219 (II)

Heartbreak

"You do not. I can see it on your face. You are powerful, and you are young. And this is not a slight, but a child is a weakness beyond strength, beyond power. When you have someone, someone made of your flesh, someone made from your love, someone you care for... you can't just let them go. The anger you feel towards them is greater than anything you can imagine. But so is the affection, and so is the pain. I pray you never hear your own child's screams, your own child howling for you. She screamed 'mama, mama,' even though I called her bloodless. Even though I struck her. It was like it didn't happen at all, because she howled for me. Me."

Magnolia swallowed, and she teetered on the brink.

"I managed to force the trap open. But then the Jotun were upon us. They were in the ice, hiding beneath the snow. They had been drawn by her cries. I was not the only Master there. There was a javelin-wielding Jotun, one that could travel through the stones themselves. He emerged, he flung his weapon at my girl. I barely managed to deflect it in time. But then it burst apart, and the air filled with smoke, and in the chaos... in the chaos..."

Magnolia stopped talking, and Adam leaned.

"In the chaos, I think... I think one of them used her as a shield, and I think I struck her with my axe." Now the Master-Tier Shifter spoke with a flat affect, as if she were separated from herself, lost in a trance. "I let the rage take me after. I let the wolf in, but when I returned to myself, the Jotun were dead, my daughter was gone, and over her body there was Marcus. There was only Marcus, and I... and I..." She looked at her hands again, and she began to shiver.

Shiv sighed. "Ask her if she killed Marcus in the aftermath."

"What?" Adam replied with startlement.

"She keeps looking at her hands, and she just told us that she went wolf and slaughtered all the Jotun. So. No one left to kill Marcus. He went after Opal too, and she probably found him cradling the body of her daughter after she came out of her trance. After that, well, not hard to guess, right?"

"Oh, gods."

The Gate Lord clenched his teeth and forced the question out. "Master Magnolia, did you slay Marcus Unblood in the aftermath?"

Caradah let out a cry of alarm, but Magnolia kept staring through the Gate Lord, and even before she admitted it, he knew.

"I saw him kneeling over my daughter, crying, crying as if she meant something to him. But she was my daughter… He caused this." Suddenly, Magnolia seethed. "I didn't use my hands, I didn't even think he was good enough for that. No, I forced him to drink a poison, one that shouldn't be curable, one that would simply make the body shut down; make his lungs stop working. It was more peace than he deserves. I just watched him fall, and after that, I laid him there. And... and..."

"Then you would claim that he was another casualty during the frost giant raid." Adam sighed.

"But then, the expedition… They were also attacked while I was gone," Magnolia said, clearly disturbed. Her words were getting increasingly incoherent. She shook her head, and a groan came out of her mouth. "When I descended the mountain to come and save my daughter, my own people were left exposed. And in my haste, I must have made too much noise, drawn too much attention. I found the survivors, my caravan, locked in desperate struggle by the time I got back, and so I threw myself into the fray as well. I fought, I saved who I could, but the other Shifters who came with me… They died. Bots. Men. Women. Friends I had known for years, left open and butchered because of the actions of one boy."

"And she's still blaming him," Shiv said telepathically. "It might be the only thing that's keeping her sane right now."

Adam leaned back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn't know what the System was trying to do by this point, if it was the System's doing at all.

Instead of an odd, quirky story about a boy who couldn't keep it in his pants, and two unfortunate girls who needed to make a decision regarding the children he'd sired, it was the tale of a collective chain of bad decisions leading to catastrophe. A Master-Tier Shifter in utter denial about her part in the whole matter, a slaughtered expedition, a very real murder committed upon Marcus Unblood, and now the renewal of the conflict with his "holy" resurrection.

No wonder Magnolia was so willing to swing her axe at him. She wasn't just trying to avenge the death of her daughter; she was trying to keep her guilt and the actual truth buried as well.

"Dearest Ascendants," Adam muttered. "This is such a godsdamned mess…"

"Fucking tell me about it," Shiv breathed.

Adam cleared his throat. "Master-Shifter." Magnolia didn't respond. "Master-Shifter!"

