Author: Lurina

114: Until Nothing Remains (𒐇) - The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere | Royal Road

A note from Lurina

Apologies again for the delay. Writing this segment has been very technically complicated and involved referencing my notes to an less-than-fun degree.

I don't really follow other RoyalRoad stories much lately or know about the wider community, but apparently a popular author, Thundamoo, recommended this story and brought in a lot of new readers! Thank you for that, if you're reading. I genuinely do appreciate it.

...Unfortunately, this has also sort of reminded me that this story might not be a good fit for this website, as the influx has additionally led to a lot of low ratings on the early chapters and pretty much wiped out the progress I've made on that front in the past year... It feels like trying to get positive exposure specifically through this place might be a losing battle, so I'm going to look seriously again at switching the primary hosting to a page of my own. Even if that happens, the RR version will continue for the foreseeable future, but I might try to slowly funnel people there, depending on how things go.

Thanks for reading!

U𒊹bi𒊹ici𒊹n 𒊹io𒊹nclo𒊹u𒊹e | 5:42 PM | 𒊹5,535th Day

Scene: The surviving members of the Exemplary Acolyte's Class, along with Linos of Melanthos, the sole remaining member of the Order of the Universal Panacea, are assembled in a circle a few meters above ground in the hidden bioenclosure at the eastern rim of the sanctuary. The distant light from the central bioenclosure in distance barely reaches them; the scene is lit only by their lamps laid on the ground below, save for one in the hand of Ran of Hoa-Trinh.

The moment has come.

"W-Wait, pretense?" Ptolema asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Ahh-- Actually, Ptolema, this would be a good time to clear something up," Kamrusepa said, swiveling in the air to face the other woman. "Back when we found you, Seth, and Ezekiel tied up in that room, you gave a rather awkward description of just what had happened at the moment you were attacked by the monster. I believe you said 'something came after us' and 'sprayed' something on you. That's a little vague, don't you think?"

Ptolema seemed taken aback by this sudden interrogation, leaning away from the other woman and boggling her eyes a bit. Kamrusepa was really taking charge of the situation at this point. "Well, yeah, I had a bunch of webbing up my butt! I wasn't really thinkin' straight!"

"And yet, you still haven't clarified the matter since," Kam replied, peering at her suspiciously.

"Wh-- You asked me not to!" Ptolema protested.

"Yet I'm asking you now," she replied impatiently. "So what, so much as you can recall it, exactly happened? Pray tell?"

Ptolema's face puffed a bit, and she looked as though she was about to punch Kam in the face reflexively, but fortunately, she managed to restrain the impulse. She scratched the side of her neck, looking uneasy. "Uh, well... Like I said, it's kinda a blur." She blinked a couple of times. "I remember I was at the front of the group. We were getting towards the top of the stairs, when suddenly there was this roaring sound and a bright light from down below, and a second later the whole staircase rattled. Everyone started shouting and shoving, and I fell down hard on my stomach--"

"You fell on your stomach?" Kam asked, lowering her gaze.

"Uh, yeah," Ptolema replied, seeming confused at the interruption. "I hit the side of one of the steps, actually. It really hurt."

Kam nodded a few times. "Whereabouts?"

Ptolema blinked, then pointed at a spot on the left side of her upper abdomen. "Uh, here--"

With somewhat unsettling speed, Kam quickly jabbed her index and middle finger at the spot, causing Ptolema to yelp violently in pain, clutching her gut.

"Ow!!" she yelled. "That hurt!"

"What the hell, Kam?" Seth objected, frowning.

"Sorry about that, Ptolema," Kam said impassively, not seeming particularly sorry at all. "Just wanted to confirm you were being truthful. It's for your own good."

"How the heck was that for my own good?!" she complained. "That could've ruptured something! You're supposed to be a doctor!"

"Come on, we have the Power. Don't be hyperpolic." Kam crossed her arms. "Alright. Back to the story."

"Ugh, you're insufferable sometimes!" Ptolema groaned, grimacing at her. "Whatever. Like I was saying, I fell on my stomach, and when I rolled back around, there was something looming over me. That was when I got sprayed in the face with some weird liquid." She sighed. "After that, everything goes kinda fuzzy. Like I said before, I remember being dragged along the floor, trying to open my eyes... But not a lot else, until I woke up stuck on that wall."

