Villainess [6]: Drake’s Investigation
Red Pill [0]: Luncheons, Backers
The Professor Commons Office bustled with professors eating lunch at their desks and chatting about yesterday’s incident while awaiting their turn to inform Count Cosgrove of their findings from the questioning of their students. Taken together, their findings amounted to the same thing: the Prince’s actions were atrocious, but the general consensus of the students was that he hadn’t acted beyond the passions that overtook him that day. All forty homeroom professors had at least a few of their students present in the great hall during the incident, but collectively less than a quarter of them were close enough to the scene (the Prince’s table by the tall windows at the back of the great hall) to witness what happened. As such, most of their findings were just speculation rather than real observations, yet it was through such observation and speculation that Count Cosgrove noticed a pattern.
First were the eye-witness observations forming the outline of the incident as they knew it: After Father Robinson had Lady Fleming take a magic aptitude test, he had her hold a crystal ball while the Prince asked questions and Lady Fleming answered them, until she turned the questioning onto the Prince about last Friday’s incident by the courtyard fountain. But when Lady Fleming dropped the crystal, she turned the questioning onto Miss Edgeworth, enraging the Prince enough to hurt Lady Fleming and throw Sir Sydney for defending her. All the direct witnesses were in agreement in what had taken place, yet based on all the professors’ findings this morning, Count Cosgrove noticed a bias against Lady Fleming in their observations. Most of the witnesses said Lady Fleming had provoked the Prince first, but Viscountess Kelly Durham and Countess Julia Davidson provided counterexamples: Sir Sydney from Viscountess Durham’s homeroom and Lord Woodberry from Countess Davidson’s homeroom said that the Prince had provoked Lady Fleming first into setting her up with a truth test after she took her magic aptitude test in the great hall. Moreover, when asked about the Prince spitting in Sir Sydney’s face and throwing him, most of the witnesses said that Sir Sydney had pushed the Prince first, but the viscountess and the countess provided counterexamples: Sir Sydney and Lord Woodberry both said Sir Sydney had pushed the Prince for hurting Lady Fleming, but none of the other witnesses had acknowledged Lady Fleming’s injury beyond the fact she had angered the Prince into overreacting.
Second (and even more telling) was the speculation coloring the incident against Lady Fleming for causing the Prince’s actions: Before Viscountess Durham brought in Lady Kessler and the Ladies Drevis to his Homeroom 4 class to inquire about their eviction notices, Count Cosgrove heard his own homeroom students yesterday talking about the incident at lunch and noted the initial bent of their speculations centering on the Prince’s actions, but now he noticed that today’s speculations have turned against Lady Fleming. Likewise, the findings from the other homeroom professors took on a similar bent. In fact, during the questioning of his students this morning (save for the Prince, whom he skipped), Baron Palmer said that they overlooked the Prince’s actions and blamed Lady Fleming for provoking his anger. Even Miss Edgeworth, the baron added, said it was unfortunate Lady Fleming got hurt, but she still said she shouldn’t have provoked the Prince. Count Cosgrove also noted the marked bias in today’s inquiries in his own homeroom class, Classroom 2-3B on the East Wing of the campus, with Lord Patrick Hudson being one of the more vocal second-years condemning Lady Fleming for her actions. So the count had asked him what those actions were, and Lord Hudson said that Lady Fleming had been bullying Miss Edgeworth, but when the count asked if Lord Hudson thought Lady Fleming deserved to get hurt for bullying Miss Edgeworth, he backtracked a bit and said that maybe the Prince went a little too far.
“If that’s how you see it,” the count had said during the extended homeroom, “then why do you insist Lady Fleming is at fault for what his Highness did to her?”
“Because she provoked him,” Lord Hudson said.
“Do you think it’s justified?”
“In a way, yes,” he said.
“In what way do you think it’s justified?”
“Look, I’m not saying she deserved to get hurt,” he said. “I’m just saying she’s dangerous.”
“And why is that?” the count said.
“Because Lady Fleming is a witch,” he said.
Count Cosgrove paused for a spell, thinking back to Prince Blaise’s own words during the summons, and said, “Who did you hear that from?”
“Nobody in particular. It’s just hearsay,” Lord Hudson said. “It’s common knowledge around here.”
