Chapter 7 #3
“Nina.” His smile was serpentine, neither kind nor reassuring. Finally, he gave me some respite and looked to Cassien. “You’ve already interrogated her, I see. I want a copy of the tapes, myself.”
“Is that really necessary, sir, since she’ll be sent to the mines tomorrow? There’s no need for a trial, after all, not with a hundred witnesses in the square this morning.”
The Magister shook his head. “She’s not going anywhere besides the Academy.”
If it had been difficult to breathe before, his defiance had poisoned the air in the room.
The Commissioner’s chest barely moved; his jaw flexed before he replied.
“I think you misunderstand. I appreciate your help with the investigations, but matters of criminal justice are handled by the Council and the city. The Academy is an entirely different branch of government. This is not your jurisdiction.”
“Seeing as my enforcers were needed to capture her, Commissioner Cassien, I think it is very much my business.” He spoke again, quieter this time. “There were also reports that she might possess an Archetype, that she was using Forge abilities.”
“We had her checked,” Cassien replied, straightening as he stared at me with a fresh perspective. “The relics you gave us to search our prisoners detected no Archetype in her system.”
“Nothing that’s been recorded,” the Magister murmured.
“But the codes only know what we instruct them to look for. If she is something new, then the Academy—and Valveron—would be much safer if we could test her.” His eyes, dark and quick as bullets, shot to me.
“Or is there something you’d like to share with us, miss? ”
“Didn’t the Academy ban human testing nearly a decade ago? After that terrible accident exposed a ring of corrupted engineers… No, I’m afraid I can’t let you take her purely for that reason alone, Magister.”
Reven frowned. “The world will always condemn those who are ambitious. But yes, since its founding, the Academy has always banned unethical testing on human subjects. My plans for Nina only extend to safe and practiced methods to understand her codes, if they do exist.”
“She killed Ignace—”
“She was caught with him,” he countered. “That does not mean she murdered him. You know it as well as I do.”
“What does it matter?” Cassien paced to the window, turning his back to me. “She broke the law, and the law must be satisfied.”
“Your laws…” The Magister smiled to himself, laughing beneath his robes. “Progress does not care about rules and regulations. It knows only the pursuit of perfection and the price it requires of us all.”
Cassien snapped, whirling on the Magister.
“I will not have a killer walk the halls of the Academy while the Governor’s blood still stains the square.
She will die in the mines, and that is the end of it.
I do not impose on your business, Magister.
I will make sure Governor Therell receives justice.
” His voice lowered. “And if Nina didn’t kill him, Reven, then I’ll find the one who did. ”
The Magister looked me over once more. Whatever had intrigued him enough to rush here from his high tower above the city now seemed to be fading. He frowned, regarding me as something useless—a disappointment.
“And I hope you do,” Reven said, turning then. “I would still like a copy of the tapes, if that wouldn’t be too much of a problem, Cassien.”
“Of course. I’ll have them across the canal by tomorrow.”
“Thank you.” The Magister took two long strides before he was beside me. A hand slipped from his robes, skimming my shoulder, before he walked right past me.
Before he left, he called out to Cassien, “I appreciate your time, Commissioner. If you have any other problems in the Fissures, do let me know. Unlike you, I do not mind blurring the lines between our jurisdictions for the betterment of our city.”
Cassien was sweating, forehead glossy in the light of the gas lamps, by the time the door shut. His stare followed the Magister out, as if forgetting I was there.
“Why is he interested in you, Nina?”
“I don’t know—”
The Commissioner beat a fist against the top of his desk, taking a deep breath. “Is everything from your lips going to be a lie?”
My gaze locked back on the gash in the desk. “I have never seen Magister Reven before in my life. I’ve never had any dealings with the Academy. That’s the fullest truth I’ve spoken today.”
He considered my words while adjusting his leather gloves, taking long strides to stand in front of his desk.
It was impossible to avoid him when he towered over my chair.
“If you won’t help yourself, then I’m through with you.
