The Zombie Knight Saga 115 Cxv. | 'The Devil's Paradox...'

And then Hector watched Horatio take a slow step forward.

"...Tell us what happened here," the man said very calmly. The second Blackburn bodyguard was right behind him.

Hector became keenly aware of the sudden division in the room. Those other two bodyguards belonged to the Delagunas. He recognized both their faces, but he only knew one of their names. Lorenzo. Lord Salvador's son. And right about now, they were both looking rather twitchy.

"Well, uh, I just--um..." Ibai was still trying to get his foot unstuck. "I'm not sure, actually. When I teleported, he was already--but I didn't--this wasn't supposed to--aha... ah... I'm so confused!"

"It's okay," said Horatio. "Calm yourself and think. And first, why don't you teleport yourself out of there?"

"I tried," said Ibai. "The body just teleports with me." He motioned behind. "We were originally over there."

And Hector noticed the blood stains on the other side of the kitchen. When he looked to the Delagunas again, he saw that their reapers were missing. Gone to tell someone, no doubt.

The situation would soon get extremely complicated, Hector felt. He decided to keep his eyes on the Blackburns.

Horatio was trying to help Ibai free himself. "You know I have to ask," Horatio said. "Did you kill this man?"

"No, I--" Ibai scratched his head. "No. He was already here. I just. I teleported and he was--I didn't. I wouldn't--" His foot came free, covered in a b.l.o.o.d.y brown shadow.

Hector just watched as Horatio kept questioning Ibai and receiving no further answers. The aberration was fumbling over his words now, repeating himself when not merely looking confused. Hector kept expecting Ibai to flee, but the man never did, and Hector wondered what was stopping him.

More Rainlords arrived--all Sebolts and Delagunas. And Hector was surprised yet again when a fight did not immediately break out. Instead, they simply escorted the Blackburns out of the room, leaving a group behind to secure the scene.

Hector noticed the group of Sebolts eyeing him and Garovel, and sure enough, it wasn't long before they ventured over. Hector braced himself for interrogation.

"Lord Goffe," said the foremost gentleman, "are you well? Might we ask you to a.s.sist us in our investigation?"

Hector's expression only flickered, but it required all of his composure in order to prevent his own mouth from just hanging open. And as usual, he let Garovel do the talking.

'It would be our honor,' the reaper said. 'But I'm surprised that you would ask outsiders like us for help.'

"In this instance, we believe an outsider's perspective might prove advantageous," said the same gentleman. By the look of him, he had to be at least twice Hector's age. "You were also among the first on scene. But you are correct. If you were total outsiders, we would not ask this of you. I think, however, we can all agree that you are not total outsiders." He offered Hector a handshake.

Hesitant, Hector took it.

"My name is Carlos Sebolt," the man said. "This is my reaper, Olijas."

'Call me Ollie.'

"H-h.e.l.lo," said Hector.

Carlos proceeded to introduce the rest of their group. Jesenia, Nico, and Perla Sebolt, along with Manuel and Lorenzo Delaguna. Those last two had been Ibai's bodyguards and therefore also witnesses, just like Hector. And of course, everyone had reapers of their own, but there was no way that Hector was going to keep all those weird names straight.

Carlos eventually got around to asking about what Hector and Garovel each saw, but then Asad and Qorva.s.s arrived, and the conversation s.h.i.+fted over to them as explanations were demanded.

Garovel, however, did not seem interested in listening to what he already knew. Hector saw him drifting over the crime scene to inspect the body and the accompanying trail of blood.

Hector followed him.

The victim's body was so torn up that Hector couldn't even guess the gender. He was a bit surprised at how much sights like this still affected him. Part of him wished that he could just get used to it all, that he could be unflappable in the face of this sort of thing, but there was just something about seeing the aftermath of brutality. Seeing it actually unfold was horrible, too, but he could deal with that. It was only when he saw the outcome, the terrible end, that it really started getting to him, making his chest hurt and his stomach turn.

This poor person. Whoever they were, their death certainly did not look painless.

At length, Garovel stirred Hector out of his morbidity with a private question. 'So what're you thinking?'

Hector rubbed his chin with one hand. 'Probably the same thing as everyone else. Ibai lost control and killed someone.'

'That's it? Nothing else?'

Hector's mouth flattened.

'C'mon, Hector, we're investigators now. Doesn't any of this strike you as strange?'

'Well, there's a dead person here.'

'You know that's not what I'm talking about.'

'...I take it you don't think Ibai did this?'

'I don't know. I'm asking your opinion. Your REAL opinion. The one you've formed using your actual brain. I know you're a rational person, Hector.' A beat pa.s.sed. 'Well, most of the time.'

Hector c.o.c.ked an eyebrow at him.