The count stared at him for a time, then said, “Are you aware that you’re repeating the same hearsay that got Marchioness Fleming, Lady Fleming’s mother, imprisoned on unfounded rumors of witchcraft?”
Lord Hudson gaped at him.
“I was involved with the inquest after her body was found in prison,” he added. “The rumors of those dark days mirror the very rumors surrounding Lady Fleming now.”
“I didn’t know that,” he said.
“Then brush up your history, Lord Hudson,” the count said. “You’ll find there’s no limit to the amount of pain humans inflict on each other.”
Lord Hudson’s words lingered in Count Cosgrove’s mind as he considered the details of the lunchtime incident after all the professors were finished. Out of their findings, besides Viscountess Durham and Countess Davidson, Count Archibald Wilhelm and Countess Clio Valentine provided three more counterexamples: Lady Kessler from Count Wilhelm’s homeroom and the Ladies Jean and Saraya Drevis from Countess Valentine’s homeroom said they were in the infirmary when it happened and had seen Lord Woodberry carry Lady Fleming inside and had heard her complaining about the Prince. Moreover, during the extended homeroom, they had revealed to Count Wilhelm and Countess Valentine what had happened to Lady Kessler in the third-floor hallway that morning, prompting both professors to talk with Viscount Arthur Newton about it afterwards during lunch before they all revealed their findings to Count Cosgrove. As such, after listening to their findings about the lunchtime incident and the incident in the hallway, with fifteen minutes to spare, Count Cosgrove had Father Robinson, Baron Palmer, Viscountess Durham, Countess Davidson, Count Wilhelm, Countess Valentine, and Viscount Newton stay behind to discuss the particulars surrounding Lady Felton and Lady Childeron’s attack on Lady Kessler and their subsequent disappearance.
After they dragged over more chairs and seated themselves around his desk, Count Cosgrove filled in Countess Davidson, Count Wilhelm, Countess Valentine, and Viscount Newton on the details of his investigation. Of course, he mentioned nothing about the summons and said, “Now that I’ve got the outline squared up, let’s discuss the particulars. What else did you notice about both incidents?”
“The timing is suspicious,” Baron Palmer said, leaning back in his chair and running his hand through his combed-back hair, his brows furrowed. “His Highness had asked me to look for Miss Edgeworth that morning before Homeroom 1, but we couldn’t find her,” and he looked at Viscount Newton and Count Wilhelm in turn. “Meanwhile, the incident involving Lady Kessler in the hallways went unnoticed.”
“Like a diversion?” Viscount Newton said.
“Yeah,” Baron Palmer said. “His Highness also informed me of Miss Edgeworth’s return to class before I got there for Homeroom 2, telling me that Lady Fleming had hit her. When I came in to see for myself, she was in such a pitiful state that she had me and everyone else in class on her side.”
“And when you told me about it,” Viscountess Durham added, “I couldn’t help taking her side, too. I didn’t even listen to Lady Fleming’s side of it and just assumed it was her fault without verifying anything. It wasn’t until I took you and his Highness and Miss Edgeworth along to question the maids in Guinevere House and Mariana House that I saw Miss Edgeworth manipulating the Prince with her tears.”
“Like a pawn?” Count Cosgrove said.
“Like a lovesick character from a play,” she deadpanned. “It was so disgusting, I thought I was going to puke.”
“Anything else?” he said.
“My observations don’t really concern the incidents yesterday, but they are circumstantial,” Countess Valentine said, running her fingers through her light brown ponytail over her shoulder, and eyed Count Cosgrove.
“That’s okay,” he said. “Tell us, anyway.”
“Whenever I came to Classroom 1-3C to teach etiquette class,” she said, “I never saw his Highness sit with Lady Fleming: he only sat with Miss Edgeworth. And whenever I gave group lessons, he always chose Miss Edgeworth and never allowed Lady Fleming near her. Have any of you noticed that?”
And Baron Palmer and Father Robinson and Count Cosgrove and Viscountess Durham all said they had.
“I hadn’t confronted his Highness about it during class,” she added, “but I wish I did. He and Lady Fleming are engaged, but they don’t act like it.”
“Just so you know,” Count Cosgrove said, “they’re no longer engaged.”
“Seriously?”
