The Chronicle of the Worthy Son

Interrogation, pt. 1

Able closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. Every creak it gave protesting his weight was echoed by another creak in his bones. And then, finally, a lapse in all the pressure and pain in his back. Probably a blissful sigh was not the reaction his interrogators were hoping for.

He took a deep, easy inhale and opened his eyes again. Reeve and Capstone still watched him from their seats on either side of the table from him in the cramped office. Tanner loudly paced the floor behind him, but he barely cared. There was only one thing he could do now, so he might as well feel confident about doing it.

"I appreciate your patience," Reeve started.

Able barked a laugh before he could stop himself.

The sheriff mildly waited for silence before finishing, "and I look forward to your cooperation."

Able just flipped his hands in response because, really, what else could he do?

Reeve nodded to Capstone, who slid Able's notes across the table towards him.

"These were found under your mattress," she said. "Explain."

Able meant to shrug, but it seemed like an awful lot of effort. "Sure, there was no lock on the door, and I didn't know who might try to go through my things, so I took to hiding my notes."

"Several of these sheets are little more than names of escaped indentured servants."

"I won't reveal my sources—"

Tanner huffed loudly and impatiently.

Paying him any mind seemed like too much effort too, so Able continued, "But I will say those are people whose stories were entrusted to me, and I was attempting to verify if anything I was told about them was true with your records here. Sadly, those were only what I could recall from memory, as my previous notes were lost."

Capstone nodded then withdrew the notes and replaced them with Able's pamphlet about the dam proposal. "This was found in Constance Driver's quarters." Able had to admire her inimical face and tone.

"I don't know much about her, let alone how she came by that."

"She scrubbed her correspondence," Capstone conceded. "But she left this. Why?"

"Okay, so essentially, you have nothing." Both good news and bad.

"We have you outside the Count's audience chamber conspiring with a known enemy combatant," Reeve reminded flatly.

"Right." Able leaned forward with the intent of sitting up, but fatigue claimed his spine and he slumped to his elbows on the table. Fine. "So I suggest we make a deal. I'll tell you everything I know if you get me the clearance I need to go prove it."

There was a silence, one Tanner seemed to find hard to honor as his pacing got louder. Capstone also deferred to Reeve's thoughtful frown with all of a gaze.

Able folded his hands and set his chin on them. "Look. You're short-handed with a population on the verge of revolt both in and outside these walls, nearly a year's worth of missing taxes, and a gentleman of high office looking to pin the whole mess on you. In the scope of your troubles, I am a small-time pain in the ass and drag on your resources. I think we can help each other."

Reeve's stare didn't waver. "What on earth could you do to help me?"

"If I'm right, and the Shadow is Prince Plaudit, you aren't going to want to be on the wrong side of the repercussions. You already are, given that you personally assaulted him, and while he was potentially an innocent civilian at that."