For the Good of the World

Chapter Six

Interrogating her cousin and even an annoyed Ars under compulsion revealed the same results as Via's interview with Mitis. Someone--almost certainly Clari's mater--had altered the memories of everyone who had seen Kaitlyn's body and made them forget the encounter with the powerful mind magic.

And so it was that Via found herself striding into the Chief Communicator's office with a bravado she didn't feel.

Sententia Exaudibilis sat primly on the long curved chaise in her office's window nook. Clari's mater, a strawberry blond with the pale skin of her Ancient pater and half-Ancient mater, was a stately woman who always wore her sapphire laurel on full display. Unrestricted by the jeweled collars most people wore to both obscure and adorn the tracings gleaming beneath their skin, Sententia's laurel blazed like a river filled with blue lightning. It glowed along her collarbones, casting cold light along her regal jawline and frosting the crystal faux windows behind her an icy blue.

Via claimed the nanites in the room and wove them through the woman's brain. "Do not use any magic while I'm here."

Sententia lowered the teacup she'd lifted to her lips as though she'd not just been compelled. "Good afternoon, Via. What brings you here, my dear?"

Via doubted the Chief Communicator was unaware of her investigation. Impatience propelled her across the office's glossy blue tile, and she sat in one of the chairs across from Sententia, ignoring the woman's arched brow. "You're going to have to answer some questions under compulsion," she said. "I have special authority from my mater."

"Well then," Sententia said dryly. "Clari does often say you're all business and no pleasure." She extended a graceful hand to indicate the tea bowl on the low table between them, where delicate purple ebriamen blooms floated in the hot water alongside a ladle. "Would you at least like some tea?"

"No, thanks." And risk you poisoning me? Yeah right.

Via kept her expression professionally neutral, though the woman's narrowing apple-green eyes made her suspect the Communicator could guess her thoughts. For once, Sententia couldn't read her mind, though. Clari was usually polite enough to keep out of Via's head, but the Chief Communicator had always loved answering Via's unasked questions and responding to her unvoiced remarks.

Today, the woman only folded her hands in her lap and fixed Via with a bland smile, the one she always offered the public during the colony's evening status reports. "Very well." She offered a practiced laugh, bright and airy. "Interrogate away then, Detective."

"Answer my questions honestly and without holding anything back," Via said. "Did you tamper with Mitis's memories? Or Clari's?"

"No." Sententia sipped her tea, lips curling in a small smile. "And yes."

Via scowled. This was going to be more difficult than she'd expected. Interrogations under compulsion were only as good as the questions she asked. And Communicators were notorious masters of wordplay and psychological warfare even without their powers. "You messed with Clari but not Mitis?" she clarified.

"Indeed."

"What about Ars and my cousin Valde?"

Sententia placed her teacup on the plate balanced atop her crossed legs. "I didn't tamper with their memories either, only Clari's." Green eyes glittered as she peered back up at Via. "I'll tell you what happened if you promise not to tell her."

"I can't promise that," Via said firmly. Her eyes narrowed. "And you'll tell me regardless of whether or not I promise."

Sententia sighed. "Alright, no need to be dramatic." She placed the plate with its teacup on the low table, then straightened and laced her fingers in her lap. "Yes, I snipped a few of Clari's memories. I'll be frank." Her lips lifted in a cool smile. "Can't help but be otherwise, right?"