“As of this morning, they’re strangers,” he said but refrained from adding that the Prince and Miss Edgeworth are now engaged, as per Marquess Fleming’s plan. “Anything else?”
“No, nothing else,” she said.
“What about the rest of you?” Count Cosgrove said.
Then Count Wilhelm piped up, saying, “When I found out what happened to Lady Kessler after lunch, I went over to Viscount Newton’s homeroom during Homeroom 3 to confront her attackers, but neither of them were there.”
“After you informed me that Lady Felton and Lady Childeron left the school grounds,” Viscount Newton added, looking at Count Cosgrove, “I visited Classroom 1-3K after Homeroom 4 to talk it over with Count Wilhelm for a bit. Then we caught up with Countess Valentine and Viscountess Durham downstairs to clarify the situation.”
“Which is?” Count Cosgrove said.
“Miss Edgeworth’s relationship with his Highness,” Viscount Newton said. “I’ve often overheard Lady Childeron and Lady Felton sharing gossip with the other students during homeroom. I’ve only heard snatches here and there, but all of the rumors tended to center around Lady Fleming.”
“What kind of rumors?”
“The malicious kind,” he said.
“Provide examples,” Count Cosgrove said.
“That Lady Fleming was born out of wedlock,” Count Wilhelm said, “and that Marquess Fleming had married her mother to save her from potential scandal.”
“That Lady Fleming is a witch,” Countess Valentine added, “because Marchioness Fleming had been imprisoned on charges of witchcraft.”
“That his Highness is with Miss Edgeworth,” Viscount Newton added, “because he had found out Lady Fleming was cheating on him with Lord Woodberry. I asked Lady Felton about it, because I knew that she and Lady Fleming weren’t on good terms, but she denied spreading that rumor. So I asked her where she heard that from, but she said she didn’t know.”
“Do you believe her?” Count Cosgrove said.
“Not in the least,” the viscount said, “but I held my tongue.”
“I heard about that rumor, too,” added Countess Davidson. “I asked Lord Woodberry about it, but he said he and Lady Fleming were just friends, adding that Lady Felton must have been jealous of her friendship with him.”
“I see,” Count Cosgrove said, rolling something else through his head as three variables clicked together, and stared at Father Robinson. “Father, did you handle Lady Childeron and Lady Felton’s magic aptitude tests?”
“No, I didn’t,” he said. “Sister Morley handled their aptitude tests in Classrooms 1-3D, I think, but we collated everyone’s test results this morning.”
“Do you have a copy of the results?” he said.
“Hold on, I’ll get the envelope,” the father said, getting up and heading towards his own desk a few desks away opposite Count Cosgrove’s desk near the middle of the Professor Commons Office. So Count Cosgrove and the other professors looked over and saw Father Robinson pulling a drawer open and taking out a manilla envelope before heading back to the gathering. After taking his seat again, the father opened the envelope and took out a stack of papers and thumbed through the pages, scanning them and taking out two pages. “Here they are! Lady Childeron’s result is the air affinity, and Lady Felton’s is the water affi—”
The father broke off and paused for a moment and said, “Drake, do you think Lady Felton forged his name?”
“I think so, yes,” he said.
“Forged?” Viscount Newton said, looking at Father Robinson and Count Cosgrove in turn.
So Count Wilhelm sand, “Are you referring—”
“—to those eviction notices?” added Countess Valentine.
“Yes, but the signature is fake, I assure you,” Count Cosgrove said, staring at the professors of the very students involved in yesterday’s scuffle in the hallway: Lady Kessler, her attackers Lady Felton and Lady Childeron, and the Drevis sisters that chased off both attackers. “It’s against his Majesty’s orders, but since you are their homeroom professors, you should know. Just keep your lips sealed, got it?”
Viscount Newton and Count Wilhelm and Countess Valentine all nodded their heads.
“We won’t know for sure, till Lady Felton and Lady Childeron are found and questioned,” he said, “but Lady Felton may have forged his Highness’s signature on those eviction notices using her water affinity. As for how she obtained them,” he added, remembering the dispute he had with Judge Kendrick Matthews at the High Court when he asked if the judge had issued three eviction notices without notifying him, “Lady Childeron may have gained access to the Judge’s desk at the High Court using her wind affinity. In fact, while I was at the High Court yesterday after classes, I almost got into an argument with Judge Matthews, because we found out someone had infiltrated the premises overnight and had stolen some paper forms. That’s a felony. Then add the fact that his Highness’s signature was forged onto stolen property and that the perpetrators are both minors, and then you get—”
“—a dueling case,” Count Wilhelm said, referring to the olden style of settling felony crimes between a noble and a member of the royal family.