"You say 'something' was looming over you," Kam said. "Can you be a little more specific?"

"Uhh." Ptolema frowned, this time more out of puzzlement. "Not really... I mean, I must have dropped my torch, because when I turned around, everything was super dark. All I could see was a big shadow looming over me."

He did a good job trying to hide it, but I was pretty sure I saw Seth physically wince in the background.

"I see," Kam said, watching her closely. "So what made you think it was the monster?"

"Well, I mean, the others were all shouting stuff about it," she explained. "Y'know, like... 'Oh shit, it's here!' and then going all silent." Her expression slowly grew doubtful, as if she was realizing the flaws in her own story as she recounted it.

Kamrusepa stared at her for several more long moments, but finally seemed to arrive at some sort of conclusion, clicking her tongue. "Alright. Let's put a pin in that, for the time being." She clapped her hands together. "Very well! Here's what we're going to do. To start with, why don't we try taking these accounts and stich them together into as cohesive a series of events as we can? Just so everyone is on the same page--"

"I'm telling you, none of that shit even happened to me," Ezekiel proclaimed once again. "It's total fiction!"

Kam glanced at him with irritation. "Once again, Ezekiel, your objection has been noted," she told him. "But the point of this exercise isn't to establish the truth, but simply to take what's been left here for us at face value and see where we arrive."

I glanced at Linos again. It looked as though he was having an existential crisis. His eyes were as wide as the moon, and he was almost motionless. If I didn't know better, I'd have wondered if he'd have pissed himself.

"Let's get into the thick of it," Kam bagun. She cleared her throat. "So. After finishing with Sekhmet and Eshmun, your group was walking down the hall back to the bell tower stairwell when you were suddenly ambushed by a strange, multi-armed monster that appeared, by all accounts, from virtually nowhere. Seeming immune to all assault, it chased you into the conference, where you split into two groups, the first of which consisted of Seth, Ezekiel, and Theodoros. The three of you ran to the other end of the building and, having seemingly lost the creature, took a moment to get your bearings. It was at this point that you smelled gas coming from the kitchen, and so sought out a set of organic lights that you spotted from the nearby storage room." She looked between the boys. "All correct so far?"

"I mean, yeah," Seth said, uneasily. "Is there any point in this, though?" He let out another exasperated, tired laugh. "I mean, if whoever we're dealing with really is-- Really is a fucking time traveler, it feels almost like small potatoes to try and solve the mystery. We might as well lie down and rot, you know?"

I found myself frowning uneasily. If my thoughts about Seth had any substance, one thing this was proving was that he was a much better actor than I'd ever realized. There's nothing a consummate liar fears more than a better consummate liar.

"Let's get a confirmation from you, too, Theodoros," Kam said, shifting her gaze to him. "That all sounds right?"

"U-Um, yes," he said, with a stiff nod. "I mean... More or less..."

"Right then," she said, with a satisfied nod. "After collecting the lamps, the three of you then attempted to exit through the northern door, but found that it had been blocked off. You then headed for the main entrance instead, but upon arriving, witnessed a blaring flash of light... And the appearance of a figure with some superficial resemblance to the monster you encountered earlier, but much more humanoid in nature. At this point, you panicked and split into three groups." She began pointing to them one by one as she gave their version of events. "Seth. You ran down the hall and turned to the left into the inner corridor, before arriving in the main hall and meeting up with Ptolema, who was also there."

"Yeah," he said tiredly. "That's right."

"I didn't ask for your opinion this time; I was just stating what the document says," she stated flatly. "Theo. You heard yourself being pursued by what you thought was the monster, and were so terrified that you ran to the steward's quarters and locked yourself in one of the little bedrooms with the master key, and hid there for an ambiguous amount of time. Eventually, you worked up the courage to leave, and headed up the stairs in the main hall before running into Seth and Ptolema as they left the bathing room."

Theo looked some combination of embarrassed and anxious, glancing off to the side.

"And you, Ezekiel, dropped your lamp--"

"It didn't fucking happen!" he growled angrily.

