Chapter 63: A Ploy

  I activated Slow before she could shoot, snapping my hands forward to grab the handgun back.

  Despite her edge in skill, I was still stronger physically – and with the world slowed, she couldn’t react in time or fight back properly.

  The moment time resumed, the gun was back in my hand and aimed at her.

  This time, I took half a step back to avoid a repeat of her last trick.

  Seeing the gun in my hand, her eyes widened. “What the - ?”

  “Hands up!” I barked, arm still throbbing.

  She complied, slowly raising her arms, still confused. “How did you – “

  “Unbuckle your COG and roll it over,” I said, not willing to find out if she had any crystals that could kill me.

  “What? No,” she refused.

  “Do it,” I snapped, “or I’ll shoot your head off.”

  The familiar headaches returned – sharp and pulsing.

  Great…That meant the System flagged her as “innocent”.

  Innocent my ass! She just tried to kill me!

  The pain only intensified.

  Fucking Déjà vu System…Fine. Have it your way.

  “You know what? No.” I raised both hands to mirror her surrender. “We started on the wrong foot.”

  I popped the magazine out of the gun, dropped both to the ground, then backed off another step.

  She lowered her hands slowly, puzzled. “You’re serious?”

  “If I wanted to hurt you, would I do that?”

  “I don’t…” she muttered.

  “It’s because I told you the truth,” I continued, leaning into my half-truths. “I got baited here too. He probably wanted us to meet. Fuck, he probably wanted you to blow my brains out because of this inevitable misunderstanding!”

  Her brows furrowed. “Who wanted this?”

  “I don’t know yet,” I said, unwilling to share my list of suspects for now.

  “So you’re…not with Libra…” she muttered, mostly to herself, seemingly deep in thought.

  “I’m not,” I said. “I was just trying to confuse you because you thought I was with them.”

  She exhaled once and nodded, meeting my gaze. “Well…I’m sorry. I just don’t trust anyone.”

  “Same here.”

  She looked me over once more. “My name is Alice Verldson. And you are?”

  “Viktor Halegrim,”

  Her eyes widened. “Wait. The Viktor Halegrim?!”

  ***

  We stepped into the first room along the empty corridor – likely the caretakers’ office, judging by its proximity to the front desk. It was empty save for the thick layers of dust.

  Alice coughed twice, waving the air. Then she moved toward the window and cracked it open. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m allergic, and it’s already too hard for me to breathe Orlinth’s air.”

  Then, she explained – briefly – how she knew me.

  She was also an inventor participating in the Expo. She learned about my Chrono Quill when the Committee made the list of exhibits public. Alice believed that combined with her invention – the Eye for Lie – the new version of the Chrono Quill would change civic testimony forever.

  Then she dropped the bomb: she was the heiress to House Energy.

  My eyes widened. It was rare enough to see a Skyhavener in Orlinth – but an oligarch too? That was unheard of.

  Not to mention she’d come alone. No family, friends, or even a single bodyguard.

  Still, there was an elephant in the room: Casten Vorrick. Prime Security. A man who was approached by Dolos years ago. If she was close to him – she might be fulfilling Dolos’ plans, even without knowing it herself.

  “I didn’t think our first meeting would be under such…peculiar circumstances,” she said.

  “Well,” I replied, “we can talk about collaborations later. Can you show me what he sent you?”

  She reflexively pulled her COG back. “It’s…it’s private. You show me yours first.”

  I sighed, then tried to reason with her. “We’re not going to learn anything about our situation if we keep hiding things from each other. I already took the first step by lowering the gun earlier. Now it’s your turn.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  She rubbed her face with one hand, shaking her head.

  I decided to pivot – guide her there gently. Maybe enough nudges would make the leap to full honesty feel smaller than it was.

  “Why did you think it was Libra?”

  “Who else could it be?” she said. “Only they would ask for money. If an oligarch wanted to hurt me – which I highly doubt since I’m pretty much useless in the grand scheme of things – money would be the last thing they’d need.”

  Saying that House Energy was useless in the grand scheme of things was just a blatant lie, but I decided not to call it out for now.

  “What did they offer in exchange for the money?” I asked.

  “Again, that’s private.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  Shifting to a harsher tactic, I turned toward the door. “Listen, if you’re going to be like this, I’m leaving. Good luck.”

  “W-wait!” she called after me.

  Good.

  She took a deep breath. “The person who contacted me…promised me information about my parents’ death.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say. You wouldn’t catch me mourning oligarchs, but common courtesy probably still demanded a “sorry for your loss”.

  I said nothing.

  She continued. “They died in a big fire around a year ago - on the thirteenth of the tenth month. And…well…I’m sure you heard about that incident. It was pretty big.”

  I shook my head. “No offense, but people die in fires every week in Orlinth. Probably every day in the Foundry. Can’t say I heard about the incident you speak of.”

  “That’s fair.” She nodded. “I wasn’t looking for pity anyway.”

  She cleared her throat and continued. “Anyway, the Ironwatch ruled the fire as an accident – said the heating system in our estate overheated, and the reaction with the Aetherises of nearby machines caused an explosion. But they weren’t a hundred percent sure. It was one of those cases where the chosen version was just the one that sounded most probable, not necessarily the truth.”

  She paused, then added. “I wasn’t there when it happened, so I wouldn't know either. But for some reason, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that someone caused it. That someone wanted my parents dead.

