You Are Guilty

Hearing a response from inside the room, Xialuote quietly let out a breath of relief. If there had been no sound after the knock, and opening the door had shown only an empty office, the "Purifier" squad, having come up empty, might well have turned at once and made straight for the Suolun mansion to arrest Lawuer Suolun, the man most suspected of leaking information. After all, even Xialuote could think of the suspicious points about her father. The Inquisition, which had secretly investigated the whole of Suxite, could not possibly have overlooked them. Perhaps they had let Lawuer's daughter take part in the operation, yet deliberately put it off for a night, all for the sake of a "test"? Even a baron, of a collateral branch of the Suolun family, who had maintained some contact with the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, could be taken away for interrogation if there was solid evidence that he had helped evil cultists evade pursuit. Fortunately, Zhuli'an Laite was still here... Xialuote drew her thoughts back in and pushed the door open. This office was far plainer than Lawyer Moerwan Dulang's workroom. A coat rack stood on the side by the door, a tricorn with an upturned brim set upon it. In the center of the room was a chair for visitors, and at the far end a broad wooden desk. The papers that had lain spread on the desktop were already put away, stacked neatly on the left. The window was set behind the desk. Through it one could see a narrower street behind the Municipal Hall, and farther off King's Road, where the lights were gradually coming on. The last glow of dusk overlapped the light of oil lamps lit ahead of time, laying shadows that were none too distinct beside the desk, the window frame, and the coat rack. A middle-aged man stood behind the desk. He seemed to have just finished tidying up before leaving for the day. His coat was neatly on, and his neckcloth was already tied; only his white curled wig still lay on the desk, leaving bare hair of brown-black mixed with white. He was clearly prepared to receive Madi'erda of Viscount Abei'er's household. The courteous smile an official habitually wore when receiving a young noblewoman was already set on his face, but the moment he saw that the one who had entered was Xialuote, that smile stiffened. Did he know Madi'erda? No. That was not the surprise of discovering someone impersonating a noble, but the panic of seeing a person who should not have appeared here... Xialuote's thoughts spun. At once she put on a slightly awkward smile, lifted the hem of her skirt, and curtsied. "I'm sorry, Mr. Laite. I deceived you. "I am actually Baron Suolun's daughter, Xialuote Suolun. Because of what happened in the Old City before, I was afraid you would refuse to see me if you heard my name, so I borrowed Madi'erda's name." She paused, and lowered her head as if rather ashamed. "I didn't want my father to worry, and I wanted to find out the truth, so I could only pay this visit in such an improper way." This was one of the things she had agreed to say with Weiyefu well beforehand. Even if Zhuli'an really was an evil cultist and had recognized Xialuote, under an excuse like this he would in all likelihood not turn hostile at once, but would take it one step at a time. To keep him steady, she had not even used the abilities of an "Arbiter." Sure enough, the stiffness in Zhuli'an Laite's expression eased, and a mild smile returned. "So it is Miss Suolun." He glanced at the personal maid by the door, her head lowered, a trace of puzzlement in his voice. "Since you are one of the victims, of course I will do my best to cooperate. Please, sit." Xialuote nodded and took two steps forward, but she did not sit. She stopped before the desk, where she could see Zhuli'an's face clearly and still fall back to Weiyefu's side if he suddenly resisted. Feigning an expectant look, she watched him closely, trying to find in her mind fragments of memory from the sacrificial ritual that day. Swaying candlelight, blood on the ground, figures in cloaks... Those fragments were still chaotic and hard to make out. But as Xialuote looked at the body Zhuli'an Laite's coat concealed, and tried in her mind to set a black robe and cloak upon it, one stretch of memory suddenly grew clear. Could he really have been among them... Xialuote felt a measure of certainty, but she had no time to think further. She knew Zhuli'an did not truly believe her. Only because both sides were still keeping up a peace on the surface was he pretending, for the moment, to cooperate. At the first flaw, he would be sure to turn on them at once. She raised her right hand and, as if a little nervous, lightly stroked and kneaded her neck. This was the signal she and Weiyefu had agreed on before setting out. It meant she was confident the other party was an evil cultist, and that they could move. The next second, Weiyefu, who had been standing by the door, suddenly raised her head and flung open the robe of her disguise, revealing a white shirt, a dark waistcoat, and close-fitting trousers beneath. The Sun Holy Emblem hidden inside her collar flipped out with it, and the golden-yellow abstract sun symbol caught a glint of the sunset's afterglow. Intense light, with her at its center, filled the whole office in an instant. The walls, the window frame, the desk, even the carpet were lit as bright as noon, and in that same instant the wall across the back street outside the window flared with a blinding reflection. With her back to the source of the light, Xialuote only felt everything before her eyes swallowed by scorching sunlight. Zhuli'an, taking the glare full in the face, clearly did not have it so easy. He shut his eyes by instinct, pain on his face, and flailed both hands, trying to block the light and the attack that would follow. Xialuote knew very well that although she was already an "Arbiter," she would be of little use in a head-on fight at this level. She took half a step back and to the side, drew from her cuff the Sealed Artifact dagger that had wounded Aidian, and set herself on guard. In the instant the fierce light vanished and the office darkened, Weiyefu flashed past her side and leapt bodily onto