"The sun should've risen in High Tomenedra already." Instead of accepting Berganza's offerings, I stuck my hands on my jacket pockets and paced around. "If his pns went right, he should've attracted the necromancer's attention already. I don't know what he intended to do, but seeing how he hasn't summoned me, he should be safe. For now."

  Berganza had finally found out about my oath to Azul. Naturally, he'd never tell me to my face how intensely he disapproved of my decision. The intensity of his disapproval was such that I could nevertheless feel it.

  That upset me far less than I expected. Of course, I owed much to Berganza and I wished I could've honored his wishes, but that's not always possible.

  Seeing how I couldn't do anything else, I sipped from the chilled gss of water and read the reports. Anybody can send the King of the Dying Sun a message, and every message is read, but they're all screened before they reach me. Too many of them are frivolous or entirely misguided. People who believe their bad luck is the result of a curse instead of poor decisions, or that their lover left because of an evil spirit forced them to. The house staff answers such messages in my stead.

  Because I made sure no messages were neglected, I also got requests of help that had nothing to do with my area of influence. I pulled strings whenever possible. The two I received after screening that day were, at least, potentially caused by necromancy, but required further investigation. An allegation of suspicious goings-on in the South Quarter, and a missing person in Greater Vorsa below.

  I signed the reports and scribbled a request to send house staff to the affected areas for observation and further reports. Ghosts have an easier time blending with their environments than the fleshed, so they could find out the truth better than me. Especially if, after all, the causes weren't of necromantical origin.

  Berganza received the signed reports. Having taken care of this, he considered it was time for me to take a rest.

  However, I was already heading for the map room. Berganza followed me, insisting that lunch would be soon ready, and I should leave work to people not afflicted by the need to eat.

  "It's likely I'll spend the next few days awfully busy. I want to get all the work I possibly can done before that."

  In Berganza's opinion, it was precisely because of this that I should rest while I could. None of my arguments were particurly effective against this one, so I said nothing.

  Unlike the portal room, the naming of the map room was instantly obvious. Three of its walls were covered by a spell showcasing the three continents: Sorelimés in the west, Quinoptra to the northeast, Zalmuric in the middle.

  Several ghosts drifted across the room, sometimes scribbling on notepads, sometimes paging through old tomes from our library. They're sensitive to the Underworld's presence and unperturbed by it, which makes them much more helpful to the King of the Dying Sun than living people would be.

  When I entered, Ms Reeds was looking at the map. Specifically, at the Imsha peninsule. She'd been illiterate when alive, except for a few phrases in a nguage from the Underworld, and those she reproduced with grammatical errors. The concept of green-and-blue shapes in the wall that portrayed her former home with geographical exactitude seemed to be fascinating and somewhat baffling to her.

  Ms Reeds was the st necromancer I'd dealt with. After making sure she had nothing more to fear from me, she made her disapproval of me killing her cn, especially her child, perfectly clear. I admitted I regretted her child's fate, but believed she shouldn't have taught them necromancy, and therefore couldn't be guilted. She disapproved of this, too. So did her child.

  It's reasonable to wonder why Ms Reeds still lingered in the world of the living, and at my house of all pces. Of course I could've helped her cross over, like I'd helped her cn. She, though, feared she'd end up somewhere particurly unsavory. Most likely one of the hells.

  I said it was funny she'd admit her own guilt right after compining about me. She didn't think it funny. I told her I couldn't know for sure what'd happen to her. She called me a worthless priest. I told her I disliked the idea of imposing a dogma on others. Ms Reeds threw a rock at me. I deflected it with a uba form and warned her that if she did that ever again I'd throw her right into the nearest hell. She cimed not to believe me, but I could tell she wasn't entirely convinced.

  Before the situation became even more ridiculous, I told her any spirits of the dead who desired to improve themselves were welcome in the Umbra mansion, where many others devoted themselves to caring for the still alive. And so, she'd come to after-live with us.