  “And when I finally thought I’d let go of that thought…I learned from Casten that – “ she paused and turned to me, her expression dead serious – “and you’re to keep this a secret until the day you die: Valdemar reached Skyhaven two years ago. That’s around a year after his first recorded appearance.”

  I feigned a surprised reaction – perhaps too convincingly.

  She coughed, then nodded slowly in response. “Yes. Don’t ask me more, because I don’t know. Being Casten Vorrick’s ward doesn’t exactly give me access to top-clearance information.”

  Wait – ward? So that’s what she is to him?

  “Knowing Valdemar already had access to Skyhaven for years changed everything for me,” she said. “I started to suspect Libra had a hand in my parent’s deaths. And then I got this message this morning.”

  She turned her COG so I could see the screen. I stepped closer.

  The message was from ‘Unknown’, and read:

  [Kim and Phillip Verldson died twice that night. The fire was only there to cover the truth…

  If you want to learn more, transfer 2,000 Steamcrowns to the bank account I’ll send in the next message, then come to Brondeck’s Orphanage in South Orlinth at 12:30.

  Make sure Vorrick doesn’t know about this, or you’ll stay in denial for good]

  Then came the bank account number, and then a physical description of me – the same one she had read earlier – followed by a “this is how you’ll recognize me”.

  I rubbed my chin thoughtfully.

  “It might’ve been a lie just to bait you here,” I suggested.

  She shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. “I would’ve thought the same…if not for the recording.”

  “Recording?”

  She nodded, wiping her eyes. “It was left at my doorstep this morning. A short one. Just a few seconds long – but it was my father’s voice. Begging for his and my mother’s life.”

  I shook my head, trying to figure out an angle – anything that would help me identify who the second looper was.

  “What about the bank account? Did you try tracing it?” I asked.

  “Of course,” she said, eyes judging. “That was the first thing I checked. The account’s considered High-Tier in the Bank of Skyhaven.”

  “Which means?” I asked, unfamiliar with the term.

  “It means, among other things, that the account holder may have their identity hidden – even from Ironwatch. The only way to get any information about it would be with a Supreme Court warrant.” She exhaled. “And that would’ve taken too long and involved far too many people. Worse, it would’ve tipped off Casten.

  “And so, not knowing what else to do, I followed the instructions: transferred the money, then came here.” She coughed twice, then crossed her arms and looked at me. “Happy? Now it’s your turn.”

  “Wait,” I said, still trying to connect all the dots in her story. “I know it’s not easy to talk about, but…why did you think Libra would want your parents dead specifically?”

  She looked like she was about to lash out, so I quickly clarified. “I mean, if – like you said – Libra had access to Skyhaven for two years now, why target House Energy…and then just do nothing else on your platform?”

  “I don’t know,” she snapped, throwing her hands. “It just feels like the most obvious connection considering they constantly attack the mines in the Foundry.”

  “They also hit the Census Archives pretty often,” I countered. “Yet I haven’t heard anything about the heads of House Civics being killed.”

  “Oh, no,” she said angrily, shaking her head emphatically. “Whatever Libra does to the Archives is nothing compared to what they do in the mines. It’s practically constant war down there. It’s like Valdemar has an obsession with mana crystals.”

  That made sense. He needed those to arm his people.

  “Probably just a logistics thing,” I countered again. “More crystals means more armed Libra insurgents. Doesn’t mean he had a personal vendetta against your family. I don't see how killing them then following up with nothing could've benefitted him."

  "I don't know," she said again, shaking her head. “Who knows what's on that madman's mind?!" She coughed again, then added. "And still, you need to understand I’m talking about Aetheris. It’s not a crystal that could be used for combat and yet that’s the one they steal the most!”

  Aetheris?

  Were they building some crazy machine? But that didn’t make sense…one Aetheris was always enough to power any machine, regardless of size and complexity.

  My mind suddenly flashed to the sign-off line in the essay I’d been sent: Have you ever wondered what would happen if you fed your COG an Aetheris?

  Was Valdemar using the stolen Aetherises for this exact purpose? Was he using them to…whatever that experiment led to?

  Alice’s voice broke the silence. “Now, it’s your turn.”

  As much as her story was sad and disturbing, it seemed to have no new information that could help me.

  I quickly considered what I should reveal. Then it hit me.

  The similarity between us.

  “I’m actually searching for my mother’s killer too,” I said - not completely a lie.

  She raised an eyebrow, clearly thinking I was mocking her. “I swear, if you’re – “

  “I’m serious,” I cut in. “She died a year ago as well. It was ruled as suicide, but…apparently things go much deeper than that. I was told I’d find more information here, in this orphanage. But I guess it was all just a ploy to pit us against each other.”

  Her posture eased. Her expression softened. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  Now I felt like shit for not saying the same earlier.

  “You said something about a list of suspects before,” she said suddenly. “Can you…share it with me?”

  An idea crossed my mind.

  With an oligarch by my side, I could…

  “What if I told you I know who Valdemar is?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “I’d say you’re not funny.”

  “But let’s say I’m telling the truth,” I said. “How far would you go to find him – and figure out if he’s behind what happened to your parents?”

  She exhaled sharply through her nose, jaw tight. “As far as I need to.”

  “We won’t have to go that far,” I said, offering a weak smile. “Just the Census Archives a few blocks from here.”