Penitent Ch 26: Murder

Michael’s recovery ability was working overtime as he made his way toward the camp, and by the time he’d reached it, everything seemed to be resolved. He saw a number of men in red still groaning on the ground, with far fewer in black scattered among them. Lance was barking orders to people that could be heard from a ways off and Davi and Pyotr were standing with Marcus, who had a rough looking bruise over his eye, and chatting.

Lance saw him before the others did, and his eyes widened as he saw the red bundle in his hands.

“How many is that?” he asked, the attention of a few others moving to Michael.

“Ten,” he said, reaching the interior and sitting on a fallen log to catch his breath. “Not bad for an old man, eh?”

“Not bad for a young man either,” said Lance, nodding before he barked out a few more orders to the others.

Michael couldn’t help, but notice that Lance was holding an even bigger bundle than Michael’s own under his arm. Clearly his Titles and Deeds had granted him serious benefits, or it was valor he’d stolen from his men, though so far he didn’t seem to be the type.

Davi, Pyotr, and Marcus approached him.

“Wow,” said Pyotr pointing at the bundle. “You know, it’s not like we would’ve actually died if you’d let them pass you.”

“Obviously not, in that case I would just kept running and used Ollie as a human shield.”

They shared a laugh.

“Where is Ollie?”

“He took a rough blow to the leg from a staff, something shattered. He was carried off by a moderator,” said Pyotr.

“Damn,” said Michael before looking up at Marcus. “You okay?”
 He nodded. “I’ve been back since this morning, must’ve just missed ya.”

“Want to tell us what you were doing?” asked Davi, his cop voice bleeding out.

“No.”

Michael pinched the bridge of his nose. The fight had exhausted him, but in some ways he found Marcus’s answer more tiring.

“Man, fuck you,” he said shaking his head.

“What?” asked Marcus.

“I said, fuck you,” said Michael calmly. They were friends, but Michael was too tired for his shit at that moment. “I’m going to my tent. If you need me I’ll be there, not off fucking around somewhere.” He didn’t wait for an answer and instead just crawled into his tent and laid out on his bedroll. It hadn’t taken any damage, though a few other tents in a section with a broken fence had. He climbed inside and pulled a ration from the pack he’d kept within it. He forced dipped a few pieces of hard tack and forced it down. It was early, and for a moment he thought he’d just lay there in silence to think and recuperate, but like any old man planning to just rest his eyes, he was soon snoring and dead to the world.

…

Michael was startled awake in the middle of the night. He could hear yelling and commotion just outside of his tent. He sat up slowly and grabbed his sword, peeking slowly out of the tent flap in case they were being attacked. He quickly realized that wasn’t the case.

He saw a number of white clad soldiers, Kline, Meera, Crim, and a few other officers he didn’t recognize. They were all talking to Marcus who was standing in the midst of them, unarmed and holding his neck as if his brand had been activated. Pyotr and Davi were standing near him.

Michael pushed the rest of the way out of the tent, leaving his sword behind as he approached the commotion.

“-found dead in the northwestern part of the forest. He’d been dead for nearly a day, with the murder suspected to have taken place last night,” said one of the officers he didn’t recognize. “The last person to see him was another moderator that evening,” he pointed at Marcus. “You, lifetaker, were seen in an altercation with him recently.”

Marcus, who was flanked by two guards who had him by either arm, stayed silent.

“Do you have anything to say?” asked the man.

“I didn’t do it,” said Marcus.

The man sighed. “We already spoke with Lance who confirmed you only recently returned to camp. Would you care to elaborate on where you’ve been?”

“Taking flags.”

He shook his head and looked at Meera. “Do it.”

She nodded, she was wearing a much sterner expression than usual as she stepped toward Marcus. She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them they were shining silver. She stared at him, and through him, the focus of her gaze seeming almost like a tangible force cutting through the air between herself and him.

Marcus’s steady expression wavered for the first time, but he stayed still.

Meera closed her eyes again and opened them. Wavering a bit on her feet. Kline came very close to reaching out to steady her, but restrained himself.

She took a deep breath. “He didn’t do it. There are…deaths and other crimes embedded in his soul, but the only recent death written on his soul is that of the babe whose body he inhabits.”

“There are ways around such detection,” said the officer looking at Marcus with contempt.

“How would he know them, Locke? He likely didn’t even know a diviner with Meera’s skill could read the marks of death on his soul to begin with,” said Kline. “It’s a waste of time to focus on him when there are other potential suspects.”

“Makes more sense to execute him and be done with it.”

“He’s a dragoon. A good one. If he wasn’t a specialist I’d agree, but he has real value.”

Locke scowled. “None of you are to mention this death to anyone. The General Kreg doesn’t want the exercise interrupted for anything.”

“And what does General Achen, the actual administrator of the Academy, think of it?” asked Kline.

The officer stared at him. “You’re all dismissed.”

Slowly, the white clothed moderators and soldiers all dispersed. Michael moved over to Meera who seemed to be struggling to walk.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Not particularly.”

“What was that you did?”

“I told you I had abilities other than healing?” she asked.

He nodded.

“I can see what evils are carved onto a person’s soul, or what kindnesses are, though in my line of work the latter doesn’t come up very often.”

Michael focused and brought a healing hand to hers.

She took a breath. “Thank you. That helped a bit, but more with my stiff back from how I slept rather than what I just did.”

“Is that a common ability?”

She shook her head. “It’s about as rare as healing. In peacetime it would be very valued, but given we’re at war it’s hard not to find a murderer among us. I’d hoped not to have to use it here.”

She frowned. “You should be wary of your friend. I don’t believe he murdered anyone here, but his soul is marred and marked.”

“I’ll…keep that in mind.”

She nodded. “Get some rest yourself, I’ll see you for lessons once the exercise is over, and I know Dugan will need your help accounting for everything used in the exercise.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Michael walked back over to where Davi, Pyotr, and Marcus were standing.

“Did you do it?” he asked, interrupting their conversation.

Marcus looked at him, narrowing his eyes. “She just said I didn’t.”

“That’s not what I asked. I asked if you did it.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does. If you’re the kind of man who would kill someone else because you got a whiff of pussy then that’s something I need to know.”

“Fuck you,” said Marcus stepping toward him.

“Hey now. Let’s calm down a bit,” said Pyotr.

“You don’t trust us, that’s clear, but I’ve given you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe that was dumb, but not nearly as dumb as thinking a woman who considers you a murderer is going to sleep with an old man in the body of a teenager.”

Marcus’s fist flew toward Michael, but hit Pyotr instead who was moving to get between them. 

Everything went red, and as Pyotr fell Michael tackled Marcus to the ground. He slammed his fist into his face full force. Before he could throw a second punch, Marcus moved up his hips, caught his hand, and rolled him to put himself on top. Michael knew that he’d been holding back in hand to hand, so that didn’t surprise him. He let his arm pop out of its socket to swivel and punch Marcus in the face. He healed the arm as he turned around, and kneed Marcus in the ribs. After that it was a blur, even more of one then his fight on the bridge. Just them rolling around, beating the shit out of each other.

Davi and Pyotr tried to pull them apart, but couldn’t. Soon there were dozens of recruits coming to see what was going on. After that, a moderator showed up, and between him and a half dozen others they were pulled apart.

“Alright. Stop!” yelled the moderator as they continued to try and tear toward one another. “That’s it, you’re both out of the games. I’m sending you each to a tomb. Two weeks. Let's see if that cools you off.”

Soon more moderators appeared, and they were dragged toward the edge of the woods back to the academy. Michael’s clothes were stripped and he was thrown half naked into one of the buried stone structures, his back slamming against the cold hard floor.