Caradah took a step forward. "Please, you cannot blame Master Magnolia! She suffered. She isn't—"

"I don't need you to defend me." Magnolia snapped, her eyes wide and blazing with fury. "I don't need to be defended. I am not wrong. I am not the one who did wrong. I am not wrong. I am not wrong." And with each time she repeated the word, she clutched her fists tighter and tighter. It was as if she was trying to hold back from breaking from the fear and pressure, as if she was doing everything she could to stop herself from going insane.

"What do we do now?" Adam asked Shiv.

Shiv hesitated, uncertain himself. "Now? We try to give her whatever closure we can and get her to stop hunting Marcus."

"But she bloody killed him, didn't she?" Adam hissed.

"Yeah, I know. But if we bring this out in the open, we're probably going to keep having problems with the old Brunswick boys too. The actual Inquisition will definitely be looking into it."

"So what should we do? Just cover up the murder?" Adam sounded incredulous.

"Maybe," the Deathless grunted, also sounding displeased. "It's not ideal, but—"

"Gods, Shiv. It's still a life." Adam groaned. "Marcus Unblood might be a shitty layabout who never used protection, but he didn't deserve to be murdered. He didn't deserve all this."

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"So what should we do, Adam? You want me to kill her? You want me to beat her to death?"

"No!" Adam almost cried verbally. "I just want some measure of justice to be done."

"I don't know what that looks like," Shiv said, and that hit Adam in a brittle spot too. "Not for this. There's no breaking this woman anymore. Short of killing the girl next to her or something insane like that, I can't hurt her any worse than she already is, and we sure as hells can't report her ourselves. I don't know what to do."

"Me neither."

Silence followed. Silence between Shiv and Adam. Silence between Magnolia and Caradah.

Shiv grunted. "I think we should ask Irons. I'm sure he would have a suggestion."

"Might be a good idea," Adam replied.

"Am I to be judged, Interrogator? Am I to be judged for defending my daughter's honor? For striking down the one that led us to ruin?"

Adam hesitated for a long moment before he spoke. "It is not my place to say. However…" he trailed off uncomfortably.

"However," Shiv suggested helpfully, "she and the other Old Brunswick people are to stay far away from Marcus Unblood. For he is of interest to the Inquisition, and there is an internal trial pending with regard to him as well."

"Marcus Unblood is no longer your concern," Adam began once more. "He is the concern of the Republic's Inquisition, and we will see that he is properly punished or absolved once our investigation is completed. I say this again…" Adam leaned in. "I must insist you do not go near him. Not until I or someone else from the Inquisition grants you the proper exemption."

"I don't know if I can stand it," Magnolia said, her breath airy and raspy. "If he is allowed to live free in this world, to live without burdens after all he inflicted..."

"He is not free," Adam stressed again. "I said an internal investigation is pending. Furthermore," he lowered his voice, "we do not know for sure if he is truly Marcus Unblood. Necromancy has still not been ruled out."

Magnolia frowned, and Caradah flinched back. "Necromancy," the girl whimpered in fear. She painted a cross before herself and split it in half, making the sign of the Ascendants. A moment later, Magnolia repeated the same action with greater reluctance.

"Are you sure, Interrogator?" Magnolia asked. "I truly did not smell the taint of undeath on him."

"We are not sure, which is why we are investigating," Adam said flatly. "But I am going to be blunt, I have never encountered a boy who woke up in the morgue, despite the urban legends. Awfully convenient, don't you think? And did he seem different to you? Bolder? Crueler? Like kind of an arrogant bastard."

"Ouch," Shiv muttered.

Magnolia's mouth opened and closed several times, but she finally offered a nod of confirmation.

Caradah, however, clutched her chest. "Does this mean that his soul is still trapped between worlds?" she whispered, dread evident in her voice.

Adam sighed. "Uncertain. But it's best that you keep your distance. He could see you and your child infected if he is truly undead. The Inquisition will contact you and administer proper reparations."

"Reparations?" both Caradah and Magnolia said at the same time.

"Yes. As you are associated with the subject, and he owes you a remittance, we will see you compensated for… losses. As is Republic policy."

