I blinked. I’d never heard of a summoned...person being summoned for anywhere near that long. Most summons only lasted for minutes to hours, as far as I could tell. “That’s very impressive. I’ve never heard of anyone like you. Can I ask where you’re from?”
She beamed, stretching her arms. “Weeeeell, that’s a bit of a long story. Researchers are core elements for the function of each of the Shifting Spires. Normally, we don’t come in contact with people... but someone was clever enough to find us, and made a pact with me! Or, original me, anyway.”
“I don’t suppose you could tell me where they found you, or who your Summoner is?”
She shook her head.
“Okay,” I continued. “What should we call you?”
“Oh, just Researcher is fine. That’s what everyone calls me. People keep offering to let me pick a name, but I don’t really see a point. Researcher describes my function accurately.”
I nodded. I could see the logic there. “Okay, Researcher. As it happens, we’re here to do some research.”
“Perfect!” She clasped her hands together. “How can I help you?”
“Well, I suppose we should start by looking for anything regarding Keras Selyrian.”
Her eyes flashed white again. “Keras Selyrian. Records and memory crystals are in row 14-F, third shelf, toward the center.” She waved to her right. “It’s over here, three shelfs down from where I’m standing.”
“Thanks.” I followed her directions, walking past row after row of boxes. Each box had a slat beneath it with a brief description of the contents. It looked like it’d been organized alphabetically by the first word. I found “Keras Seleryan” between “Keldyn Aendys” and “Kerran Vallir”.
I picked up the box eagerly. It was completely empty.
I went back to Researcher. “The box is empty. Do people usually take things out of here?”
Her eyes widened for a moment. “No one is supposed to remove anything from the archive without authorization. There wasn’t any given to take the files on Keras.”
Jin raised an eyebrow. “You’re sure of that?”
She turned toward him, blowing a hair out of the way of her mouth before speaking. “Uh, yes. If someone had given permission, they’d have to tell me about it. And I’m a Researcher. I have perfect recall of everything I’ve ever experienced.”
An eidetic memory? Or something even more advanced?
Hrm. That could be useful.
“Do you recall anyone else looking for his files, then?”
She nodded. “Yes, several people have. But not for several months now.”
Interesting. They could have been stolen a while ago, then. “Who was the last person you remember taking a look at information on Keras?”
She frowned. “I’m afraid I’m not authorized to answer that question.”
Of course not. That’d be far too easy.
I glanced at Jin. He shook his head.
Okay, it wasn’t Jin. Fair enough.
Besides, I returned the memory crystal he’d taken. That should be here even if Jin was the one that took everything else. That means someone took everything at some point after I returned the crystal.
I sighed. “Okay. We can check some other things, then.”
Researcher perked right back up. “Excellent! What else?”
“How about Vera Corrington?”
Researcher pointed to her right again. “Further down. Row 22-D. No memory crystals on her, but we do have a few files.”
I found her files without incident. Well, some files, anyway. I had no way of knowing if there had been others that might have been stolen at some point.
I handed half the stack to Jin and we walked back to Researcher. “Anywhere we can sit to look at these?”
“Toward the back of the room, left corner.”
We followed her instructions, found chairs, and sat.
The first thing I found was a copy of a Caelford Passport. In specific, a Diplomatic Passport indicating she was here in Valia on government business. I wondered why we had a copy of it here. Maybe this Divinatory served as a general information repository for the whole city?
That document didn’t have anything specific on why she was there, but there were several other type-written pages in the folder.
One of them was a copy of her documentation for entering the Serpent’s Tower. Glancing over that was much more enlightening.
Name: Vera Corrington
Age: 26
Ethnicity: Caelford
Attunements: Analyst
Reason for Entering Tower: Accompanying multi-national climber force for confidential research: Code Q-STN.
There was a bit more info on there, but nothing nearly as interesting as her reason for going in there. I’d have to see if I could find out more about that research project.
I showed Jin that page. He just said, “Interesting,” and went back to his own reading.
I dug a little further, finding a list of the people who had accompanied her into the tower. Lawrence Gold, Rochelle Gold, Carter Bishop, Echion Valden, and one name that I actually recognized: Elora Theas.
That’s the Summoner that was feuding with Derek, and also the same Theas that was in the Council of Lords with my mother. Could she be the one who’s preventing Vera from being arrested? If she’s a council member, she’d probably have sufficient influence.
House Theas was an old family. They were one of the founding families of the city, much like House Hartian. I didn’t know how far their influence extended, but either she or one of her relatives was definitely a council member.
I pointed her out to Jin. He seemed more interested this time. “If House Theas is involved with whatever this research was, you’re going to be in for some trouble.”
I rubbed my temples. “More than I’m already in?”
“You’d be surprised. Still, we should dig into this more. I haven’t found anything of interest in this pile. I’ll go see if I can find anything on Elora Theas or that code name.”
I nodded, continuing to read more about Vera. I found references to her coming into the city with her brother — Aloras — so I’d been right on that regard.
More references to that secret project, but nothing concrete on what it was about, or if she had any sort of sponsors.