Guilt twisted through Via as she watched Patria take in her carefully-crafted crime scene. She smothered the emotion ruthlessly.
The murder is real, she reminded herself for the fifth time. This is just a little lie to help Ma see the truth.
Face greenish gray, her mater stood in the corner of the attic, trembling as she stared down at the camping grill and crystal tube. When she spoke, the knuckles of her clenching hands blanched whiter and whiter. "What do you need?" she asked through gritted teeth. "Whatever you need, you'll have."
Via drew a steading breath. This was why she'd planted the evidence. Finally, her mater would let her pursue justice without hiding her actions. She had no reason to feel guilty about lighting a fire under her ma's feet. None.
So why did she feel guilty?
She shoved the feeling down. "I need your authorization to investigate this thoroughly," she said firmly. "I can do that best with a warrant to search every facility, file, and person in the colony."
Her mater didn't blink. "Granted. Anything else?" Patria stooped to pick up the crystal pipe and then rose, clutching it in both hands. Her bronze forearm tensed as she studied it. Even Navigator-augmented strength couldn't snap the nanite-forged material, but for a moment Via thought her mater might try. When Patria's gaze rose to meet hers, she nearly flinched from the heat there. "Whatever you need, Via. Whatever you need."
She drew a deep breath. Anything I need? Let's see. "Give me your approval to interrogate using compulsion magic."
She expected refusal--her mater rarely authorized Navigator compulsions outside of emergencies--but Patria nodded again without hesitation. "You may compel those below your rank. For those who are higher rank than you, present me with probable cause, and I will grant you executive authority."
Well, since today is the day for getting what I need for this investigation... "I had hoped for blanket authorization," she said. I need to question the Chief Terraformers. But I don't want to tell you why yet. Not until I know I can trust you.
"I wish I could give it," Patria said. She shook her head, a muscle twitching in her cheek as her jaw clenched, then sighed. "But letting you search and question my junior Chiefs and their successors is already going to be messy without the indignity of compulsion to ruffle more feathers. But feel free to investigate thoroughly otherwise." Her eyes narrowed. "If you bring me probable cause to believe that someone was involved, I'll give you the authorization necessary to drag the truth from them."
It wasn't everything she'd hoped for, but it was more than she'd expected to get. "Alright, thank you."
Patria gazed at the pipe draped over her palms. She swallowed hard. "Do you have any suspects?"
"Not yet," Via lied. She offered up a prayer to the Eternal Radiance that she could remove her mater from the list soon. This anger and grief didn't seem feigned. She can't be involved. She just can't. I won't be able to take it if she is. "I'll let you know when I do."
"Good." Patria extended the pipe to her. "Bring me this killer, Via, and I'll bring them to justice."
She accepted it back into her hands, shoving down a pang of regret. The lie had been necessary. It would help unveil a bigger truth and bring two victims the justice that they deserved. She had no reason to feel bad. "Yes, Ma."
***
Via's first visit was to a very confused Mitis. As the Lifesupporter priest stepped aside to welcome her into his candlelit quarters, his salt-and-pepper brows drew down over his eyes. He scratched the stubble on his chin, kindling a tealight for Via on the tall bronze prayer-tree beside his door with a hum of nanites. "A propane tank, you say?"
She watched his olive face carefully. "Yes, just like with Ivan, only it powered a propane grill instead of a rock saw. I found it hidden in the attic, along with a pipe. The killers must have funneled the carbon monoxide down into her chambers through a tiny opening in the ceiling."
No sign of anxiety or guilt touched his expression as she lied. He shook his head. "I'm happy to give you my autopsy, but I'm telling you, there was no sign of carbon monoxide poisoning. Or any poisoning."
He led her past the prayer-tree into his living room. A shrine honoring the Eternal Radiance dominated one corner of the otherwise austere chamber. On the low altar, beeswax candles flickered around an amber glowing statue of a flaming eagle. The crystal facets cast warm light across the white room, mingling with the fainter emerald glow of the priest's laurel: the picture of divine life-giving power.
Someone took Grand Ma's life. Via's eyes narrowed. Did you help cover up her murder, Mitis?
"I need something else." Her belly roiled as the priest, hand outstretched to form a chaise from the floor, paused. She forced the words out anyway. "I also need you to answer a few questions."
He nodded, fingers smoothing the air as though coaxing the white crystals to form a cushioned seat even though his magic was doing all the work. "Of course, I--" His mouth fell open as her meaning sank in, and a blush crawled up his neck as his head jerked up. "Wait, you don't--"
She gestured to the crystal chaise taking shape like an unfurling flower. "Please sit. Make yourself comfortable."
