Chapter 6
Trouble-Maker
I realized something was wrong the moment I stepped into the square and saw Inmadra and another abaya – built like a pit fighter, incredibly tall and broad – were standing at the bottom of the steps leading to the second floor walkway, with Elethenn hovering next to them.
"What happened?" I asked the minute I was within earshot, my stomach twisting hard at the expression on Elethenn's face. He flicked a glance at Inmadra, head ducking slightly – deferential.
"Someone has broken in," said Inmadra, arms crossed. "We wished to wait for your arrival before proceeding."
My eyebrows shot up as I looked up instinctively, like I could see the door to my apartment through the solid walkway.
"Oh. Well, it's not like I keep anything very valuable on hand anyway.
" Places got broken into all of the time; that wasn't new.
Besides, I was a minor celebrity, even down here where no one wanted to admit it.
I hadn't been lying when I'd said the most reaction I ever got in Radiant Ward was about costing people money.
Maybe someone had come to try and collect via petty theft.
If so, they would have been pretty disappointed.
Inmadra fluted out a sound that I thought was disbelief. "Sashen of Creche Thiel," she said, tone flat, "you are of Creche Thiel. It is understood that this is a transgression against your creche. The dumpling vendor has said he witnessed an abaya leaving your apartment."
I looked to Elethenn, whose stare was fixed on the ground.
"It is true," he said. "I was not close enough to give a description but I thought it was strange as you had not been by yet, so I went to check and found your door open.
It is as Inmadra has said: this will have been because of who you are. "
I huffed, still skeptical. "Or," I tried, "it's just a break-in. It's fine. Did you know someone was murdered in there before I rented it? It's why it was so cheap. Things just happen."
The look Elethenn and Inmadra shared then, though I'd never seen them interact before, could only be described as long-suffering.
I looked up at the massive abaya, their black crest unbound, shoulders drawn up and eyes cast downward.
I was about to introduce myself, when Elethenn said, "Sashen, if you would like, I am happy to take a look around your apartment to see if I might learn anything else. I – used to work in security."
"Speaking of, should we, I don't know, call someone?
" I frowned at the thought, instinctively hating the ward guards and particularly hating them because of the mass arrests.
If I filed a complaint, my name would appear in some sort of system: Valerie would know, which was fine, but who else could see that?
If this was more than just a random break-in, would that make the creche look weak to anyone who went digging?
Even if it was just bad luck, other abaya would assume it was an intentional move against Creche Thiel, so the net result was the same.
"That is your decision to make," said Inmadra with a primness that I'd come to understand meant she thought I was being particularly stupid.
"Then my decision is, no guards thanks," I said. "But if you did want to take a look around, Elethenn, that would great. I appreciate your assistance." I tacked that bit on in abayan.
"Your," corrected Inmadra, Elethenn flushing silver for a reason I didn't understand before he started up the stairs. The rest of us followed, Inmadra adding, "To Araxis, you would say it as you did."
"Oh." I looked at her, confused. "Is your," I repeated the one I had used, "romantic in some sense?"
"Yes, it is about declaration."
I was going to have to be careful. Then again, when I was in Xitera, it would be abundantly clear that I didn't have a firm grasp on the language. I hoped that meant everyone would be forgiving.
The door to my apartment was ajar, the wall panel peeled open with wires dangling down.
In theory, it should have alerted security to the break-in, but apparently whoever had helped themselves to my shit apartment knew enough to work around the security system.
Then again, despite what the landlord had promised, the extent to which my security system was either secure or a functional system was debatable.
Elethenn pushed the door open and I craned my neck in.
The place was a fucking mess. Every cupboard was open, the table and chairs turned over.
It looked, from here, like someone had gone through every piece of clothing I'd bothered keeping here and thrown them on the floor.
The contents of my first aid kit were spilled across the kitchen counter, the display panel on my little desk ripped out and gone entirely.
I guess I wouldn't be putting together any reports today after all. Thank all the stars that I didn't store any files locally; then again, someone was probably just going to pawn it for parts instead of poking around in the hope of finding juicy intel.
