Yubi walked under the sun, staring at the ground. He wore a soft double-tabard: a narrow light blue on top over a wide dark brown which covered his sides. Matching undergarments covered his arms and legs. His wife had helped him pick the outfit out after he’d finished crying and apologizing.

  He was looking for vents and light holes. The previous night, as he was recovering from the shock of the dream powder, he’d asked how the light and air were managed living underground. She’d answered by explaining the ventilation ducts which connect the surface down to the compound and the mirror-lined tubes which carried daylight down. All of these were built with redundancy so that they didn’t need to be moved when the fortress was rearranged.

  They’d sounded impressive enough that he wanted to see them with his own eyes, but when he did he realized they were just holes in the ground.

  When he arrived, Yubi found the door to Toi’s office was open. Inside, the head diagramist was arguing with a young man. The man was shorter than Yubi but taller than Toi. He wore a white tabard which matched both the embroidered parts of Toi’s and the short hair on his head. His crossed arms were unsleeved, showing a toned, athletic build.

  The young man spoke with fire on his tongue. “...but I need access to the mountains for training!”

  “The other day I heard a report that the city could see explosions in the mountains. Suppose a demon had seen you and deduced our location.”

  “So I need to be less obvious, fine. Would you rather I practice here?”

  “Obviously not!”

  “Well I need to train somewhere or else too much was for nothing!”

  Yubi tapped the door to make them aware of his presence.

  “Oh, Yubi,” Toi said, “what brings you here?”

  “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

  Toi stepped in front of the young man. “Not at all, not at all. How may I be of service?”

  “I have a matter I’d like to discuss with you. Privately.”

  Toi turned to the young man and gestured toward the door.

  “We’re not done here,” the young man said.

  Sighing, Toi answered, “I don’t suppose we are.”

  When the pale haired man had left, Toi turned back to Yubi. “So what shall we discuss?”

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  “It is about the events on the previous day of prayer. Loya was at church, Rio was… well, he was either at the teleportation facility or he wasn’t. I’m curious where you were when the sabotage took place?”

  “You don’t mean to suggest I was the one to do it?”

  “No, of course not.” Though you are a likely suspect if I accept Rio’s account. “I’m just trying to get a sense of where everyone was, what they were doing, what they might have seen.”

  “Ah. In that case I won’t be much help to you. For the entirety of the twenty-first, I would’ve been here in my office. It’s not that I don’t go to church, just that I don't always have the time. If you would like to verify this, ask everyone if they saw me walk through the forest. Both the church and the teleportation facility are in the city, so I would’ve needed to leave the fortress compound to get to either.”

  “Hmm. Alright. Do you have any idea why someone would sabotage the diagram to Kassia?”

  “We’re expecting an ambassador from there to arrive the day after tomorrow. Kassia has been experiencing some… troubles of faith of late. It’s possible the saboteur wanted to damage our relations with them by killing their mana generators.”

  “Troubles of faith?”

  “Yes… um… When a request for food supplies was turned down, the king of Kassia cursed God and stormed out of the council. They share a border with a heretic nation, so they wind up consuming more resources as a matter of defense. The hope in inviting an ambassador was that we could provide aid and help repair relations.”

  “So it’s political in nature?”

  “I would assume so, yes.”

  Yubi nodded his hand. He’d practiced this gesture for “yes” with his wife last night. “I think that’s all I need from you. Next… actually, the one who saw Rio at the facility was someone called Kai… uh…”

  “Kainolautis.”

  “Thank you. Would he be at the facility right now?”

  “No, you’re in luck. Because of the sabotage, he’s running mana fiber scans on the compound. If you’d like to ask him something, he’s not that far away.”

  “That’s good. Where is he?”

  “He’s- Ah!” Toi opened the door and brought the young, white haired man back in. “Yubi, I believe you’ve met Rikshkindr?”

  Yubi looked at the young man. That guy was angry before, so I should avoid upsetting him further. He smiled and closed his eyes, trying to imitate Lau’s pleasantness. “Toi, I only remembered my wife’s name yesterday, and only my own the day before. Forgive me if another name escapes me.”

  Rik stepped forward. “Last time we spoke, you said this name which escapes you could not be uttered without grinding your teeth.” His eyes were a piercing blue which seemed to see into Yubi’s very soul.

  Yubi blushed. Rik’s name had only two vowels, so his rank was as low as Yubi’s was high, a fact which he had apparently ridiculed. Oh no, I’ve already insulted him! He bowed. “Please forgive my past rudeness, I am only beginning to discover my own regrets!”

  Rik blinked and turned to Toi. “This… is Naiouyubi, right?”

  Toi looked away. “Who else would it be?” Then he sighed and turned back. “Rik, I want you to show Yubi to Kainolautis, who is performing mana fiber scans.”

  “What? Now you want me to give tours?”

  Evidently he couldn’t refuse because, shortly thereafter, Rik and Yubi were climbing the staircase away from Toi’s office. Rik walked in front.

  “Say… uh… back on the twenty first, the last day of prayer, would you happen to’ve seen Toi enter the forest?”

  “Hmm? Like to get to the city? He couldn’t have, he never left the fortress for that long.”

  So it’s probably not Toi… Rio, this better not be you…