As she claimed the nanites drifting through the air and drew them around her, his narrowing eyes followed the mirage-like distortion. "Is this really necessary? You know me, Kid."
"I'm sorry, Mitis," she said and found it was true. "But someone killed my grandmater and another man." And you, somehow, didn't notice. "For their sake, I need to know that the words everyone speaks to me during this investigation are true."
Regret rose anew. She wanted to believe Mitis was uninvolved, but the priest had seen her grandmater's body. He'd claimed her death had been natural, but Kaitlyn's message strongly suggested otherwise. Either Mitis had failed to spot signs of foul play, or he was helping hide a murder.
The Lifesupporter sighed and nodded. "I understand. Truly. If I could do what you do and thought someone had hurt my loved one, I'd do the same." He offered a small smile. "I'll try not to take it too personally."
Her heart hurt. "Thanks," she said quietly, "because it isn't personal, I promise."
But she was lying again. Nothing could be more personal. She should have recused herself from this investigation. Her mater should have transferred it to Ars the moment Via had submitted evidence that Kaitlyn's death had been foul play. But this was personal for Patria, too. There was no separating themselves from this. There was no way for them to be unbiased professionals.
"It's fine," Mitis said, and Via realized she wasn't the only liar in the room. Yet his lie soothed her conscience while her own lie gnawed at her.
It's necessary. The justifications were becoming a sort of chant. It's for a good cause, maybe even for the good of the whole world. I have to get to the bottom of this.
She wrapped Mitis in nanites and fed the humming machines her intention to suppress the will of another person and replace it with her own. To dominate. Although she couldn't see the microscopic nanites as they entered him, she could imagine them sinking through flesh and skull and into his brain, disrupting his neurons' impulses and replacing them with the nanites' own.
"Answer all of my questions truthfully and without holding anything back," she commanded. "Any other words you speak must likewise be honest and complete."
Mitis winced. Via knew from practice with her siblings that a Navigator's compulsions didn't hurt physically. Still, the violating sense of helpless submission to another person's will was its own kind of agony.
"Did you examine Kaitlyn Byrd's body after her death?"
"Yes," Mitis said through gritted teeth. He inhaled slowly, and some of the tension bled from his frame as he exhaled. When he spoke again, he was more at ease. "I performed a full autopsy."
"Were you completely honest with my mater and in your autopsy report about your findings?"
She started to hold her breath, but before she could do more than draw a nervous chestful of air, he nodded. "Yes."
Then if he noticed signs of foul play and hid them from me, that means Mater knew...
Nausea roiled in her belly. She dreaded asking the next question. Part of her, a small young part that wanted to stay ignorant and protected, would prefer to never find out if her ma was involved. That would make Patria's earlier display of grief fake, and Via didn't think she could handle that kind of deceitful betrayal.
She forced herself to ask the question. "What were your findings?"
Sympathy filled Mitis's face as he met her eyes. "Your grandmater, may the Eternal Radiance rest her soul, died of natural causes. Specifically, she died of cardiac arrest caused by a pulmonary embolism."
Pulmonary embolism? Surprise surged through her. Surprise and relief. Maybe Grand Ma died of natural causes after all? Via frowned as doubt, sickening and cold, chased the relief. Although...
"How does a healthy woman end up with life-threatening blood clots?" she asked.
Mitis sighed. "Sometimes just sitting or lying down too long can cause clots to form. Ancients are especially vulnerable, as their bodies do not pump blood very efficiently."
"And you found one of these blood clots in my grand ma's lung?"
"No." Mitis frowned, bushy brows knitting.
Via frowned back. "No? You didn't find a blood clot?"
"I saw no blood clots," he said slowly, as though discovering the shape of the words one by one. His eyebrows dropped lower, and he screwed up his face. "I... What?"
The confused alarm on Mitis's face made Via's heart race. "You saw no blood clot, yet you believe my grand ma died because of one?"
"Yes." He shook his head, and his mouth opened and closed several times before he managed, "H-how?"
She had braced herself to hear truths he wasn't willing to share, but his utter bewilderment at his own words made her head spin at the implications. "Did you witness actual evidence that her heart stopped because of a blood clot in her lung?" she asked quickly, as much to seek answers for his sake as her own. "Or that she suffered from a blood clot at all?"