"--and followed the only remaining light source you could see down the hall, deciding not to call out on the basis that you might alert the monster. This, of course, belonged to Theodoros..."

"Oh, duh!" Ptolema smacked her head. "I feel dumb for not getting that sooner!"

"...causing you to create the impression that he was being pursued. After you lost him around the kitchen when he ducked into the steward's quarters, you decided to retrieve another lamp from the stockpile you were once again nearby, and then headed back to the front door. It was at this point that you overheard our conversation and, for some reason, decided to stalk our group on the basis we were acting suspicious."

"It didn't fucking happen!" he repeated. "It didn't fucking happen!"

"You followed us to Durvasa's room, hiding in an adjacent one, but when we heard the sound from the ceiling and I fired a few rounds in response - it was an L12, by the way, just so you know - along with shouting a threat, you decided to take cover behind the bed. Shortly after we departed, however, the figure from earlier arrived and assaulted you. You then brawled with it for a short time, before it suddenly seemed distracted and left." She seemed to be struggling not to laugh at this part, though it wasn't clear if she was only acting that way to piss him off. "After this, you stumbled out into the hall, disoriented, and collapsed. Maybe there, maybe on the stairs; one way or the other."

At this point, he was just staring at her, teeth gritted.

"Phew," Kam said, seeming to be exhausting even her apparently-limitless stamina and enjoyment of her own voice. "Alright. Back to you for a moment, Ptolema. At Fang's suggestion, the two of you fled for the western exit hoping to reunite with our group, only to discover that it, too, was barricaded. Shortly afterwards, Anna - or rather, the woman who we had presumed to be Anna - came barrelling down the hallway with the 'clicking' sound of the monster close behind." She narrowed her eyes. "For reference, Ptolema, did you actually see the creature at this point?"

"Uhh." Ptolema scratched the back of head. "I mean, I saw movement, I guess--"

"Thank you," Kam cut her off, nodding once. "At Anna's urging, you ran for the stairwell, where you surmised it would not be able to follow. After this, Fang proposed collecting grenades from the armory to blow open the exit, but before you could follow through on that plan, you heard Seth cry out, and ran to the main hall looking for him." She raised her other hand, now pointing to the both of them at once. "And so the two of you went looking for Fang, thought you saw them heading into the bathing room, got locked in, and then used a surgical tool to escape. When you finally did, you soon encountered Theodoros, and-- Well. That's more or less it. Once again, does anyone feel I've overlooked anything?"

No one spoke up. I felt as though she might have, but couldn't place it at the speed she was going.

"Mm-hmm." She nodded to herself approvingly. "Well then. For completion's sake, let's finish with an account of our own perspective."

"Oh," Theo said, furrowing his brow. "Now that I think about it, I suppose I never did learn the specifics of how you ended up in that room to begin with."

"Indeed," Kam said, with a toothy smile, more lion-esque than fox-like. "And again: It's important we all be absolutely on the same page." She looked towards me. "Su, why don't you do the honors on this matter?"

"Uh." I hadn't been expecting this. I stammered. "W-What for?"

"I think it's important that no one get the wrong idea about what's happening here," she explained. "Like I'm trying to paint a particular narrative by leaning on certain details."

I hesitated. I didn't like feeling as though she was using me, but if I had the right idea of what she was trying to do, it wasn't insensible. Even if the truth - or some fragment of it - was starting to become obvious, maybe it was better not to speak it outright. If we could just... I don't know, lay out all the details until it was undeniable, maybe they'd just confess. Maybe everyone would just confess, and we could definitively sort out who was guilty of what.

That goes beyond wishful thinking to straight-out prayer, my inner skeptic noted. Like, seriously. Is there any circumstance where you'd confess your sins unprompted? Even if the facts were laid out in front of you on a silver platter?

I bit my lip. "Fine," I said, scratching my head nervously. "We were-- We were waiting outside near the graveyard for everyone else to arrive, talking about whether we should do something since they seemed to be taking so long... When suddenly, that lamp over there turned on and shone right at us." I pointed to the object in question. "It made it look like there was a giant figure towering over here, and everyone started to panic. Lilith ran away with Mehit to head to the transposition chamber, and we were arguing about whether we should go with them when somebody started shooting at us from the belltower."

