Chương 119: Chapter 112: I Don't Answer Questions

Lira did not believe for a second that she could follow Henry through the streets in broad daylight without being caught. Her magical obfuscation was good at night, but it was designed to make her difficult to notice, not completely invisible. A ghost-shaped blur walking through crowded streets would get her stabbed by the armored knight she was trying to follow. Henry was already suspicious enough. There was no reason to trigger him.

Instead, Lira decided that she would focus the Life Watch spell she had recently learned on him and watch him from her vantage point.

"Pika. Cipos. Syneth. Kalaba. Velar." Henry became the center of her vision. She could see the back of his helmet as he walked away from her vantage point. She guessed she would have to change her vantage point multiple times throughout the day, and it would become tedious really fast to keep climbing buildings. But to her surprise, it did not take Henry long to duck inside a building. It was a tavern, if she remembered correctly, one that sold a filling stew every night to help the drinking customers sober up.

She remembered her father heading there to fill one of their pots in the days when he was too busy to cook. As her Life Watch lost track of him, Lira immediately cast Focused Hearing instead.

"Pika. Cipos. Hishar. Kaldris. Velar."

"…would like some information," Henry was saying.

"Would you happen to know a girl named Lira Velora? I am willing to pay for information about her."

"You mean Gareth's daughter?" the tavernkeeper asked.

"Yes."

"Sorry, sir. Haven't seen her since her old man was brought to the block. Why? Is she in trouble?"

"That's private information."

"Poor kid. I hope she is alright." The conversation continued for another minute, but the tavernkeeper clearly did not know anything useful. Eventually, Henry thanked him and left. Lira watched him emerge from the tavern, walking directly down the street before entering a butcher shop. She shifted her spell's remote ear to the new location and listened again. The conversation was almost identical. A question from Henry and a not-so-helpful answer from the butcher, who didn't know Gareth, let alone Lira.

He left the butcher shop and entered a carpenter's workshop, and then a small church of Virtue at the end of the street. Lira's expression slowly became more and more incredulous. Is he actually going to ask every shop about me? This was one of the relatively good parts of Haltar, so people here did not immediately scatter when an armored knight approached them, but that did not mean they were eager to answer his questions either. Most of them were polite, but had unhelpful answers.

While some were deliberately obtuse. The old street cleaner, who was collectively hired by the businesses along the street since the city had stopped providing this service a decade ago, was the prime example of that. He had no qualms about showing Henry that he wasn't welcome.

"Do you know a young woman named Lira Velora?"

"I don't answer questions. Can I help you, sir?"

"Perhaps you knew her father, Gareth?"

"I don't answer questions, sir."

"You've worked on this street for a long time, haven't you?"

"I don't answer questions."

"Surely you must have heard something."

"I don't answer questions, sir."

"Even if I pay you?"

"I don't answer questions." Henry stared at him, but the old man continued sweeping.

"Why are you acting like this? What have I done to you?"

"The last time one of your kind showed up, a friend of mine got beheaded."

"You mean Gareth?"

"I don't answer questions, SIR." If Lira wasn't secured behind a layer of sound-dampening enchantment, Henry would have definitively heard her. Lira was laughing so hard... his face was priceless. Henry eventually gave up on the old man and headed to a vegetable shop instead. Lira watched him walk away, genuinely amused at how terrible he was at this. He was not street-savvy. Did he really not know how information was gathered in Haltar? This book's true home is on another platform.

Check it out there for the real experience. He was unrelenting; she would give him that. But he was practically announcing his investigation to the entire neighborhood. Wait! Maybe this is his objective… There were people in Haltar whose entire livelihoods depended on knowing what happened in the streets... people like Pallan. Maybe he was aming for them to find him since he didn't know how to find them. That's it. That's her way of pushing him off her trail. Why hadn't she thought of him immediately?

Lira needed to reach Pallan before Henry did. While Lira trusted Pallan wouldn't betray her, she couldn't help but fear that Henry had a way of sussing out the truth. He did claim that when intimidating Seron. She started climbing down from her vantage point. Once she reached the alley below, she deactivated her magical obfuscation enchantments. She stepped out onto the main street after adjusting her clothing and joined the flow of pedestrians walking in the opposite direction from Henry.

It took a visit to three syndicate-aligned establishments before Lira was able to locate him. Pallan was in one of the soup kitchens, sitting at a long wooden table, happily eating lunch among a crowd of beggars. His expensive clothes stood in stark contrast to the rags surrounding him, while the smell of onions and beans filled the air, almost overpowering the stench of unwashed bodies. Pallan did not seem to care. If anything, he looked perfectly comfortable.