'Agh, I'm asking for your help. Don't be an a.s.shole about it. A f.u.c.king terrible thing happened here, and we need to figure out exactly what it was. Because if Ibai isn't responsible for it, then that means someone else is, possibly with the intention to kill again.'

Hector knew the reaper had a good point. He'd known all along, really. He'd just wanted to be stubborn this time. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be an option. 'Alright,' said Hector. 'Well... I mean... this IS kinda weird. When I imagined Ibai losing it, I didn't think he'd be so... stupid about it.'

'Exactly. Only an idiot would kill someone this way. And with his powers? He could've easily hid the body before anyone discovered it.'

'Maybe, but he couldn't have hid the mess,' said Hector. 'All this blood--this doesn't strike me as something that was planned ahead of time.'

'Maybe that's what the killer wants us to think,' said Garovel.

Hector tilted his head. 'You think someone is trying to frame him?'
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'Well, either he did it, or someone went to a lot of trouble to make it look that way. I don't imagine that Ibai "just happened" to stumble onto this dead body during the very brief window when none of his bodyguards had eyes on him. That would be one h.e.l.l of a coincidence.'

'Hmm. But if someone framed him, then how could they have known where he would teleport to? Like you said, that window of opportunity was pretty d.a.m.n small, and Ibai isn't exactly predictable.'

'Yeah, that's a good point. If someone did frame him, they did it quite well.'

A question occurred to Hector, and he realized that he probably should have asked it earlier. 'Where is the victim's soul?'

'I don't know,' said Garovel. 'It wasn't here when we arrived, but I did sense that it was in here with Ibai just beforehand.'

'Wait a minute, what?' Hector looked over the scene another time. 'So you know for a fact that the victim was alive and alone with Ibai just before we got here?'

'Not necessarily alive. Just that there was a second soul with him and that now it's gone.'

Hector gave the reaper a look.

'I know,' said Garovel. 'It's rather strong evidence that Ibai consumed the soul. I'm not disregarding that as a possibility.'

'It kinda seems like you are.'

'I'm just saying that we should be thorough about this. Whichever way this ends up going, we need to be certain. Or at least, as certain as possible.'

'Except, if Ibai and the victim were the only ones in the room at the time of the murder, then I don't really see how anyone else could've done it.'

'Hector. This building is full of servants. People with ridiculous powers. People who would also know to account for the reaper's ability to sense souls.'

'You're talking about the Rainlords. You really think one of them would kill one of their own just to frame Ibai?'

'We don't actually know that the victim was a Rainlord, yet. It could've been one of Asad's people. Maybe a staff member here. And the Blackburns seem unlikely to turn on Ibai now, after how far they went to protect him, but almost any of the Sebolts or Delagunas might've wanted negotiations between the families to break down.'

He supposed Garovel had a point, but Hector really didn't want to believe that could be true. The idea that some of the Rainlords might sabotage their own peace did not sit well with him. In the brief time he'd spent with these people, he'd seen nothing but reasons to respect them. Even their aberration--somehow, they'd made a monster seem honorable. The kind of people who could pull off a feat like that deserved the benefit of the doubt, didn't they?

Maybe they didn't. That was the question at hand, after all. When it came down to it, maybe Ibai really was nothing more than a monster.

Hector touched his forehead as he realized that he was just going around in circles and confusing himself.

'There's another option we haven't thought of,' said Garovel, still privately. 'Perhaps this whole thing is a fake out.'

'What do you mean?'

'The victim's wounds are obviously excessive. Unless, that is, they are meant to prevent us from identifying the body. In which case, this "victim" could actually be a servant, and the reason their soul isn't here is because their reaper took it and regenerated them somewhere else.'

'Oh... you mean like we had Colt do.'

'Basically, yeah.'

Asad and Qorva.s.s seemed to have finished their conversation with Carlos and ventured over to inspect the corpse.

Garovel posed the most pressing question. 'Can either of you tell us who this is?'

The Lord Najir merely frowned, but Qorva.s.s hovered closer to the victim's feet.

The old skeletal Sandlord let out a heavy sigh. 'This is Fuad,' he said.

Hector saw Asad stiffen.

"How do you know?" Asad asked.

'The shoes,' said Qorva.s.s. 'They're a little torn up, but you recognize them, don't you?'

Asad just shrugged.

'No one else around here wears that brand or color. It's Fuad. I'm sure a DNA test will confirm it.'

'Does Fuad have a reaper?' asked Garovel.

'No. He was just a normal kid. He was living here as part of an apprentices.h.i.+p.'

Garovel spared one last word in private. 's.h.i.+t.'

'It was a good theory,' said Hector. And then he saw something on Asad's face that bothered him. Not sadness or anger, but worry. And a sudden question occurred to Hector. "What was Fuad's last name?"

Asad returned a hard stare. "Saqqaf."