The Priesthood

Sure, free time was nice, but if you’re stuck in one room without much to really do, then it is just boring. Imagine: You are to spend more than 72 hours in the same room; sometimes you might sit down and think about boredom; sometimes you could stand up and continue thinking about boredom. Of course, you could sleep as well, but even then, in your dreams, you would be just thinking about boredom.

There is nothing to do; thoughts and your own imagination can entertain you only for so long.

The best moments were when food was brought to him and he could see another human, an older man with gray hair and a stubble beard. He always had a pleasant smile on his face. He must have loved his job.

They would never really have a conversation; just the usual pleasantries such as "Good, insert the current time of the day!" and "Are you ready to confess anything?" or "It must be awfully boring in there; getting out isn’t that hard, really!"

To some, the suffering of others might be the greatest entertainment that they might get during their lives.

Kanrel didn’t mind; even if he was bored, it didn’t much differ from the reality that he was subject to. For him, more or less, each day had the same gray flavor to it: ash.

When at last 72 hours had passed since his little talk with the investigators, the man who usually brought him food opened the locks of the door to let Kanrel out: "I guess you’re free to go; I hope you come back to visit me."

Kanrel gave a nod as an answer and walked out. He found himself in a corridor with at least ten or so doors. Most likely, they were other holding cells like his, with criminals or none. At the end of the corridor, there was an open door, so he walked through.

As far as Kanrel knew, the holding cells and campus law enforcement were just across the street from the postal office, so he at least knew where he was. The lobby of the building served as a waiting room for those who had other business with the officers who worked there.

There he saw Yirn, Yviev, Uanna, and Wen waiting for him; they got up from their chairs as they saw him enter the lobby.

"Are you alright?" Uanna asked when she got to him, "I’ve heard that terrible things happen to people in prison." She said that and seemed to look for any signs of mistreatment.

"Funny; she didn’t have such a reaction when we got out." Yviev said dryly, "You really must've done much more than installing a couch.

"I am just fine; I haven’t had this much free time in a while. I would not recommend it to even my worst enemy." Kanrel said, then studied the faces of Yirn and Yviev, "I guess we three have lots to talk about."

"Yes, and some of those things are best spoken about privately." Yirn pointed out and looked at Uanna and Wen; Kanrel could tell that the young man didn’t seem to have much trust in the two nobles.

So they parted ways with Uanna and Wen, much to Uanna’s displeasure. They first went back to their dorms, but the doors were barred, and three guards stood next to those doors. They were then informed that no one was to enter the rooms during the investigation, and three rooms were prepared for them on the upper floors.

While walking in the corridors, Kanrel could easily tell that when they went past anyone, they would be stared at, hear whispers here and there, and feel fear in the eyes of some. Some of the other students would wonder if it was right to allow a murderer to live in their midst.

But that was mostly the normal students at the academy; the novices didn’t seem to care too much, not because they trusted them not to be murderers but because there were better things to be afraid of, like any and all beds.

On the third floor of the northern building were their new rooms for the period of the investigation; it was impossible to tell for how long the investigation would take, so they might as well assume that these rooms would be theirs for the rest of their time here.

Three separate rooms were given to them at the end of a corridor; there were other rooms, but most of them were empty; these rooms were here just for cases like this. The other people who would live here would be a few Inquisitors, for the time being.

The Inquisitors would serve as guards; they would make sure that all students would be safe. No one would dare to even try to come to their rooms during the night, and they wouldn’t dare to leave their own rooms during the night to go murdering any more people.

They were all murder suspects, but they were also possible targets of the real murderer.

They chose to enter Yirn’s room, as it seemed to be in between Yviev’s and Kanrel’s rooms.

His room was more or less empty. Sure, there was a bed and most of the books that used to be in Yirn’s room, but there was no equipment for working out. Yirn sat on his new bed and said, "Take a chair or something."

There was just one chair. Kanrel gave out a long sigh as he saw Yviev running to it and sitting down on it, so he sat on the floor as gracefully as he could.

Silence was all that was between them for a while. Until Yirn chose to break it: "What questions did they ask you both?" He looked at both of them in turn; he seemed ready to react if one of them did anything suspicious.

Yviev giggled slightly; the whole situation seemed absurd. "Relax, Yirn; I never took you for someone who’d be scared too easily; it is after all what the murderer wants..."