Count Cosgrove nodded, saying, “For everyone’s sake, keep your mouths shut!” When they nodded their heads, he added, “What about Miss Edgeworth and Lady Fleming?”
“That’s the strange part,” Father Robinson said, putting the two pages back in place and thumbing through the stack again and pulling out another two pages. “I never got to oversee Miss Edgeworth’s magic aptitude test, but I did receive a copy of her test results at my desk from his Highness after classes on Monday. I asked him when and where she took the test, and he told me at Rhapsody Chapel last Sunday, so I went there that afternoon to make sure. Turns out, the results were genuine. Guess what affinity she has.”
“The fire affinity?” Baron Palmer said.
“Close, but no,” Father Robinson said. “Any other guesses?”
“Close?” Viscountess Durham said.
“No way,” the baron said.
“Don’t tell me,” the viscountess added.
“I’m pretty sure you’re both right, though,” he said.
“Are you kidding? The light affinity?” Count Cosgrove said.
The father grimaced as he nodded and held Miss Edgeworth’s test result for the others to see, saying, “That’s why I went through the trouble of going to Rhapsody Chapel near the Academy to have it verified, and it checked out. There was nothing fishy with the paperwork, either, except that his Highness handed in Miss Edgeworth’s test results to me himself when it’s usually handled by a chaplain’s servitor. So I asked the chaplain Father Barrymore about it, but he said his Highness had volunteered for Miss Edgeworth’s convenience.”
“That’s crazy!” Baron Palmer said.
“It gets crazier,” Father Robinson said and held up Janet’s test result for the others to see. “When I had Lady Fleming take her magic aptitude test during lunch, I confirmed she had the aether affinity, but the sheer weight of her mana pool was far heavier than normal. I mean, the volume of itself was immense, as much as the volume of the fountain in front of the Blaise Royal Palace.”
Count Cosgrove and the other listeners dropped their jaws, and he said, “Don’t bullshit us, Giles!”
“Honest to my soul, I’m telling the truth,” the father said and replaced the pages in the envelope. “But what really puzzled me was the weight of it compared to its size, which was immense, but its weight was too much even for that. So I went back to Rhapsody Chapel yesterday afternoon, and I had Father Barrymore verify Lady Fleming’s test result. It checked out, too, so I had him analyze it overnight, but when I met Father Barrymore again at the chapel earlier today, I also found her Majesty Queen Blaise waiting there. Father Barrymore was as white as a sheet, and I was as bamboozled to see her Majesty as you can imagine. Anyway,” he added, “her Majesty told me that Lady Fleming has two major affinities, the aether and one she wouldn’t say, but I can guess. Judging by the sheer weight I felt, it must be the darkness affinity.”
Everyone was silent after that.
A minute passed in excruciating seconds.
Then Count Cosgrove said, “Was there ever a precedent like that before?”
“I asked her Majesty the same question,” the father said and gulped, “and she told me there was, but it was a different combination of affinities. She told me Queen Calliope Blaise, the last direct descendent of King Bartholomew Kaden and founder of the Church of the Holy Light, had two major affinities: the light affinity and the fire affinity.”
“Didn’t King Mathias Blaise have the fire affinity, too?” Viscountess Durham said.
“Indeed,” Father Robinson said, nodding his head. “Her Majesty even told me that Queen Calliope Blaise might have chosen him, because his affinity matched one of hers. Anyway, she added that she’ll take over Father Barrymore’s duties this Friday to oversee the title confirmation.”
“She wants to observe?” Count Cosgrove said.
“That,” the father said, “and she has invited all professors from the Academy to observe the proceedings with her. Moreover, she’s also sent invitations to the parents and guardians of all the students at the Academy, and I’m sure she plans on inviting more people for the occasion.”
“But Rhapsody Chapel can’t seat that many visitors,” Count Wilhelm said. “You’d need a bigger venue.”
“I said the same thing,” the father said, “but she said she’ll talk with Abbess Andrea Balthazar later this afternoon to have St. Calliope’s Abbey host the event.”
