead. Somebody had to know something.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Patience and persistence proved rewarding. In a guardhouse in Vel Anir city, this conversation between two Guardsmen was available to be overheard:

"...trying to join them?"

"Yeah."

"I told you you were a lifer."

"Alright, fine, you were right, I was wrong. Gimme a good punch in shoulder over it, why don't ya? Hey! I didn't mean that literally, damn."

"Ah, ha! Just remember that when you question me again; my instincts are keen, I tell ya."

"You weren't even sure the Vigilite existed."

"...okay, fair point. Punch my shoulder, then."

The hard whap of a punch followed. "Kress, you got a right hand on you."

A little self-satisfied laugh preceded a much more sober statement, "I was there, you know."

"There where?"

The second man lowered his voice some. "When that Crentor lady killed herself."

"Oh...fuck. I used to work for them, you know. The Crentors."

"No shit?"

"Yeah. Back before everything started going to Pandemonium. I was one of the early ones to notice that ship was sinking. I left and, man, was I ever glad I did. So what's this about Alice Crentor?"

"Some of the Vigilite really, really think it was her. Her. That she was deeply involved with the young Diemut's death."

"Alice? How so? She was always a shy and timid little girl, and I can only imagine that's gotten worse as the years went on."

"Apparently she was the last person to be seen with the Diemut son before he was murdered. Plenty of witnesses attested to that."

"Well, that's not good, but it's not damning."

The second man ceded that with a conciliatory tone. "No, it's not. But I was in the room for the last interrogation. She was very uncooperative. Now, I know she was, what, all of sixteen or seventeen years old or something. Sure. But you'd think if she didn't have anything to hide, that if she really wanted to help us, then she would've done that, right? The Lady damn near pissed herself she was shaking so bad, and some of those Vigilites thought it was because she knew she was caught and, frankly, I'm inclined to agree. Why else would she kill herself?"

One could almost hear the colossal shrug from the first man. "I don't know. Maybe because she really was scared out of her mind, thinking she'd be accused of something she didn't do. She's had it rough, and sure I left the Crentors' service, yeah, but I can't help but feel bad for her. Look, for what I knew of Alice, it just doesn't strike me that she'd go cavorting with a bunch of insurrectionist elves or anything like that." A pause. "What'd she say in the last interrogation? Before she...you know."

"The Vigilites were hammering her with questions. And all she kept saying was, 'I didn't see! I couldn't see!' Over and over again with that. 'I didn't see! I couldn't see!' This went on for a while until she pulled out a knife—some fucking idiot was too gentlemanly to put his hands on her to check for that—and drove it through her heart."

The second man blew out a hard sigh. "What a way to go."

* * * * *​

Didn't see.

Couldn't see.

Proctor D'Amour, as it so happened, would know of another curious incident that happened the night of the Dance. The death of one Joel Schmidt...

...whose magic was sensory deprivation.

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

The guards hadn't known about it, but their building maintenance was lacking. A hole in the roof had formed and then been covered over by the nesting of birds. It was fairly simple to slip in from there. From her perch in the rafters, Zinnia listened. The gears began to turn in her mind as the two guards let loose lips meander.

So the Vigilites were involved already, and they'd sought to pin the blame on poor Alice. That would certainly explain why the investigations of the state hadn't gone anywhere; those in charge wanted this over with as fast as they could, it seemed, and so elves and the Crentors would take the fall. And a fall this certainly was. The conversation's conclusion made that obvious enough.

"I didn't see! I couldn't see!"

Magic, certainly. It had to be. A group of elven peasants and a magicless noble girl did not abduct Caeso from the Academy. Foul play was at work here. Zinnia was already being vindicated, and she would bring Caeso that same vindication. She just had to ask the right people the right questions...

---

Back at the Academy...
​

"Th-thank you so much for agreeing to s-see me, Proctor D'Amour," Zinnia said as she sat down in one of Evangeline's office chairs. She'd not been here since the night of Everleigh Ebersol's notorious round of nearly deadly midnight games. Unfortunate that Zinnia couldn't ever seem to wind up in this office for anything less troubling. "I just...r-really needed to t-talk to someone about this."