"I agree; what other motive could the murderer have?" Kanrel added that he could then see Yirn relax; he wasn’t ready to jump into action anymore, and his face seemed much more like how he usually was.

"I can’t help it; it feels like I can’t trust anyone." Yirn said solemnly, "The officer who spoke with me said something about us all having a connection to the murders."

Kanrel stared at him. "To me, he only mentioned that I had a connection to one of the victims; apparently the girl found in my room was someone I had met briefly."

"They didn’t really elaborate on that statement even when I asked, though they did offer a theory on why I might’ve been the person behind the murders," Yirn said.

Yviev raised her brows and said, "They said the same to me. The man found in my room was someone I knew; or rather, he was someone connected to my family."

"How did you know him?" Kanrel asked.

Yviev let out a long sigh. "Well... I was to be wed to him after graduation."

There was another long silence. Yirn and Kanrel both just stared at Yviev in surprise.

"Why didn’t you say anything before? When he first disappeared?" Yirn asked, and doubt could be heard in his voice again.

"I didn’t know that he was the one missing; the rumors weren’t really something that I much cared about. And just to add, I didn’t mind marrying him; he was a nice guy." She said, and hurt could be heard in her voice; she cast her gaze downward.

Yirn’s facial expression softened. "I’m such a dick; sorry."

Yviev shook her head and said, "How could you know? I never told anyone."

"How about you? What was their theory about you?" Kanrel asked Yirn, shifting away from another awkward silence.

"The fact that I'm nameless and the girl that was found in my room was a noble who used to ruthlessly bully me before I enrolled at the academy," Yirn said, with not much emotion on his face, "Did they use the same theory about you or something?"

Kanrel shook his head. "They claimed that it was my way of dealing with the rumors about my mother. The girl I found in my room was someone who said a couple of words to me when I had seen one of those graffiti; she just said something about my mother being daft or something."

They all spent a couple of minutes pondering the things that they had just learned. There were three theories given to them by the investigators, but it was likely that none of them was the real reason. At least, so Yirn seemed to believe.

"I think we should investigate the murders ourselves." He suddenly said, getting up from his bed, "It won’t take long until they decide that we worked together on the murders, planning everything from the beginning."

He looked down at Kanrel and said, "The only thing that makes sense is that this is a personal vendetta toward one of us."

Kanrel got up from the ground and said, "The graffiti, the rumors; they only stopped when the three students disappeared. It all must be connected."

Kanrel then shared the theory that he had come up with while under arrest; Yirn and Yviev listened closely.

"Then what do you suggest?" Yviev asked; she remained seated and kept looking at Yirn and Yviev in turn.

"I agree with Yirn; we should investigate this by ourselves."

Yirn nodded. "The truth is most likely closer than we think. And besides, if we figure this out together, I might get some extra points, making it more likely that I get to become an inquisitor." On his face, there was now a wide grin; he almost looked scary.

Yviev laughed, saying, "Not even accusations of murder could change you."

"If you two want to investigate, then I see no reason not to join you; let’s figure this thing out; besides, I want to find out what bastard got to my husband-to-be. Who knows, I might do to that person the same thing they did to him." Her amused expression quickly transformed into one that had such bloodthirst in it.

Yirn shivered visibly. "Remind me not to fuck with you."

They spent the next couple of hours going through all that they might remember about the graffiti, as it was their first clue to investigate, not to mention the novice that had been found dead in Kanrel’s room.

Her name was Tarin Burani, and she wasn’t really anything special as a novice; she was as talented as any of the other novices. She did just fine during their classes, as far as any of them could remember. To put it simply, she didn’t stand out that much from the rest of the flock.

It really did feel like it had been just a coincidence that she had been the person to comment on whatever she did to Kanrel on that day. It could’ve been anyone, really.

Either way, they would have to investigate the possibility that she might’ve been the person or one of the people behind the graffiti in the first place. The same thing they would have to figure out about the rest of those who had been murdered

They had to dig as deep as they could until there was nothing more to find out. Graffiti and the dead were the first few clues: the way they had died and the positions in which they were left in their rooms.

Maybe they could ask around the hospital to figure out the cause of their deaths; that would give them at least some information regarding whether the murderer had been capable of magic or not. This would considerably limit the pool of people that could be behind the murders.

When they had new information, they could shift to another motive, but for now, they had a simple, unified goal that they would reach no matter what.