  Berganza still hovered by my side. I asked him to bring me a cup of tea. It wouldn't be long before lunch, but I had time for it. He left silently.

  I turned to the map, pulling the section with Vorsa on it closer. No new instances of necromantical activity had been detected. Not good news, unfortunately; I'd hoped the necromancer who'd attacked Azul would've revealed themself. Most necromancers share a city with me. I suppose that's not as strange as it sounds; it's the most densely poputed city in the world. One or two acts of necromancy can go unnoticed by the map, though, so this proved nothing.

  First, this necromancer had shattered a crystallized murder, summoned a hand of needleteeth, and disappeared before I could arrive. They acted like an amateur, brute-forcing creatures out of the Underworld by the simplest measure. And yet they'd found a way to activate the crystallized murder from a distance—because it simply wasn't possible for them to leave before I arrived. Their mobility was much more limited than mine.

  And then, Azul had dreamed of those sniffers. I couldn't tell for sure, not when I hadn't witnessed it, but my guess was that my spell had helped him feel them coming before they got too close. After all, I hadn't been summoned. That meant he'd avoided the sniffers before they became a threat.

  That's not what worried me. If the same necromancer who'd summoned the needleteeth was the one sending the sniffers after him, then either they weren't acting alone, or they were a fast learner. I had to keep both possibilities in mind, or Azul would be in even bigger danger.

  .I turned to Ms Reeds. She gred at me.

  "I'm lucky, though," I said. "I have an amateur necromancer right here."

  Ms Reeds didn't particurly like the sound of that.

  I sat on the corner of a desk. "Don't you want to help innocent people to improve your karma? Unless you don't have a concept of karma, that is."

  Ms Reeds got the idea just fine, thanks.

  "Then you should agree with me."

  Ms Reeds doubted anybody embroiled in my business could be considered innocent.

  "That's why you shouldn't believe in your bad faith assumptions." She fumed at me, but I ignored her. "You'll meet him sooner or ter, anyway. Then you'll be able to judge by yourself."

  Suddenly, the entire room was much more interested in my words.

  I realized my mistake too te. To be fair, I didn't expect Berganza would tell the others I'd oathed myself to this person. But that didn't mean they couldn't put all the puzzle pieces together.

  Berganza entered with a tray right then. Even if he was to bme, I couldn't bring myself to ask him in front of the house staff. I sipped my tea in silence.

  The house staff awaited expectantly, except for Ms Reeds, who made a point of ignoring me.

  I could tell Berganza was curious too, even if he wasn't at ease with this situation.

  "None of you have shown any interest in my lovers before," I said.

  As the house staff—but not Berganza or Ms Reeds—let me know in a rushed, overpping flood, I’d never shown so much interest in any of my lovers before, either.

  I sighed. "As Berganza will tell you, my sense of honor is either outdated or ahead of its time. Seeing how we're bound together, I don't see why we shouldn't be lovers. Anything else comes from your imagination only."

  Ms Reeds scoffed.

  "Anyway, I was asking the resident expert in belligerent necromancers with little knowledge or experience to provide some insight into this specimen's viewpoint."

  Ms Reeds told me to go see my lover already and stop dithering at home in such an unbecoming way.

  "We agreed I'd take care of the necromancer and that's what I'll do."

  Ms Reeds, irradiating bitter contempt, believed a matter of life and death called for decisiveness.

  "I trust what he's pnning."

  A leader should trust themselves, Ms Reeds pointed out, enjoying herself immensely. If I truly believed Azul might be in danger, I should intervene no matter what.

  “If he’s not expecting me, I could cause him more harm than good.” I told them about what little I’d seen of Azul’s approach to conflict resolution.

  This mellowed Berganza up just a little. It was the kind of skill he respected the most.

  Ms Reeds didn't seem to share his opinion. I was a fool to trust that man over myself, and he probably didn't trust me anyway.

  "Ms Reeds, that's enough."