You’ve saved no one with your silence, I hope you understand.
We’ll find out who your boss is, Nina, make no mistake about that.
But you’ll never know, because tomorrow morning, you’ll be off to the mines where you will die a slow death, choking on dust or drowning in a flood.
Therell was my Governor, my friend, too, and I will not sleep until I expose the corruption that killed him. ”
“Please, Commissioner,” I pleaded then. “I have someone who relies on me. She’ll die if I’m not there. Just let me make arrangements for her, at the very least.”
If he heard the broken cry in my voice, he ignored it.
“Perhaps you should have stayed within the law if you had someone depending on you. Or spoken when you had the chance.” He leaned closer, skimming his breath across my lips with the seal of my sentence.
“Whatever happens will be your responsibility, not mine.”
“I had no choice. Your friend died of his own corruption. Perhaps if the laws he made were just, people like me would—”
Cassien was a blur of crimson and black as he turned sharply on a heel.
My body tilted sideways on the chair, and the legs slipped beneath me as the other side of my skull found the hardwood floor.
My vision went dark. I didn’t realize he’d struck me until pain bloomed from all corners of my head and warm blood coated my lip.
Rough hands forced me back upright. I was unbound from the chair and forced to stand on limp legs. I could hardly see straight, only vague, doubled shapes and flickering lights.
Cassien muttered another order, flexing his hand in the starry film over my vision. “Bring her to the tower. A holding cell will do. She won’t be with us long.”
I made sure to spit a mouthful of blood on his rug before the same hands forced me to move away.
I forced my legs to keep step with the guard as he pushed me down a long corridor.
The prison was a windowless tower branching off the Gatehouse.
The block was circular, with over a dozen cells, from what I could see out of one eye.
It seemed they were all full, ready for transportation to the labor camps.
They didn’t keep people detained here for long.
A boat would come for us all soon, take us past the nicer districts in the city, then to the mines far north in the mountains.
Prisoners whistled as we passed. Noise erupted as more of them woke and beat on their bars.
It smelled foul, but I couldn’t breathe enough through my nose to be bothered by it.
Blood filled my mouth as well, coating my teeth from a slice inside my cheek.
When the guard finally made it to my cell, at the end of the wide circle, he released me with surprising gentleness, lowering me to the floor so I didn’t strike the tile.
Cold stung my skin as I sat against a wall. There were sconces out in the hall, but their light didn’t quite reach here. I realized I was totally at this guard’s mercy.
“I was told to give you a message,” he said quietly, crouching so his words remained in the cell.
“From who?”
He shifted on his heels. “An outsider.”
“How—”
The guard shushed me with a finger to his lips, pulling down the sleeve meeting his glove. In the space, I noticed two marks on his forearm. Marks that resembled the elongated canines of a Cursed.
The outsider had used his magic to compel the guard.
“He’s going to get you out tomorrow, so get some rest tonight.” The guard glanced at the noisy corridor behind him. “Don’t worry, they’ll shut up eventually.”
He slid the barred door shut without any other explanation, leaving me cradling the side of my face.
I knew next to nothing about the Cursed outsider who refused to leave me alone.
Did I really want his help? The mines might be a better option than whatever he had planned.
But my mother was still out there, alone and sick, with no one to care for her.
We’d never spent this much time apart. I would do whatever was needed to get back to her.
Without you, what would happen to her?
Bria’s question was one I constantly asked myself, and yet I’d never found a satisfactory answer. So if this outsider was my ticket out of here, I’d take it. If only to buy myself more time to figure out the next part of the plan.
I curled on my side, wishing I still had my coat. Nights were cold in the spring, and the chill of the stone pierced me to the bone. But my face was numb, and I was so tired.
Who was this buyer who I’d ruined my life for? Where was my mother now? And—the one most pressing question in this moment—what did this outsider want from me?
Eventually, I dozed off despite the cold and the discomfort of the hard ground, despite the calls of the other prisoners, even despite the questions unfurling in my mind.