Chapter 32.1: Theorizing

They’d been walking the inner corridors of Rata Sum’s middle levels for some time, and still Penny was having a hard time wrapping her head around Wepp’s conclusions. The problem wasn’t that his ideas were hard to follow; it was that they seemed so incredibly speculative.

“So, let me get this straight,” she said with a grimace. “You think the same person who sent Skixx to kill the curator had him killed too? And your proof is that Inquest club card, the one the inspector had?” She would have glared at him, but it was still taking too much of her focus to avoid running over the oblivious college students who didn’t seem to have a care for where they stepped.

Penny and Wepp were following Minkus toward his sister’s lab—or her residence or classroom or something. Penny wasn’t entirely clear on that point, because Minkus wasn’t entirely clear on it either. He’d begun their quest by simply aiming them in the direction of the Synergetics dormitories. Wherever they encountered someone the least bit official-looking, he stopped to ask if they knew his sister. Of course, it took several attempts at this before anyone had a clue who he was talking about, but when they finally did find such a person, it only led them even farther down the winding hallways carved throughout the interior of the city. They headed east, then west, then back east, maybe north, up a little, and down a little. On and on they went through the angular turns of those dim stone hallways, as one asura after another pointed them maybe in Jinkke’s general direction.

Throughout the process, Minkus was unusually quiet, nervously wringing his hands as he looked this way and that for any sign of his sister and any sign of someone who might know something about her. It wasn’t looking like a promising endeavor, but Penny knew better than to dissuade Minkus from this, at least not yet. She may not have known a thing about the bond between siblings, but she saw, as clear as day, that he needed this; he needed to know Jinkke was alright. Because, if she wasn’t, he wouldn’t be alright either.

With her friend so nervously focused several steps ahead of her, Penny had had little else to distract her from her own thoughts, aside from the snobbish glances she kept getting from the passing asura. Why they all felt the need to sneer at the only passing human was beyond her, but after just a few of those looks, Penny had started talking to Wepp. At first, it was cold, distrustful on both sides, but she pushed him for answers. If she had to be thinking about Ippi and what had happened to the girl, she was at least going to be working out a way to get some vindication.

Now he was explaining his thoughts to her, and more than once, she shook her head at him. She’d expected so much more from a people who so arrogantly prided their own intellects.

“It’s evidence, Miss Arkayd, not proof,” Wepp said, correcting her word-choice. They wove through a small wave of Synergetics students as he went on. “There is currently no incontrovertible way to prove anything that I’m claiming, not until we get an admittance of guilt or some record of the actions taken. But yes, your summary is essentially my thesis. If you are in pursuit of a reason for the curator’s demise, and I am after the person responsible for Skixx’s expunging, I believe the most logical conclusion for us both is to trace everything back to Kikka.”

Penny let his ramblings sink in again. “And this Kikka, she’s the one you mentioned back at the...” She hesitated uncomfortably. “Back at the inn?” She kept her eyes ahead, hoping to avoid whatever nonverbal response she was likely to receive at the mention of that experience.

“Yes,” he said. “The very same.” It was the most succinct thing he’d said to her, but there wasn’t anything ill in his tone: nothing irritated or angry. It surprised her, almost making her more uncomfortable, but she pushed it aside. There were answers to get to.

Shaking her head, Penny got back to the matter. “What the hell does she have to do with the card they found on him? How’s that point to this Kikka person?”

“As I informed the inspector,” Wepp said, “Skixx never, under any circumstances, carried any personally identifiable items on field assignments, the chief of which being his identification chip.”

Penny pressed a finger to her temple. He had said all this before. “Yes, but didn’t you also say the card the little shit was carrying wasn’t his own?”

Wepp nearly walked into a small serving golem as he gave her a corrective glare.

“Skixx,” she said. “Gods. I meant Skixx, OK?”

Though still not entirely satisfied, Wepp nodded.

Penny clenched a fist in an effort to restrain herself. It burned her to amend that statement, because Skixx was a shit; he was the shit responsible for another orphan in the world. But it wasn’t worth alienating Wepp and losing any information he still possessed. He was insistent that someone else was behind Skixx’s actions, and though his current conclusion seemed unlikely, she needed to get to the bottom of it all, and she’d take any route afforded her.

She continued her thought. “You did say the card wasn’t his, right? That he could have been trying to frame someone else? It is the kind of thing that— the kind of thing he would do.”

“Yes,” Wepp said cautiously, but he shook his head at the same time. “But also no.”

Penny pulled a wrench from her pocket and began flipping it. By now she could tell when a drawn-out explanation was coming. Asura seemed to love talking, and, with the exception of Minkus, their chatter usually required an operator’s manual to understand it.

“Please, sir,” Penny bade mockingly, “explain.”

Missing her tone, Wepp obliged. “Your assertion is fractionally correct, but only if we assume Skixx intended to perish. The problem with your hypothesis is that Skixx—his hubris, after all, being both his greatest strength and most critical weakness—would never have intended that. Indeed he wouldn't have expected it. If I’m being both factual and frank, he possibly never even acknowledged it as a potential outcome. In our years working together, that was one thing I marveled at about him: that intrepid, arrogant certainty that he could extricate himself from any predicament, and that somehow he would exit the fray not only alive but victorious.” He paused, taking a moment to wipe his eye.

