The Priesthood

Why was she there? Why in his room? Why now?

He stood in the corridor; his door was still open, and the body lay on his bed. He heard a high-pitched scream from a few doors down; he went to investigate and found Yviv standing in the corridor. She was pointing toward her room, toward something.

"What is wrong?" Kanrel asked her and had a peek in her room.

Another body, this time a young man, was suspended in the air with all of his limbs pierced by long stakes. There was no blood anywhere; instead, red rose petals covered the floor.

The sight was cruel, yet there was an artistic vision even in this showcase of brutality.

Yviev was more shocked than one might think of her being; she was slightly fiddling with a necklace. "Why?" She whispered, "Why now?"

Kanrel glanced at the girl and was about to ask something when he heard a loud sound from where Yirn’s room was located. This sound was followed by loud cursing and him storming out of his room. He stood in the corridor and looked for anyone with his eyes. He soon saw Kanrel and Yviev in the corridor. "There is a fucking body in my room!"

What is happening? Kanrel quickly closed the door to Yviev’s room; he left the stunned girl staring toward the location where the man’s eyes met hers.

He walked to his own door and closed it as well. Yirn looked at him with a puzzled look on his face, and then his eyes went wide. Kanrel walked to him, and Yirn pulled him into his room and closed the door behind him.

"In your room as well?" Yirn asked; he was almost whispering. The young man had become fully serious, perhaps for the first time that they had ever met.

Kanrel nodded. "And in Yviev’s room as well."

Yirn cursed slightly under his breath and then pulled Kanrel to see what he had seen: Another dead girl. This one had no eyes, as her own fingers were stuck inside the sockets. She was positioned on the ground, her legs crossed, as she looked downward with her eyeless gaze.

Again, not even a drop of blood was sprinkled around the body—just rose petals on the floor.

"Do you have any clue as to why this has happened?" Yirn asked, and he studied Kanrel’s face carefully.

"I don’t know; I don’t know what to think."

"They will blame us for this; I know they will…" Yirn mumbled and began to leave the room.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"We have to tell someone!" Yirn yelled as he walked out of his room.

Kanrel stood still for a while and stared at the other dead girl. He tried to remember if he had ever seen her, but he hadn’t. But he could guess that the three bodies that were found were those of the three missing students.

Things were already messy, but soon enough they’d get even more messy.

There are hundreds of questions that one could ask, but it is unlikely that those questions will have any answers. What was, if there even was, the right question to ask? What question could yield anyone any information to figure out the "why" for such things being done?

There probably was a reason, but that reason escaped Kanrel's understanding; he had no idea. The things he could guess were things related to his mother, but he was not his mother, so how could doing something like this touch the Herald in any way?

Was it to instill fear in them? Was it to teach them a lesson they didn’t know they needed to learn?

Murders. Not just one or two, but three. Why them? Why not anyone else? He didn’t know them. They didn’t know them. Or did they? Did he?

And that is how the questioning began when they were first detained. In separate rooms at the same time, three different interrogations were happening:

There were two people inside the small room with him: a man and a woman. The woman wore the robes of a priest and the man the clothes of an officer; it was clear that the woman was an inquisitor and the man a police officer. They worked for the city police.

The man peered at him under his brows while he read notes that were on the table; the notes were about him, his studies and achievements in the academy, as well as who he was related to. Then there were notes that were about the murders, but he wasn’t able to read them.

"Kanrel, is it?" The officer asked and smiled a little; to this, Kanrel gave a nod.

"It seems that you’re quite the student; great grades in academics and your priest training alike."

"A promising novice, wouldn’t you say?" The officer suddenly asked and looked at the woman who was sitting next to him; she was taking notes as he questioned him.

As an answer, he got just the slightest nod.

"Look, even she agrees! Oh, and don’t mind her; she is here just to take notes." The officer assured him.

"But not only are you an impressive student and a promising priest to be, but you’re also the son of the Herald. Now that is quite shocking! Would there really be such a bad apple so close to the Herald? No one would think that! But…"

"A body of another novice in your room? It does make one wonder if you are the one behind such a thing. But then two more bodies, not in your room but in the rooms of your closest friends…"

"They are your friends, right? It is really difficult to tell with you lot; I’ve been wondering about this Inquisitor to the left of me; is she really my friend or is she just pretending?" Again, the officer looked at the woman at his side; this time she shook her head.

