Industry & Intrigue (6 page)

Cassandra finished only a few
moments before the drakon
said, “Alright I think that’s enough time. Would
anyone care to give the answers to the first question?” Cassandra
put up her hand along with several others.

After exiting the tutorial
Cassandra walked with Reese.
“Have you finished for the day?” she asked. It was
three o’clock and the tutorial had been her last class.

“
No, I have
a history class in an hour then
I’m done,” he replied. “Until then you want to hang at the
cafeteria?”

“
Why not?
” she replied.

“
I just have to meet my friend
Michael at the chemistry department, then we can head over there.
You want to meet us there?”

“
No, I’ll tag along now.
I
t’s not
that far,” she replied.

As they walked along the stone
path that made up the university walkways she asked
him, “Did you hear
about the suicide at the magic center?”

He nodded.
“Yeah, I heard this morning,
it’s everywhere by now. Hard to believe, especially for a student
from one of the noble families. I guess some people can’t take the
pressure.”

“
I heard there was more to it
than that, something involving drugs
,” said Cassandra, “and there were watch
officers from both Imperial and Justice Branches at the Center.”
She had overhead two students mention it in her biochemistry class
this morning.

Rees
e said, “I hadn’t heard that, but I
did hear three other tales of how he killed himself, one with
magic, one with poison, and one with hanging. Everyone was
gossiping about it this morning. I bet there are ten more versions
spinning around campus by now. Who knows what the truth is?” He
pointed at the large square building which housed the chemistry
labs, “Over here.”

T
hey walked up the steps to the entrance
and Reese waved at his friend who was chatting to a couple of his
classmates. Michael glanced over and saw them.

“
Hey Reese
,” he said and noticed
Cassandra with him, “and this must be your classmate,
Cassandra?”

“
I am
,” she replied and stuck out her
hand, which he shook.

“
Michae
l,” he said. “But Mike’s fine if you
prefer,” he turned his head to Reese. “Are we grabbing a bite to
eat? I’ve been stuck in the lab for three hours and I’m
starving.”

“
That’
s the plan,” said Reese.

“
Race you
there
,”
Michael said and he took off ahead of them. Cassandra noticed that
Reese had a puzzled look on his face.

“
What’s wrong?” she
asked.

“
That’s odd.
A
nytime that
I’ve ever introduced a girl to him, he always lays on flirting, or
makes fun of me, but he didn’t with you,” he replied. He shrugged.
“I guess campus life is finally starting to inject some maturity
into him.”

Once they were in the cafeteria and
seated, their conversation inevitably turned to the suicide of Kyle
Dunn. “Oh yeah,” said Michael, in between the bites he was taking
from his large bowl of pasta. “The story is he became involved with
drug dealers operating on campus and he ended up hooked on
tarcaine. When he couldn’t afford to pay for his habit anymore they
killed him.”

“
Kyle Dunn, who is the son of
Councilor Frederic Dunn couldn’t pa
y? His weekly allowance makes us look like
peasants,” said Cassandra with heavy sarcasm.

“
I didn’t say I believed
it
,” said
Michael, “But Jonas Stohl, in my chemistry lab, swears he heard one
of the master mages talking about drug dealers.”

“
That doesn’t mean that they
killed him,” replied Cassandra. She was starting to understand
Reese’s comment about his friend's maturity. “It’s best not to
bother speculating anyway. With all the rumors floating around the
real story has likely been drowned out. The administration will be
making an announcement.”

“
Then what are they
waiting for?” asked Michael.

Reese spoke
up
, “It’s
the Dunn family. They have enough money and influence to keep it
quiet as long as they want to. If Imperial Branch hasn’t finished
investigating, they won’t make an official statement until the case
is closed.”

Cassandra was plucking at the
last
bits of
food on her plate. “I’d better head back to the dorms,” she said.
“I have a lot of biology study to get through and not all of us are
a natural genius like you. I’ll see you at class tomorrow. Michael
it was nice meeting you.” Both of them said farewell and she left
the table.

Chapter 5

Making certain
she was well out of
the cafeteria Reese now spoke his mind to Michael, “You bastard you
knew didn’t you?”

Michael tried to
play innocent.
“Knew what?”

Reese wasn’t buying it though. “Don’t play
the fucking idiot with me. You didn’t try that schmoozing crap you
normally try every single time. You knew she was gay back when you
first asked me about her and you didn’t say a damn
word!”

Michael held up his
hands
, “Ok,
I confess. I saw her a few nights before you mentioned her. I was
in one of the taverns downtown and saw her there. She was sitting
at a table with another girl. She must have had a great deal of
wine in her, because she was nowhere near as reserved. They were
both kissing and pawing at each other the whole time I was there. I
should have said something, but what does it matter, it wouldn’t
have changed anything. And to be fair all I knew is that she liked
women. That doesn’t necessarily mean she didn’t also like
men.”

Reese
closed his eyes in frustration and
rubbed his head.

“
Wait, you didn’t
like outright kiss
her or something, before trying to ask her out did you?” asked
Michael.

“
Of course
not
,”
snapped Reese in reply.

“
That’s good, because that
would have been embarrassing, I remember a time when you weren’t so
cautious back in, what was it…” said Michael.

Reese had no desire to talk
about that particular memory.
“Don’t bring that up again, you and your pranks,”
said Reese, his anger fading. Michael was right, he wasn’t to blame
for his embarrassment with Cassandra.

