Samuel closed the door behind him before reverting to his true appearance. “I assume you’ve watched the news in the last week. That will simplify some of what I’m about to explain.”
“Torches torch giant monster? Truth or hoax? was my favorite headline,” Lyssa replied with a smile. “I don’t see the big deal. That makes us sound good. We saved a town. This whole thing ended up with only one dead victim and one dead perp.”
“The government was supposed to do a better job of keeping this under wraps.” Samuel’s eyebrows knitted in irritation. “I would have preferred no references to giant monsters in the Shadow media. They are, by their nature, threatening to the public imagination, so undermine Shadow trust in the Society.”
“It’s kind of hard to explain away a building-sized monster a half-dozen cops had on camera. Not to mention the drone footage.” Lyssa shrugged. “We kept the casualties down to two people, including the main culprit. Considering everything that happened, that’s a downright miracle, and we were one day from five of those things appearing to wreck the county. I’m sure enough missiles from the Air Force would have brought them down, but this way, we were the ones who cleaned up. Illuminated cleaned up a sorcery-created problem.”
Samuel moved to a chair and took a seat, looking at the wall rather than Lyssa. “There are so many aspects of this incident we still don’t know about. We expected a rogue at the end but found someone without our gift. The man had powerful shards, but someone had to give them to him, and he admitted serving at least one other who created the monsters that fed into their true final plan. That is annoying.”
Lyssa folded her arms. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. I’m assuming Damien sent you the report about the guy in the robe?”
“The EAA identified the suspect as a missing businessman with no known official ties to the Society,” Samuel replied. “No criminal record, no significant history of any note. A perfectly normal individual who wouldn’t stand out from the crowd.”
She nodded. “And is that true? I know what the Shadow government said, but what about Society records? This guy couldn’t have come out of nowhere.”
“I agree, but he’s nothing, to the best of my knowledge and our records.” Samuel frowned. “I’ve been able to find no indications he was a servant or a member of an Illuminated family, no matter what he said.”
“I don’t know if he was targeting me since he didn’t send the email.”
“Do you have any suspects other than Elder Theodora?” Samuel asked. He didn’t sound accusatory.
“I almost feel like someone went out of their way to get our attention, but that’s the thing. He wasn’t the one who did it. He was pissed that we’d shown up.”
“I don’t understand why someone would use such an odd, cruel, and roundabout way to get our attention as opposed to contacting the Society or the EAA directly.” Samuel shook his head. “And I doubt if this was in any way targeted at you.”
“I’m not sure myself, but we still need to figure out who sent those emails,” Lyssa replied.
Samuel nodded. “Agreed. On the off-chance you were targeted, they might have done so because they were related to Allard’s organization. Revenge is the most obvious explanation. It’s far from unheard of for Torches. It’s only strange you’ve gone this long without having to deal with this.”
Lyssa scoffed. “It’s been that kind of time lately. This, on top of my brother’s regalia conveniently reappearing when I find evidence he’s alive.”
“What evidence?” Samuel narrowed his eyes. “You’ve never told me about any real evidence your brother was alive, and what I’ve heard from Last Remnant argues the opposite.”
It was time to gamble. She couldn’t succeed without his help.
“I came across something else,” Lyssa said. “A picture that suggests he was alive a few years ago. I’m not going to show it to you, but I believe in its provenance. Yes, I acknowledge that means I can’t prove he’s been alive since then, but it strongly undermines the Society’s official statements about his death in the line of duty.”
Samuel looked down at her, his expression inscrutable. “You suspect even me?”
Lyssa shook her head. “If I suspected you, I wouldn’t have told you any of that. It’s more that I don’t know who to trust. I think there’s something going on, and call me arrogant, but I think it has a lot more to do with me than I initially believed. I don’t know if this current incident has anything to do with it or not, but it’s not impossible.”
“You suspected Theodora of targeting you, but she had no problem offering Aisha Khatri to assist you on the assignment,” Samuel replied. “That undermines the idea that she’s plotting against you.”
“That’s true. I’ll give you that,” Lyssa agreed, “I can’t be sure anymore that I believe Chris is alive, but if he is dead, that means someone covered up him being alive and killed him later. Then this becomes family vengeance.”
“Perhaps your imagination is running wild. One picture is not enough to justify such an elaborate tale.”
“But a regalia not returning for years?” Lyssa raised an eyebrow.
“That makes a stronger case,” Samuel admitted.
“It goes back to the same thing. I think I deserve a little trip to Ye Old Motherland, don’t you? I tracked those monsters down, kept on the case, and nearly killed myself, taking one down. If I hadn’t obsessed about this, it would have been too late, and we would have had a horde rampaging across southern Arizona and northern Mexico.”
Samuel took a deep breath. “I agree.”
“You agree?” Lyssa stared at him, her mouth open. “I can go to Last Remnant?”
“I don’t make that decision, but I can certainly offer my strong recommendation,” Samuel replied. “Though I do feel compelled to note that given your concerns
