The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere 078: Justice and Kindness (

Inner Sanctum First Floor | 12:13 AM | Third Day When you thought about it, it did all fit together. This wasn't even the first ti the possibility had co up. Hamilcar had been missing from the group for the entire night - other than Samium, who was by all accounts bedridden, he was the only person to whom that applied. And the system had consistently recorded him as being underground. That made him the perfect candidate to have killed Durvasa, to have been the one to frighten us in the hallway, to have sent the ssages from the administrative core, and to have suppressed the power and facilitated Sacnicte's death. The only thing he couldn't be responsible for was performing the other three murders directly. He was also arguably the highest ranking person in the entire order. If anyone other than my grandfather could have sohow interfered with the design of the system years ago... If anyone could have set all of this up in advance, then he felt like the best candidate. ...yet, sothing about this still felt odd, even if I couldn't put my finger on it. Linos, who seed surprisingly willing to accept the situation now that it was all coming out, spoke to Lilith calmly. "Why are you confessing all this now, miss Eshkalon?" "Because it is not of any consequence whether you understand this much or not," she said. "You were able to comprehend my role, so there is no point in denial. But it does not matter whether you know the truth or not. Events have been preordained. Nothing can be changed." I gulped softly. Even if such an absolute assertion made no logical sense, it was hard not to be unsettled by the confidence with which she spoke the words. "The way she's talking makes it seem like half of the shit she's saying is from a script," Ran said. "I've seen it before-- This kind of dissociative acting." Seth looked towards her. "You think she's been indoctrinated?" "It... Is starting to look that way," Linos said, holding a hand to his mouth with a furtive expression. "Or at least, I can't think of any other explanation for what's happened." "L-Linos, you of all people should know that there's no way that Hamilcar would be party to sothing like this," Zeno said, putting a hand on her hip as she turned away from Lilith to face him, an unhappy expression crossing her features. "We've had our disagreents, to be sure, but I've known the man for two centuries now, and we've discussed both our work and all the damn philosophy of it more tis than I could count. Even if he has his conservative side, he's a true believer in this cause more so than even Neferuaten was." She narrowed her eyes. "And you know his background. He'd be the last person to couch a betrayal in all this theocratic bullshit." Linos, however, didn't look convinced. He clasped his hands together, looking down with a painfully contemplative expression. "Lilith," Kamrusepa said, keeping her voice calm and even. "Had you and your uncle planned all of this in advance? Since prior to this weekend?" "We did not," she said, with another strange pause, "plan anything. As I said, we are only instrunts of Her will." "But you must have discussed it with him," she said patiently. "otherwise you wouldn't have followed his orders." Her eyes seed to beco more distant for a mont, but then she replied as 'normal'. "Yes, we spoke about what was to take place on many occasions." "How many?" she asked, leaning forward subtly from her spot against one of the control panels. "I'm uncertain," she said. "We've discussed Her will whenever mother wasn't present since I first started eting with him several years ago, and how we may be of service in enacting it, though at first we did not speak in specific terms." She stopped at what seed like the first organic mont in the conversation, seemingly thinking. "I think the first ti we discussed the ritual that was to take place here was two years ago, just before I entered the Exemplary Acolytes Class, when he described this installation and its properties to , and that a day would co when we both be made use of." "Gods fucking above," Seth said, holding a hand to his mouth with his eyes wide. Fang was wearing a frustrated expression. They'd looked away from Lilith and turned back in the direction of the main hall, pushing a hand through their hair. "What do you an, 'ritual'?" I asked, that word sticking in my mind for so reason. "The ritual that will glorify Her and cleanse Her essence of the contamination that afflicts Her. The poison which seeps from the great dagger built below." Her eyes turned sharply downward for a mont, then snapped back up. "It is already almost complete. Everything will be wiped clean, restored to its true state." I frowned to myself. Back before Bardiya's death, we'd briefly discussed the strange difference in framing between the two ssages we'd received about the cri - the one smuggled in with Kamrusepa's presentation, and the one which ca, as we now knew, from the administrative core of the sanctuary itself. The latter had focused on the 'gods' and frad everything as a