With a slight smile, he stared at Kanrel and asked, "Friends or foes?"

Kanrel tilted his head ever so slightly. "I’d say friends; they’re quite useful."

The officer leaned back suddenly and said, "Quite useful, you say? Like useful in trying to frame them for murder or useful as in…What?"

"Useful as in I study with them; I learn from them and they learn from me; it is a win-win situation."

The officer nodded and leaned forward again. "Win-win indeed; you get a body, he gets a body, and she gets a body; you all win!"

Kanrel blinked his eyes for a while. "Are you going to ask me any relevant questions or provide any damning evidence against me?"

The officer scoffed, "Are all of you just a bunch of smartasses?" He asked and then stared at the woman by his side again; this time she nodded.

"Well fuck; I guess I’ll get into business then."

"So, the thing is that it is unlikely, based on our initial investigation, that any of you would have been even remotely near the rooms in which the bodies were found.”

“There is enough data to prove that you were not around the whole day, as the bodies weren’t there before you left your rooms early in the morning."

"But there is a connection between you and the victim."

Kanrel just stared at the man; he couldn’t quite understand at first, then a sudden panic ran through him: Was it Uanna? Or perhaps Wen? Was either of them dead?

"Interesting… You’re the first priest I know to have shown any emotion when questioned."

"Did you perhaps not look clearly at the girl's face?"

He thought that he did and tried to summon back the memory of her face, but could remember nothing. He didn’t know her?

Graffiti and an offensive remark, but no rebuke from him; it was the girl who had commented something about his mother when he had seen one of the graffiti at the laboratory.

Apparently, the fact that he remembered showed on his face as the officer said, "Indeed."

"This is why there is a motive for murder; it is just the other things that do not quite add up. So you either confess to your crimes and be executed for them, or you claim to be innocent."

"Which is it, Kanrel?"

"Innocence. I’ve met her barely once, and her comments offered me only something to figure out. She basically gave me a reason to message my mother."

The officer nodded as if he were convinced: "Just casually calling her your mother? Very creepy."

"Well then, if this is what you proclaim, then it is for us to dig through your possessions in your room, not to mention your statements today, and find all the possible clues that there might be; we’ve of course already done so once, but another time doesn’t harm anyone."

"You’ll be under supervision for the next 72 hours, after which you may continue your studies normally until you’re either called back in or arrested. You may not leave the campus area until you’re fully cleared; if you step into the city before this, then you’re to be executed on sight, even if you’re the son of the great Herald. Is this clear?"

Kanrel nodded; there really wasn’t anything else that he could do. And 72 hours of time off didn’t seem too bad now that he thought about it. He had a theory that had started forming in his head, so he would have more than enough time to manifest it.

"Could I have a notebook and a pencil? Just to pass the time."

The officer first looked at him, then stared at the woman for a while; the woman made a slight nod again. The officer’s face brightened up. "Well, of course; just don’t stab anyone with the pencil or try to make any, I don't know, rope with the paper."

The unlikely work partners got up, and the inquisitor left behind a pencil and an empty notebook that she carried with herself as a spare. Kanrel tried to thank her, but she left without giving him the chance.

Kanrel began to think. Wasn’t the motive for the murders obvious now? They were done as a means to frame him as a murderer; this could have some political implications and might put her mother in a bad spot; her dedication and faith would be brought into question. And she might be pressed about things like adopting one of the nameless...

So the person behind all of these things would most likely be the one behind the graffiti and rumors. The only reason those had stopped was because the now-dead girl had found herself in an unlucky situation. Her death was just a tool to make him look like a murderer.

But the person or people who had entered his room could’ve easily planted not just the body but other evidence as well. There were the rose petals and the positions in which the bodies were: one was lying on the bed, another was suspended in the air with stakes pierced through him, and the last one sat down with her eye sockets empty and with her fingers pointing into those eyes; she also gazed somewhere down.

The last body had been the most interesting in how it had been treated; missing eyes often represent blindness to something. Blindness to something below? The cellar?

He would have to study the other two bodies himself to find more clues; maybe there were similar things, more body parts missing, or anything at all that could give him any strays to grasp.

72 hours more in this small room in which he had already spent almost ten hours; he wondered how the others were fairing but also what the other students of the academy had heard... There would surely be more insane rumors going around. But that didn’t matter; he would get out of this room sooner or later and life would go on as it usually did, now just with a little more murder accusations thrown around, but it could be worse.