 

[Evangeline]

Evangeline placed a cup of hot tea and a small container of honey, as well as an assortment of spoons down next to her initiate, the ever anxious St. Kolbe child. Lord Tobias had been kind enough to gift her a tea set for the recent anniversary of her tenure as a proctor, and she'd been happy to make full use of it. She sat across from Zinnia, a cup in her own hand wafting steam into the air.

"Of course, Zinnia. Loss and death are never easy things to deal with...even for people like us. Is there something specific that's been bothering you?"

 

[Zinnia]

Zinnia breathed. She had to tread lightly here, but...well, if anyone was going to suss out that Zinnia was up to something, it would be Proctor D'Amour. That said, D'Amour was also the most likely to help her. Perhaps it was best to be somewhat up front.

"I...I want j-justice for Caeso, and I d-don't think he's going to g-get it as things are."

There it was. She laid it out. Evangeline took a long sip of her tea.

"That's a fairly natural reaction, Zinnia. You know I'm sure that the Guard are working tirelessly to catch--"

"They're not! And th-the elves aren't resp-ponsible!"

The proctor's eyes narrowed. Uh oh.

 

[Evangeline]

"Zinnia...how would you know that?"

The determination behind the girl's voice betrayed that this was more than pure conjecture for her. She'd been getting her hands into something she likely shouldn't. That bred cause for concern. Zinnia fidgeted under her gaze. Guilt, perhaps?

"I've b-been...d-doing some, um...d-digging..." the girl squirmed. Evangeline sighed. To a degree, this would eventually be her job, pursuing truth, justice, and safety for the people as an arm of the Anirian Guard. On the other hand, she was still a student. One with a history of investigative prowess, but a student nonetheless.

"You should really leave that to people like the Vigilites, Zinnia. There's no telling what might happen if you interfere with their investigation."

"Their inv-vestigation is over! It ended wh-when Alice Crentor k-killed herself!"

Another long, pregnant pause passed. Evangeline calmly set down her tea.

"...What did you just say?"

 

[Zinnia]

...Oh. Proctor D'Amour didn't know. But...but then how did Soleil? A pit began to form in her gut. Sheepishly, Zinnia confessed--at least partly.

"I...heard a r-rumor about it...so I went l-looking to see if it was t-true...and it was. I overheard s-some guardsmen. They said that Alice t-took her own life while under V-Vigilite custody. That she st-stabbed herself while c-claiming her innocence..."

Zinnia leaned forward, placing her hands on the table.

"Proctor...Miss D'Amour! The elves d-didn't do this! S-someone who could magically b-black out senses did!"

 

[Evangeline]

Evangeline lifted a hand to her mouth in thought and began to chew on her knuckle. Zinnia had done quite a lot of digging, it seemed. That last bit of conjecture set off some alarms in Eva's mind, though. Magical black out?
"Sensory deprivation..."

The proctor stood and opened a nearby file cabinet, flipping through the folders until she reached "S." Schmidt.
"Joel Schmidt. Deceased. Cause of death: asphyxiation. Found dead on the night of the so-called 'Dance for All We've Been Through,'" Evangeline flipped a few pages backwards. "Magical affinity: sensory...deprivation..."

She trailed off. Zinnia was on to something. Even on that night, when she and Salak had found Joel's corpse, something had felt off. There was something the Vigilites had not picked up on, that she had not picked up on, that her very own student had. Incredible.

"Miss D'Amour...an-nother initiate was f-found dead that night? One with b-blackout magic?"

"Yes, but...timestamps place his death before Caeso's disappearance, if I recall correctly. I don't believe Joel was involved, not with the plot itself, per se."

 

[Zinnia]

Zinnia's mind was racing. This was an outright conspiracy, surely! And...and maybe they were on the cusp of solving it! Or at least having a solid lead, or a prime suspect!

"Are there any st-tudents or faculty that have the ability t-to steal magic? Or c-copy it?"

She watched as her teacher considered the question. Again she began to rifle through her folders, searching for some pertinent pearl of information. Minutes passed, each one feeling like an eternity.

"Faculty, no. As for students...magical duplication and theft are, thankfully, fairly rare. There is a child in attendance that has the ability to replicate magic she sees, but she is only seven years old...hardly a worthy suspect."

Damn...then...maybe former attendants?
"Is there anyone in r-recent memory that c-could, that you can th-think of?"

"Hmm...well, there was Initiate Rafael Maier, but he died tragically on a mission a year or two back. And, speaking of, there was..." again she trailed off. What? Whom?