sort of divine judgent against the order's impertinence, while the forr had seed to anthropomorphize death itself, with what felt like a subtly more personal framing of the wrongdoing. It had also, strangely, used female pronouns. So while whoever had sent - or pre-recorded - the ssages had used the second... Lilith seed to be using the first. If this was the truth, was the explanation just that she'd been the one to replace Kamrusepa's logic engine, and that her and Hamilcar had been on different pages from the start? "And when was the last ti you spoke about it?" Kamrusepa asked. "We spoke about the specifics of the role I would play twice yesterday. How I should behave if various events were to take place. Where to direct hit if it ca to that. Other specifics of how I could make use of the layout of the sanctuary, along with so instructions I could follow. But there is no point in discussing what has not co to pass." "She was, ah. Off on her own with him yesterday quite a lot, if I'm not mistaken... During the morning, and later on, too," Theo said, biting his lip anxiously. "Shit, I rember," Seth said. His expression was turning dark, and he looked towards the ground. "Goddammit. We should have seen this coming!" "There's no point in blaming ourselves," Linos said. "There was no reason to suspect the two of them had a relationship that was anything other than the wholeso one an uncle and his niece could be expected to. There was no basis to suspect anything... sinister, was going on." He sighed. "Honestly, I'm still struggling to believe it myself. That sothing like... This, could really have been going on under our noses." "It makes no sense," Zeno said, shaking her head. "We can't disregard the possibility that this is all so misdirect on the part of the real killer. If I were in their shoes, that's exactly what I'd do-- Direct us towards soone who can't defend themselves." It was a good point. Kamrusepa, however, seed to think of sothing. "Lili, you ntioned 'instructions you could follow'. Did you an that in abstract, or sothing physical?" The girl didn't reply, still motionless. "I'm going to search her," Kamrusepa said, stepping forward. "Careful, Kamrusepa," Linos said. "She might be--" "Dangerous?" She frowned, kneeling down in front of her undeterred. "Whatever is going on in her mind, she's barely a teenager, and both of her hands are in plain view." She took said hands by the wrists as she leaned in closer to investigate. "I think I can handle that much." Linos still looked uneasy but, as she began patting her down, seed to resign himself to the situation. It was difficult to see exactly what was happening, but after a few monts had passed, Kamrusepa seed to locate a pocket in the side of Lilith's chiton with her logic engine, along with so parchnt and other petty personal effects. She flipped through them quickly, then ca to a stop at the third piece of parchnt she investigated. Her eyes widened, and she stood up, walking towards Zeno. "Is this Hamilcar's handwriting?" she asked. Zeno looked down at it. "Looks like it-- What is this...?" Linos, frowning curiously, wheeled his chair forward to get a better look himself, and a few others - Ran, Ezekiel, Seth - followed in his wake. (Curiously, Fang didn't bother.) I stepped forward, too, until I could make out the fairly large and neat handwriting scrawled on the page. Out of context, it was nothing incriminating - just a list of rooms in the sanctuary and so features about them. A detailed description of the wine cellar, and where the largest barrels were located relative to the door. A casual listing of which doors were reinforced during a partial renovation a few decades ago. A ntion of a storage closet that contained so dangerous tools... In context, however, it felt damning. When you viewed it with the information we'd just been provided in mind, the details which were highlighted were obviously not what was most exceptional or worth seeing in a given room - for example, it didn't even ntion the orrery in the main hall. Rather, they were things you could hide behind. Secure and insecure places. Things that could be improvised into weapons. "I can confirm it, too," Linos said grimly. "I read through his paperwork all the ti. There's no mistaking it. This even looks like the ink at his desk at the research tower." "It could be a forgery," Zeno said. "Seems like we're not the ones getting sentintal and illogical now," Seth said. Zeno scoffed in irritation, but did seem to be having doubts. She furrowed her brow deeply. "I admit, it's getting harder to argue against this idea." She raised her voice. "What's your opinion on this, Anna? You're the most senior among us left." She took a while to reply, her face out of sight as she continued working even through these revelations. "I have known Hamilcar since he was first introduced to the Order by his father, on account of his condition, and have worked with him frequently since he ascended to his present seat after the Great Interplanar War," she said. "He has always been the type to hide his true feelings behind a mask of temperance. And he has