"Adam," Shiv said. "What are you doing?"

"Something foolish. We're going to need to scrounge up some mithril for this girl."

"What do we need to do that for?"

"Because she's a poor, unfortunate, underage wildergirl who's carrying the child of a Curse-born bastard. Her brothers seemed nice enough, but she's going to need some resources if she wishes to keep the child and raise it well."

"And where are we going to find that mithril, Adam?" Shiv asked, sounding slightly annoyed. "You're going to make me steal from one of the—" And then the Deathless paused. "Oh, that might work. Where's the nearest bank?"

"No, Shiv, we're not staging a bank robbery."

"You're damn right 'we're' not doing it," Shiv replied. "But you know, I don't always keep track of where Whisper or Gone and Kura might go."

"You're talking about committing crimes!" Adam hissed with near-outrage.

"Well, since we have Legendary criminals lying around, we might as well use them for crimes, no? And I'm talking about taking personal action against the Ascendants here, Adam. For everything they committed against us. It's righteous retribution."

"You'd be hurting local communities."

"I've seen the local communities. They're noble; they'll survive."

"Shiv!"

"Interrogator," Caradah said, "are you alright? Why are you making those expressions?"

Adam gritted his teeth as he caught himself. "It's just that your story has given me a headache. It's truly bleak." He looked down at the ground, and Caradah sniffled, trying not to cry again. "One of my agents will be in touch with you. In the meantime, stay away from Marcus Unblood. This is for your own safety. And last but not least…"

Adam held up a hand for Magnolia to stay quiet while he tried to decide what parting words he had for her, if he was really just going to let her go like this. "Your daughter, you said she screamed your name. When she was caught in the trap, she screamed your name, not Marcus's?"

Magnolia's face twisted in outrage. "Yes, of course mine."

Adam stood up and took a step toward her. "Good. You must remember that. You must remember that she was begging you, and only you, when she was caught. And she was only there because you needed to be a Master Pathbearer, and you weren't. You needed to be a mother, and you weren't. You needed to control yourself, and you didn't. There are consequences! Consequences! And we pay them!"

"Adam, don't—" Shiv was calling from the inside, but the Gate Lord ignored him. With every word he cast in Magnolia's direction, she shook as if struck. Her hand kept dropping toward her axe, but pulled away every time she remembered where she was and who she was facing. A single tear dropped from her left eye.

"You have a responsibility to her now," Adam said, pointing at Caradah. "You have a responsibility to the rest of your people, and it is a responsibility that supersedes your hatred for some unblooded boy."

"I was—" Magnolia began.

"There is no making it right!" Adam shouted. "I don't care how you feel or what you think the cause of all this was. It's too late to make things right. Your daughter is dead. Your people are dead. There's only what comes after. Now," he let out a breath, "get out. I will find you in time. We will inform you of how the Marcus Unblood situation is to conclude. But in the meantime, he is ours. You stay away. You touch him, and you touch Inquisitorial property. Do that, and I put you in a small cell. Too small for you to even kneel. You will stay there for a few years until you learn your lesson. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Master Interrogator," Magnolia ground out, clearly more terrified than offended now. She didn't want to nod, but she did. She refused to look at Adam at all in the aftermath, and Caradah all but fled from the room as soon as Adam released them. The Master-Tier Shifter walked on shaking legs, and when she opened the door, the three boys were waiting there with bated breath.

Standing among them were members of campus security. They wore that prismatic cuirass and the beret, which signaled their belonging to the academic militia. But they weren't alone. For with them was a very tired, very unimpressed Captain Harry Irons.

"Oh, good." Adam sighed. "Time for me to sour his day some more too."

"Captain Irons," Adam called. "Come in. Please. Just you. I am finished with my interviewees. I wish to inform you of the results so that you may see the Inquisition's will enforced."

Irons's left eye twitched. "I see." He stepped into the room, and Adam prepared himself to ruin another person's evening.

"Is it weird that I wish we were fighting another group of Legendary psychopaths instead of this?" Shiv muttered.

"No. Me too, Shiv. Me too."

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