And I can go anywhere I want
Anywhere I want, just not home
-- Taylor Swift, My Tears Ricochet
The last time Arafaren got a telegram it had been from the headmaster of his school warning him that if he didn't immediately improve his work he wouldn't be allowed to come back after the holidays. Most of the other telegrams he got were of a similar sort. So when a servant handed him one, his first reaction was to think of all the people he had offended recently.
It came as a shock when he saw the telegram was signed "Irímé". He had nothing to do with his sister's fiancé and certainly hadn't done anything to warrant an angry telegram. Then he actually bothered to read the message, and things became simultaneously more and less clear.
Please forward to Abi, read the first line. That was all well and good, but if Irímé didn't want Arafaren to read the rest of the telegram then he should have sent it to a different one of her relatives. Something strange happening stop have you done something stop.
Arafaren was many things -- none of them good, according to his parents and older siblings, whose favourite ways to describe him included "irresponsible" and "will annoy the wrong person and end up in prison some day" -- but in spite of what some people believed he wasn't stupid.
When Abi first arrived her foster brother had sent Arafaren a very confusing letter that referenced corpses and hungry ghosts. Abi herself had reacted as if he had given away some big secret. Then Abi had gone to visit one of her friends. Lo and behold, the planet had promptly experienced an outbreak of walking dead. Add to that the strange girl in funeral clothes who showed up during the festival, and a pattern began to emerge. A pattern that Arafaren didn't like at all. He may be a prankster who never took anything seriously, but even he knew there were some things in the world that shouldn't be meddled with. Dark magic of all sorts was at the top of that list. And necromancy was at the top of the list of dark magic.
From painful experience of Aunt Jiarlúr he knew that any letter he sent directly to Abi would first be read by their aunt. Therefore he had to find a way to get a letter to Abi indirectly. Arafaren made a mental list of everyone he knew in the Gengxinese court. It was a very short list with only two names on it: the sons of the current ambassador to Saoridhlém. He didn't know either of them well enough to trust them to pass on a message like this.
"Is Mirio still in Gengxin?" he asked Kiriyuki casually when they met at the Silver Palace that afternoon.
Kiriyuki eyed him suspiciously, but apparently decided the question was innocuous enough to answer. "Yes. I think he plans to stay for at least another month."
As soon as he got home Arafaren went to his room, got out a writing pad, and carefully composed a letter to Abi and a note to Mirio asking him to forward it to her. There was no easy way to ask "Are you a necromancer?" and in the end he settled for being as blunt as possible.
This telegram arrived from your fiancé. I think I know what he means by "have you done something". I have two questions: why in the Nine Heavens are you playing with necromancy? And are you going to get yourself or someone else killed?
He finished the letter with a very emphatic "You idiot!" written in the boldest letters he could draw and underlined several times in case she somehow missed seeing them.
His letter to Mirio was even shorter. Please give this to my idiotic sister and don't let Aunt Jiarlúr know.
Arafaren put both letters and the telegram in an envelope, addressed the letter to Prince Mirio at the royal palace of Gengxin -- he didn't know the exact address, but the letter was bound to reach the right person. There couldn't be more than one Prince Mirio in Gengxin, especially since it wasn't a Gengxinese name -- and sneaked down to his mother's study. Hartanna and Líusal were arguing about something in the drawing room. No one else was around. It was easy to get into the study, take a wax stick and Hartanna's seal from her table, and seal the letter to look like an official communication.
He then left the house and went to the Silver Palace in search of Kiriyuki. He couldn't find her, but he found a lady-in-waiting assigned to her who promised to send the letter this evening with Kiriyuki's post. That was the best he could do. Arafaren went home hoping that no one would suddenly be seized by the urge to open and read letters addressed to foreign royals.
On his way out of the Silver Palace he had to hastily jump out of the way of a messenger on horseback. Unfortunately it was a messenger who clearly subscribed to the "pedestrians are nuisances who must be taught a lesson" school of thought. Arafaren stumbled back and fell into the hedge. He glared after the messenger, who didn't even have the courtesy to look round and see if he was alright. She tied her horse in front of the guardhouse and ran in. Minutes later an uproar started. Arafaren, struggling to disentangle himself from the hedge, watched in bemusement as guards raced out of the guardhouse as if it was on fire.
I wonder who's died, he thought. The last time he'd seen such mayhem had been when a candidate for mayor had gotten drunk and fallen off his platform to his death in the middle of a speech.
Oh well. If it was important he'd hear about it sooner or later.
~~~~
"Haliran has escaped!"
The news spread quickly through all of the guards. From them it spread to the rest of the palace almost before the seneschal had time to inform the empress. Raivíth groaned when she heard the news.
"What were the guards doing? How could they let her escape?"
"Apparently there was an accident involving the carriage," the seneschal said. "Haliran escaped while the guards were ascertaining the damage. She's believed to be somewhere in the vicinity of Elegravan. All of the local police are out searching for her. They've posted descriptions of her in all the nearby towns. She won't get very far."
"Don't say that," Ninuath said grimly. "Every time someone makes an assumption like that the universe conspires to prove it wrong. We thought she wouldn't escape and we took measures to ensure her friends couldn't contact her, but now she has escaped and if this news spreads widely her friends will be able to track her down."
"I think we should inform her ex-husband," Raivíth said. "He might know if she has any friends in the area. Where is he? Still in Gihimayel Palace?"
"No, he's gone to Tananerl."
"Then we will have to send the message through Prince Ilaran."
