Teft grimaced. “And what have you and this ‘Voice’ been doing, Lyras? What have you gotten into?”
“A whole lot of nothing interesting, Jonathan. Investigating the backgrounds of the people that Corin freed from those cells, as well as the disappearance of Tenjin.”
“You consider that uninteresting?” Teft scoffed.
“Only in that I found so little of relevance. Whoever is concealing Tenjin is far beyond my level of power and influence. Vera and the child are nearby and already under observation. They appear to have deep ties to the government of Caelford. I’m not sure if the children are aware of this, but in spite of their distance, most of our government considers Caelford our closest allies.”
Jin put a hand to his forehead. “Caelford. Really? They’re your closest ally?”
The disdain in his tone was obvious, but I could understand it. If he really was from the royal house of Dalenos — a much geographically closer ally, sitting directly to our north — he’d have every reason to be upset.
Orden turned to him. “It’s not my opinion, Jin. As I said, that’s the stance of some people in the government.”
He grunted and gave her a nod. “Very well.”
Orden leaned up against her chair. “Now, Vera’s significance still isn’t clear to me, but she is a member of a powerful merchant family. She appears to be living with her brother, Aloras, an automobile engineer.”
Just as I’d suspected. I stood up. “Do you think that they’re spies for the Caelford government?”
“Possible, but unlikely. Allies do spy on allies at times, but they’ve been largely keeping to themselves, and we’re well aware of their presence and location. They’re not doing anything overt, which implies to me that they’re waiting for something.”
I nodded. “Like Katashi’s attack. Would they have known the location of the weather shield’s generators? Is that information public?”
Lyras pursed her lips, contemplating for a moment before answering. “An automotive mechanic does potentially have the skill set to sabotage a generator, so you have an interesting idea. If Caelford had decided to side with Edria in a conflict, they could have sent agents to take down our shield... But I don’t think they would have been able to locate all the generators. I’ll check with my contacts to see if they can determine where Aloras was during the attack. It’s an interesting hypothesis.”
I felt vindicated by the idea having some merit, at least, and sat back down.
But, on a hunch, I sat down on an empty space rather than my chair. Another chair appeared to catch me!
This place was amazing.
I needed to figure out how it worked at some point.
Orden didn’t look nearly as excited about the chair manifestation room as I did. Instead, she turned toward Teft for the next part of her explanation. “The other prisoner that Corin freed was Keras Selyrian. I’m sure you’ve heard the stories about what he did in Dalenos.”
Teft nodded and Jin tensed.
Interesting. Does Jin know more about Keras? I assumed that the crystal he showed me was the only thing he found in the Divinatory, but he certainly could have found something else that he kept to himself.
Teft replied, “I saw the memory crystal. I’m not sure the children are supposed to hear about this.”
“Oh, please, Jonathan. That’s hardly a secret. It was in the newspapers.” She turned back to me. “Have you learned anything more recent, Corin?”
I shook my head. “Nothing much. I heard he was sighted heading toward the Edrian border.”
Orden frowned. “How’d you come upon that information?”
“I spoke to my mother, as you suggested, but only briefly.”
The professor nodded. “Good. Have you followed up on anything more recent?”
I shook my head. “Nothing since then, unfortunately. I tried to find you again, but you’d headed into the tower at that point.”
Orden frowned. “You can’t always expect me to answer everything for you, Corin. If you wanted information, you should have broken into the restricted archives in the Divinatory.”
“You expected me...to break in...”
She chuckled. “Whisper candidates are expected to be... resourceful. You’ve proven that way in other areas, but I suppose you’re still not much for trespassing. I’m sure we could work with that, if you end up joining us — but no matter. That’s not the issue right now. I hadn’t actually heard the report about Keras heading toward Edria. That’s something we need to investigate further. I’ll give you a key to the archives. Ask the Researcher for anything regarding Keras within the last few months.”
I nodded. “I’ll do that, but have you found any more information on your side to indicate if Keras is involved?”
“Very little pertaining to him, I’m afraid,” she admitted. “Prior to your mention of Aloras as a suspect, I was considering the possibility that he had been the one to destroy the shield generators. That’s still possible, but Aloras actually seems to fit better. I find it more likely that Keras is the one who is responsible for Tenjin’s disappearance. If he could fight one visage, it’s possible he could have harmed another one.”
No one seemed very comfortable with that statement. It was sacrilege to think a mortal could harm a visage. They were, after all, supposedly aspects of the goddess herself.
At least locally.
I knew that in Caelford, the Mortalists sect believed that the visages were actually heroes who had managed to climb all the way to the top of the towers and ascended to divinity.
Pantheonists, a prominent religion that was primarily in Edria, believed that each of the visages was a god in their own right and biological children of Selys.