“Isn’t that a bit far?” Viscountess Durham said.
“It is, but her Majesty has already talked it over with the school board while we were questioning our students,” the father added, getting up and taking the envelope with him. “It’ll be a field trip this Friday, so there won’t be any classes bogging us down. She’s been quite the busy bee this morning, and she’ll be busier tomorrow.”
They all stood up and followed after him.
“Let’s hope her Majesty will be in a better mood by Friday,” Count Cosgrove said under his breath.
“She’s been rather touchy today,” the father said.
“Really?” Count Cosgrove said, wondering what else has soured the Queen’s mood. “That bad?”
“Be on your guard, old boy,” the father said under his breath as if he was privy to a great secret. “There’s no telling what she’s got planned for this Friday, but expect the four Abbesses to be there.”
“Oh? Why so?” he said.
The father whispered, “Sleeper agents.”
Count Cosgrove almost stopped in his tracks, staring at the smiling Father Robinson as if he had lost his marbles, and said under his breath, “You can’t be serious!”
“I’m dead serious, old boy.”
“Is something the matter?” Baron Palmer said.
“Nothing’s the matter, no,” Count Cosgrove said, praying it wasn’t as bad as that.
In Classroom 2-3B, four hours of questioning in the morning had quieted his homeroom students into whispers during the half hour of Homeroom 3. And so, he sat on a chair behind the lectern and took his pocketbook from his book bag and pretended to take last-minute notes for his Period 5 class, so as not to alert his students. All the while, he wrote down names and events and places and listed out the particulars insofar as he knew them based on the findings of his fellow professors:
Lady Jenna Childeron
—> infiltrates High Court (when?)
—> gives eviction notice (Ladies Drevis, before Hr 1, Tu)
—> attacks Lady Kessler (before Hr 1, Tu)
—> disappears (before Hr 1, Tu, where?)
[—> turns against Lady Fleming (why?)]
Lady Vesper Felton
—> forges Prince’s name (night, Mo)
—> gives eviction notice (Lady Kessler, before Hr 1, Tu)
—> attacks Lady Kessler (before Hr 1, Tu)
—> disappears (before Hr 1, Tu, where?)
[—> turns against Lady Fleming (jealousy?)]
Miss Rosalie Edgeworth
—> gives false witness (Lady Kessler, before Hr 1, Tu)
[—> Pr. Blaise / Bar. Palmer’s search (before Hr 1, Tu)]
—> gives false witness (Lady Fleming, during Hr 2, Tu)
[—> Pr. Blaise’s quarrel (Lady Fleming, during Hr 2, Tu)]
—> manipulates Pr. Blaise (during Hr 2, Tu)
[—> manipulates others against Lady Fleming (why?)]
Prince Donavan Blaise
—> cajoles Father Robinson (before lunch, Tu)
—> questions Lady Fleming (during lunch, Tu)
—> breaks Father Robinson’s crystal (during lunch, Tu)
—> hurts Lady Fleming (during lunch, Tu)
—> throws Sir Sydney (during lunch, Tu)
—> apologizes for slur last Fr, not for actions Tu (why?)
—> defends Miss Edgeworth during summons (why?)
—> criminalizes Lady Fleming during summons (why?)
Taking these points together, Count Cosgrove considered the most obvious pattern that the questioners at the summons had agreed on during their after-dinner talk. Besides incriminating and isolating Lady Fleming from potential allies, the hearsay tended to unite popular sentiment in favor of Miss Edgeworth by scapegoating the former with false rumors. As such, if she benefited from Lady Fleming’s scapegoating, was Miss Edgeworth the source of those rumors? If so, then how did she spread them without raising her peers’ suspicions? Was she relying on the backing of an outside source to keep them quiet? If so, then who was it? Turning over the details in his mind, he reviewed this modus operandi in light of two past cases: Marchioness Rowena Fleming’s false imprisonment and subsequent death seventeen years ago, and Lady Celeste Graves’ brutal murder just before the graduation banquet in the Kaden Kingdom’s worst saintess selection debacle over a century ago.