Penny thought about it. She couldn’t really argue with his reasoning. She guessed that almost everything she’d known about Skixx was a lie, but anyone with eyes in his head could have seen what a cocky, little bastard he was. That much he hadn’t concealed.

Wepp cleared his throat and rebuilt his steam, inhaling deeply before continuing. “Yes, now—if Skixx, being who I know him to be, had been carrying another person’s identification chip, with, first, the intent to frame said person and, second, every intention of surviving the mission, what would he have done? Would he have kept the chip on his person? Of course not! The Skixx I knew would have—”

Penny cut him off. “He would have left it at one of the crime scenes.”

There was surprise in Wepp’s eyes but also a hint of pride. “My thoughts exactly,” he chimed. “My ears, you’re a more astute human than I anticipated, Miss Arkayd!”

“Gee. Thanks.”

She rolled her eyes, but another thought came to her before he could continue his lecture. “But wait. You’re assuming the little— Skixx, I mean. You're assuming he had finished all he was supposed to do before being killed. If he had something else he had to—”

Now it was Wepp’s turn to interject. “Yes, that is a valid concern, and one I’ve considered. If he’d had another task to accomplish, he might have kept the Inquest chip in his possession to deposit at a later location. But that assumption is quite unlikely. In what I gathered from the peacemakers’ investigations and the account of that incorrigible young female in the holding room, Skixx was not expunged by a peacemaker in the course of a yet-unfinished series of crimes. It was a third party who performed the deed.”

Penny nodded. “Yeah, I know. And it didn’t take you gathering anything. The peacemakers said as much: Skixx was whacked by someone who came out of nowhere, grabbed a tube off his body, and took off into the waypoint Skixx was running for. Sounded like this other guy knew what he was doing— I mean, he knew what he was doing, but he also knew what Skixx was doing.”

Wepp smiled slightly and smartly at Penny. The little jerk had been leading her.

“I do suppose,” he said with a heavy shrug, “that it is possible Skixx was off to another task where he anticipated leaving the chip, but he had almost certainly completed whatever task he was assigned to here in Rata Sum. And, having waypoint access, he would have had no reason for stringing two distinct missions together in such close succession. He always put some time between one job and another, unless he was feeling particularly accomplished. The odds of success dramatically decrease the more moving parts one adds to his machinations. Skixx knew this too well.”

“OK. Sure. Fine.” Penny shrugged. This was beginning to exhaust her. “Let’s say Skixx didn’t have the card at all until he was killed. So what? What’s any of this have to do with your Kikka person? Why the hell would she kill him—I assume that’s what you’re insinuating here—and then want people to think he was someone else? And more importantly, why the hell would she have sent him to kill that curator and steal stuff from your little, asura library to begin with?”

Wepp stopped, but Penny took another step forward, still following Minkus. She stopped too, though, recognizing he’d fallen behind, probably for dramatic effect.

She shook her head. “Just answer my question, would you?”

“Miss Arkayd, you mistake the meaningless piece of information for the meaningful one. This is the source of your confusion—I was trying to determine why you weren’t more consistently following my logic. You aren’t stupid.”

She groaned. “Wow. What a compliment.”

Unhindered, he went on with his train of thought. “Given the public’s increasingly unfavorable opinion of the Inquest as a krewe, the inspector’s takeaway from that chip was not the personal name on it. Even he saw the critical element. It was the organizational name.” He paused, letting her take that in before beginning again, gesturing more flamboyantly now. “I postulate that whoever put that chip on Skixx merely wanted him recognized as an Inquest member. And the only involved party I know who might serve to benefit from that—”

“Is Kikka, the little monster-woman who works for them?” This time Penny was the one who stopped, glaring at Wepp incredulously. “You need to take a nap, little man. That makes as much sense as Queen Jennah breaking down the Reach wall to get at the Charr.”

Penny called forward to Minkus. “Biggie, remind me why we’re bringing this guy along. I’m still not totally convinced he’s on our side, and now I’m not even sure he’s very smart.”

Minkus didn’t respond. Penny wasn’t even sure he’d heard her.

As she looked back to the asura at her side, Wepp sped up, jumping ahead of her and backpedaling through the crowd to keep eye contact. “Miss Arkayd,” he said, coming to a stop and halting her progress. “You’re making more uninformed assumptions, I’m afraid. You’ve lived in Divinity’s Reach some time now, haven’t you?”

Raising an eyebrow, Penny nodded. Now this was turning into a lecture.

“Excelsior,” he said. “And how many times has one faction or another risen to oppose your human monarchy?”

Penny raised her hands. “I don’t know. A lot?”

“Yes, a lot,” Wepp agreed. “In only my years in that city, the unrest of dissenting groups against your Queen has been quite palpable—it’s really quite amazing how divided humans can be, and how violent.”

Penny put a hand to her head. “Are you getting at something?”