the desk. Her right hand clenched into a fist. Brilliant radiance welled between her fingers, as if she held a diminished sun in her palm, and she was about to smash it down on Zhuli'an from above. But just as this evil cultist was about to meet the same end as the black-robed woman at the printing plant, the temperature in the room suddenly dropped. Xialuote's spirituality immediately gave a vague warning, as if some danger were drawing near. Its target, though, was not her. It pointed at Weiyefu on the desk. "Watch out!" She called out at once, and at the same time noticed a mass of shadow emerging at the ceiling, as if something that had originally been outside the room were arriving under a summons. It had only a faint human outline. Its arms were stretched long, its face twisted, and it was lunging down at Weiyefu from above, meaning to fasten itself onto her. Weiyefu did not look up. Illusory golden flames sprang up one after another around her body, quickly joined into a sheet, and became a sea of light. They kindled no paper and no wood. They only traced the shadow's outline in full, and burned across its surface. Then Weiyefu twisted at the waist, raised her right leg in a sideways sweep, and, with a rush of wind, kicked hard into the shadow's flank. The burning shadow shattered in an instant and scattered in the air like water mist struck by sunlight. That was a "Sun Priest's" Purification Slash against evil spirits and vengeful spirits. But in that brief moment, Zhuli'an had already recovered the ability to move. He opened his eyes, reddened by the fierce light, shot Xialuote and Weiyefu a hateful glance, and his body suddenly blurred. His whole self became like a pool of shadow stretched long by sunlight, and he melted into the darkness beside the desk, a darkness formed jointly by the sunset outside the window and the oil lamp within. Xialuote reacted. Gripping the dagger, she bent and stabbed at that patch of shadow. The blade scored across the carpet with a ripping sound, but the shadow was already sliding flat along the floor toward a corner of the room, like a streak of black ink on the carpet. Xialuote did not chase it in vain. She shouted: "Light!" Her Yindisi language, of course, carried no Extraordinary power at all. But in the instant she gave the warning, Weiyefu also spoke a word in the Hermes language: "Light." Soft radiance spread from her. Every gap in the office that had been wide enough for a shadow to move through was filled, and the black shadow fleeing toward the corner shrank violently. But just as Xialuote thought it would be forced back into its original form, the shadow, already at the door, turned in a flash. Braving the sunlight that filled the room, it charged for the window, drew once more before the half-open window a human outline with blurred features, and, without the slightest hesitation, flipped out through it. Weiyefu gave chase at once. Her body, bearing the sun's radiance, leapt and followed out the window. He had actually gotten away... Only then did Xialuote push herself up from the carpet. Dagger in hand, she carefully approached the window. She was not worried that Zhuli'an would truly escape. To prevent that, the two "Purifiers," Yelun and Qiao'er, had already circled around behind the Municipal Hall. Although they were only Sequence 8, a "Light Suppliant" and a "Barbarian," one to support and one to fight up close, they could certainly hold Zhuli'an if he leapt from the building to flee. What was more, from the brief Extraordinary fight just now, Xialuote had found that this evil cultist, like the black-robed woman who had attacked her last month, had little resistance to the many abilities of the "Chanter" pathway, or to the holy water they made, and was suppressed as if one attribute were directly countering another. Once Weiyefu went to support them, catching him would only be a matter of time. She hoped that this time they could get something useful out of him. Unlike those two evil cultists last time, who had clearly been nothing more than people carrying out orders, Zhuli'an ought to have been a direct participant in the sacrificial ritual... Turning this over in hope, she leaned her head toward the window, ready to see how things stood below. Just then, an icy sensation suddenly came through the dagger in her hand. This Sealed Artifact was warning of hostility aimed at her—hostility from behind! Xialuote's body turned before her mind did. She spun and looked toward the doorway. In the narrow darkness formed between the open door and the wall, a figure was slowly emerging. The human outline swiftly solidified into skin and clothing. It was Zhuli'an Laite, who had just leapt out the window. No. He had not escaped by jumping through the window. That false shadow had deliberately fled out the window in front of Weiyefu, drawing the "Sun Priest," whose abilities completely countered his, out of the office, while his true body hid in an overlooked shadow and showed itself again only when Xialuote was the only one left in the room. This man was at least Sequence 8, and might even be Weiyefu's equal. Taking him on alone was no good idea... Xialuote judged at once. Her rear foot pivoted toward the window. She meant to copy him and vault straight out, to join the Purifiers below. But Zhuli'an did not lunge at once. He stared at Xialuote, and his expression was neither smug nor savage, but thick with puzzlement. Seeing that Xialuote, too, meant to copy him and jump from the window, he raised his right hand, index finger extended, and before she could move spoke a sentence that belonged to none of the languages Xialuote knew, yet let her understand its meaning at once: "You are guilty!" The jump she was on the point of making stalled, as if she were bound by an invisible force. In her heart, though, she could not make sense of it however she turned it over. I... am I? The next second, Zhuli'an went on in that unfamiliar language: "You have committed the crime of killing!" The office fell silent in an instant. Xialuote's heart tightened. A feeling that disaster was upon her surfaced in a flash, then vanished just as quickly. Nothing had happened... The puzzlement on Zhuli'an's face only deepened.