  She flitted away with her head held high, not bothering to hide how smug she felt about her ck of cooperation. I sipped my tea and watched the map without really seeing it.

  Berganza drifted closer. He didn't believe I was obligated to keep Ms Reeds around.

  "As long as she's not disruptive to the house staff, she can stay. I can't very well expect her to be civil to the man who killed her entire family, can I? Besides, it's immature to be upset by something like that. All of her attacks are as blunt and easy to parry as the necromantical ones."

  Berganza seemed to accept this without question, but I wasn't fooled. I'd provided him with a convenient way to get rid of Ms Reeds by rallying the house staff against her—after all, they preferred Berganza and me over this newcomer. But also, as long as he knew he could be free of Ms Reeds if he truly wished to, he'd tolerate her a while longer. Hopefully, this would give Ms Reeds a chance to calm down, or even decide to move on.

  "There's something I'm forgetting, though. I'm sure it was reted to Azul and the necromancer."

  According to Berganza, this could be about Karolina Leni. I'd asked the house staff to investigate her a couple of days earlier. A living person had been dispatched to check the records, as ghosts don't mix easily with the living. So far, they had the basics and had started expanding from there. Leni had been born in the South Quarter a few years after me, then moved on to the West Quarter without keeping in touch with her family. Most interestingly, she'd been decred missing five months ago.

  "Last August—and it just so happens there was a silver noon that month. Well, we knew Leni had fallen afoul of a necromancer. Who reported her disappearance?"

  Her roommate did. Apparently it was Leni's turn to pay rent, and the roommate believed she'd gone intentionally missing to avoid doing so. Of course, the roommate was told the guards couldn't be deployed under such flimsy premises. Leni never returned, though.

  Berganza pointed out the roommate cimed to have seen Leni for the st time a couple of days after the silver noon. But, he hastened to add, that didn't mean it was true.

  "I'll trust you'll make sure to find if anybody at all can corroborate the roommate's testimony. By the way, this person has a name, right?"

  That's exactly what Berganza had found suspicious to begin with. The roommate's name had been left out of the official testimony.

  "Well, either that's suspicious in and of itself, or this roommate is afraid of someone. I do trust you'll find out everything you can about this situation."

  Berganza glowed with pride.

  "By the way, you know what was Leni's job, right?"

  She'd been an office clerk. Nothing particurly noteworthy about it, but Berganza could look into her employers.

  "Please do so. You know, for a moment I wondered if Melibe was behind this after all. Well, he could be. Naturally, he wouldn't have anything to do with an office clerk if he had a say on it. But sometimes office clerks in need of money turn to rich men who are known to sleep with younger women. And sometimes, people are blinded by the promise of nureals and threaten the rich and powerful. Those people rarely end well."

  Berganza thought this was quite the wild leap of logic.

  "And? Sometimes it's the wild leaps that nd closest to the mark. I'm not discarding any possibilities yet. Cassel's trapped in the quicksands of debt. That happens to provide both a reason for bckmail and a motivation for resorting to necromantical crimes—providing someone with a crystallized murder, even assassinating a retive of the Megarchon."

  Berganza thought one had to be desperate indeed to attempt that.

  "I suspect Cassel might be. He also thinks I'm somehow embroiled in whatever's happening in his capital. Necromancy just happens to be the easiest way to attract my attention. And then there's Oriana Lemarezin, who practically knew about Azul before he himself did. And perhaps some other Lemarezin."

  I meant Cris, didn't I? Except, as everyone knew, the chosen heir had been in the sunny beaches of Innel-Xel since st winter.

  "Yes, and he's made sure some pointless noise about his lovers gets into the front pages every now and then, just so everyone can tell he's safely removed from whatever happens in court. Rather convenient, isn't it?"

  Though Cris was gone, his influence hadn't been removed from Vorsa. Nobody would believe that. He wasn't Megarchon yet, and he might never be, but nobody rises so high without casting a long shadow.

  I didn't have to tell Berganza to keep an eye on him, though. He already did.

  broccolifloret