~~~~
Ilaran could count on one hand the number of times he'd received a message from his aunt that contained good news. From the minute Kivoduin informed him there was an urgent missive from the Silver Palace he knew it was going to be something he didn't want to hear. It would have to happen right after Siarvin arrived, too. Now Siarvin would complain Ilaran was doing too much work. He'd already asked if Ilaran was getting enough sleep and eating enough. Ilaran knew his uncle meant well, but it was strange to be mother-henned like this after centuries of taking care of himself.
He took the letter to his study to read it in peace. What it said was beyond his worst fears. He'd expected news about yet another bill proposed by idiotic politicians miles away that would negatively affect Tananerl. Instead... How was he going to break this to Siarvin?
Naturally it was at this most inopportune moment that Abihira's thoughts intruded on his. I can't say all that. It has to be ten words or under. Maybe if I cut out this line...
Ilaran sent her the telepathic equivalent of an annoyed neighbour shouting "Keep it down!" at the noisy teenagers next door.
Sorry, Abihira said. Don't suppose you know how to keep a telegram short, do you?
Say as little as possible, Ilaran replied shortly.
I've tried that, but there's no short way to say it. I want to ask Kitri if she's noticed anything odd about the graveyard.
Then tell her that. Now please be quiet!
To do her justice, Abihira made an obvious effort to keep her thoughts confined to her own mind. She wasn't entirely successful, but under the circumstances that was hardly her fault. Ilaran read the letter again to make sure he hadn't misunderstood. Unfortunately he hadn't. Haliran had escaped and was now on the run.
He gritted his teeth and went in search of Siarvin.
~~~~
Abi drummed her fingers on the desk and frowned down at the paper. She'd crossed out so many words that she was left with only Kitri's name and "graveyard". After some thought she also crossed out the second word. She tried again beneath the first attempt.
Kitri have you seen anything odd stop. Well, that was certainly short enough. But it didn't explain what she meant by "odd". For all she knew Kitri might interpret it as an inquiry about any unusual sight she'd seen. Kitri has anything happened in marketplace stop. That was also too vague. Kitri are there-- She gave up and started again. Kitri check the graveyard stop.
Abi stared at the last one. It was obvious enough that Kitri would know at once what she meant, but it was vague enough that none of the workers in the telegraph offices would have a clue what it was about. Best of all, it was short.
Finally satisfied, she put the piece of paper in the fire -- no use in leaving it lying around for Aunt Jiarlúr to find -- and went to the nearest telegram office. It was outside the palace walls. Technically Abi wasn't supposed to leave the palace without telling someone, but she would only be gone a few minutes and could claim she was walking in the gardens. The guards at the main gate looked at her dubiously, but decided it was too much trouble to question a foreign royal and let her pass without comment.
There were enough foreigners -- mainly merchants, though she spotted the occasional tourist -- in Tiansheng[1] that no one spared Abi a second glance. The girl in the telegraph office didn't speak Saoridhian, but she understood enough Seroyawan that Abi could get her message across. Once that was done she walked slowly back to the palace, looking curiously around at all the shops.
One shop sold unpainted teapots. When a customer bought one they described how they wanted it painted, and one of the shop workers painted it for them there and then. Abi stopped to watch this. She didn't notice anyone approach until she looked up and found Lian beside her.
She jumped back with a startled yelp. Once the shock wore off she glared at him. "What the hell? Warn me next time!"
Lian looked sheepish. "Sorry. I often forget I have to consciously make noise for people to hear me."
"You must give a lot of people a nasty shock," Abi muttered. She began to walk slowly towards the palace. Lian kept pace with her.
"I do. That's why I usually don't bother to alert anyone when I approach."
That... sounded oddly like the sort of thing Arafaren would find hilarious. Abi raised her eyebrows.
Lian explained, "People leave me alone when I scare them. It's best for everyone if I'm left alone as much as possible."
On the one hand she could see where he was coming from. On the other, however... "But aren't you just creating enemies unnecessarily?"
He shrugged. "Which is better: people disliking me, or people not being wary of me and encountering me when I'm hungry?"
"...Do you eat people?"
Lian shook his head. "Not exactly. I just drink their blood."
They reached the gates of the palace and fell silent as they passed the guards. When they were out of earshot Abi asked, "Are you sure it was necromancy that turned you into this? You said you always reacted to the sight of blood, even long before you took up necromancy."
"I don't know," Lian said thoughtfully. "I think I may have always been more inclined to become a vampire -- vampires must come from somewhere, and usually it's said they used to be immortals. But whatever I was, necromancy made things much worse."
In hindsight it had been incredibly stupid of the two of them to walk into the palace together in broad daylight. But Abi had completely forgotten about Aunt Jiarlúr, and presumably so had Lian. From a distance there was nothing obviously foreign about Lian -- his hair was straight and dark brown, he currently wore it up in a Gengxinese style, and he wore Gengxinese clothes. As long as no one got close enough to see his eyes and the shape of his nose he could be mistaken for one of the servants or court officials. But if seen close up, no one would ever think he was Gengxinese.
"There you are, Abihira! Where have you been?"
Abi turned instinctively. So did Lian. Aunt Jiarlúr was right behind them. At first she barely even glanced at Lian. She opened her mouth to continue complaining about Abi. Then she froze. She stared at Lian as if she'd seen a ghost.
Oh no, Abi thought with dawning horror. Oh gods no.
Chapter Footnotes:
[1] Recap of information that hasn't been mentioned for a while: Tiansheng is the capital of Gengxin.