Aeryna pauses for a moment, looks back to the dirt, and begins pacing. "Assuming something went wrong with the device's operation also assumes too many other things that don't seem to fit with what we know about Mars. From his stance against this technology to his paranoia to his care in meeting with us this morning... the idea he was up to something with one of these... feels out of place. If something went wrong, then he either had some hidden, convoluted motivation to publicly spread propaganda against this technology but support it in secret while also risking his public image unnecessarily or something changed last second and out of desperation he felt it was necessary to experiment with it immediately without assistance right before meeting us at the crack of dawn. However, Mars' increased suspicion has only ever increased his standards for security, not thrown it to the wind. While an act of desperation is not impossible, I believe something far simpler could be true," She stops and looks to the circlet in Terri's hands. "The device worked as intended."
Terri inspects the headset for a moment. "How?"
"I don't really know yet, but I know someone brought this to him and either tricked him, or more likely forced him, to wear it. The nullpriest didn’t see any other bodies in the remains, so I assume whoever it was didn’t die in the blaze and was probably the one who lit the fire somehow.”
“You don’t think the headset was, I dunno, rigged to explode or cast a fireball, somehow?”
“Well, if it was rigged to explode, he wouldn’t have his head and if it was rigged to cast a significant fire spell then the walls of his alchemical room wouldn’t have been there when we found him. Unless it was also rigged to cast fireball exactly within the walls of his home, walk him perfectly up his stairs and down the exact length of a corridor for some reason, then give him a seizure, someone got this on Mars, then they lit a fire, and escaped. Presumably, he was incapacitated as part of that process and he was left to die with this on, possibly to hide it under rubble. If we hadn't found him, he'd most likely be ash, like the rest of his home."
"So, this was a hit?"
"Yes,” she pauses for a moment, “kind of."
"Kind of?"
Aeryna turns to what remains of Mars' homestead, completely charred from its violent end. “Well, if their goal was assassination, then daggers, poisons, or even hired mercs would suffice. Murder is cheap. You don't need the single most expensive and advanced magical technology in the Klybbenmyr to carry that out, even against a veteran warrior like Mars." She walks towards Terri. "This?" Aeryna nods at the device, crossing her arms again, "This may have been a weapon in Mars' downfall, but it wasn't the job." She turns around and looks up at the cloudless morning sky as she resumes her pacing. "This is a means to an end."
"And that end is...?" Terri asks.
"It’s what remains when the fire burns the truth away."
"And what, exactly, is that?"
"I don't know enough to give a long answer," she pauses, "but the short answer is fear."
Terri intensely scans the woods surrounding you. "Any idea whose?"
"Probably not ours, though it's always good to double check." Aeryna joins Terri in doing her own scan of the perimeter around the forest before resuming her pacing. "If Mars' body was to be ash, we interrupted that. If they knew we might intervene, we would likely have faced more direct resistance the way Mars did, including the fate intended for him, but we didn't. If they knew about us and didn't plan on neutralizing us, there wouldn't be much point in the fire either - unless they were trying to have us take the blame for his death, but the Nullpriest report and the fact Mars survived, not to mention the eye read they took from Dra'tesh, conflict with that directly and would be more conclusive than any rumor against us." Aeryna stops. "No, I think whomever did this had their one and only target."
Terri folds his arms loosely with a huff and turns to look toward his sister. "But they'll be lookin for us now, too, won't they?"
Aeryna nods. "That eye read works both ways: It protects us from blame, but it's also likely that anyone who has access to the highest level of Nullpriest technology can also access Nullpriest reports and eye reads. Whoever's behind this, if they didn't know about us… if they didn't see us as targets before today…" Aeryna says with a sigh, "they do now."
[WHAT DO YOU SAY?]
[WHY] “You never told me why we rode here in the first place.” (Go to 42)
[WHO] “You want ME to investigate a WHAT now?” (Go to 43)
[HOW] “How do you know there’s to be an assassination today?” (Go to 44)
[ACCEPT] "I know enough, I'm in." (Go to 49)
[DECLINE] "I have my own problems" (Go to 50)
