Warning: contains references to an animal being killed, cannibalism, and zombie-related violence.
I do not really know whether I have survived. My inner self has shut itself up more and more. As though to protect itself, it has become inaccessible even to me. -- Rainer Maria Rilke
Abi had never thought she would be happy to be under house arrest. If she'd thought about it at all she'd have assumed it would be unbearably boring. Now she had only to think of fleeing from the possessed Ilaran. Being bored didn't seem nearly so bad in comparison.
She expected her arrest to last at least a few months. She was wrong. Within a week of confessing everything to her grandmother, her parents ordered her into the main sitting room.
Her parents hadn't said a word about the whole sorry business. Abi would have preferred if they'd yelled and screamed about it. She knew her grandmother had told them. This wasn't the sort of thing she would ever be discreet about. Yet they hadn't raised the subject at all. In fact they had barely spoken to her about anything. It seemed she was being given the silent treatment by her entire family.
She made her way to the sitting room, mentally preparing herself for the yelling to begin. Her parents were waiting for her. Going by the looks on their faces this would be an incredibly unpleasant meeting. Abi sank into a chair and waited. Silence reigned for several minutes. At last Hartanna spoke.
"How in the name of all the gods did you turn out so badly? Of all the brainless things to do, you just had to choose dark magic. You could have killed us all!"
Abi winced. She couldn't defend herself so she said nothing. She continued to say nothing for another ten minutes while her mother told her exactly what she thought of her. The wish to fight back warred with the knowledge she deserved this lecture.
Finally Hartanna ran out of synonyms for "stupid". "It's in everyone's best interests if you are kept out of trouble until you can prove you've become marginally wiser. My mother has the bright idea of sending you to Gengxin with your aunt Jiarlúr. Frankly I think this is a terrible idea and will backfire on us all. I warn you, if you so much as think about meddling with dark magic I'll put you on a spaceship and send you to the nearest black hole."
Gengxin? Abi repeated silently, bemused. Why am I going to Gengxin?
She hadn't heard anything about what was going on there. All she could think of was that she was being exiled under the pretence of going on holiday.
Hartanna continued, "And when you come back, my mother will have made further arrangements to keep you out of trouble. I believe she intends to ship you off to Tananerl."
Abi was more confused than ever. Tananerl? But that's where Ilaran lives. I can't go there! He's furious with me!
She trembled at the idea of having to face Ilaran on a daily basis after she got him killed and then possessed. She still had to apologise to him for all of that. What with the house arrest and everything she hadn't found time to do it yet.
"So," Hartanna finished in a gloomy voice, "you'll pack what you need for the funerals and be ready to leave in three days."
Once more Abi hadn't a clue what she was talking about. Funerals? Whose funerals?
Neither of her parents elaborated. Her father hadn't said a word at all. He seemed to be absorbed in his own thoughts and barely paying any attention to what was happening.
~~~~
Mihasrin finally spoke after Abihira had left. "That's the second time one of our children has become obsessed with dark magic."
Hartanna froze. She and her husband rarely saw eye to eye on anything, but she had thought he knew better than to bring up that horrible incident. He continued in spite of her silence.
"My mother used to say the Sinistrah family is cursed. I think she was right. How else can you explain what happened to Imrahil?"
It had been years since anyone mentioned Imrahil. Hartanna tried not to think about him. She couldn't bear it. Hearing his name reminded her of the last time she'd ever seen him. He'd been dressed all in red, soaked in blood, and laughing. That laugh still rang in her ears over a thousand years after his death.
"Shut up," she snapped.
Mihrasin fell silent. After a minute he got up and left without another word. Hartanna sank back into her chair. A memory came back to her, of Imrahil playing with his pet rabbit. It changed to what had happened a month after that.
"Why did you kill the rabbit?"
Imrahil shrugged. "I wanted to see what would happen." His face changed and his voice distorted. "I wanted to see what would happen," he said, now looking and sounding exactly like Abihira. "I wanted to see-- I wanted to-- I wanted."
~~~~
Siarvin kept a close eye on Ilaran over the days following the possession. He didn't complain of being constantly hungry. He didn't get up in the middle of the night. He didn't lash out at anyone. In fact he seemed to be perfectly normal during the day. But during the night he tossed and turned for ages. Even when he lay still his breathing was too irregular for him to be asleep. After the second night Siarvin decided enough was enough.
"What's wrong?" he asked at breakfast the next morning.
Ilaran started. That was another difference. He was much more nervous than he ever had been before. The slightest sound would make him flinch. "Nothing," he said, stabbing his fork into his porridge. "Why would anything be wrong?"
Siarvin stared at him blankly. "...Are you joking?"
Ilaran bared his teeth in a parody of a smile. "What do you think?" His voice suddenly became much colder. "I've died, been brought back, been possessed, and eaten a corpse. I can still taste her blood in my mouth. What the hell do you think is wrong?"
Siarvin stared in horror. Ilaran dropped his fork and pushed his chair back. He was shaking now and he had gone a sickly shade of green.
"I'm sorry," he said in a calmer tone. "I didn't mean to shout at you. I just--"
He paled. Without a word he jumped up and ran out. Siarvin heard him retching in the bathroom.
When Ilaran came back he was still pale but slightly less green. Siarvin spoke before he had a chance to.
"I think it's time you went home."
