Year 783 Octavus, day 18 of the seventh month of Domorus
Loud knocks echoed through the bedroom as shout resounded the knocks. “Dominus, dominus! You need to wake up dominus.”
Akana listened to Sidastir’s grunt as he entangled himself from Sidastir’s embrace. “I think the old hag is having a heart attack,” Sidastir muttered, but Akana just ignored him as he got dressed.
“Keep sleeping. You need your rest.”
He walked over to the door and opened it at a frown at Stella who was both red from screaming and pale out of fright. “Dominus, we have guests.”
Akana looked out through the window. He didn’t mind guests at dawn but from what he can tell, relevis love sleeping in so it was a surprise that anyone was up at this time. “Who?”
“The Mayin and-” Stella gulped. “the head of the guards, Atrox Falcis.”
Akana wasn’t too surprised by the Mayin. They knew each other after all. Normally, Akana would have guessed that the Mayin wanted to invite him somewhere, but the head of the guards. What is he doing here?
“Lead the way,” Akana said, not caring that he only had the minimum clothes on him for decency. Stella didn’t seem to care either and lead him to the Alae. The head of the guard, Atrox, was standing straight with his hands behind his back. His stern face was expressionless, and the dark grey eyes turned to Akana as he entered the Atrium. The Mayin stood by the Impluvium, watching the water, only turning to greet Akana with a smile when he heard Akana’s greeting.
“Welcome to my home, Mayin.” Akana turned to Atrox. “And I don’t think I have the pleasure of meeting you.”
“I’m Atrox Falcis, head of the guards.”
“Welcome to you, but I must wonder what such two distinguished people are doing in my Alae at this time of the day.”
The room became tense, only Stella’s cane echoed as she rushed to the Culina to get some beverage. “I’m guessing that it isn’t for good news.”
“We had hoped to speak with your husband,” Atrox confessed grimly, and Stella had got him instead since she trusted Akana more than Sidastir.
“He is currently sleeping. What is this about?”
Atrox grimaced, looking over to the Mayin for help but got none so he answered reluctantly. “There has been a murder. One of the participants is dead.”
“Oh, which one?”
“Laus Julianus.”
“Who?”
The room fell into silence, Atrox stared at Akana like he was waiting for a proclamation of the question being a joke. It wasn’t, Akana had no idea who that was.
“The relevi who taunted Sidastir just before you left,” Mayin clarified, and recognition flashed over Akana’s face.
“Oh, that man. Yes, I’m not surprised. He seemed most unpleasant. Are you here to talk to my husband since he argued with him?” Something quite ordinary when investigating a murder.
“No, the head of the guards are here to accuse him of the murder,” said the Mayin with a smile, though his eyes were cold. Atrox flinched at the accusation but didn’t seem to relent. He just stared firmly at Akana who pursed his lips.
“When was the murder executed?”
“What?” that question seemed to rattle Atrox.
“When was the murder executed?” Akana repeated, slowly like Atrox was unable to understand him.
“Around midnight,” the Mayin replied easily.
“Then it wasn’t Sidastir. He was occupied at that time.”
“With what?” Atrox snorted, the Mayin’s eyes gleamed in amusement as he already knew what answer would be coming.
“With me?”
“With… You?”
“Yes, we had a very lively night yesterday.”
“All night?”
“Yes, all night. Why do you think I allow him to sleep the day away? He has been working very hard the entire night. If you want confirmation, then we have two teenagers who like to listen to us, and I’m fairly sure that Stella can tell you as well as she knocked and asked us if we wanted refreshment during one of our pauses.”
Atrox just stared at him. “All night?”
“Yes, we are young and healthy. We have only been asleep for about an hour, if Julianus wasn’t killed during the last hour, then it couldn’t have been Sidastir.”
Atrox seemed to want to repeat his question, but the Mayin interrupted him. “We apologize for the inconvenience. We will speak with your servants, and guards just to be on the safe side, then we will go and find the real culprit.”
“If I might ask, why were you convinced that my husband did it?”
“The way he was killed. Julianus had been killed by being frozen solid. Suggesting it was done with ice magic,” the Mayin explained and got a glare from Atrox, but that had caught Akana’s attention.
“Is there no other ice mages in the city?”
“Not that we know of. Ice mages are rare since they are considered to be evil in some parts of the nine kingdoms. They live in Domor and Balkrav in secret. Your husband is the only one we know of,” the Mayin explained casually before adding. “Though the murder wasn’t done by ice magic. Only Atrox here believes so since he knows nothing of magic.”
“Oh?”
“I’ve seen Sidastir use his magic on people. It is both fascinating and horrifying. Scattered like glass. This one had his organs frozen from the inside, not his entire body frozen on the outside to inside.”
Akana doesn’t know what to say to the Mayin’s description of Sidastir killing people but the last one caught his interest. “His insides was frozen but not his outside?”
“Indeed.”
“Poison?” Akana said, more to himself than others.
“A potion to be exact, done by alchemy. It is more often used to break metal, From what I can tell, he has drunk the potion and his inside froze,” the Mayin explained, glancing over at Atrox who looked disgruntled.
“Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“I did, or at least tried but you were convinced that the Rial of Eitir was the culprit.
Akana snorted, “Relevis and Patricalis all like to accuse foreigners of crimes. I had assumed that my husband was safe from it, but I guess I’m wrong. This potion… Is it easily made?”