It was a way for him to secure their loyalty, a performative gesture perhaps, but one that was never deployed by the nobles and royals, and the rest of the ruling caste. Kavard and the other nobles would never dream of stepping into such a place. And even Aric and Deren, who might, would likely question the smell, never realizing how costly a bath was for most of the poorest people. It was in those blind spots that a man like Pallan thrived.

Half the people in this room would die for him; the other half, while more self-preserving, probably wouldn't mind killing for him, and the lot of them would crown him king over Argon in a heartbeat. Lira approached the table, weaving between the crowded benches.

"Niece, it is nice to see you!" Pallan's voice carried over the chatter. Several heads turned toward her.

"Hello, Uncle. Can we speak?"

"Of course!"

"Privately..." Pallan glanced at the people around him, then at his half-eaten bowl.

"I am sorry, good folk. It seems that something came up." He picked up his bowl and drank the remaining soup like it was water before placing it back on the table.

"Come." He led her toward one of the small back offices. The room was barely large enough for the two of them. A desk, two chairs, and several shelves filled with ledgers occupied most of the space. Pallan closed the door behind them before gesturing for Lira to sit.

"So," Pallan said, settling into the other chair.

"What happened?" Lira took a breath.

"Someone is investigating Lira Velora," Lira said, her hand tightening over her knees.

"It's happening as we speak."

"Explain," Pallan frowned.

"I went to the Royal Academy." His eyebrows rose.

"With Prince Lyth and his bodyguard, Sir Henry," she added quickly.

"Continue."

"Everything was going well until I met someone."

"Who?"

"Grandpa Waxy."

"Lord Alexander Waxillam Nurad?"

"Yes."

"He recognized you?"

"Yes. He called me by name, Lira Velora."

"And what did you do?"

"I told him it was a misunderstanding." Pallan slowly leaned back in his chair.

"Did he believe you?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"He didn't press the matter. He just... accepted my explanation."

"So he either believed you or he didn't want to get you in trouble for the sake of his friendship with your father."

"Maybe..." Lira moved her hands from her knees to her lap.

"But now Sir Henry, Prince Lyth's bodyguard, is looking for 'Lira Velora'."

"Ah." Pallan's expression went flat.

"Where is he looking?"

"He first went to my uncle, but now he is going up and down the street asking anybody who is willing to listen."

"Oh." Pallan stared, grinning.

"He is baiting me or one of my rivals."

"This is the thing, though. He is persistent. I want you to make contact and push him off my trail."

"That shouldn't be too hard. I can always tell him Lira Velora died in the cold winter after she was kicked out by her uncle."

"I suspect he might have a truth spell," Lira shook her head, "or something along those lines." Pallan reached beneath the desk and pulled out an empty ledger. He placed it between them and opened it to the first page.

"I think I already taught you how to beat this kind of thing, didn't I?"

"You mean The Magistrate Deception Playbook?" Lira looked at the ledger. Lira didn't come by her paranoia naturally. It was nourished by years of working for Pallan and watching him use ridiculous amounts of contingency when dealing with various points of failure. And the Magistrate Deception Playbook was one of them.

While Pallan didn't know for sure that all Magistrates could cast a Lie-Detection spell, or even if Truth spells existed in the first place, he still had a personal policy to never directly lie to a magistrate. But that didn't mean he couldn't deceive them.

"Start writing." Pallan tapped the ledger.

"And tell me everything you know about this Henry fellow. I want to know everything you know about him, his character, his motives, and even his favorite food if you know it." Lira smiled. She had missed working directly under him. Pallan was competent and reliable. He was the kind of man who took care of the thinking that she would otherwise have to do herself. Most of the time, all she needed to do was follow his instructions and trust that he would take care of the broader picture.

For a moment, she almost wanted to tell him everything. She wanted to tell him how she had learned magic, how she had killed Thadwick, and how her actions had indirectly caused Salvek's death. She wanted to tell him about everything that had happened since joining the palace. But that would complicate their relationship. And worse, it would put him in danger. Pallan had always been a cautious man.

He would never have agreed to half the things she had done, and he would most certainly try to persuade her to abandon her path of vengeance against Lord Kenth Kelroth. For now, it was better that he remained ignorant. So she began talking. She gave Pallan everything she knew about Henry, from his personality and habits to his relationship with Prince Lyth and the way he approached problems solving.

While she was doing that, she also worked on a report, writing information in an empty ledger, all in accordance with the Magistrate Deception Playbook.