Guardian of the Night

4

It took some time but, eventually, the Secretary sat back once again, his hands returning to his stomach. He did not appear satisfied but Bilain wasn't certain what the man expected of her. She was a retired soldier, a Watchman tasked to keeping the peace in an area of the city prone to outbursts of violence. She had never made any pretension of scholarly practices. The man's brow furrowed even more.

"Secretary Asnarrus, I feel I must point out that I am not, nor have I ever been, much of a thinker. This is not the kind of thing I am best suited for. Give me a brawl in a tavern and I'll stop it. Show me a thief and I'll catch them." She leaned forward, tapping the sheets of paper. "This is the kind of work a learned person should undertake. Someone that can see things an old sword-hand like myself would miss."

"You say you found a Senate Seal upon one of the bodies. And a key? Did you bring them?" At her shake of the head, Asnarrus' expression did not change. If anything, the ridges upon his forehead deepened. "And, you say, that this 'shadowy vigilante' is, most likely, unconnected to the clandestine meeting between the Senator and these men? How can you be so certain?"

"I can't. That's exactly what I'm saying, Secretary. This isn't within my talents." Bilain could feel the loss of her position coming, like a rising tide about to wash her out to sea. "My most clever Watchman can see no pattern in this vigilante's actions, Sir. They appear random and I would say, with no certainty mind, that they simply happened upon a man being murdered and gave instant retribution."

Asnarrus turned his head to the side, gazing out of the windows to the sky. Clouds drifted by in the time it took for the man to deliberate upon Bilain's words. His hand rose to his mouth, pinching his bottom lip before he tilted his head, as though he had concluded a conversation with himself. With a cough, he reached for his goblet, took a sip, rolled the beverage around his mouth and then finished the rest in one, quick gulp.

"The girl. 'Little Mim'? She related everything she heard?" As though a casual afterthought, Asnarrus lifted the papers, tapping a fingernail upon one part before looking back to Bilain. "Can this testimony be considered accurate?"

"The girl hasn't a duplicitous bone in her body, Secretary, and not half as bright, either." Bilain didn't like this line of inquiry, but she couldn't say why. A sudden need to protect Mim washed over her. "She's more as like to give up information and then demand payment as lie about any of it. I'm of a certainty that she related exactly what she heard as she remembered it. She's a good one, that girl, given half a chance."

"No doubt. No doubt." Asnarrus rose from his chair, moving back to the side table, goblet in hand, lifting the bottle to fill the goblet again. He gazed out of the window as he drank. "It concerns me, Grasall. It concerns me greatly. Though The Sprawl is, was, Yiladry's Ward, along with the other eight Senators, it isn't a normal occurrence for any of them to visit the place. I mean, would you, if you had no need to?"

"The Sprawl is my home, Secretary." It took everything Bilain had to hold a neutral tone to those words. The Sprawl was like an annoying brother, but a loved one. She would hear no ill spoken of it save from those that called the Ward home.

"Quite. Regardless, my concerns remain. This business of requiring a unanimous vote for something. That is the kind of vote that would have huge repercussions for the entire city, so what would require such a vote?" He asked the question, but Bilain had cause to believe he expected no answer from her. "And this vigilante? I need to be certain that they are not in league with whoever this 'Chief' is. Who are they? Both of them. You do an admirable job, Captain, but your task is not yet at an end. Continue the investigation."

"Sir, I beg that you assign someone far better suited ..." The look he passed to her caught Bilain mid-sentence and the words stalled in her throat. She hadn't expected such intensity from such a man. "As you wish, Senate Secretary."