"Wait," Seth said, "you were gonna just ditch us?"

"Kam was," Ran said dryly.

"Oh." He flattened his brow. "I see. I get it."

"Let's keep things on track, shall we?" Kam said, eyes narrowed sharply. She gestured to me. "Go on, Su."

"R-Right." I frowned, looking at the ground. "We panicked and ran for cover, and ended up going back into the headquarters through the front door. We noticed the smell of gas pretty much right away, but found a biological lamp lying around... I guess that was the one which Ezekiel dropped." I hesitated, looking to him. "You said that you really did drop it, right?"

He sighed at me, rolling his eyes in irritation even as sweat visibly rolled down his brow. "Yes, Necromancer. I did drop the fucking torch."

"Uh, right." I rubbed my eyes. They were starting to ache; I really missed having my glasses. "After that, we heard from Linos that Durvasa had an old-fashioned rifle which the gas wouldn't affect stashed in his room, so we decided to head up to the, um, other tower. ...or whatever you call that kind of architectural fixture, where it's sticks out of another building without a spire."

"I think it's called a 'turret'," Ptolema informed me. "That's where the word comes from. It's a castle thing."

I stared at her. "Why would you even know that...?"

"My grandma's house has one," she clarified. "Is that weird?"

"That's..." I bit my tongue. "Never mind. Anyway, we went to Durvasa's room and found the gun, along with some medicine to take for the gas. But then we heard this weird, cow-like groaning from overhead, which Kam, uh, shot at. And then it stopped." I paused awkwardly. "And then we went to the room where Samium had been staying, and... I guess that's pretty much it. The person on the tower was already gone, so we discussed what to do, then Fang showed up, then Theo." I sighed, frowning. I wasn't good at recounting stories like this. "We talked about it a lot, but in the end, Fang convinced everyone we should just follow the cries of the monster and try to kill it, so we left, and--"

"Aren't you forgetting something, Su?" Kam asked me, wearing an expectant expression.

I blinked. "I don't... Think so."

"What you were doing. Your peculiar activities with the logic bridge."

"I--" I stumbled over my words. "I really don't want to talk about that right now..."

"This isn't the sort of situation where you want to leave any room for misunderstandings, Su," Kam said, peering at me. "For your own good, you ought to explain."

It's okay, I reminded myself. You're not near a logic bridge right now. They can't ask to listen to the recording. You can tell a limited version of the truth.

"Er, well." I scratched my head. "I had a meeting with Samium about something sensitive to do with my grandfather last night... And, I can't remember, so..."

She furrowed her brow. "You can't remember?"

I blinked. Wait, she doesn't know?

I wasn't sure why I was surprised. Maybe I'd just assumed that she would have eavesdropped during the conversations with either Fang or Ophelia. That seemed like something she would have done.

In fact, it was annoying that this was the one time she'd apparently restrained herself. This was the worst possible time to try and explain what was going on without sounding like a lunatic or, worse, a liar.

"So, u-uh..." I said, not sure how to start. "Part of the reason I knew to come here was that, when we were taking a break during the conference, I saw something strange out here from the main bioenclosure. It was only for a moment, but it looked like a lit figure standing on the sea floor... Though obviously it turned out to be a lot more mundane." I cleared my throat stiffly. "I think they were wearing Durvasa's mask at the time. It looked like they had a beak."

"That, ah, could have just been whoever was dressed as the creature back in the manor, couldn't it...?" Theo suggested. "Or, rather, that costume."

I blinked. "I suppose. It just felt like a connection, since we saw the mask used later." I paused for a moment, considering how exactly to digress to the next point without sounding like a complete idiot. "Anyway, this isn't really the important part... Rather, after that happened, I can't remember anything else from the whole night. Not until I woke up and all the alarms were going off."

"You--" Kam cut herself off, narrowing her eyes. "What?"

"I said I can't remember..."

"I heard what you said," she said, looking at me incredulously, "but that's impossible. You were up and about the whole night. We spoke a few times."

"I know," I told her. "Something must have happened to me after all that. I've been trying to figure it out all night."

