"What now?"
Glinda was toweling her hair dry when Hilumy put the question to her. The crime scene had been sealed, the female students evacuated to the main hall, and Glinda had worked through the scene with as much precision as the circumstances allowed. Short-handed as she was, at least she had been given a handful of Reichswacht to assist.
"What else is there to do? If my full team were here, we would have answers by now."
"What I meant was—"
"The victim's identity turning out to be neither a student nor academy staff? I am still waiting on Schneider's call!"
The two of them were waiting for Enzel in his office, going over what steps the academy and the police would need to take.
"Tell me about the marigold in floriography, Frau Astrea!"
"What brings this on all of a sudden?"
"All three of the hanged victims had marigolds on them. I thought you might know something about that."
Hilumy kept it brief and clear. In floriography, marigold carried several interpretations. Grief and sorrow was the first. Jealousy and heartache the second. The last was perseverance through suffering. That was the extent of what the bespectacled secretary offered. Glinda watched Hilumy pace back and forth, biting the nail of her thumb, murmuring something too low to catch.
"What is the matter with you?"
"Someone has been murdered and you are asking what is the matter with me?"
"Get your head straight! Solutions do not come to a panicked mind."
"I understand that you have witnessed situations like this before. But the perpetrator—"
Hilumy's words were cut short by the door opening, two armed Reichswacht stepping in ahead of Enzel.
"Heil Kaiser!" Hilumy and one of the guards announced in unison.
Enzel returned the salute and issued his instructions without pause. "You three, cover the door and windows. Frau Astrea, contact the Reichspolizei and then the Wehrstreit with the latest situation at Stern Academy. Have the press ready at the parliamentary office for a conference."
"Jawohl, Herr Astoria!" the three guards answered.
"Verstanden, Mein Herr!" Hilumy replied, moving immediately to Enzel's desk to make the calls.
"Frau Meier!"
"Uh-huh?"
Silence. Enzel appeared to hold back whatever he had been about to say, while Glinda had already released the safety on her M1911 though it remained holstered at her left hip. Her eyes stayed fixed on the pair of ocean-blue ones across from her, pressing in the way they always did, her left hand ready at her side. The guards reacted on instinct, all three MP40s coming up, but Enzel gave the order to lower them.
"You feel it too?" Enzel asked, one hand resting on his scabbard.
"No concrete evidence yet. Best we set that aside for now."
Both of them pulled their hands away from their weapons.
"How bad is it?" Enzel removed his coat and hung it on the hook near the door.
"You would rather not see it."
Glinda handed over her written account of the crime scene, covering the condition of the victims, the surrounding area, and every detail of the violence that had taken place. More thorough and more organized than anything the Reichswacht would have produced, and Enzel knew it.
"Any recommendations, Frau Meier?" he asked without lifting his eyes from the notebook.
"Yes. But you will not like them."
He reached the section where Glinda had noted her suspicions about Hilumy, particularly what had passed between them in the room. Although Enzel had already harbored his own doubts, what Glinda had put down in writing still caught him off guard. He now had concrete evidence that a shapeshifting creature was operating inside his academy. He could expose whether the Hilumy standing here was the real one or not, but doing so would let the architect of these murders slip away again.
"Well, Frau Astrea?" Enzel returned the notebook to its owner.
"The Reichspolizei are on their way. The Wehrstreit line has not connected yet."
"Pointless either way. Your director already shut down access to the academy, didn't he?" Glinda remarked, arms folded.
Glinda stepped toward Enzel and told him that the individual detained by the Reichswacht was being brought to them. She added that Cross was a witness capable of giving objective testimony, as the other witnesses were not in the psychological condition to do so. Enzel visibly disliked her acting without clearance, but he was not in a position to obstruct the investigation.
"What are you afraid of, Akademiechef? It is only one person."
"I will excuse your lack of courtesy this once, Frau Kommissar," Enzel replied, his voice kept deliberately low.
Glinda could not hold back the smile that spread across her face at that. Wide enough that there was no concealing it, not from anyone in the room, not even from herself.
She stepped back two paces, tucked both hands into her jacket pockets, and said, "Verstanden, Herr Astoria!" in a tone that made it clear she meant none of it.
The two guards pulled the door open at a knock, and Cross was allowed inside, still cuffed, the guards who had brought him remaining in the corridor.
"Speak of the devil," Glinda said. "Sit wherever you like."
"Finish your call, Frau Astrea. Nothing to be done if the line will not connect."
"Verstanden, Mein Herr. I will prepare some tea."
