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Yaden and Ulysses reappeared standing on the pavement of a street lined with modern, detached houses, each with its own small garden. It was late morning here, judging by the listless sunlight slanting through a thick layer of slate-coloured clouds. The street and housing plots were impeccably clean and well maintained, some ground cars were parked under their own carports. A little farther down the street, a woman who had been watering her potted plants was now watching them with suspicion.
The grey light and mild hostility reminded Yaden of his time on Leichnam – and of the fact that he was on a planet he had never visited before. So he took a moment to say hello to Espen itself, letting his senses sink into the ground to get a feel for what kind of planet he was dealing with. Tired, was his first impression, old and tired, like a mule that had walked the same mountain path day after day and wanted to lay down and rest. It didn’t care about the constant prodding and poking by the tiny humans who lived on it. Not a pleasant place to be. He quickly pulled back before he could get sucked in by the mood – better to keep his attention on his immediate surroundings.
The one-storey house they stood in front of looked like all the others along the street, but the front yard stood out like a sore thumb. It was the only one that was not carefully kept, the long, patchy grass looked very out of place. The curtains were drawn closed, concealing the inside. It looked like Lachlain hadn't been here in a while, or, if he had, he had been busy with other things rather than mowing his lawn.
Yaden nodded politely to the woman, who squinted back at him like his neighbours in Hagermarsh had done. She wore a dress with blue flowers printed on instead of a grey felt cloak and hat but that barely took away from the image. He tried to remember any reasons for the cultures on the two planets to be related, but he couldn't make a connection from what little he knew. Espen had strict rules, moral and social codes, and its citizens prided themselves on following them. And, of course, the mainly white population painfully missed their former Grebenstein nobles, even forty years after the Black-and-White War, and despised their new, black-skinned Ndewane lords with a passion.
“I don't particularly like porting inside unfamiliar buildings,” Ulysses said next to him. “So I thought it would be safer to put us in front of the door.”
“No problem.” Yaden went up the two steps to the front door of Doctor Lachlain's house. The simple, cylinder lock was made of metal and a brief twist of his fingers caused it to open obediently. “I hope the neighbours don't call the police on us.” He pushed the door open and stepped over the heap of letters which had formed just behind.
The hallway was dark, but when he pushed the switch on the wall, the electrical lights came on, illuminating an irritatingly average space. Wooden floors, a small dresser against one wall, a door to the left that opened into a small kitchen, another one at the end of the hall opened to the living room. Everything was furnished in tastefully muted colours and light woods. To Yaden, it looked closer to a page from a furniture catalogue than an actual home. Even the pictures on the walls and small art pieces looked more like decoration than personal touches. Doctor Lachlain seemed to prefer his environment tightly controlled.
Yaden turned left into the kitchen, while Ulysses continued straight on into the living room. The fridge was empty except for a few condiment bottles, so Lachlain had not been here in a while, and hadn't expected to be, either.
“Wardrobe is half empty,” Ulysses called from deeper within the house.
They continued searching through the rooms, but the first impression remained true. Everything was functional without any hints as to what drove the man. When they met again, it was in Lachlain's tiny study. There was a pale, rectangular spot on the desk where it seemed a computer had sat for a long time, but that was the only item obviously missing. Shelves full of thick books lined the walls, and a cabinet with paper folders stood in one corner.
Ulysses thumbed through the folders while Yaden tried to figure out the title of one of the books. Something about cognitive tests. He had no clue what that was but guessed it was related to Lachlain's job. He would have to trust Ulysses to tell him if he found something interesting since this was way too much text for him to decipher in a reasonable amount of time. Having Ivan here would have been helpful for reasons he hadn't foreseen. He turned to the desk instead to check the drawers.
“There are some case files here, but they are all dated several years back. Nothing on the Tambô family,” Ulysses said.
The desk held pens and other writing utensils, but no journals or notepads with mysterious notes they could use to trace the Doctor.
Yaden cast his senses out and did a quick scan of the house. Built from bricks, it was clearly visible to him and had no hidden rooms or compartments. Nor did the small garden behind the house hide an entrance to an underground villain's lair.
“Either he didn't keep any notes or he took them with him,” Ulysses guessed. “It's all very neat and tidy.”
“It looks cold to me,” Yaden mused. “How can someone like that care for others?”
Ulysses shrugged. “I honestly don't know. Maybe you have to detach yourself from your own emotions so you won't get drawn into the misery of others? It sure doesn't look healthy to me. Athena isn't like that at all.” He looked around the office again. “This definitely doesn't look like the home of a sensitive person, let alone a passionate one. But whatever his reasons are, I think we can rule out that he acted on impulse.”