She peered at me. "You can't remember anything."

"N-No," I confirmed awkwardly. "Nothing."

Ezekiel scoffed. "Fucking ridiculous. Even with the Lethe-Flowing Arcana, you couldn't create an effect halfway as precise. She's got to be making it up."

My face flushed with anxiety. This was a bit of a bad situation, since there was little proof I wasn't making this up on the spot. I'd told Ran, Ophelia, and Fang. No one would trust Ran as a reliable source when it came to defending me, and the latter two, well...

Still, I wasn't completely out of luck. A memory flickered into my head.

"You remember, Kam, right? When we were back in the guest house and Linos had sent us upstairs to look for the maps, I asked you if we'd ever admitted having found Vijana's body. And you were confused, because I'd been around all through dinner with you." I glanced towards the ground. "That was because of this."

She paused for a moment, slowly biting her lip. "I do remember wondering about that." She looked irritated at me, or maybe just at the situation; like she already knew I wasn't guilty, but resented getting bogged down in the details. "I want to say that I can't imagine why you'd tell such a bizarre lie, but then, you're not a particularly good liar. I could see you making something like this up, scrambling for an excuse for what you were doing and coming up with nothing."

"I-- I know it sounds nuts," I said. "Or rather, that I sound nuts. I feel like I must've... I dunno, blocked something out myself." No point complicating things by introducing any of my more esoteric theories.

Kamrusepa frowned. "You mean, what, you think something traumatic happened?"

"This is horseshit," Ezekiel said, shaking his head. "Why are you taking her at her word, but not the rest of us?"

"I'm not taking anyone at anyone's word," Kam snarled at him. "I'm just trying to get her story damn well clear."

"I'm sorry," I said, "I really don't know. I mean... Maybe? Like I said, I was going to talk with him about something, uh, pretty private and serious... Again, it's to do with my grandfather," I explained. "You probably remember when I was talking to Neferuaten back when we were in the initiation chamber, right? That was me trying to ask her to arrange it."

"I see," she said, eyes narrow. "But why would you be trying to interface with the logic bridge?"

"Because of the camera in the room," I explained. "I wanted to find out what happened when we spoke." I fidgeted my hands together nervously. That's why I brought the echo maze..."

Please don't ask to see it, I silently begged.

"Is it true, Linos?" Kam asked, still looking at me. "Did she make an arrangement to see him?"

Linos blinked, seemingly having been lost thought. "U-Um. Yes..." he said, his tone quiet.

Kam stared at me for a few moments, then sighed. "...well, for now, we're just getting everyone's story straight," she said. "So let's leave it at that for now. If needs must, since you have the echo maze, we can just check the records to confirm what you were doing--"

My whole body clenched.

"--without intruding into your family affairs," she finished. "If you weren't in contact with anywhere else in the sanctuary, then whatever happened is none of our business, even if you're lying about this memory business."

I heaved a sigh of relief, feeling sweat roll down my neck. Ran watched me with concern.

"Fucking ridiculous," Ezekiel said, arms crossed. "What a farce."

"Shouldn't you finish, Su?" Kam interrupted.

"O-Oh, right." I furrowed my brow, scratching at my scalp. "I mean, that was basically it... After Fang convinced everyone to shoot at the thing, we went down the hall and, well, did it."

"Go a little more into detail about the conversation we had beforehand," she urged. "Or were you not paying close attention, on account of your business? I can fill in the gaps, if you like."

"You know Su barely ever forgets anything, Kam," Ptolema said.

Kam smirked. "That's precisely what I'm counting on."

I hesitated slightly. It was obvious what she wanted me to recount.

"Well," I said, "We debated a bit about what we ought to do... At first you were saying that we should flee through the window." My eyes flickered as I recalled the details of the conversation. "But because of the fire, there were golems swarming outside the window, we ended up delaying, and then we heard the monster..." I bit my lip. "And then Linos told us about the child that the Order had kept here. And that he believed that if he sacrificed himself, everyone else would be allowed to go free. ...but then Fang said it was probably a setup, and suggested the plan about going out and shooting at it. And that's what we decided on."