Cross remained by the door, uncertain whether it was appropriate for someone of his standing to simply take a seat while those of higher status were still on their feet. Noticing this, Enzel unclipped his sword from his belt, took the chair at the far end of the table, and directed Cross to sit in the chair facing the door. Glinda chose not to sit, her injury still making itself known, but she stayed close enough to both of them. Several pale blue porcelain cups painted with white lilies were brought to the table, each releasing a thin curl of steam. The scent of Darjeeling reached all four of them.
"Next time I will bring a wider selection," Glinda remarked, blowing across the surface of her tea before drinking.
Glinda noticed that when Hilumy set a cup in front of Cross, the young man drew a slow, deliberate breath and held it. A curiosity and a suspicion surfaced in her at once, pulling her back to the damp interrogation room, to the account Cross had given about the clean, unfamiliar scent in the storehouse. She set her own cup down, produced a notebook and pen, and slid them across to the young gardener still sitting quietly in his oak chair.
"Cross. A survivor of the Argenveil tragedy when the Allied forces made their landing," Enzel began. "Four years at Stern as a gardener, with medical records noting the loss of your voice."
Cross held his gaze steady against the ocean-blue eyes pressing into him.
"Have you been told why you were brought here?"
Cross shook his head.
"Right, enough formality," Glinda cut in. "You are here to give testimony, witnessed by a senior figure of the Empire, Enzel Diagra vi Astoria. Your cooperation is appreciated."
Cross turned toward the police woman at that and gave a slow nod.
"In the written account you provided earlier, you noted several things that struck you as out of place. One of them was the storehouse door found unlocked with a smear of soil on the handle," Glinda laid out.
Enzel studied the lean young man from top to bottom, waiting for a gap. He said nothing and did not interrupt.
"Why did you not report it?"
Cross picked up the notebook and pen and wrote: "I did not feel it was necessary."
"Are you aware that if you had reported it from the start, there is a reasonable chance this would not have happened?"
Cross wrote a single word. "Yes."
"Do you understand that you have placed yourself in a very difficult position?"
The young man gave a nod.
"Then you do not dispute that your inaction contributed to the death of an innocent student?"
This time Cross wrote at length. Long enough that Enzel had time to observe everyone else in the room.
The note read: "I regret the loss of life that my negligence contributed to. I did not anticipate it would lead to something this serious. For the past week I have been working the ornamental garden alone, as the other gardeners were reassigned to the annual winter reception preparations. The fatigue caused me to forget locking the storehouse door on more than one occasion."
Glinda turned and held the notebook toward Enzel for him to read. Enzel then acknowledged that the uneven allocation of staff fell under his responsibility as well. Glinda continued.
"Then explain why you included the detail about the soil smear on the door handle."
Cross wrote that he had simply given an honest account of everything he observed, not because he suspected anything in particular, but because he thought a complete record of the morning's events might be of use to whoever was investigating.
"Truly a brilliant defense," Enzel noted inwardly.
Glinda lifted her cup and took a sip, considering how to proceed. Left with no other option, she produced the crumpled note from her pocket and placed it on the table, turning it so Enzel could read it.
"You passed me this note while keeping watch on the room during a closed interrogation. What did you mean by it, and what led you to that conclusion?" Glinda said, sliding the note toward Enzel.
The two lines on the note drew a visible reaction from everyone in the room except Cross and Glinda when Enzel read it aloud. "A shapeshifting creature has infiltrated the academy."
The one whose reaction came fastest was Enzel. Without thinking, his eyes went to Hilumy, the memory of their meeting in his quarters returning in full. At the same moment, Glinda's gaze went to the same person, and every eye in the Academy Chief's office settled on the bespectacled secretary with green eyes. Hilumy looked genuinely confused.
"Why are you all looking at me like that?"
"Tell me, Frau Astrea," Enzel said. "Did you manage to rest after drinking the Darjeeling I prepared earlier this evening?"
Hilumy answered quietly and with composure. "Yes, Mein Herr."
Enzel had what he needed. Glinda, meanwhile, found herself caught between the question and the answer, unable to connect them. Rather than turning to Enzel, she looked toward Cross, and found him already watching her. A slow nod, a brief blink, and two index fingers held parallel was enough to tell her that Enzel most likely suspected Hilumy. More precisely, not Hilumy Astrea herself, but whatever had taken her shape.
"Is there something you would like to add?" Glinda asked.
"Nothing. Forgive the interruption, Frau Meier," Enzel replied, finishing the last of his tea.
Cross remained in his chair, sitting with a slight forward lean, the cup of Darjeeling in front of him untouched throughout. He closed the notebook and pen and returned them to Glinda. Sensing that he had slipped a finger between the pages to mark something, she opened it and found a note reading: "The secretary carries the same clean scent I detected this morning."