beco even more reserved and impassive since █ █ █ █ █'s passing. Though I would not have suspected he would betray us, neither will I say it is impossible." Zeno narrowed her eyes. Even though she might've been equally flippant to everyone, I got the sense that she took Anna's opinion a little more seriously than that of Linos. "You really think he could have lost faith in the great work? You rember his ceaseless speeches. Of the paradise that would be ushered if human beings could live without fear of an inevitable end, forced to always reckon with their own futures instead of passing the burden to their children? About how we must make an argunt to oppose deathism at a cultural level, show that we are capable of dynamism, yada yada?" "I do," she said, with what felt like a trace of hesitance. "But of late, his air has seed more resigned." She was silent for a mont. "Perhaps you have failed to observe it, since you so regularly miss etings." Zeno rolled her eyes, then frowned to herself, looking away from the sheet. As this had been going on, I'd continued reading. The list continued on to other parts of the sanctuary, too. The second floor, the guest house, even parts of the underground... "I just realized sothing," I said. "When I first woke up at the start of all this, Lilith was already awake and knocking at my door." The chronology was a little more complicated than that, but it was close enough. "She wanted to take her over to the guest house, to her mother, but she seed... Strangely straightforward, about everything." "Lili's always like that, though," Ptolema said. "Well, even more so than usual, I suppose," I clarified. "It felt strange." Ezekiel grunted. "She needed to infiltrate our group. I wouldn't be surprised if she had a hand in Bardiya's killing, to boot." "This is so screwed up," Ptolema said, shaking her head. "What even was Lilith's relationship with the guy, anyway...? Or with her whole family? I didn't even think about it 'til we t hit on the way to the Aetherbridge..." "Didn't he take her under his wing when she beca an arcanist?" Seth said. "I thought it was before," Theo said. "I do rember that, though. Him, ah, taking her under his wing-- Didn't you tell that, dad?" "I did," Linos said hesitantly. "But even I don't know anything about the specifics. Just that he's her uncle on her father's side, not her mother." "Who's her dad, then?" Seth asked. "Hamilcar's brother." "Maharbaal was his na. I don't know anything about him other than the fact that he was an arcanist too, and an explorer by trade-- Charting the Lower Planes, mostly the Lavyrinthikos, as best I understand it." Linos frowned. "He went missing about 10 years ago. I suppose that would have been when miss Eshkalon was just a toddler." It was difficult to stop a narrative from forming in my head from this information. We knew that Lilith, because of her exceptional talent, had gone through her induction at very young age, even if we didn't know the specifics. The process usually went fine even for people that age - it increased the chance of so level of assimilation failure occurring, but only from 1% to perhaps 5%. hit, as her sole remaining parent, had evidently been convinced it was worth the ager risk to capitalize on her daughter's spectacular talent. The Power, like any other skill set that lay at the cross-section between technical and intuitive thought, was best learned as young as possible, which was why Neferuaten's situation had sounded so exceptional. Arguably the greatest arcanist to have ever lived, Sara of Xattusa, had infamously gone through the process at age seven. But as we'd known since our flight from the abbey, sothing had gone wrong. And it felt impossible not to link that, in so way, to what was happening now. I thought back to all of those monts early in the trip where Hamilcar or the Order had co up in hit's company, or when they'd first been in the sa room when the conclave had finally begun in earnest. The obvious discomfort and distaste she'd shown; contempt barely concealed. If I had to make a guess, that pointed to him - the great arcanist within the family to whom her daughter was so closely related, and probably the first link to her husband that still remained in her life - as being the party who had done the convincing. And that she blad him ferociously. People, especially ones still grieving a loss, are easily manipulated by the concept of legacy. Narratives about fate and taphysical continuity can easily prompt trendous amounts of magical thinking in people who are struggling to accept that sothing or soone gone is gone. Especially when those narratives are coming from soone who has established themselves as respected, wise, paternal... How painful it would have to have been, being unable to discuss what had happened. Being forced to play the part of a supportive mother to a strange but brilliant child as her life was dragged forward by the continuing tragedy. How bitter it must've been to learn about the Order's invitation to our class, knowing that her only choices would have been to co across as stifling her own child's potential with