"Still a bit brief," Kam said, "but you captured the important points, I think."

"So what now?" Seth asked.

"Well, now that we have the facts laid out in front of us, we can start stating facts, I should think," she said, casually. "For example, mister Melanthos, this whole weekend has been a setup, hasn't it?"

Here we go.

Linos's eyes went wide, and he looked up in panic and apparent shock, thrown out of his trance. "W-What? No! ...I mean, what do you even--"

"Come now, sir," she said, idly thrumming her scepter against her palm. "Let's not be coy. Why don't you give us your own perspective on events, hm? What's happened tonight from the perspective of the Order."

Seth was frowning in confusion. "Kam, you--"

"Mister Melanthos? Linos?" she prodded. "I'm sorry, I hope I'm not overwhelming you."

"I don't-- I don't know what the hell you're even trying to SAY, Kam!" Linos almost shouted, taking me a little by surprise. "Are you trying to imply we plotted the murders ourselves!? It's a ridiculous accusation!"

"The murders?" She clicked her tongue. "I don't believe I said anything about you murdering anyone, sir. What I said was that this was a setup." She sighed with irritation. "I was really hoping you wouldn't try to deny it. Only a child couldn't figure out the rough shape of what's happening, at this point."

"I guess I'm a kid," Ptolema said with a frown, "'cause I don't get it at all. What are you saying the Order did, Kam...?"

"What do you say, mister Melanthos?" Kam said, staring him down. "Will you refuse to talk, even now?"

Linos was silent, his face locked into a grimace as he stared at her. Theo had gone from looking uncomfortable and anxious to just looking despondent, staring at his father.

"You really are a ridiculous man," she said, shaking her head. "If you insist on being obstinate, then allow me to take a stab at it." She floated a little away in the air, gesturing at him with her scepter. "I can only speculate as to the details, but: For some reason, you and the rest of the inner circle have decided to fake your own deaths. Maybe something went wrong with you unmasking yourself to the world, or maybe there's some political and complicated reason that I'm unaware of-- Ultimately, it's not particularly relevant to me."

Seth nodded along grimly. "Makes sense as an idea, I guess. I mean, the monster on the ceiling turned out to be a prop, and Linos really wanted to get out there, so..."

"I'm very glad you're following along, Seth," Kam said spoke flatly. "But it's not just about that giant puppet, or even the other obvious displays of theater we've seen over the course of the night which would necessarily have to be pre-arranged, like that ridiculous circle we discovered after following Grandmaster Wayal's blood trail. No; let's go back and examine this weekend at its premise, shall we not?"

"K-Kam," I said, my voice hesitant. "I don't know if this is a good idea."

What would happen if things were as simple as the boys being the culprits, and they felt cornered? In the worst-case scenario, where both Ptolema and Theodoros were in on it... Well, obviously Linos, the most powerful person here (assuming he hadn't somehow also been lying about being a competent arcanist for the past several hundred years) would hesitate to kill his own son. Which left only Kam, Ran and I as sure bets. And if they struck first--

"Don't worry, Su," she said confidently. "I shouldn't think it will be too difficult to resolve this cleanly. Have some faith in the power of the truth."

Her mouth twitched as she said that last part. She couldn't even pretend enough to deliver that line without a sardonic edge. What the hell was she planning?

My hand lingered near the handle of my scepter.

"So," she said. "We believed we were being invited to this conclave as part of the Order's attempts to reach out to the rest of the academic community. A little tit-for-tat arrangement with the Old Yru Academy, where the Order gets some more mainstream attention and a working relationship with one of the most respected medical colleges in the world, while the academy raises their own profile in relation to the re-emerging field of life extension, and if they're lucky, get their foot in the door in terms of sharing research. It makes sense... On the surface." She looked to my right. "Ran-- Out of everyone here, you seemed the most skeptical of the entire venture from the beginning, and you of course have a more intimate understanding of what's planned for our class due to your work with Professor Nindar. What strikes you as odd about this whole event, foundationally?"