“I don't understand why he came after Myriam. If he hadn't shown up, I would have looked into the death of her parents, yes, but he couldn't have known how deeply. There was a good chance the whole thing would have blown over.”
“Maybe Myriam knows something incriminating, or he thinks she does? Would you agree to Athena scanning her as well? Maybe he has suppressed something in her memories.”
Yaden considered the request. Ulysses’ offer could be careful calculation or genuine desire to help. “I will ask her. She has been through so much, I don't want to spook her with a stranger digging through her thoughts.”
“Agreed.” Ulysses looked unhappy. “I didn't think of that. We'll figure it out without putting the girl through more stress.”
If he was pretending to be nice, he was doing a great job of it.
“So what do we do now?” Ulysses asked with a huff.
“I would like to talk to the neighbour we saw outside,” Yaden suggested. “She looks like the kind of person who carefully monitors the entire neighbourhood. Maybe she has seen or heard something useful. At the very least, she can tell us when Doctor Lachlain was last home.”
“Sounds good. Should I talk to her? Considering you're not exactly the most recognisable Lotus Knight...”
Remembering the Vertex’s righteous indignation made Yaden chuckle. “If you can behave yourself and be polite.”
“I can pretend to be a well-mannered, civilised being exceedingly well,” Ulysses answered good-naturedly. “If I want to.”
“Let's put it to the test.”
They left the house and Yaden carefully locked the door behind them again. The neighbour was still standing by her front door, watching them through the same squint. When they approached, she twitched towards the safety of her home, but caught herself and instead straightened her back, crossed her arms, and stared at them threateningly.
“Good morning, Ma'am,” Ulysses greeted her while Yaden trailed a little behind. “I'm a representative of the Psions Guild.”
Not naming any names, Yaden noted with amusement.
“I'm looking for Doctor Lachlain. He has been missing for a while and we are worried about him.”
Worried about him doing something terrible, yeah.
The woman didn't show any sign of thawing. “Do you have any identification?” Either she did not recognise the stole identifying Ulysses as a Vertex, or she didn't care.
“In fact, I do.” Ulysses pulled out what looked like some sort of badge in a leather case to Yaden.
After squinting at it for a moment, the woman perked up. “Ah, yes. I guess I have time to answer a few questions.”
“Can you tell me when you last saw Doctor Lachlain?”
“About two months ago.” The speed with which she answered showed clearly what she had been thinking about while waiting for them to finish their search of the house.
“Did he behave unusually in any way?”
“He was carrying two suitcases, so I guessed he was going on vacation. Which he entirely deserves, if you ask me. A man needs a break now and then, and he was such a diligent fellow. Always working.”
“But you didn't notice anything else out of the ordinary? He didn’t look nervous or otherwise preoccupied?”
“No?” The suspicious squint returned. “Is the good doctor in trouble? Because I will have you know that he is an impeccable gentleman. Properly maintains his front yard and garden, always greets his neighbours, takes in the newspaper in a timely manner. Thinking of which, he must have known he'd be away a while. It hasn't been delivered since he left so he must have cancelled his subscription. Must have overlooked getting someone to look after his front lawn, though.”
“We are not sure whether he is in trouble,” Ulysses tried to reassure her. “As I mentioned, he is missing and we are trying to find him. Did he keep a lively contact with his neighbours?”
“He did come to the annual neighbourhood party, but apart from that, he wasn't intrusive like some other people I could name.” She pointedly glared across the street at another house, which looked perfectly ordinary to Yaden.
Her disdain for her neighbours was so much like a Leichnami's that it made Yaden wonder whether the most hostile people on Espen had moved out to settle Leichnam, or whether the most moderate Leichnami had relocated to Espen. The similarities were uncanny.
Ulysses cast a glance at Yaden, searching for more questions to ask.
“Did Doctor Lachlain ever talk about any of his cases?” Yaden asked on the off-chance that Lachlain had mentioned the Tambô case.
“Of course not.” Now, the woman turned her glare on Yaden. “The doctor didn't gossip, and especially not about his clients.”
“Thank you, Ma'am, you have been very helpful,” Ulysses took over again.
The woman nodded. “Well, I hope you find the doctor soon. The state of his front yard is deplorable and I would hate to see the house sold to another 'young family'.” She put so much emphasis on the last two words that she could have just as well have given them air quotes.