"Frau Astrea, you and I were in your room together before all of this happened, were we not?"
"Yes, that is correct."
"Then when exactly did you have the opportunity to drink the Darjeeling that Herr Astoria prepared earlier this evening?"
The panic that crossed Hilumy's face was unmistakable, sharp enough that both Glinda and Enzel raised their weapons on reflex. The guards, still uncertain of what was unfolding, brought their MP40s up as well, all three barrels aimed at the bespectacled secretary.
"Where is Hilumy? What have you done with her?"
"Who sent you to my academy?"
Glinda and Enzel pressed in as Hilumy stepped backward. Then, slowly, something peeled away from her shadow. Hilumy collapsed unconscious into Enzel's arms while the dark mass that had separated from her solidified at the far end of the room, resolving into a gaunt hunched figure with arms that extended three meters behind it. Eight eyes across its forehead burned with a dull violet glow, and its ribs pushed through the surface of its chest.
Glinda opened fire without hesitation. The guards followed, 9mm rounds from three MP40s tearing into the creature in a sustained burst. Enzel carried Hilumy back to safety and drew his sword, its blade catching the light with a clean silver sheen despite the warm yellow cast of the room's lamps.
Even after a full magazine from Glinda and the three guards, the creature did not fall. It was already regenerating and beginning to turn. But the presence of Cross in the room stopped it cold. All eight eyes found the quietly cuffed young man still seated in his chair, and the creature went rigid. There was no exit, not with Enzel's silver blade still raised and ready to cut. Everyone watching the creature's reaction to that blade arrived at the same conclusion.
"A vampire," Enzel said, his voice dropping low.
Violet light flooded through the windowpane without warning, throwing the creature into sharp relief. The rain outside hung suspended in midair. Every person in the room stood frozen. An elderly figure with the bearing of a medieval aristocrat walked through the wall without pause. His long red robe billowed like a war banner, and a dark violet aura spread from his shoulders across the entire floor.
"A Violet Caste elite vampire?" Enzel thought.
"However you look at it, you were always a defective product."
The old vampire's voice carried a depth and a weight that made even Enzel seem, by comparison, merely authoritative. The grotesque creature in the corner let out a shriek that drove into the ears of everyone present, then burned away entirely as it was turned to face a mirror.
"The Progenitor Mother calls for us to reclaim the land in full. Until that hour arrives, I suggest you all prepare yourselves for what is coming."
The violet light filling the room dimmed, and everyone found they could move again. Enzel swung his blade toward the vampire in the same breath, but the sword passed through nothing but dispersing smoke.
"Gute Nacht, Meine Damen und Herren!" (Good night, ladies and gentlemen!)
The sound of the storm returned, muffled as before. Glinda and the guards stood where they were. Enzel sheathed his sword and turned his attention back to Hilumy. Cross sat where he had been the entire time, still and unresponsive as a mannequin, and that stillness did not escape Enzel. The creature's reaction had not been to the silver. It had been to the young man seated quietly in his chair.
Word spread through the academy over the following hours and shook it to its foundations. Some students were frightened. Most felt as though something had called them to take up arms. The rain was easing as the night wore on, though it had not stopped entirely. The flash of press cameras at the front gate lit the dark in bursts as journalists photographed Glinda escorting Cross to her Horch 830 BL. A police team moved into the academy grounds shortly after to conduct a second sweep of the crime scene and fill the gaps in the investigative record.
Schneider listened to Glinda's complaints with patience while navigating toward the Mondgarten police station. He had learned long ago that his superior went through a great deal of aggravation, and he had made his peace with being a reliable audience for it. Cross sat alone in the back seat, working through a tin cup of bitter black coffee that Schneider had prepared for him.
"Next time you improvise, let us know in advance," Glinda reminded Cross, who answered with a nod.
"I also did not expect Enzel to be a step ahead of us. What about the information we needed?"
Cross reached into his trouser pocket and passed a small notebook to Glinda. Inside was a list of execution targets, every name crossed out.
"With any luck, our operative will not be losing his position as academy gardener over this, Kommissar," Schneider said. "The Mondgarten police have confirmed their cooperation."
"Is that all?"
"The Luftwaffe can only provide limited intelligence at this point. Word is that the Reichswacht has been monitoring Wehrstreit movements, still concerned about a possible plot against the Emperor."
"Those idiots and their paranoia."
The wipers moved at a slower pace now, nudging aside the light rain that had replaced the storm. They drove without hurrying, reviewing what had unfolded and what came next. Glinda and Schneider were already working through the selection of the next target, though they would need to wait longer than planned to allow Cross to resume his position at Stern Academy. A place dense with the kind of intelligence that neither of them could access from the outside.