The Insane Regressor: Throne of Pride

This time, confusion slowly spread among them, no longer confined to Talia but reaching every one of them without exception. Even Aldric remained silent for several moments longer than usual, his eyes moving between the corpse and the intact wax seal as though he were trying to force two contradictory things to belong to the same reality.

Ravian, meanwhile, remained at the threshold, his expression set in a carefully measured frown as he watched them with calculated unease.

They returned to the hall after Mirai ordered two mirage servants to guard the room from outside. No one sat down; they stood around the table they had used the previous evening, but the distances between them were greater than before.

”All our plans have failed. Something is wrong here,” Aldric said, raking a hand harshly through his hair in agitation. ”There are only seven of us now... seven! That bastard is toying with us, and our plans do not seem to make the slightest difference to whatever he intends to do.”

Aldric then turned toward Sylvan, his eyes bloodshot.

”You! You were the last person to communicate with Kaiden in yesterday’s sequence! We have to accuse him!” Garrick shouted, pointing agitatedly at Sylvan as Sylvan frowned.

Even Sylvan was utterly bewildered by what had happened.

’Accuse him? Since when was an accusation a group decision, Garrick?’ Ravian thought mockingly as he watched the exchange before him with faint amusement.

Talia suddenly raised her head.

”No,” she said in a voice that brooked no argument.

Every gaze turned toward her.

She was staring at Mirai.

”Sylvan asked his question in front of all of us, and the Killer knew that. If Sylvan were the Killer, he would never have allowed himself to remain the last obvious person to have spoken to Kaiden,” Talia said, then pointed a trembling hand toward the corridor leading to the rooms. ”The tube was not opened because the Killer did not need to open it last night. The Killer had already communicated with Kaiden before then.”

Aldric and Ravian narrowed their eyes at the same time, though for entirely different reasons.

’What the hell...?’ Ravian thought as a possibility he had considered utterly impossible began to take shape in his mind.

”What communication?” Aldric asked.

”The seal,” Talia answered immediately. ”The way the thread and wax were arranged could have served as a signal and counted as communication. Kaiden did not have to understand it during the inspection; he only needed to notice it after returning to his room, once the sequence was over. At that point, whoever created the signal would have become the last person to convey meaning to him.”

Her gaze shifted to the black task ledger in Mirai’s hand.

”And she was the one who reapplied his seal.”

Silence descended.

Talia was referring to the signets each participant had received to stamp the wax after it was applied to their copper tube. It was a perfectly ordinary, traditional method of identifying whose seal had been compromised if several seals were broken at once in different locations.

The idea was not entirely impossible. Talia herself had previously been the first to realize that a public announcement heard by the entire group could carry a private meaning for a single person, and that communication did not require an audible voice as long as the intended listener understood the signal directed at them.

But a possibility was not sufficient proof, and a mistake here led directly to death.

”That is an assumption,” Aldric said sharply. ”You do not even know whether Kaiden saw any meaning in the seal in the first place. Stop there.”

”It’s Mirai,” Talia whispered desperately, her eyes trembling as though she had not heard him. ”She could access every room as the Head Maid, she had all the keys, and she was the one who requested the wax and paper. She—”

”Talia, calm down,” Ravian interjected. ”You are trying to make the evidence fit after already choosing your suspect. This is exactly what Aldric warned you against earlier.”

Talia turned toward him, her breathing quickening—and it only grew faster.

”You said I was going to die!” she shouted in Ravian’s face.

Ravian continued to gaze calmly down at her.

”I said your fear would kill you if you allowed it to lead you,” Ravian replied, holding her gaze. ”That is why I am asking you now not to say anything you cannot take back.”

Aldric stepped closer to her.

”Listen to him. The moment you voice the accusation, the Nightmare will demand your two witnesses, and it will not care what you intended to say afterward.”

Sylvan watched her in silence, an intensely focused expression settling over his face. He did not look at Mirai, only at Talia, as though he had realized before anyone else where her words were leading.

But was he truly the only one?

Mirai, meanwhile, said calmly, ”If you do not have two witnesses to real communication, you will die, Talia.”

There was no threat in her tone, but the calmness of her voice was the worst thing Talia could have heard at that moment. She was trying to soothe Talia even as Talia stood on the verge of accusing her!?

”I have them,” Talia said, her eyes filling with tears. ”I know who was with you.”

Ravian reached out and seized her wrist before she could raise her arm toward Mirai.

”Don’t do it,” Ravian said in a grave voice.

Talia looked at his hand, then at his face.

For one moment, it seemed as though she would listen to him.

But fear had given the single idea inside her mind the shape of truth, and backing away from it now seemed no different from waiting to die the following night. The Killer would reach them regardless, and if today was not her turn, then it would be tomorrow or the day after.

She tore her wrist free from Ravian’s grasp with a sudden jerk.

Then she declared loudly, ”I accuse Mirai of being the Killer who killed Kaiden.”

The white lamps in the hall went out.

Black mist surged from the cracks between the stones, violet and gray hues swirling within it before it gathered above the table in the shape of a featureless figure. It had no face, yet everyone felt as though it were staring at Talia alone.

The Nightmare’s voice came from every direction at once.

”Kikikikiki...”

{An official accusation has been registered.}

{Accuser: Talia.}

{Accused: Mirai.}

{Let the trial begin.}