“We'll do our best, Ma'am,” Ulysses assured her, tipped an imaginary hat, and walked away under her watchful gaze. Only once they were well out of earshot, did Ulysses mutter, “I hope a family with fifteen kids who play brass instruments moves in. What a hag.”
“You don't have contact with mundane people much, do you?” Yaden asked, deeply amused by Ulysses’ heartfelt loathing.
“Oh, I do, talking to people is half my job these days.” He turned to give Yaden a bittersweet grin. “Just because I am good at it doesn't mean I like them.”
Yaden couldn't suppress a smile at this confession. Maybe they could work well together, if only for this case.
“There is one more thing I want to look into,” he started. “Do we have a photo of Doctor Lachlain in his personnel file?”
Ulysses nodded.
“Would you mind porting us to Shiraz, to Mirabelle? That's the town where Mr Tambô was killed. I want to ask whether anyone has seen Doctor Lachlain there. That would explain how Mr Tambô was recognised and we might find a clue about how he found them.”
“At your service.” Ulysses smirked finely and bowed with a flourish. He concentrated, picking up the location, Yaden guessed, and, in the blink of an eye, they were a few planets away without so much as a hair out of place on his head.
The shift in time of day and the climate was as jarring to Yaden as the first time, and he felt it slowly taking a toll on his body. He would definitely need some meditation tonight. In Mirabelle, it was late afternoon and a pleasantly sunny day. Ulysses had deposited them on the same town square Yaden and Ivan had arrived at a few days earlier, only now, it looked a lot more peaceful. Like the typical postcard Shiraz town square, if one ignored the burned-out ruins of two buildings on its side. But even those managed to look picturesque, what with the presence of a colourful bird sitting on a darkened beam poking up from the ruins and singing its little heart out, while a whole flock of tiny brown birds dug through the ashes, chirping cheerfully. A large cart was parked between the ruins, loaded up with debris and charred wood.
Shiraz itself was as welcoming, warm and cosy under his feet like a large, healthy dog curled up next to the fireplace after a day of chasing butterflies in a meadow and rolling in the mud to its heart’s content. At least, sinking his senses into this planet helped him to feel more grounded, Yaden noted with a soundless, happy sigh. So different to Espen.
A couple of tables and benches had been moved to the square, where a few of the townsfolk sat at them, covered in soot, and drank from large wooden mugs. Clean-up work was well on its way and Yaden did not doubt that soon, a new, even prettier tavern would rise where the old one had been destroyed and that the new guard station would follow soon after.
At first, the people at the tables were startled by their sudden appearance. But some of them recognised Yaden from before, and almost instantly their confused looks were replaced by hushed whispers of awe.
Yaden approached them with a friendly wave. “Good afternoon,” he greeted them, “I am looking for Lieutenant Marlonne. Can you tell us where we might find her?”
One of the women stood up, tall and sinewy. “Good evening, sir. Diane is in the town hall. We have converted one of the offices into a temporary guard station.”
Her crisp and open manner was so different from the woman on Espen’s that Yaden found himself smiling back at her widely. “Thank you.”
“Sir, if I may,” she stopped him when he started to turn away. “Sir, we ... we wanted to express our gratitude. For protecting our town from harm.” For such a tall woman, her smile was adorably shy. “We've all seen plays about the Lotus Knights, but ... we never thought one of your kind would come out here to save us. Thank you, sir.”
“You are most welcome. I'm glad I was able to help.”
That wasn't exactly the standard Lotus Knight answer – citing how the Emperor cared about every one of his subjects – but it came from Yaden's heart. People like these, commoners in over their head and in need of aid, were the reason he had left his home planet of Erys and become a Lotus Knight. This was why he trained so hard and why he was able to leave Colin behind. Not for the admiration, but for the chance to help, to make a real difference.
The town hall, like the other buildings at the edge of the town square, was half-timbered, with a solid stone foundation. Beautiful, brightly painted carvings decorated the wooden beams and large, potted flower bushes flanked the open entrance.
They entered a hallway with doors opening to the left and right. The room they were looking for was easy to find as it was the first on their right. Lieutenant Marlonne sat on the ground, surrounded by stacks of singed and partly burned papers – what they had been able to save from the guard station, Yaden guessed, and separate stacks of neat, unburned folders. She looked up when Yaden politely knocked on the door frame and surged to her feet.
“Sir Yaden! Good evening, sir.” She frantically looked around. “Please excuse the chaos.”
“No worries. I see you are hard at work cleaning up and putting things back in order.”
