light easily visible to all. It wasn't bright enough to read by, but in a very dark room you could navigate by it, and not hit the walls, so it was good enough. It looked a lot like Smythe robes, and that wasn't an accident, but no one else seemed to notice.
Well, as insults went it wasn't a very good one, was it?
Everyone seemed curious but Smythe silenced them with a glance, as if he knew exactly what was going on, being in on the plan himself. Tor suddenly felt cheap and mean for not having clued him in first. If he'd been rude to him before, and more than a bit cold… now the older councilor was all business, proper and working as if they were teammates, not mortal enemies. Suppressing a sigh Tor contacted the palace using the Warden communications device, the King's voice coming a few seconds later.
“This is King Richard Cordes. Are we to begin?”
Smythe stood and bowed to the plate, a useless, but respectful gesture, so Tor copied it. These were formal proceedings after all. Everyone else did too then. When they all stood, Tor got the speak-back started.
Looking around and knowing the King couldn't see what was going on, Tor started describing everything. His voice sounded very formal, even to his own ears, but decided to just go with it. Lives hung in the balance here after all. Formal would work.
“I have started a magical device that will allow everything said here to be repeated, exactly as said, later, on demand. In the room we have William Smythe of Westend, Count Marvin Ward, Countess Maria Ward, The counts mother Ellen Ward, Patricia Morgan,” He looked at the servants and asked for their names which he repeated clearly, including their titles, but after the names, just so everyone would know who was who. “As well as myself, Torrence Baker. On the communications device is Richard Cordes…”
Was there anyone else in the room with him? There was it seemed as voices spoke their names one by one so Tor repeated them, using their full names, with no titles, except for the accused and the witnesses.
“Constance Cordes, Veronica Cordes, Karina Cordes.” Rolph was off delivering plates already? Good. The faster they could chat with people without a visit, the better. He missed Ursala and keeping in touch with Holly might prevent accidental mayhem. Always a good thing.
Proper mayhem should be planned. Plus he should make a point of chatting with Mary Cannor if he got a chance. She was family after all. Really he should get one to Two Bends too.
“Each person to be question has been given a magical device which causes a gold and cream colored glow around them. This glow turns black if an untruth is told. Not simply a lie, but things remembered incorrectly or misstated as well, if it's within conscious or unconscious knowledge. I shall call out any changes as they may occur.”
Then he bowed to Smythe as if it were all planned and sat down, deciding not to speak unless asked, except to describe the scene in the room. The man was surprisingly polite and gentle, even when bluntly asking questions that would have made a dockside whore blush. Not really, Tor knew, but they were hard when you considered he was going after a Count.
“Count Ward… did you at any time order the death of any person.” Tor felt excited when the man simply said yes, but all of those people were criminals and pretty bad ones by the sound of it. They didn't generally kill over theft here, just used people as free labor until the dept was repaid. When the question was changed to ordering the specific poisoned royals to be killed, harmed or threatened, he said no confidently, but a black slash streaked across the gold and cream glow of the giant man.
It took a while to get it out of him, but he'd once ordered Count Derring threatened, with cause. It was years before and nothing came of it. He also hadn't gone after any Noram generals. When the question turned to Tor things changed. He didn't lie overtly, but he hedged several times, getting black streaks, if small ones. Smythe, for his part, was relentless.
“Tell me now, what are you hiding? Don't bother lying about it, that will just waste time.” The brown eyes stared at the larger man, pinning him without offering hostility.
“Alright… I didn't order it, not exactly, but I may have hinted that Tor should be taken care of after his intervention in the Ursala Thorgood matter. I was… angry. It was silly of me, but I felt embarrassed that such a tiny man could best me so easily in a fight. He didn't even have the grace to strike me down, just stood and let me exhaust myself as if I were a small child having a tantrum. I realized later that I was being a large child having a tantrum, but I was upset for a while.”
No flickers came then at all.
Each line of discussion went back to Laval, the strange black eyed man that had come with treats and gifts, flatteries and plans to help the Wards advance their status in the world. The man even hinted that Ward could be delivered the kingdom, though neither of them ever took that seriously.
“It was fun to dream though, wasn't it?” The Countess breathed gently.
Tor blinked.
It probably was at that, as long as you never had to actually do the job. Nothing the royal family had couldn't be bought with gold really, and they all worked hard, if in odd ways. Richard was always tired looking and Connie had to put up with some of the most annoying people in the kingdom with a smile… which included Tor on his off days. Not a job he'd ever want. Tor considered that for a moment and wondered how, being a Count and Countess, these two hadn't known that instinctively. Then maybe they really had on some level? Neither had triedfor the position, just dreamed about it. Probably only the fun parts too.
Maria's story of Laval was different, but she told it with a straight face unconcerned that her husband sat right next to her listening. They held hands to comfort each other even. It was a bizarre relationship to Tor, but if it worked for them, who was he to judge? Maybe he should take notes instead of acting like mayor Tom was going to walk up and start scolding people? Maria was his age and had been happily married for years, where he'd been alone and lonely most of that time. Maybe his way wasn't working?
“Oh yes, we were lovers almost from the start. He asked if we could be and I saw no harm in it, he had those lovely eyes after all, and was good enough looking. In bed he was… charming. Skilled, certainly, but the flattery he used was so over the top… but it always felt like he meant it. He called me his little kitten-flower, and smothered me with kisses. Then we'd talk for hours, mainly about my life, growing up, the people I knew. He never said much about himself, just that he wanted to know more about me. It was… flattering.” The Countess went on for a while about what they spoke of, most of it innocent really, what foods were in season and what music they liked.
And Tor.
“Oh, yes, he was obsessed with him. Even before we knew he was “the Tor”. When he was just some boy from school that had tried to give me flowers that were too grand for a student to purchase, making me think that the Prince had put him up to it. How I hurt so much over it, and how I couldn't do anything to hurt Alphonse back at all. So he said he'd look into it and came back telling me how the best way to get at Alphonse indirectly was to strike at those close to him. Get the girls pregnant and kill his best friend in the whole world. Torrance Baker. He had this powder that he claimed would remove most kinds of birth control, so that part was easy. Marvin just had to put it on his lips and then kiss the girl. If she slept with anyone for weeks after she just wouldn't have protection at all.”
It was consistent and her story stayed so as she spoke the whole time, pointing at Laval pretty clearly. He was distinctive sounding. Except that Tor had seen six of the man once, and heard there was a seventh he'd just missed noticing, being busy at the time.
Clones. Some magic that made exact duplicates? Tor hadn't been clear on that when his grandfather tried to explain it. Burks claimed it wasn't magic, but what else could do that? The cream and goldenrod aura stayed that way until Maria described her apology to Tor.
“I really meant it.” She said simply, but the whole field went jet black. Sighing she explained without needing to be told too. At least the learning curve on these particular devices was quick.
“I wanted to mean it. I do know I was wrong, treating him so poorly and then lying about him to make trouble. It was evil of me, and I deserve to be punished, but, each time I think about it, I come back to that flower arrangement.” The light stayed clear and bright as she said all this, not even a flicker.
“It must have cost in golds. No one of his station could have afforded something like that. Not the station I thought he was at the time at least. It had to be sent for from the Capital, maybe even had the Queen’s own lady brought to town to do it herself! The base glistened like gold, covered in silk, a woven basket of it the like of which I've never seen since, and I've looked, the flowers perfect and tied with wound stems instead of string, so that it wouldn't show… And it was huge, it must have fifty different kinds of wildflower in it, with dried flowers and herbs