her own diocre over-protectiveness, or else suffer in silence. Thinking about that, I felt like I finally understood the way hit had behaved for the whole weekend. But a question remained. Taking all that as a given... How much had been a tragic accident, and how much had been by design? Ophelia, who had been quiet for a little while now after having her defense of the girl so painfully refuted, spoke up in a ek, sad voice. "...I've heard that, after a problematic induction, especially with children... The mind can be left in a very fragile state, where the person can't really understand what's real and what isn't. Who they are, what's true or false..." She held her hands together anxiously. "What if, after what happened, Hamilcar used that as a chance to impress all this on her? To make her really believe it?" That was the theory I'd expected her to suggest. But when I thought about what had motivated my grandfather... An altogether different one ca to mind. One where it wasn't as simple as her having been straightforwardly brainwashed. All the sa, Kamrusepa nodded along to this idea, then looked back to the girl. "Lilith. Since you've said this much... Can you tell us: Who do you see yourself as? What do you rember from before your induction?" She was silent for what felt like a little longer than normal before replying, but reply she did, unwaveringly. "You understand nothing," she said. "I exist only to perform this role. All of us are here only to perform our according parts in the ceremony. The na 'Lilith' pertains only to that much." "That's not true!" Ophelia cried out. "I know there are other things you're passionate about, Lili! I've heard you talk about art, and seen your sketchbook, even if you don't want to show people. How excited you can get sotis, when you don't think people see you..." She sniffed. "And I've seen you smile playing gas on your logic bridge, and how you walk with a little more bounce in your step whenever you pass a test. I know there's more to you then that!" "Y-Yeah!" Ptolema said, nodding. "What happened to always calling 'skull-cavity' and going on about how dumb I am, huh? That's not sothing you'd do if you were just so puppet!" She bit her lip, looking away painfully. "Even if your uncle has done sothing weird to you, and you're confused, you can snap out of this!" "There is nothing but the role," Lilith quietly insisted. And then stared ahead, seeming dead to their emotional pleas. Seth clenched his fists, gritting his teeth. "Goddammit. This sick fucking bastard!" "Calm down, master Ikkuret," Linos said firmly. "We can't lose our senses at a ti like this." "If he did this to her... And he's behind the shit that happened to Bardiya, too, and Su's ntor-- For playing with all of our lives..." He looked towards the ground, seething with fury. "I'll go down there and kill him myself!" "Easy, Seth. Linos is right," Kamrusepa told him, but even as she tried to take the high ground, she was audibly getting worked up herself, her breath having grown heavy. She closed her eyes for a mont, seeming to gather herself. "Even if he is the culprit, Hamilcar is still an arcanist with centuries of experience. No one in our class, even Fang, could hope to stand against him." I wasn't entirely sure about that. I'd seen Fang outperform arcanists over ten tis their age. "No doubt about that," Zeno said, with a snort. "Despite his harebrained obsession with stitching clumps of tal to his flesh to replace the dead bits, he still earned his chops back when becoming a Grandmaster actually ant more than having a sister married to a mber of the College of Arcanists . The man's a freak who can barely move his fingers to trace-cast, but he'd have any of you fuckers pushing daisies before you could so much as stutter out a beguilent." "I know, I know!" Seth said, his jaw still clenched. "Gods-- Sorry. I'm just... Frustrated." "Besides, he can't be the one solely responsible for all of this," Kam said. "We all saw the recording. There was no way anyone outside of our group could have killed Bardiya, even if they were part of the sa conspiracy." "If we adhere to the facts, there's no one who could have done it but the Inotian, period," Ezekiel said bluntly. "That much is obvious, isn't it?" "Don't start with that shit again, Ezekiel," Seth said. "Theo has the most airtight alibi for what happened to Saci, so there's no way in hell that he's the accomplice. And it's not like that recording is foolproof. It could be so complicated trick, or hell, there's a hundred ways to make yourself invisible with the Power." "Nothing that appeared on the Anomaly-Divining Arcana, unless I'm very much mistaken," he retorted. "C'mon, let's not start this again..." Ptolema said, as Theo started to look down fretfully. "I feel like we're missing sothing obvious," Ran said. "Lilith was forthcoming about Hamilcar's involvent already. If there's a third culprit, she might just straight-up tell us." "Mm, feel a bit stupid for not having done that already, now that you spell it out," Zeno said, and turned back to Lilith. "Girl. Was there a third accomplice? Another instrunt