“Yes, sir! I'm doing my best, sir. I'm comparing the guard station records to the copies we kept in the town hall archive.” She sighed deeply, looking at the papers again. “It's a lot for one person to do, but right now, it's just me and Maria, and her reading skills aren't the best, so it'll have to be me sorting this until Clodette has fully recovered and can return to work. But never mind such details.” She turned her full attention back to Yaden. “How can I help you, sir?”
“Vertex Ulysses here and I are currently investigating what led to that psion being here. It's a bit of a muddled case and we have a few follow up questions. If you have a moment?”
Her eyes went wide when her mind registered that it wasn't just a genuine Lotus Knight she was talking to, but also the only other powerful psion she could probably pin a name on. But only for a second, then her professionalism took the upper hand and she snapped a crisp, “Of course, sir.”
“Alright. Let me see if I remember correctly what happened when your colleagues tried to arrest the psion. It started with one of them recognising the psion at the inn. She went back to the guard station to check the wanted posters to see if it really was him. Then she returned to the inn with two more of your colleagues to make the arrest. The psion fought back, one of your colleagues was hurt, but they wounded the fugitive and took him to the guard station. A fire broke out at the inn, which spread to the guard station, and the psion escaped.”
Lieutenant Marlonne nodded. “Yes, sir. Though poor Simone wasn't just hurt. She was killed.”
That was a detail Yaden had missed when she had first told him. “My condolences,” he told her earnestly. “You said that your colleague Clodette is still recovering?”
“She sustained some nasty smoke poisoning, but the doctor says she will be okay in a couple of days,” Lieutenant Marlonne explained. “She's at home right now, resting.”
“Would it be possible for me to visit her and ask her some things in person? An eye-witness report could be very valuable in my investigation.”
Lieutenant Marlonne chuckled. “I believe she would be delighted, sir. She was so miffed when I told her she missed a genuine Lotus Knight coming to save all of us. I can show you to her house right now if you wish, sir.” Casting a glance at Ulysses, she added, “Sirs.”
“That would be helpful, thank you.”
Walking through the streets of Mirabelle, Yaden was once more struck by the stark difference between planets across the Empire. The climate was but the smallest. Housing style, tech level, and above all, the manners of people they met – everything was unique. Here they were greeted warmly and at the same time politely by everyone they passed. Shiraz was truly living up to its reputation for being one of the nicest places in the whole Empire.
It took them only a few minutes to get to Lieutenant Marlonne's colleague’s house. It was a small cottage in a street of similar cottages, but each of them showed some kind of special touch, making them unique, be it the carvings and paint on the wooden lintels, different flowers on the window sills, or the decorative, wooden sculptures of native animals in the front garden of Clodette's home.
Lieutenant Marlonne noticed his interest. “Clodette's husband makes them,” she explained. “He is very talented.”
She knocked and a handsome man in his late thirties opened the door. He greeted Marlonne warmly, but almost flinched back behind his door when he noticed Yaden and Ulysses. Lieutenant Marlonne explained to Clodette's husband why they were there, and he immediately invited them in, torn between awe and a natural shyness. But he managed to offer them tea and biscuits, and, after everything Yaden had heard about Shirazan cuisine, he was sorely tempted. But he declined. He was here to work, not to sample the food, which most probably would have turned this into a longer session than they had time for right now. Maybe on a future visit.
Clodette’s husband led them into the cosy living room, and a few minutes later, Captain Clodette appeared, dressed in plain linen trousers and shirt. Her husband trailed behind her, trying to put a dressing gown on her until he noticed everyone was watching him, at which point he fled deeper into the house.
Despite Lieutenant Marlonne's earlier words about Clodette, she didn't show any nervousness at being in the presence of a Lotus Knight and was very eager to help. Her account matched that of Lieutenant Marlonne's, however, Yaden couldn't shake the feeling there was something strange about the way she told it.
Ulysses had remained quiet so far, but he spoke up now. “Lieutenant Marlonne, do you recall seeing a wanted poster of the psion described by your colleague? Can you actually recall the poster hanging on your wall?”
She opened her mouth to reply, stopped, and frowned in surprise. “Actually, no, I don't.”
Clodette scoffed at her. “It was right on the wall, next to the board on the left when you walked into the guard station. Smack in the middle. You couldn't have overlooked it.”
Yaden looked over to Ulysses and saw that the other psion was thinking the same thing. Making people see things that weren't there was an easy trick for a suggessor. Ulysses pulled out the photo of Doctor Lachlain.
“Did you see this man at the inn?”