The pattern in all three cases followed the same trajectory with three Blaise princes breaking their engagements to their fiancées over their perceived bullying of another girl at school. For Lady Janet Fleming, it was Prince Donavan Blaise protecting Miss Rosalie Edgeworth; for her mother Lady Rowena Bartleby, it was the then-Prince Conner Blaise protecting Lady Rubella Weaver; and for Lady Celeste Graves, it was Prince Richard Blaise protecting Lady Lilian Dorian. As such, all three princes neglected to protect their fiancées’ reputations in school, forcing them to bear the brunt of their infamy in a hostile social environment and making their families seek help for their daughters from other noble families in lieu of the royal family’s influence. For Lady Fleming, Marquess Arnold Fleming sought help from the newly invested Duke Astor Bartleby; for Lady Bartleby, Old Duke Bartleby sought help from Lord Arnold Fleming during the graduation banquet and later during the legal dispute with the Blaise royal family after the false imprisonment and death of Marchioness Fleming (née, Bartleby); and for Lady Graves, Count Graves sought help from Duke Anthony Woodberry. Even so, seeking the help of other nobles had mixed results: for Lady Fleming so far, Duke Astor Bartleby’s aid has yet to bear fruit at this time; for Lady Bartleby and later as Marchioness Fleming, Lord Arnold Fleming’s help had eased the rumors surrounding her infidelity after Prince Conner Blaise broke his engagement with her to have Lady Rubella Weaver as his consort, and later after becoming the next Marquess Fleming, Arnold’s actions after the duel had played an instrumental role in keeping the Blaise royal family and the Bartleby ducal family from open warfare after Marchioness Fleming’s death in prison; but for Lady Graves, Count Graves’ attempt to seek Duke Anthony Woodberry’s help proved disastrous for his daughter’s reputation.
Therefore, to answer those four main questions, Count Cosgrove surmised that even if Miss Edgeworth had Prince Donavan Blaise wrapped around her finger, she still lacked the influence to sway public opinion to her side and needed someone else to back her, someone other than the Dorians. For Marchioness Fleming, the High Court had ruled that the surviving allies of the fallen Dorian house had Marchioness Fleming imprisoned on false charges of witchcraft in revenge for her family’s part in apprehending the Dorians after Lady Graves’ murder; and for Lady Graves, the High Court found out that the Dorians had interfered with the saintess selection process that led to Lady Graves’ murder in her dorm before graduation. Hence, going by precedent, Miss Edgeworth’s example of swaying the students paralleled Lady Dorian’s example of swaying the faculty, but that’s where the similarities ended. For Lady Fleming’s case, they have yet to find evidence that the Dorians or any other house was involved; for Marchioness Fleming’s case, subsequent events like the murder of Abbess Maxine Diddly in St. Avalon’s Abbey soon after the Marchioness’s death and the escalating legal proceedings that resulted in a duel between the Blaise royal house and the Bartleby ducal house complicated the matter even further, resulting in the High Court’s controversial ruling that it must have been the Dorians behind everything based on the tenuous testimony of the prison officers at the time, all of whom had resigned from their posts and left soon after the proceedings ended; and for Lady Graves’ case, even when the Church of the Holy Light had her canonized as the protector of all saintess candidates, the four abbesses at the time were still reluctant to include darkness affinity users in their registry. Only after Marchioness Fleming’s imprisonment and death and Abbess Diddly’s murder did the four abbesses begin to change their anti-darkness affinity stance through Queen Rubella Blaise’s efforts after she and King Conner Blaise ascended to the throne. Yet based on this morning’s findings and his own observations in Classroom 2-3B, if Lady Fleming has the darkness affinity in addition to the aether affinity, as Father Robinson had surmised, then there still lingered widespread prejudice against potential darkness affinity users like her in this kingdom.
After considering these implications, Count Cosgrove thought that maybe that’s why Father Barrymore was so scared; maybe that’s why Queen Blaise had not revealed Janet’s second affinity to Father Robinson in Father Barrymore’s presence in Rhapsody Chapel; and maybe that’s why she plans to move the title confirmation to St. Calliope’s Abbey in order to have everyone in attendance observe the proceedings in her presence. In light of the deaths of Lady Graves and Marchioness Fleming and Abbess Diddly, all three of whom were darkness affinity users, maybe Queen Blaise was trying to catch someone during this Friday’s gathering. Yet the underlying question remained: if someone was backing Miss Edgeworth, then who could it be? Yet the more he rolled the question through his mind, untangling the web of implications into individual strands of possible motives, the more he began to sweat and fidget at where these strands led to. He shook his head at the idea, yet it was rooted in place like a weed of doubt.