“No, it demands a skilled alchemist. There are some in Relevium both most originates from one place.”
Akana felt a cold chill rush through him as the atmosphere tensed as he awaited the Mayin’s answer.
“Huzhidi.”
*****
”I don’t like this” Sidastir said once again but got no more reaction this time than before.
“It is the best solution,” Akana replied, once again while he was sitting in his kline, Ceva leaning over to watch the map he was holding.
“No, it isn’t. Someone was murdered and you want to go after them alone. That is no solution!”
“I won’t be alone. I will have Ceva and Attilus with me,” Akana said with the patience of an adult, but Sidastir was not as mature.
“Can’t you wait for me?” His voice almost came out as a whine.
“No, You will go to the first phase of the Trinetournament-“ Akana looked up,”-the soul phase if I remember correctly, It will most likely distract the murderer while I investigate.”
“Why not leave it to the head of the guard?” asked Magnus who had been quiet for a while not, really not wanting to go between the arguing couple.
“The same head of the guard who accuses Sidastir of the murder because he couldn’t differentiate between ice magic and an ice potion?”
The room fell into silence, eyes watching Magnus who gulped. “Good point.”
“To be frank, I’m not sure I will find anything but asking around while whoever did this is distracted seems like the obvious thing to do.”
“Where are you even going?”
“Forum Solaria, the market in the center of the city is a meeting point for all foreign merchants.” Akana’s eyes went back to the map.”With some luck, there won’t be too many merchants from Huzhidi there.”
“Are you sure it’s Sidastir they are after?” Cessare suddenly chimed in. “Huzhidi went after you last year, not Sidastir.”
Sidastir noticed Attilus tensing, he had not been with them last year so this was unknown territory for him. Akana frowned with a considering pout,” True, but… Considering the nature of Huzhidian culture, Sidastir is most likely a target by now.”
“Huzhidian culture?” asked Magnus in confusion.
“I’m always surprised by your lack of knowledge in Huzhidi,” Akana muttered.”Huzhidi has a strict honor code centered on preserving or regaining your honor as it determines what status and trust you have and gain in Huzhidi. You kill yourself rather than admit defeat to preserve your honor, as defeat might reflect poorly on your family, and seek revenge for a slight to regain it. Zhan Yuan sought me out to kill me last year because I had made him lose face when I burned his face. Sidastir killing Zhan Yuan has most likely made someone in Huzhidi lose their honor and killing him would allow them to regain it.”
“By framing him from murder?” Attilus suddenly said with doubt in his eyes. Akana seemed pleased with his doubt.
“You just put your finger on an important fact. Framing someone from murder would not give a Huzhidian back their honor. The only thing doing that would be Sidastir dying by their sword. Originally it is supposed to be in single combat and with the opponent being unharmed but as you remembered last year. Zhan Yuan had no trouble poisoning me to weaken me. All he had to do was later hide the fact that he had done so and claim he killed me in single combat.”
“What worries me is how they can know. The Mayin spread the rumor that Zhan Yuan went after him, not Akana. This is all relying on the Huzhidi knowing what should not be known,” muttered Ceva.
Akana leaned back,” There is a lot of strange clues that don’t make sense.”
“They do make sense if it wasn’t a Huzhidian who did it,” said a voice, suddenly coming out of the dark. Alacer stood there grinning as everyone flinched in surprise. Ceva looked ready to strangle him.
“How the hell did you-“ Her eyes narrowed. “What did you hear?”
Alacer just smiled at her, making Sidastir sure that he had heard the part of Mayin spreading rumors of what had happened in Virtus Scolaris. Well, shit.
“Ignore his obvious spying, and focus on his claim. His comment makes sense,” said Akana who was the only one who didn’t look surprised, making Sidastir suspect that he had known all along that Alacer was listening in to them. Since Akana wasn’t worried about the Phoenixprincess finding out about this Sidastir wasn’t either. Though he really disliked Alacer more for each time the man opened his mouth.
“So, you think it might not be a Huzhidian?” asked Magnus, trying to keep up with the conversation.
“I won’t rule it out, but it is easy to buy the potion from the local market from the Huzhidian merchants. There is no need to suspect they did it because they have outstanding alchemists,” Akana replied.”Besides, I’m still wondering if this whole thing was not about Laus Julianus and someone just thought it would be a perfect time to kill him after everyone knowing if his argument with Sidastir.”
“Well, if you allow me-“ Alacer bowed politely,” I can investigate Laus Julianus to see if something is coming up.”
Sidastir’s eyes narrowing,” Fine, but you will take-“ Sidastir’s eyes fell on Cessare, too lazy, then Ceren, won’t leave Cessares side, then a light lit up for Sidastir, “Mar Frisgis with you.”
Everyone stared at him while Magnus leaned in whispering in Sidastir’s ear, “Mar?”
“You are the one who is training him to be a leader of the Furies. This will be a good experience for him,” Sidastir whispered back. He knew nothing of the man except that he was an outstanding fighter, but at least he was better than nothing.
“Fine,” Akana said. “Sidastir focuses on the Trinetournament while Alacer and Mar investigate Laus Julianus. I, Ceva, and Attilus will investigate the Forum Solaria to see if we can locate who sold the potion and who bought it. Be careful, there is a murderer loose and if the culprit has killed ones, they can do it again.”
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