of 'Her will' you haven't already ntioned." "I do not know," Lilith said. Zeno narrowed her eyes. "Then let ask you sothing you will know," she said threateningly. "You ca in here to deliver a ssage, did you not? To soone specific." "No," she said. "That was not part of my role." Zeno once again withdrew her scepter. "It seems we might need to resort to more severe ans, after all--" "For goodness sake, don't be ridiculous," Kamrusepa said, stepping between the two of them. "There's no reason to assu that part of the idea was even true. Hamilcar could just as easily have kept the other accomplice from her, and trusted that creating the opportunity using her would be enough to prompt them to act on their own." "Or there could be no other accomplice," Ezekiel said. "And Lilith could have killed the two of them sohow." "Again, that's impossible," Seth said, irritated. "She never even left the room." "There are lots of ways to kill people that most wouldn't think of," Ezekiel said darkly. Seth grimaced at him. "What the hell does that even an?" I sighed to myself, biting my lip. "...I don't know if I ought to say it, since it does feel sort of like playing into the hand of the culprit... Or, well, Hamilcar, if he really is behind everything... But it might be worth thinking about that framing device-- Of the divine beasts." I crossed my arms, frowning. "If we think about the ssage we saw just as Lilith arrived, and this presud role as a quiet, subversive agent, then obviously she's supposed to be the 'serpent', right?" "If it ans anything, I suppose," Kamrusepa said. "I still think it's folly to pay any heed to it." "Let her finish, Kam," Ran said. "Without her, we wouldn't have figured out even this much." She humd to herself in response, unconvinced but accepting. "If we think about that, that leaves the other one - the 'bull of heaven', let's call it - unaccounted for," I continued. "We could probably infer that as alluding to the identity of the person who killed Bardiya, and now Sacnicte and Yantho. But Lilith hasn't referenced any of these concepts at all, even in alluding to so supernatural being." ...but was I sure she was talking about sothing supernatural? The thought struck suddenly. What was it that she had said a few minutes ago? 'Given form and then defiled'... "Couldn't the 'bull' just as easily be Hamilcar, though?" Seth suggested, as my thought trailed off. "I an, he's probably the one who killed Durvasa, so it's not like he's an impassive coordinator." He scratched his head. "Guess it would depend on if he believes his own bullshit." "I think it's impossible to infer further information definitively," Linos said. "My feeling is that it's reasonable to assu that Lilith really doesn't know anything else of substance - she's been straightforward so far, and..." He rubbed his brow, looking troubled. "As hard as it is for to think of Hamilcar as soone who'd use an innocent for as abominable a purpose as this, he's always been the type of leader who never gives people more information then he thinks they need. Putting aside the question of our relationship to the wider world, we were always getting into disputes about internal secrecy and the culture of the Order in that regard." "That's an understatent," Zeno said. "Presumably because of his family, he's always felt like he's had a right to run this place like a despot." Linos hesitated, perhaps not quite agreeing with this assessnt, but continued. "Regardless of whether or not it's technically correct to think of her as a child, I could easily see him leaving Lilith out of the loop as much as possible. That could even be true for his other accomplice, if they exist - they could be as surprised as the rest of us." "Uh, this might be a dumb thing to say, but shouldn't we think about if we've seen anyone acting weird, then?" Ptolema said. "Tense, or... I dunno, sothing like that?" "Might be kinda like looking for hay in a haystack," Seth said. "I think everyone's feeling kinda fucked up right now." "...I feel like that almost just puts us back where we started, then," Theo said, sounding depressed. "Even knowing two thirds of the plot, we still have reason to believe one or more of us is a murderer, with no way of knowing who that is." "No, Theo," Linos said, shaking his head. A little more resolve - if quiet resolve - had entered into his voice now. "Let's not lose sight of what we've accomplished here. As the evidence currently points, Hamilcar had intended for us to get so preoccupied by the murder in front of us, and so shocked by what had happened to his niece and her mother, that we'd never think to investigate the specific circumstances surrounding the entire chain of events. That we've understood this much, even if it ca at the loss of two people's lives, ans the advantage is now ours." He looked towards . "You're to be comnded, Utsushiko. Without you, this might've all been for nothing." I didn't quite know what to do with this complint - it felt inappropriate to smile, given the circumstances. I ended up nodding stiffly. Linos looked back to regard the group. "Now that we know this much, we