So he gulped down his qualms, flipped to another page in his pocketbook, and added this entry:
Abbesses of the Church of the Holy Light (backers?)
—> Abbess Andrea Balthazar (fire affinity)
—> Abbess Vera Knoxville (water affinity)
—> Abbess Kilala Machen (wind affinity)
—> Abbess Alicia Carmine (earth affinity)
Then Count Cosgrove spent the last few minutes of Homeroom 3 considering the implications, wondering if the Queen was going to investigate her younger colleagues. If the Queen really thought something rotten was going on amongst the four current abbesses of the Church of the Holy Light, then the High Court had no legal jurisdiction over it. Even when church and state were one, embodied in marriage between a king and a saintess as queen consort, their duties dealt with separate jurisdictions: just as a judge was an arbiter of domestic affairs and disputes amongst his peers through his lawyers representing interested parties, so too was the king the arbiter of state affairs and disputes amongst his subjects through his ministers representing domestic and foreign circles, and so too was the saintess the arbiter of spiritual affairs and disputes amongst her followers through her abbesses representing the six recognized affinities shared amongst their followers: aether, light, fire, air, water, and earth. With the four abbesses of the Church of the Holy Light deciding such matters with the saintess acting as the final arbiter in deadlock decisions, they decided pressing cases based on the interests of their constituent followers. Since darkness affinity users were still considered evil amongst their followers at the time, the newly sanctified Princess Rubella Blaise and the former abbesses had not included Abbess Maxine Diddly into their registry. Those abbesses from twenty years ago were now retired, but the Queen still visited them for advice whenever she had the time. If there really were sleeper agents under the noses of the current abbesses, or even if they were sleeper agents themselves, would the Queen share her suspicions with their predecessors? How would those old broads react to her suspicions about their grandnieces and granddaughters that had replaced them?
Blinking away these thoughts, the count turned back to Maxine Diddly’s case. He could only imagine how hard it must have been for her after crossing the border into Old Parr in the southern outskirts of this kingdom, only to be excluded from the Church of the Holy Light’s registry. Even when the former abbesses had allowed her to oversee St. Avalon’s Abbey and look after the orphans in St. Avalon’s Orphanage, granting her tacit authority as a resident abbess in Old Parr, they still excluded her from sharing in the donation funds they had enjoyed under their jurisdiction at the time. Almost a generation had passed since Queen Rubella Blaise began reforming the Church’s views through her example in maintaining food banks and appropriating donation funds to cover the needs of orphanages affiliated with the four recognized abbeys (St. Calliope’s Abbey, St. Hazel’s Abbey, St. Juliana’s Abbey, and St. Maria’s Abbey), even going as far as setting up and overseeing soup kitchens, charity benefits, and field hospitals when she had spare time. Through her efforts, she had become something of an institution with the help of the four current abbesses assisting her, fulfilling her divine title as the Great Giver. Could she risk all that progress to uncover a conspiracy amongst her four trusted colleagues? Even if they were innocent of her suspicions, would they be able to trust her afterwards? And if she’s using this Friday’s title confirmation to go through with it, even if her actions were justified, was she overstepping her bounds?
But then he had a brainwave, and he found himself thinking back on Father Robinson’s words about sleeper agents yet again. In addition to inviting the four current abbesses, maybe the Queen will invite their predecessors to observe them and the students participating in the event on the sly. Cursing himself for not seeing it sooner, Count Cosgrove flipped back a page to review what he had written and recalled the details he had seen in the summons in light of today’s findings and this moment’s epiphany.