"No." He shook his head slowly and met her eyes, gaze urgent. "This is odd." His hands writhed in his lap. "I never make diagnoses without evidence, Via. Something is off."
She nodded and knelt before him, clasping his worn hands as they trembled. "Tell me what you saw. What did my grand ma's skin look like during your initial examination? Was it red like Ivan's?"
"I don't know." He gaped helplessly at her. "Eternal Radiance, what's going on?"
"What do you remember?"
He drew a deep breath. "I arrived at her chamber after your cousin called me. She was already dead." He closed his eyes, face scrunching up as he thought. "I bent over her. I remember looking at her. Examining her. Yet I can't recall what anything looked like."
"Nothing at all?" How is that possible?
"Nothing," he agreed. His eyes opened, and stress carved itself into every line of his face. "I examined her magically as well, yet I don't remember what I saw. I just recall feeling very strongly that she died of natural causes."
"And so, based on that feeling, you--"
He shook his head hard, eyes pleading. "Via, this isn't how a medical examination works." He pried his hand free to press it to his heart. "How I work. I don't just make assumptions without evidence."
"I know." She squeezed his other hand. "I believe you. What do you think happened?"
He gritted his teeth, anxiety and anger warring on his face. "I think someone tampered with my memories to hide a murder."
***
Clari stared at Via with wide eyes. "Are you sure?" she asked. Her choked tone gave Via the impression that she hoped for a firm negative.
"He said under compulsion that someone messed with his mind," Via said grimly, keeping her voice low.
They sat cross-legged in the moss on the arcology's farm deck, surrounded by magenta rows of amaranth, fluttering orange monarch butterflies, and buzzing bees. Sun lamps glowed overhead, filling the field with plant-nourishing white light. There were no security systems here to worry about, and the closest sunbathers relaxed several paces away. Still, after what she'd learned earlier, Via's heart raced, and she twitched at every small sound.
"Maybe he was misrepresenting the truth?" Clari sounded doubtful of her own words. "Or... Or something?"
"He couldn't lie," Via said, studying the strawberry blond as Clari wrung her hands in her lap. "The compulsion only let him say what he truly believes." Her own hands clenched against the mossy soil where she leaned back against her fists. "And someone made him believe that my grand ma died of a blood clot."
"And made him forget whatever he actually detected during her autopsy," Clari said, voice tight and quivering. They both knew what this meant.
"Exactly," Via said and winced. She needed to say it out loud, but that didn't make the words easy. "But Clari, there's only one person powerful enough to do that to him."
"Two people," Clari said, jaw clenching. "I'm a high-ranking Communicator too."
Via sighed. "I don't suspect you, Clari."
"Just my mater." The strawberry blond's pale face twisted, growing sallow.
"I know it's painful to imagine," Via said, sitting upright. She rested a hand on Clari's knee. "But do you think she could be involved in something like this?"
"I... I don't know." Clari bit her lip. "She's as excited about the Trellis as everyone, but I have a hard time imagining her helping cover up a murder to protect it." The Communicator gulped. "Except..."
Via tried to keep the excitement from her voice. "Except?"
Clari studied her hands. "Well, I noticed something that makes me wonder." She bit her lip, then lifted her eyes. "Something that freaks me out, Via"
The excitement over the prospect of getting to the bottom of this washed away as dread surged. Her heart raced as she took in Clari's fearful face. "What?"
"I checked the security records for Ivan's room like you requested."
Via nodded. She had asked Clari to pull the data for her as soon as she'd received permission to investigate. "What did you find?"
"Nothing." Clari shook her head. "It's like your grand ma's chambers. So I checked the records to see who disabled the system." She drew a deep breath. "And I found my name."
Via blinked. "Did Ivan ask you to--"
"No idea." Clari drew her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. She glanced around the field, then dropped her voice to a low whisper. "Via, I don't remember doing it. I don't remember Ivan and Aura asking me to do it, either." Her shoulders lifted in a helpless shrug. "I thought maybe I just forgot for some reason. That maybe when I did it for your grand ma, I did it for Ivan too. I don't know. It seemed weird, but not super suspicious. But now..."
"Now you're not so sure."
Clari's eyes were wide and pained. "And I'm next in line to become Chief Communicator, Via. There's only one person with mind magic powerful enough to take memories from me."
"Your ma," Via said.
Clari nodded, face pale. "My ma."
*~*~*
CHAPTER ARTWORK
*~*~*
Mitis's quarters
The Starlit Arcology's farm deck