He nodded. “In precisely the same way that not all Krytans are satisfied with the monarchy and its ministry, I can assure you that not all Inquest affiliates are satisfied with their megakrewe and its leadership.”

“What are you saying, Baldy? This mad woman of yours is anti-Inquest even though she is Inquest?”

“Yes, Miss Arkayd. I believe so.” For a moment, he appeared to silently debate something with himself, but in the end, he looked at her and proceeded. He stepped aside and continued alongside her as they followed Minkus. “You see, Skixx asked me some time ago to search Kikka’s records for anything of interest. What I discovered was a long—a quite long—history of tension with Inquest command, the highest levels of our organizational authority. Without delving too deeply into irrelevant minutia, it is of consequence to note that not only has she ruffled the ears of command on multiple occasions, but they have returned the favor as many times, restricting the scope, scale, and cost of her projects repeatedly.”

“Gods,” Penny groaned, running hands through her hair. “As much as I am loving this history lesson, is there a point you’re getting to? Or are you saving the end of the story for our arrival in Brisban? I mean, that would be pretty dramatic. An ass move, but pretty dramatic.”

Wepp’s face soured, and Penny sighed, throwing her hands up. “Fine. Fine. Please go on; tell me how your hateful, little she-asura wants to destroy the group she works for so she can do whatever in Grenth’s green ass she wants.”

He started, genuinely surprised. “That— Well, yes in fact, that is essentially it, apart from the green posterior of a deity. I hypothesize that Kikka is out to secure her own autonomy by undermining the Inquest. She’s far enough into the wilds that whatever happens to the Inquest here in Rata Sum is unlikely to affect her for a notable period of time, if ever.”

“Sure. Why not?” Penny shrugged, shaking her head. “She had Skixx whacked and labeled as Inquest to make them look like thieves.”

“So that the Arcane Council would have reason to disparage us publicly.”

“Fine.” She threw up a hand again. This conjecture was interesting enough, but she wasn’t sure it struck at the heart of what mattered to her in it all. “But, the thing in the vault he broke in for was still stolen by this other person, right? That’s what the librarian said?”

Wepp nodded, his face contorting. “Yes. Whatever the object was—if our operating theory is indeed accurate—Kikka actually did want it, even if she also wanted—” The words hung a moment in Wepp’s throat. He wiped his eye again. “Even if she also wanted Skixx dead.”

They were now walking through tighter corridors, only lit on one side, presumably because the other side actually ran along the very edge of the city. The hall, she noticed was periodically punctuated with a broad, open-air balcony that looked out over the half-jungled landscape below. They were so high up in this place that even a dozen yards back from the balconies, she could just make out the foggy line of trees that made up the horizon far off in the distance.

They passed another of the outcroppings, coming back into the darker shades of the hallway, and she came back to the issue at hand. Skixx had been killed to undercut the Inquest, or so Wepp was guessing. But the curator? What in Melandru’s Realm was he killed for? If Wepp’s theory was correct—and gods help her, Penny was starting to think it might just be—that meant there was no reason for it. It was a meaningless loss because that’s exactly what lives were to these Inquest people: meaningless.

“So that's it?” she said, trying to stop herself from envisioning Ippi’s face again. “That's just it? Skixx really killed that girl's father just to swipe some dumb piece of shit from one of your schools?”

Genuine sadness touched Wepp's face again. “And most likely to further discredit the Inquest as thieves and killers, yes. Or so I postulate.”

He went silent for a second, his eyes flashing toward and away from her as he considered something uncomfortably. “In all factuality,” Wepp admitted slowly, “Skixx did have a taste for violent missions. While he is— was my friend, I would be in gross denial if I were to imply that none of the responsibility for the librarian’s demise fell on his shoulders. He was, in all likelihood, assigned to leave a wake of damage behind him, or at very least he was permitted to—though the obvious benefits of murder to an effort at indicting the Inquest make the former most likely—but if his history serves as any indication, he would likely have reveled in such an assignment.”

Penny tightened a fist at her side, clenching and unclenching to the beat of her pulse. The vacant, downturned face of that asura girl settled in her mind. That girl would spend the rest of her days without a father, likely without any parents at all. And why? Not because her father had done anything to deserve it. Not even because he'd been a damned fool chasing some dolyak-shit notion of honor—she shook that thought away as quickly as she could. No, this poor idiot had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time when Skixx had shown up.

Penny couldn't do anything to Skixx at this point, but she still had a shot at getting even with this gods-damned little witch of an asura, and that was something for her to focus on. Whether or not she was actually responsible? Well, they could work that out as they went along. For now, Penny set the crosshairs of her mind on Kikka. She would make this right; she would make something right.

After another moment with her enraged thoughts, Penny recognized that the three of them had come to a stop. In front of them was an open doorway, where a single figure approached them. Blond-haired, dark-skinned, and dressed in entirely too much pink and purple, the person came into view despite the bright backlighting inside.

The metal object in the figure’s hand fell to the floor with a metallic clang, and she stared at Minkus, who froze in the doorway.

“Big Brother?”

Minkus burst, lunging forward through the doorway and embracing her so tightly she disappeared into him. “Jinkke! You’re alright!”