have a major option to end this decisively, regardless of if there's still another accomplice we're not aware of, and especially if we move quickly and carefully enough to make sure they don't have chance to potentially communicate with him." He clasped his hands together, leaning forward. "Because Hamilcar will know who they are, no matter what. And we know where he is." Seth raised his eyebrows. "Wait, you an--" "Yes," Linos said. "You weren't wrong, master Ikkuret, just over-eager. I suggest we attack the dragon by its throat." Kamrusepa raised an eyebrow. "You an, move to apprehend him? Hamilcar?" "Yes," Linos said, with a nod. "While you and your classmates might be too inexperienced, any of the three of us could match him - especially Anna and Zeno. Rather than sitting here and waiting to be taken by surprise again, I think it would be better to seize the initiative." "I didn't expect to hear this from you, Linos," Zeno said, frowning cautiously. Linos t her eyes. "Do you disagree?" She considered this for a mont. "...I suppose not," she eventually said. "Even if I have my doubts about so of this, he needs to be brought to task in the face of this evidence. And in retrospect, I can't deny that he's acting deeply suspiciously. About the only explanation for having been underground all this ti that isn't a little murder-y is that he's already dead... Which would an soone else is down there we should be looking for, regardless." Linos nodded. "Then we're on more or less the sa page." "Is it really gonna be that simple, though...?" Ptolema asked, looking doubtful. "Like... I want to get back at him for what he's done to Lili and everything else, for sure... But if he's been directing everything since down there since the start, won't he be ready for anything we try and do?" "It does seem... Rather daring, to say the least," Theo said, biting his lip. "Even if he doesn't anticipate us to take action now, he could easily have set traps and prepared defenses simply out of, ah, due caution." "Yeah," Ptolema said, nodding. "Like-- Wouldn't it be better for us to just stay here until Anna has finished the work? I an, it's not like they can get to us here." She called out to her. "How long do you think it'll be, uh, your ladyship?" It was sort of funny how that'd ended up catching on with the whole class at this point. "I expect it to be another 3 hours, assuming I can continue to work at this pace," Anna replied. "Though, a transpositioning window will not be achieved instantly. So there may be sothing of a delay." "We can't take that risk," Kamrusepa said. "Now that we know there's almost certainly an accomplice among our group, and that what has occurred so far has been to their design, we can only conclude that they would have assud this as our logical course of action and accounted for it." She looked to Linos. "Grandmaster, you told us that the defenses of the sanctuary are capable of anything up to and including the destruction of the entire facility, correct?" "Yes," he replied, warily. "That's right." "Then so long as that's the case, our safety will be completely compromised past four o'clock, and we'll be completely at the rcy of whether or not a good window for transpositioning is available. This whole place--" she gestured outwardly, "--could start collapsing around us." Her expression turned dark. "In fact, with how much Lilith has been talking about so sort of predestined doom, I'd say it's altogether too possible. The only person with the knowledge of what to expect might be Hamilcar." It was true, even if I'd been trying not to think about it. From the beginning, our entire plan had been predicated on the assumption they wouldn't employ thods that-- Or perhaps we'd simply ignored that possibility to avoid thinking about our own powerlesness. Zeno's face twitched. He looked back towards Lilith. "Girl. Do you know anything about what will transpire over the next few hours, should we stay here?" "Everything will end," she said calmly. "Encouraging," Ran said flatly. "I hate to say it, but Kam's right, Ema," Seth said. "We're sitting ducks so long as we stay here. Our only chance is to take the fight to him." He took a breath, and glanced between the faces of everyone in the room, not doing a good job hiding his eagerness. "Even if we are just a bunch of kids, people still never shut up about how we're supposed to be so damn smart. And we have the elent of surprise. No matter what he's got planned, if we work together, can find a way to break through. Linos nodded. "Well said, master Ikkuret," he stated, then looked to the rest of us. "So, then. Let's make a plan." But even as all this was said, my mind still felt overwheld with doubt. This all felt too easy, sohow. The trail pointing towards Lilith. Her confession, even if she seed sincerely disturbed. And weren't we leaving too many questions unanswered? Just how had Yantho even died? How had the Power been suppressed with seemingly no trace? What was with the state Lilith had been in at first, before she beca so forthcoming? A sense of unease crept over . Sothing about this didn't feel right at all.