Destroying A Legacy

Chapter Twelve: Lafew

One night in December, Lafew found himself sleep-walking in the aisles. He heard a blood-curdling scream, followed by hushed voices, and someone taking off and starting running.

The voice who'd screamed sounded like it belonged to a young man, one of the students.

That was why, when he checked on Ralph, Lafew tried his best to wake him up.

"Wake up, wake up!" Lafew resisted the urge to slap Ralph's face. "I think something happened to one of us!"

Ralph woke up, startled. Lafew's words had shaken something in him.

Lafew told him everything.

"Lafew..." Ralph said sheepishly. "It was obviously a nightmare. Aren't you a little obsessed with things like that? I know it because you say your dreams out loud for everyone to hear. Tranio being tortured, the people you love dying... this must be a product of your imagination between wake and dream."

"What if it isn't?" Lafew tried to make him reason. "Don't you remember anymore about the secretary being killed at school?"

Ralph seemed to think about it for some time. He seemed to realise the very same thing Lafew had already thought --- between the Knights, Lafew's suspicions of Tranio, Professor Léon and Mister Tiffany, no one had thought about the dead man for months.

"Well," Ralph said. He looked scared. "There's obviously one thing left to do. Tell Peretti."

The students waited for the Regent to let them into his rooms.

"I have a handful of counsellors, even more than the ones that would really serve the purpose," Peretti told them, stroking the stubble he hadn't yet shaved. "I could probably ask one of them to check if something happened."

"Speaking of future jobs," Ralph whispered at Lafew. "Imagine being a counsellor! That sounds fancy."

"Ralph," Lafew hissed. "No one was speaking of future jobs."

"Right. I must have dreamt it, then."

Peretti chuckled.

After ten minutes, the counsellor was already back.

"Regent," he said. "Tybalt White was attacked half an hour ago. His friend Peter Arnault was harmed too, but he's in stable condition, and he can speak, but he rests at the hospital. He said he had heard a man wanting to threaten his young friend, and he fought him head on. He did not recognize the man, for he was wearing a completely green disguise, but he saw the face of the attacker. Dark hair, parted in the middle."

"Claudio Fair!" Ralph exclaimed.

"It doesn't make any sense," Lafew said. "Would he be foolish enough to attack here where we can recognize him while he's under house arrest?"

"Peter also reported the attacker had unsettling eyes. Not yellow like yours," the counsellor added, looking at Lafew. "But a kaleidoscope of dark and light greens."

"It could have been Driscoll," Peretti said, though he had paled at the description of the man. "Using a disguise."

The counsellor scoffed. "Yeah, right. That would make sense, but then again, Driscoll hasn't been spotted since leaving the tree, so who knows where he's now..."

"Sir," Ralph asked the Regent. "Can we visit Peter in the hospital?"

"Of course," Peretti said. "But first we must warn the other students, ask them if they want to come. We must sign a NDA that we will not let secrets of the Noblesse slip --- the best we can do for our wounded are local hospitals, with nurses and doctors from our society on the inside."