Chapter 42 The Defense Rests
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The Defense Rests
A week after the kingpin broke into the Order of the Silvercloaks to steal Joran Killoran’s letter, an inquest was held to determine how to punish Auria Marriosan and Nissa Naszi.
Though Captain Karvas would have quite happily dumped them at the gates of Duncarzus and blown air kisses as they went inside to rot, there were procedures for such things, and the commissioner had insisted upon following them.
In the first instance, there would be an administrative investigation to examine any potential breaches of the Order’s Code of Conduct—and also to discern whether a further criminal investigation ought to be carried out.
Between the break-in and the inquest date, Auria and Nissa were suspended from duty and placed on curfew, which meant they were often trapped in the common room with only each other for company.
A punishment in its own right, for two mages who had historically loathed each other and had recently committed a string of serious offenses in order to keep each other safe.
If Nissa was concerned about the upcoming hearing, she didn’t show it. She spent most of her days chain-smoking achullah out of a common room window—ignoring Auria’s complaints about the cold early winter air—and lamenting the lack of opportunity to refill the pleasure in her well.
A handful of mornings after the invasion, Auria and Nissa were sequestered in the common room, empty breakfast trays scattered on low coffee tables—they’d been having their meals delivered to them, so as not to contaminate the other detectives with their unfathomable cowardice and corruption.
The sky over Atherin was a blank winter white.
Auria was curled up on one of the squashy couches, sipping ginger tea while scribbling away with her favorite quill.
She wore an old pale blue scholar’s cloak from her time in law school—it didn’t seem right to wear silver when her very future at the institution was in jeopardy.
While smoking her eighteenth achullah of the day, Nissa watched her colleague scrawl and ruminate. “The sheer quantity of notes you’ve written is unsaintly.”
Auria laid down her quill and poured a fresh cup of ginger tea from the pot. When no steam curled from its surface, Nissa wordlessly heated it up with her wielding.
“Only once I write down every single tiny detail of a case can I pick out parts to expand, to work on proving with evidence.” Auria sipped at the now scalding tea. “I’m throwing everything I have at our defense.”
Auria had eschewed the legal counsel offered to her by the union and demanded to represent herself. Nissa had followed suit, stating that Auria was the most sickeningly diligent and infuriatingly meticulous mage she’d ever come across, and thus there was nobody else she would trust with her case.
“What do you have so far?” Nissa asked.
“First, I need to establish Levan Celadon’s presence. Karvas will argue that we were either acting alone or conspiring with our turncloak of a former colleague. There are logical flaws in both stances, but I’d feel more confident if I could prove the kingpin himself was here.”
“And then?”
“We prove that our lives were in jeopardy. There’s a reason I won’t let Paliran heal these cuts on my throat—they’re evidence. But Karvas can still argue I did it to myself, or you did it to me.”
“Surely that’s a stretch. No judge would believe—”
“No decent judge. We still don’t know who’s going to be brought in. If they’re in league with Karvas and Dematus…”
“Surely not. The commissioner herself is overseeing the inquest. She’ll make sure the judge is impartial.”
“Hopefully. My concern is that even if I can prove the kingpin was here, and we were facing imminent torture or death…we still broke the code, didn’t we?
Insubordination. Trespassing. Leaking confidential information.
So this hearing is not just a matter of evidence, but of ethics.
When we’re sworn in, we promise to protect this institution with our lives. We didn’t do that.”
“So it’s a lost cause?” Nissa looked troubled for perhaps the first time.
“We’ll be found guilty no matter what. My main goal will be to negotiate a lenient punishment—to protect our jobs, and keep both of us out of Duncarzus.”
The thought of going to prison sent a roil of dread through Auria’s belly. She’d been so holier-than-thou when Saffron met that fate, so insufferable when she bumped into Saffron in the Jaded Saint after her release. And now here she was, facing the very same prospect.
“You know what’s been needling at me?” Nissa stubbed her achullah out on the windowsill and tossed the remains into the hearth. “You valued my life above your own. You were willing to die for that letter, but you weren’t willing to let me. Why?”
Auria shrugged. “I’d rather have died than lived with another loss. Tiernan is dead, and Saffron has turned, and Sebran is missing. I couldn’t lose the last friend I have left in this place.”
“Friend is a bold word. I abhor you in most meaningful ways.”
“Most?”
“You have nice hair.”
“No. It’s always frizzy.”
“Full of life, like you.”
Auria rested her head back against the high arm of the chair. “I don’t feel it anymore. Now there’s this…emptiness. I have no idea how to fill it. I don’t know who I am without my work.”
“Maybe that’s the reason you can’t fill the emptiness.”
“What do you mean?”
Nissa took a seat by the hearth. “When my sisters died, my parents didn’t survive just because they still had me to care for.
They survived because they had full lives.
Yes, we mourned my sisters. Yes, we had to move from our home country.
But throughout it all, my mother still sang opera, and my father still dried his own achullah leaves, and they still went out dancing with their friends every Plenting.
My father once ran through the Devil’s Dunes for a week straight to bring in ascens for a local hospital. ”
“They sound amazing.”
“They are. I mean, they’re also just people. They fuck up and make mistakes and cry a lot, and every day they miss my sisters. You can survive this, Marriosan. Even if we’re fired, jailed. It won’t be for long, and then after that, you have a whole life ahead of you.”
Not buying into the idea in any real sense, Auria swallowed hard. “What will you do? If we are kicked off the force.”
“We won’t be kicked off the force. You’re our defense, and you’re the best there is.”
Auria glanced over at Nissa with a quirk to her lips. “I think this is the longest we’ve ever spoken without threatening to ammorten each other.”
“Well, it’s now abundantly clear any such threats from you are empty. You sacrificed everything to keep me alive, and I plan to lord it over you for the rest of eternity.” A wide, vulpine grin. “Now, how do I help you win this thing?”
Auria drained the last of her ginger tea, pulled a fresh piece of parchment from her stack, and dipped her quill in her favorite navy ink.
“Tell me again what happened in that hospital wing.”