After a moment’s hesitation, he wrote out his next entry below the previous one like so:
Abbess Emerita Elena Balthazar (watcher, fire affinity)
—> Abbess Andrea Balthazar (backer? fire affinity)
—> Prince Donavan Blaise (pawn? fire affinity)
Abbess Emerita Joanna Knoxville (watcher, water affinity)
—> Abbess Vera Knoxville (backer? water affinity)
—> Lady Vesper Felton (absent pawn, water affinity)
Abbess Emerita Iris Machen (watcher, wind affinity)
—> Abbess Kilala Machen (backer? wind affinity)
—> Lady Jenna Childeron (absent pawn, wind affinity)
Abbess Emerita Adelaide Carmine (watcher, earth affinity)
—> Abbess Alicia Carmine (backer? earth affinity)
—> [blank] (anyone? who? earth affinity)
Queen Rubella Blaise (watcher, light affinity)
—> Miss Rosalie Edgeworth (fake? light affinity)
He looked at his notes again, thinking through the details of the Queen’s plan in light of her surprise appearance during the summons. By inviting so many people to the title confirmation and presiding over it with four current abbesses present and four retired abbesses hidden under the Queen’s power, their combined presence would compel the students and their parents or guardians and even the school faculty to attend the event. And any students not in attendance (namely, Lady Felton and Lady Childeron) would be on the lips of everyone there, making it easier for the Queen and the four retired abbesses to observe their successors and the students approaching the altar. Thus, she had devised a reconnaissance mission out of a trumped-up title confirmation, and the count suspected that the Queen would brief them about it before the event.
But out of the four potential backers, Abbess Alicia Carmine proved the most interesting, even when they found no student with her affinity acting on Miss Edgeworth’s behalf. What made her so interesting was that the current Abbess Carmine was Queen Blaise’s distant cousin through a marriage over a century ago. Back then, after Lady Graves’ murder and the execution of the Dorians, with no saintess candidate left to wed, Prince Richard Blaise became the only Blaise prince to choose an abbess as his consort, Abbess Evie Carmine. That infamous marriage had sown the seeds of a bitter rivalry between Queen Rubella Blaise and Abbess Alicia Carmine after they had attained their current positions, and it didn’t help that Abbess Carmine kept trying to one-up the Queen in the amount of donations her St. Maria’s Abbey could rake in.
“Professor?” someone said over his shoulder, jolting him out of his reveries and making him turn in his seat to see none other than Lord Hudson. “Homeroom 3 is over, Professor,” and he pointed out a bespectacled Baroness Rachel Remington already standing in front of him by the lectern with her book bag atop it and getting out novels written by commoner authors.
Then the baroness turned to him, her long brown hair swaying, and said, “A lot on your mind, my Lord Count?”
“Sorry about that, but yes,” he said, getting up and shoving his pocketbook into his own book bag. “I’ve got more than enough still jumbling around the old noggin. By the way, how much time do I have left?”
“More than enough time, so there’s no need to hurry,” the baroness said before getting out a few more novels written by noble authors.
“Then I’m off,” the count said, slinging his book bag over his shoulder and walking off, till he paused and looked over at Lord Hudson heading back to his seat and talking with his table mate in whispers. Then he exited Classroom 2-3B and hurried down the hallway towards Classroom 1-3E in the West Wing of the campus, hoping Lord Hudson hadn’t peeked at his notes, till he had a brainwave. The count then backtracked and passed the double doors of Classroom 1-3C, catching Baron Palmer’s attention and saying, “Can I have a moment, my Lord Baron?”
“I can only spare a moment, my Lord Count,” the baron said, leaving the lectern while closing his book bag before following him out into the hallway. “What is it?”
Count Cosgrove then informed the baron of what he had in mind to put Marquess Fleming’s plan in motion.
“My God, have you gone insane!” Baron Palmer said.
“I know it’s risky,” the count said, “but are you up to playing some cloak-and-dagger?”
The Baron just stared at him, mouth hanging open and eyes as wide as saucers, not saying anything.
“If you’re not up to it,” the count went on, “then I’ll just have Viscountess Durham—”
“I’ll do it.”
“Are you sure?” the count said.
“I said I’ll do it, so I’ll do it!” the baron said. “Just leave her out of it!”
“Leave me out of what?” Viscountess Durham said a few paces behind them. “What were you two talking about?”
Both men turned around.
“Nothing too important, my Lady Viscountess,” the count said, taking the viscountess aside and leading her around the corner of the side hall by her homeroom class, Classroom 1-3G. When she asked him what’s going on, he informed her of his insights on the Queen’s possible plan for this coming Friday, keeping her busy while Baron Palmer did his part. In this way, he made sure that the baron wouldn’t have the chance to get cold feet and back out of it.
