The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 9, 101st continuation)
Part 1
Part 9, 100th continuation
Landing Page
Peric’s letter to Hereward had done as much good as they thought it would, but at sunset the next day two half expected visitors arrived. Well, Lucille had expect Sal - it was Durai who was the surprise. As they all looked at each other, the two guards with this look of apprehension in their eyes, she knew they’d both heard about the letter at the very least. Sighing, Sal sat down while Durai stayed standing, both of them looking as though they were expecting the worst.
“It had to be you,” Sal said. “You’re the only people who’ve recently learnt new information about the counterfeiters.”
“Did Hereward think so?”
“No, he thought it was someone trying to lead us in the wrong direction, again, but we’ve had so many of them that I do understand why he thinks that way. I recognised the handwriting, because I’m the one who’s been poring over the files that you brought with you, trying to find any clues as to who might be in charge here.” Sal sighed. “Obviously I didn’t have to in the end.”
“Sorry,” Peric said, looking between Sal and Durai. “I didn’t mean to make you waste your time in that way.”
Durai shook his head. “Don’t be silly, Peric. We needed all the help we could get and you being able to get those memories out of the mind of the assassin… it’s the sort of break we never thought we were going to get. It was pure good luck that she even knew who the leader of this cell of the counterfeiters were.”
“Good or bad?” Bertram asked, shifting uncomfortably as he tried to get his wing into a less painful position. “We know who the leader is and thanks to Peric we also know of a connection that could mean we takes strides forward with the investigation, but it isn’t something that Hereward wants to believe in possible. Unlike him we’re already preparing for the possibility that it is true, because we need to be ready if it is and if it isn’t…”
“Which seems unlikely,” Lucille continued, “after the conversation we had with Meriwether. Fortunately he knows more about mind magic that the rest of us, so he told us that what Peric found out was probably true or simply the goanna lying.”
“I think it’s true.” Sal shrugged. “I don’t want it to be, because dealing with the Fasachis is never easy, but it’s the only logical explanation for some of the things we’ve seen.”
“After we realised there was a link with Fasach we started thinking things through.” Lucille ran her hand through her hair, looking at the two guards and hoping they would be the ones who’d understand. “It seems most likely that the counterfeit ring started in Theas, because that’s where the most magic is, before moving onto Fasach, in order to gain the support of the most dangerous hame. Although this is only a theory we were hoping to be able to talk to the two of you about it.”
Finally Durai sat. “I’ve been thinking about the white mice that attacked us. When Hereward received the anonymous note about the possibility of there being a connection to Fasach I couldn’t help connecting the two and I’ve sent one of my recovering guards to see if they can find any of them.”
Lucille smiled. “We thought about that too, but I didn’t think any of the mice would have stayed in Seahorse. I expected them to leave, for good, as soon as they possibly could.”
“So did I, but we might get lucky and if we do we have a little more evidence to go to Hereward with.”
“Would that convince him?”
“I doubt it.” Sal glanced down at the table and then back at Lucille. “Hereward wants to believe that this is something we can fix simply, now that we know who the leader of the cell is, but it isn’t. We’re not the place where the counterfeits are being created and that means we need to learn more. Honestly, all he really cares about is Seahorse Port, because this is his city.”
“What happens if we find the Fasachi link?” Peric asked.
“He’ll project his anger, the way he always does, onto someone else, because he’ll know that he made the mistake. Some of the other notes we’ve received that he’s ignored have held useful information, but he never wanted to believe that what he was reading was true.” Sal shook his head. “It’s be your fault, Peric, as you were the one who drew the information out of the brain of the assassin.”
Peric nodded. “That’s what we thought.”
“It’s why you sent the note, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is. I didn’t think Hereward would believe me if I told him, so the note was the next best option. I hoped he’d read it and wonder if it was true, but obviously that thought didn’t cross his mind, so now everything will be my fault.”
“No, it won’t, Peric, because we know too.” Sal smiled. “Durai and I have already talked about how we can begin to prepare the guards for the possibility of there being Fasachis, but not everyone will want to believe us. They’ll accept what Hereward is saying, no matter what mistakes he made before, as they don’t want to believe it’s possible either.”
“Thank you.” Lucille mentally breathed a sigh of relief. “We do appreciate it.”
Sal’s smile faded. “Guards are still going to die. That’s what happens, unfortunately, when we find ourselves in this sort of position, but we’ll do our best to stop the from happening.”
“It’s not as though it’s something we weren’t expecting.” Durai sighed. “We don’t want these things to happen, even though we’re in a job that can be dangerous, and yet we still prepare for them. Guards have chosen friends who’ll talk to families, they’ll have letters prepared, money will have been set aside… we ever have a system set up for the widows and widowers of the guards, so they’ll be given a certain amount as compensation before their monthly payments start and they’ll last for three years, to give those who have lost a chance to get on their feet again.”
“How many people have needed to use that system?”
“More than we’d like, but as I said we have a dangerous job. It’s more dangerous in a city like this than somewhere like Sheepshank, because we have more people coming through, and it isn’t unusual to even have murderers, although we haven’t had one of them for a while, thankfully.”
Sal nodded. “Our lives are always turned upside down then, but the counterfeits have caused the most damage to the city. We’re in such a difficult position right now, because we can’t really do anything even though that’s what’s expected of us, and anything we say to try to explain isn’t enough. When people are dying due to the charms I’m not surprised. I wish there was more we could do, instead of wait for information that might never be shared, while being sent numerous false leads, which we have to check out without sharing with anyone, just in case.”
“It’s a mess,” Durai confirmed. “Even now that we’re in a much better position than we were, thanks to the information we’ve been given, this whole thing is going to take years to fix, and there are no guarantees that removing this cell now will even do us any good.”
“We’ll do everything we can,” Lucille said, “to bring an end to the entire ring.” She felt Peric’s eyes on her and wished she’d had a chance to talk things through with the two of them before she said anything like that, but hearing Durai sound so depressed made her want to make things better for him… or try to, anyway. “I’m already preparing for the possibility of us ending up in Fasach.”
Peric nodded. “Even though I don’t know how I got so involved I have and I’m not going to walk away before the job’s finished.” Lucille smiled. “This has become our mess, somehow, so I doubt that going home and pretending none of this ever happened is going to do us any good.”
“I also have a certain book to find before I can go back to Athare.” Lucille ran a hand through her hair. “The last thing we need is for the counterfeits to find themselves on another world and I can’t help thinking that’s their main plan.”
Sal studied her. “It does make a lot of sense. Is that why you stayed?”
“It’s part of the reason, Sal, but really I just wanted an excuse to learn more about Quiar and this was the best one I had.” Lucille shrugged. “Some days I wish it wasn’t, because I’ve seen so much pain, and yet I don’t regret having this chance, as I would never have had it if the counterfeits didn’t exist.”
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.