Ran didn't seem to appreciate being roped into this, frowning slightly. "...I dunno," she eventually said. "That they held it here as opposed to somewhere more normal is the big one, I guess. They went to so much trouble to hide the entrance to this place, not to mention making us come in via the Empyrean Bastion when apparently that wasn't even necessary. And there's obviously a shitload of sensitive stuff here. So like, why not just rent a place in the city? For a gesture of trust, it's kinda half-assed."

Kam was nodding along. "That's a fair observation. Anything else?"

"How strict they were with guests," Ran continued. "Just us, with one exception for Mehit. If it was about connecting with the university, it would make more sense if they'd invited some of the faculty... Or at least, the class coordinator."

"Mm. Another good thought," Kam said.

"Weren't you dismissing all this weird stuff earlier, Kam?" Ptolema asked. "Like, sayin' all the weird stuff the Order was making us do was cool?"

"Thank you, Ptolema," she replied flatly. "Yes, I dare say I am well aware I have also been gullible, and somewhat taken in by in the Order's mystique. This has been a learning experience for all of us, if nothing else." She wrinkled her nose, looking back to Ran. "In any case, while those are both certainly odd, they aren't exactly what I was fishing for: Namely, the fact that this event was scheduled to take place on the day of the bicentennial parade. For an event designed for outreach and generating publicity, I can't think of a better way to suffocate interest." She snorted. "And that's even if we dismiss Fang's suggestion that the audience was outright faked."

"I was meaning to ask about that," Ptolema said. "Did that like, come from anywhere? They seemed real to me."

"Oh, uh, we talked about that briefly on the way to confront Hamilcar," I said. "Apparently they noticed that parts of the transmission we were seeing were looping."

Kamrusepa reared her head back. "Ahahahah! Oh, come on! That's almost too easy!" She looked sharply at Linos. "Well, sir? Ready to be honest? You realize you're only delaying the inevitable."

Linos tightened his lips, craning his neck to face even further downwards.

...come to think of it, what if Linos decided to attack us? The events of the night had humbled him over and over, made him smaller in my head... But again, he was dangerous. Without Fang, how hard would it be for him to dispatch every single one of us, if he decided that was the best strategy?

Obviously Kam didn't even consider that a possibility. After all, she'd prefaced this by ruling the Order out as the actual murderers, and was presumably only establishing all of this to build towards a proper accusation, even if I didn't know exactly what conclusion she was going to come to.

But would things go that cleanly?

"Fine," Kam said, irritated. "If you're going to be stubborn, I'm happy to continue." She looked between the rest of us. "Once you consider those facts in aggregate, along with the fact that the only members of the Order present are the leadership and a skeleton crew of staff, it becomes obvious what this weekend really is. The so-called 'conclave' has been a sham from the start. Rather, what this is is an attempt to create a fully closed environment - one consisting of us and the inner circle - in which the minimum amount of potential complicating factors are present."

Circumstantial evidence at best, but she's doing a good job of hyping it up.

"Of course, the question which logically follows is 'why'?" She continued. "The answer is obvious. We're here to be 'witnesses'. To behold a truth, and then report it back to the rest of the world. For that, our group is made up largely of perfect candidates: inexperienced and easily-manipulable young people, several of us with interests or personal beliefs that make us predisposed towards sympathy and trust towards the Order." She pointed her scepter squarely at Linos. "That's what this is: A play we've been invited to spectate."

DIRECTOR: Don't say anything.

PLAYWRIGHT: What? I wasn't going to say anything. <crossing arms> Good poetry speaks for itself.

DIRECTOR: <sighing, rubbing brow>

"It's all been very carefully executed," Kam stated. "The idea of a supernatural monster haunting the sanctuary was carefully fed to us by Sacnicte during our first morning here, and the impending danger foreshadowed at the conclave itself with that threatening message slipped into my logic engine which, conveniently, none of you took seriously." She crossed her arms, looking again at Linos. "Then, once things begun, the alarms conveniently rang only in the main hall in order to wake Su and Lilith, who found you, who in turn brought them to the guest just in time for our first message from Aruru-- A message which dovetailed elegantly with the narrative of supernatural vengeance you slowly spun for us in response to our fear and curiosity over the course of the night. You were our minder. You made us think we were unraveling the truth when, in reality, we never left the palm of your hands."

