I told Patrick, Jin, and Sera that Orden’s assault on my room had been a “surprise test”.
Patrick took this at face value. Jin tilted his head, pressing his lips together against whatever skeptical remark he had lined up. It didn’t stop his eyes from rolling.
Sera wasn’t that polite.
“That’s a bunch of resh, Corin.”
I waved a hand dismissively. “I... might have done a few things to warrant the surprise test. But don’t stress over it. I’m pretty sure I passed.”
“Right.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Feel free to let the rest of us know when you feel like trusting us.”
I winced. Sera was right, of course. I needed to show a little trust for my friends if I wanted them to trust me in return.
I wanted to tell them all right then, but I’d made a plan and I needed to stick with it. The truth was still buried somewhere and I’d need to do more digging to find it.
***
Since I wasn’t ready to tell Patrick or Sera everything about what had happened, I waited until later in the day when I had a chance to talk to Jin alone.
I knocked on the door to his room.
He opened it a few moments later, wearing a quizzical expression. “Ah, Corin.”
I gave him my best conspiratorial grin. “Want to come with me to do some research on this ‘Keras’ guy?”
Jin gave me a considering look, then glanced away. “I suppose it might be more interesting than studying,” he told the wall.
We made our way to the library first. It seemed like a logical choice at the time, but the librarian was quick to correct us. “Keras Selyrian, you say? No, I don’t think we have any newspaper with articles on him. You can check — that trouble in Dalenos was about three months ago.”
Jin looked at her, head tilted. “What do you mean, trouble?”
“Oh, that isn’t what you’re here about? He’s a heretic. Gathered a big crowd and started preaching about how the visages have been lying to everyone. The local guard tried to arrest him, but he escaped.”
Well, that’s disconcerting. I stepped a little closer to the librarian’s desk. “Where could we find out more about him?”
“Well, the papers are on the second floor near the back,” she gestured toward the stairway, “but your best bet would be the Divinatory. They might have a memory crystal from someone who witnessed the whole thing.”
I blinked. Was that possible? I’d heard of memory crystals, but not much about them. “That sounds promising. We’ll check the papers first, then head to the Divinatory.”
We did just that.
It took a couple hours to sift through all the newspapers in the appropriate range of dates the librarian gave us — everything from about three to five months back — but we didn’t find anything on Keras. That wasn’t particularly surprising, though, given that the newspapers tended to focus on local events, political gossip, and occasional advertisements.
The most disturbing thing about glancing through the newspapers was the sheer number of articles talking about hostile actions along our border with Edria. Troop movements, weapons tests... even rumors of Edrian agents found across the border, probing for weaknesses.
Could a war with Edria be what Keras was talking about in Dalenos? If so, is he trying to cause a war, prevent one, or something else entirely?
I needed to know more.
We headed to the Divinatory next.
I went straight to the front desk. “Excuse me, we’re looking for information on someone named Keras Selyrian. Would you happen to have any memory crystals or other information related to him?”
The second-year student behind the counter scratched his chin. “Doesn’t sound familiar, but I’ll go check the archives. Wait here, please.”
He returned a few minutes later. “Uh, would you mind telling me why you’re looking into this?”
Uh oh.
“Research assignment,” Jin replied while I was still thinking. It was a good answer.
The student glanced at Jin, frowned, and then looked back to me. “I’m afraid all information on Keras Selyrian is currently in the restricted archives. Do you have an authorization slip from your professor?”
I shook my head. “No, it must have slipped her mind. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to let us take a quick look?”
“Definitely not. I’m not sure I could get you anything even if you had an authorization slip; it’s in a classified section of the archives beyond my security level. If your teacher wants you to see this, she’d be best off coming here herself and talking to the Researcher.”
I pondered my reply for a moment. “All right, we’ll talk to our teacher. Thanks.”
“Sure, sorry I couldn’t help.”
We headed back to my dorm room to discuss things. Jin leaned back against the wall, wearing a thoughtful expression. “Should we ask Orden to go pick this up for us?”
“I think if she was willing to do that, she probably would have already. I have a feeling this is probably another test.”
Jin nodded, seeming to reach a conclusion. “How important is it to you that we succeed at this?”
“Uh, pretty important? Not only could it provide critical information to help clarify what I’ve already seen, it could be the type of thing that might help keep me alive. I’d call that a pretty high priority.”
He nodded again, raising a hand to his lips. “Do you have some of your civilian clothing? Maybe a scarf or a coat that isn’t part of the standard uniform?”
I blinked. “Sure...?”
“Show me. I’m going to need to borrow a few things.”
“You don’t have your own civilian clothes?”
He shook his head. “I do, but nothing appropriate for what I have in mind.”
Well, this should be interesting, at least.
I showed him what I had in my drawers.
Jin selected a heavy winter coat, a tall hat, and an ordinary walking cane from my belongings, and then headed up to his room. The coat was a little bit too big for him, but not implausibly so.