I sighed, going to step in, but Elethenn pressed a firm hand to my shoulder. "You should stay. I will go in first and see if I can find anything significant." And then he jerked his fingertips away from where they rested near the collar of my jumpsuit, flushing, and he stepped into my apartment.
I frowned, watching him. He was being weird again – well, weirder than usual and in a different way. If he were anyone else, I'd have assumed he was into me, but because he was Elethenn, it had to be something else. Maybe it had to do with being crecheless, or being lonely.
I leaned against the metal railing of the walkway next to Inmadra, watching Elethenn carefully pick his way across the apartment through the open doorway. "I would offer you tea," I tried in abayan, "but my kitchen is –" I searched for a word like a disaster, "– very bad."
"A mess," Inmadra supplied thoughtlessly, staring hard at Elethenn in the apartment, her features tight with some expression I couldn’t read yet.
She half-turned to me, continuing in abayan.
"I should make an introduction. Sashen of Creche Thiel, this is Thodin.
" She gestured to the tall and muscular abaya, as if I wouldn't know that's who she meant.
"He is Thodin," she repeated in Standard, so I'd know how to refer to him.
I smiled up at him. "It is my pleasure to meet you.
" It had always been Celravi accompanying Inmadra before – I'd been hoping to see her so I could ask if she was the artist whose work we'd just seen – so I tried something that might put Thodin, clearly uncomfortable, more at ease.
"You must have heard that I always serve good dumplings.
I'll pack some to go to Celravi if I can convince Elethenn to sell me extras. "
Thodin's black stare flicked up to me for a second, head still ducked, before he looked at Inmadra, features pinched with misery.
A line of tension tightened in my neck. "Wait, is Celravi okay?" I asked. Had something happened?
Inmadra was scowling now, glaring into the air as if she didn't know where else to direct her anger.
"She has been arrested. She attended a public event – I told her it was not wise, but she was most insistent on hearing our ancient stories as told by this particular speaker.
As she could not pay the misdemeanour fine, she has been detained. "
Next to Inmadra, Thodin looked even more miserable, a whine of distress rattling in his throat. "Celravi would not do anything wrong," he said, voice whisper-quiet and hoarse, as if it didn't get much use. "She only wanted to listen."
I looked back inside the apartment to Elethenn, whose hands were tucked behind his back as he surveyed the room carefully, stepping over the detritus of my little life, his eyes bright and thoughtful.
"What happens if she can't pay the fine?" I asked.
Inmadra stiffened. "That is not your concern," she said. "We will address it. We will both take additional shifts."
I looked at Thodin, whose shoulders drew up, inch by inch. "But what happens?"
The look he shot Inmadra was desperate, so she sighed, hard, and answered me.
"If a fine is not paid by its maturation date, crecheless abaya are sent to labour camps and worksites operated by various creches.
But this will not be the case for our Celravi.
We have time enough to pay her fine. You are kind to think of her, but you are not paying me to discuss a problem beneath your notice. "
Celravi wasn't beneath my notice. I latched on to deadline, because I knew what it felt like to be under the gun in that particular way. "It has to be paid by a specific time?"
She ignored me and turned to look out at the square, which was answer enough. "There is a small tea shop nearby. We could go there for your lesson."
I shook my head, resolved. I knew what it was like to have nothing and for your debts to catch up with you, and I liked Celravi and I had credits to spare. It was an easy decision. "No, I don't want to just go ahead with our lesson like normal. I want to go to the ward guard station."
Inmadra's features flashed with something like disappointment before settling back into a neutral expression. "You wish to file a report?"
I shook my head again. "No, we're going to get Celravi out."
* * *
Inmadra tried to argue with me, but – despite having known me for a couple of weeks now – she didn't realize just how stubborn and difficult I could be when I wanted to dig my heels in.
"I have credits," I'd said, firm. "And if you watched the Tournament, you know that I'm not used to having them. The only reason I was there was because of some incredibly stupid fines, so if I can fix this by using some of the conglomerate’s credits, then I'm going to do it."