"...I don't know if it feels right to dismiss the that whole story about the child as a lie," I cut in. "I mean, look around. We obviously weren't supposed to ever find this bioenclosure, but if anything, it supports it. It's messed up in a manner that goes way beyond what the Power could do normally."

"Don't get the wrong idea, Su," she said slyly. "I'm not saying it's a lie, as such. After all, don't you love saying that the best stories contain a grain of truth?" She smirked. "Perhaps there really was a child, or at least experiments that produced a similar result. I'm not about to suggest the apega is an outright prop, even if what it did to Anna was faked. But does it follow that those events are at all relevant to what's happening now? If you'll pardon my vulgarity, my ass it does."

I couldn't think of a way to counter-argue. It was true. When telling a lie, the most sensible thing to do is to use what you have.

"But of course, all of this was compensating for the colossal weakness at the heart of this plan," Kam continued. "Which is the suspicious absence of corpses." She crossed her arms. "Isn't that strange, that despite the death of the entire council, the only actual bodies we've seen are that of Neferuaten, and just now Anna? Whose bodily circumstances have obviously also been called into question by, well, this?" She gestured towards the building.

"Oh, shit," Seth said, putting a hand to his chin. "That's a really good point. We never saw Durvasa's body... And Hamilcar vanished down into the depths after the fight--"

"And there was all that weird box crap going on with Zeno," Ptolema said. "Where we couldn't even take a proper look at him!"

"And where he lied about how he was controlling his spare body," Ran added.

"Precisely," Kam said, her tone sharp. "Mister Melanthos's moment might have been the most obvious by virtue of its dismal failure, but for every council member, circumstance has contrived a means for them to 'die' in a manner for which no proof remains, while everyone else has left discernible remains behind. Bardiya, Sacnicte, Yantho, Fang-- The only exception is Ophelia. One would be suspicious, but in aggregate, it's a damning pattern. Even Neferuaten, the exception among memebers of the council, was conveniently the first to die, and thus the easiest to fabricate a corpse for wholesale." She chuckled. "It's just a pity that Hamilcar was such a dreadful actor. He couldn't even talk to Zeno for a minute in their final confrontation without openly lamenting how this was all just a setup. I wonder, was he pushed into this from the beginning?"

...now that she said it, it made sense. His final words to Zeno could easily be interpreted as an appeal to abolish the entire plan.

"Wait," Ptolema said. "You're saying that Hamilcar wasn't even the real bad guy?"

"I suppose that depends on your definition of 'bad guy'," Kam replied sarcastically. "He was certainly operating in extreme bad faith from the beginning, just like the rest of them-- But yes, it seems clear now that he wasn't any sort of mastermind. He simply played that role, as was demanded of him."

"Then what the heck was up with Lilith?!" Ptolema objected in confusion. "I mean, she actually shot her mom! And like, a whole bunch of people really died! That's not like a play at all!"

"Well, we'll get to that in a moment," Kam said, making a dismissive gesture. She looked to Linos. "For now, I'm really hoping that mister Melanthos could help us take the next step, and just bloody well confess already." She peered at him, grinning almost sadistically. "I can still go on, sir. Shall we talk about how the fact the lockdown disabled the moment we passed 4 o'clock all but proves that the the sword of Damocles hanging over our head was a paper tiger all along, and that the threats issued by Aruru have been little more than excuses to shuffle us from place to place along the gameboard?"

Linos was silent, but was obviously panicked. His eyes darted sharply upwards and between us, then back down again.

"Or perhaps we should instead take that line of thought to its logical conclusion," Kam went on, "which is that we only have the word of you, Anna, and Zeno to go on that our eventual doom has ever been conveniently pre-scripted into the sanctuary's defenses by Su's deceased grandfather? Or the fact that the 'Anna' who accessed the system with you at the administrative core wasn't Anna at all means that it shouldn't have even been possible--"

"Enough," Linos said suddenly. "Enough, miss Tuon."

The words came out a hoarse whisper. Kam stopped, eyes flickering with surprise for only a moment, and withdrew, lowering her scepter.

Linos took a deep sigh, and spoke in a bitter, blunt tone. "Fine," he said. "If you won't let this go, then fine. It's the truth."

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