After studying it closely, Clodette shook her head, but when Lieutenant Marlonne glanced at it, she nodded immediately. “He was there. I saw him right when I arrived on the scene. Singed and deeply in shock, by the looks of it. I lost track of him afterwards, with all the chaos, and didn't see him again.” She scratched her head. “Odd. He's not from here. He must have been a guest at the inn, so where did he find shelter after it burned down?”
Yaden briefly considered explaining why they were looking for Lachlain but decided against it. They didn't need to worry about whether the whole debacle – and the death of their colleague – had happened because some renegade psion had manipulated them into doing the dirty work for him.
“He is a person of interest in our investigation. That is all I can tell you.” It seemed to be the right thing to say as both Lieutenant Marlonne and Clodette looked awed and nodded.
So Doctor Lachlain had somehow managed to track down Mr Tambô and tried to capture them. Why had he used the town guards and not done it himself? Had he hoped to get rid of Mr Tambô so he could take Myriam? So far Yaden had thought that her father being arrested had triggered her chrysalis, but maybe it had been being threatened by Lachlain directly? But Myriam hadn't mentioned seeing him there. Could he have erased her memories of him as he had apparently done with Clodette? From everything Yaden knew about a chrysalis as violent as Myriam's, it seemed unlikely he could have manipulated her while in such a state.
They thanked Clodette for her time and, once they were outside, assured Lieutenant Marlonne that she had been of great assistance.
With no further leads so far, Ulysses ported them back to Lagoona, placing them near Yaden's dormitory in the Lotus Compound. Here, it was just past sunset and the view of the ocean and sky beyond Emperor's Island was a spectacular display of colours. Despite everything, Yaden took a moment to appreciate its beauty, until Ulysses pulled him back to the case.
“I think we can consider it established that Doctor Lachlain continued chasing after Mr Tambô and the girl on his own time and not on Guild orders.” He sounded genuinely relieved.
“Sounds like you weren't sure about that.”
“Of course, I was.” Ulysses' reply was indignant, but not too credible.
So he did stick to Guild propaganda guidelines to some degree. After all the genuine help Ulysses had given today, Yaden didn't push him.
“Hmhm.” He rubbed his face. “We know that he somehow tracked them to Shiraz. How would he have done that?”
“It's not impossible for a telepath to do. He would have to have scanned every person they might have been in contact with and followed that trail. That, obviously, is highly illegal as scanning a person requires consent or authorisation by the proper agencies. Or a noble’s, of course. It's also extremely tedious. One would have to be rather obsessed to attempt something like that.”
“From what we have seen at his house, the Doctor seems to be capable of tedious work. It can't have been easy to keep that house so neat. But how could he have become so obsessed with this case without anyone noticing? Didn't you tell me that telepaths are especially monitored?”
“Oh, they are. But Espen isn't exactly a hub of Psions Guild activity, you know? We have offices in the major cities, yes, but there's not much high-volume business happening. So we are mainly staffed with psions that are more physically orientated, for technical applications. I wouldn't be too surprised if the monitoring was rather basic. If anything had been noticed, he would have had a yearly examination at the Glade on Floor. So, while it doesn't make us look too good, I can see him being better at hiding his motivations than a backwater, telepathic auditor was at detecting them. Things go wrong sometimes, no matter how careful you are in trying to prevent them.” Ulysses sighed. “We need to find him. There is no telling what might be going on in his head or what he will do next.”
“I don't think I have to mention that he will not be handed over to the Guild once he is found.”
Ulysses snorted. “No, that much was clear from the start. We have dealt with nobles before, you know? He'll be all yours, to do with as you please.”
“Any idea on how we find him? Seems to me like we are no closer than when we started, today.”
“We are going through the books in all the places he was stationed at. If someone there did an emergency teleport, the energy expenditure will have been logged, even if Lachlain made them forget they did it. Knowing where he went will hopefully give us a lead to follow. I'll be getting on that as soon as you tell me you don't need me anymore here.”
“Doesn't it tire you out, constantly hopping from planet to planet like that?” Yaden knew the question was stupid the moment it left his mouth. He was talking to the most skilled teleporter humanity had, after all. Ulysses' elegant smirk confirmed the thought.
“Does flinging rocks tire you?”
“Depends on the size of the rocks,” Yaden answered with a smile of his own.
“Well, let's say, so far, I have only been throwing pebbles today.”
They studied each other for a moment and Yaden was a little surprised to realise that he had enjoyed working with the other psion.
“Thank you for your help,” he said, “I appreciate it.”
“Likewise.” Ulysses bowed with a flourish and tucked his Vertex stole back into place. “I will let you know as soon as I find a trace of our renegade psion.”