“
Plus now we have
a new friend that
actually knows the city right? I mean it’s not exactly easy for us
country bumpkins to fit in here, so making new friends is part of
that,” said Michael.

“
What makes you think I even
want to fit in? This city isn’t about fitting in, it’s about
individual expression and different cultures blending together,”
replied Reese.

Michael gulped
do
wn the
last of his meal. “Did you change your major to sociology or
something?” he asked.

“
No
,” replied Reese, “it’s my
observations of the way this city operates.”

“
Anyway
,” said Michael, “I don’t think I can
wait for the investigation and official announcement, I’m going to
head over to Warded Spirals later and see what I can find
out.”

Reese shook his head, “Oh, don’t tell me
you’re going to try one of your harebrained stunts again like the
time you got us lost in the Dalsson Woods.”

“
I killed
that boar though didn’t I?”
asked Michael.

“
Yes,
you did and we were lost in the woods
for four days. Do me a favor, whatever shit you plan to land
yourself into, don’t involve me. We’re too old for that anymore.
We’re at university Mike, let it go,” said Reese.

His friend
glared at him.

“
What is it?” he
asked.

“
I knew him,” said Michael.
“Kyle Dunn was my second cousin on my mother’s side.” His voice had
become more serious. “He was a good kid. No way did he kill
himself.”

Reese sighed. He felt bad for his friend.
“I’m sorry. That doesn’t mean you should go poking around. Leave it
to the watch.”

Michael still
glared at
him.

“
Fuck
,” Reese swore. “Fine I’ll help you
out. But we should wait till night. At least that’ll give us
cover.” Times like this made him wonder why he was friends with
Michael. “I have a class to get to. I’ll meet you at the main
office of Warded Spirals, alright?” Michael nodded.

“
So
who can name the three major factors
that led to the fall of Cartral skylord empire?” asked Professor
Nathanial Smith.

Reese had
the answer but he decided not
to put up his hand. He didn’t like answering questions, preferring
to ask them. History didn’t excite him as much as zoology, although
the course he was taking, History 115-Ancient Civilizations, was
better than most of his other history classes. Smith looked every
bit the stereotypical university professor, tweed jacket, balding
hair and a set of unfashionable, horn-rimmed glasses.

Another student at the front of
the class
put up a hand to answer the question. “Yes, Ophelia?” asked
the professor.

“
Uh, the n
atural disasters of Pelitai and
Ocranus, the agorid migrations of 970PF and…um,” she
replied.

“
Two correct answers and
the third?”

The student kept
stammering
like she was thinking but she had no idea, Reese put up his
hand.

“
Mr. Galius?” asked the
professor.

“
The disastrous economic
measures implemented by King Tabo, which le
ft the entire empire vulnerable,” he
replied. The answer was right in front of him, in the pages that
had been required reading from the previous class.

“
Correct
,” replied Nathaniel. “In fact, that
is the main contributing factor to Cartral’s downfall. If the
empire had not been in such a weak position from the bursting
economic bubble and knee-jerk reactionary measurements to it, then
it could have been in a position to deal with the disasters and
invasion.

Cartral suffered similar troubles
throughout its history, but the culmination of all of these factors
happening in close succession was too much and the powerful skylord
kingdom was destroyed, which leads us to the next phase, the
skylord diaspora.”

While the professor was talking and
putting up notes on this, Reese’s mind wandered to Michael’s
idiotic plans. By the time he finished this class it would be
getting dark, knowing Michael, he would start investigating without
waiting for him.

If he hurried he could get over and stop
his friend from doing something stupid. He hoped he wouldn’t have
to do much to satisfy his friend’s curiosity. Michael could be
stubborn, especially when it was someone he cared about.

One of his better
qualities
thought Reese. He turned his full attention back to
Professor Smith’s lecture; he was now going into detail of the
migration of the Cartral survivors to different parts of the
world.

The sun was on the verge of
setting when Reese exited the lecture hall amongst the throng of
students
. He
made his way across campus as fast as he could. He reached his
dormitory apartment, which was fortunately located in the same
direction. He opened the door and tossed his satchel inside before
closing it again, he would be able to get there faster without
lugging around the weight of his books.

He exited the university
grounds and made his way down University Boulevard towards Warded
Spirals
. The
school for mages was a separate campus but under the same
governance and was three blocks away. There were fields and small
buildings between the two education institutes and the university
had purchased all of the land in between in anticipation of
expanding. Students had the options to take courses at either
campus; Reese was taking one course at Warded Spirals, studying
magical non-biped creatures.

T
he streets were busy with carriages and
other pedestrians but he managed to reach the entrance of the magic
school in less than ten minutes. He walked into the main entrance
of the administration building; Michael was nowhere in
sight.

There were only a few staff
members in the offices and no students wanderi
ng around. Magic classes
usually finished earlier in the day with the exception of
specialized courses. Reese tried to walk confidently, so he
wouldn’t attract attention. He glanced at the information posted on
the walls and after one turn left down a long hallway he came
across a large map of the campus. Warded Spirals was not as newly
renovated as the university, so not all of its buildings had
electrical lamps yet, but fortunately the admin building
did.

He studied the map, trying to
work out where Michael would have gone. Obviously he
would want to check
the room where the death had occurred. Reese took note of the
student lodging location in the western section of the
campus.