Naturally Ilaran began to protest. He certainly had inherited Aderthril's stubbornness. "But I still have things to do here. I have to be there for Haliran's trial--"
"I can take care of everything for you," Siarvin interrupted. "As for the trial, that won't happen for at least a month. You know how long the legal system takes to do anything. You can come back for it. But in the meantime you need to go back to Tananerl. You're not going to recover here."
It took Ilaran a surprisingly short time to agree, which showed he must have been thinking along the same lines himself. For the rest of the morning they made plans for his return to Tananerl and what Siarvin would do while he was gone.
"I'll follow in about a week and bring Irímé with me," Siarvin said.
Ilaran nodded absently. He was thinking about something else again. He had that distracted look in his eyes that showed he wasn't really listening. "Have you heard anything from Abihira since... Since then?"
Siarvin shook his head. "She's under house arrest. Why?"
Ilaran shrugged. "I don't know. I just keep thinking there's something I need to tell her and I can't remember what it is."
~~~~
Post from Saoridhlém to Gengxin was much more regular than post between Saoridhlém and Seroyawa. It was thanks to geography. Gengxin was separated by Saoridhlém by several countries but only a short stretch of sea, while there were no countries but an entire ocean between it and Seroyawa. Mirio was still used to letters taking a long time to arrive, so it took him by surprise when he got one from Kiriyuki that had been written only four days before.
He read it in the privacy of his room -- not because he thought anyone would read it over his shoulder, but because Zi Yao was at the stage of recovery when he thought he was completely better but wasn't strong enough to play outside. His complaints were incessant and very loud. They were audible even in Mirio's room with several closed doors between them.
You won't be surprised to learn Abi is in trouble. Guess what? She's gotten arrested again, Kiriyuki wrote.
Mirio groaned when he read that. This was the fourth time Abi had been arrested. "What an idiot," he grumbled under his breath.
She's under house arrest. I don't know why. Something to do with starting a fire that got out of control? You'd better warn everyone to stock up on fire extinguishers because -- and I didn't believe this when I first heard it either -- she's going to Gengxin. Yes, really. Her grandmother is sending her to attend your cousin's funeral.
Mirio had to read that part several times before he understood it wasn't a joke. Then he groaned even more loudly than before.
Someone knocked on the doorframe. "Your Highness?" Lian's voice asked. "Are you alright?" When Mirio pulled the door open he found Lian looking very alarmed. "You sounded like you were in pain."
For the first time he realised the impression he'd accidentally given with his groans. He hastened to explain.
"No, I'm fine. Just annoyed. You know my foster sister?"
Lian thought for a minute. "The Saoridhian one?"
How many foster sisters do you think I have? Mirio almost asked. He stopped himself when he remembered Lian probably didn't know.
"She's coming here for the Second Prince's funeral."
"Oh." Lian looked mildly confused. "And this is... annoying?"
Mirio nodded. "You'll understand when you met her."
It was too bad. Gengxin had just gotten through one disaster. Now it was about to be hit with another. Which god had they offended?
~~~~
Like most magistrates Kitri had two houses. One was the country home she'd inherited form her great-aunt. The other was the townhouse she'd bought in the county town where she mainly worked. Keeping track of her belongings was a headache. She'd had to buy two sets of furniture and two copies of every book she owned, one for each house, and she had to have two sets of servants. It was such a nuisance that she rented out her country home most of the year and lived in her townhouse instead.
After the incident of the skeletons in the graveyard she went home to the townhouse. The ground floor was owned by a lawyer, in keeping with the custom on Muirus 9436[1], so Kitri had to get into her house by a small side door that opened onto a flight of stairs. She locked the door behind her, ascended the stairs, and made herself a cup of tea to steady her nerves. After that she went to bed and fell asleep much more quickly than she had expected.
Kitri slept through her alarm clock ringing. She slept through the bells chiming at midday. She slept until a terrible racket arose in the street below. The screams and running footsteps startled her awake. She leapt out of bed and pulled open the curtains. In disbelief she stared down at the scene below. At first she thought it had to be a nightmare.
A crowd of people in blood-stained clothes filled the street. They moved in jerks and lurches, like puppets controlled by an inexperienced puppeteer. In spite of this they could still moved with incredible speed. They chased down ordinary passers-by, who fled from them in terror but were only rarely quick enough to escape. The unlucky ones were caught and dragged to the ground. Kitri watched in horror as the crowd swarmed a woman and tore at her face. For a minute the woman disappeared amidst her attackers. Then they retreated. The woman's face was partly ripped off and her clothes were drenched in blood. She thrashed on the ground for several minutes. Then she got up and moved in the same puppet-like way the others did.
Kitri stumbled back. She bumped into a chair in her haste to get out of sight. There was a chorus of snarls and groans from the street below, as if the crowd had heard her.
This has something to do with the skeletons, she thought. From there it was easy to deduce, This has something to do with Abi.
She had to send out a warning to all the towns around her. And she had to get Abi to come here and undo whatever she had done. But first she had to get out of her own house without being caught.
She peered down the stairs at her front door. It was still locked. But there was a pool of blood trickling under it from the street outside.
Chapter Footnotes:
[1] It's customary on Muirus 9436 for magistrates or police officers to live above lawyers' chambers so they can keep an eye on the lawyers.