"Those are the last?"
"Yes. I don't have anymore coin after that."
Ilya and Ezera were once again together, in the darkness of the latter's quarters, hunched up over a coin that was being carved and tattooed with blood. This, with the one they had just finished, was the last of the thirteen coins Alan had given him.
Ezera was anxious. He had also not yet told Ilya about the anomaly he had found the night before. Which was why he had invited the man to his quarters in the middle of this night, to finish off the scrying lenses.
"Will you create anything else, after that?" Ilya asked with a deep but low-tuned voice, so as not to wake Ming.
"I'm not sure, to be honest," it entirely depended what they would be doing about the anomaly in the near future. "Perhaps, if I have a new idea? I don't see myself creating something from scratch yet. This is the best I can do for now."
He straightened a bit, with a realization, at the words.
This was the best he could do.
What now?
Ezera was just a mere teacher, trying to protect his students without any leverage of any kind to make this work. And now that he had found out... Something pulsing so malevolently right under the depths of the inner palace? Something like that would be impossible to ignore for the people living there.
Especially when it was noticeably placed, right in front of the chapel's organ, through walls and lengths and lengths and lengths of tunnels. As though it was directly connected to it. Ezera's mental map could not be wrong, nor the one he had stretched together with Ilya.
So. Obviously, that was connected to the hidden plot of... Who? The Queen? The high priest? Whoever! And now that they had discovered this plot. Now what?
"Now," Ezera says out loud, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. "This is all I can do."
Ilya perked up, confused.
"What is it?"
"I've almost given you every piece of intel that I've got. There's not much else I've left to give. What will you do?"
Ilya remained silent for a minute, while Ezera ended his arrayal design. But once Ezera sighed by the end of the process, and started cleaning delicately the platinum needle in his hands, he spoke confidently.
"I think Professor has much more left to give. We have agreed on a partnership for this case, and your help has been precious."
Ezera frowned, surprised. As he looked at the other. Ilya was also looking at him, his gaze glowing over the gleam of his blue fire as it did the first night the man appeared in the room.
"Not only that, but Professor is also entitled to this case. Those are, after all, his students who are sleeping in this palace, ignorant of all of this."
That was right. Ezera wouldn't stand being left out when the safety of his kids was in the balance. Still, he couldn't help but have a mitigated reaction to this.
Ezera was loving and protective, that was a fact. Another fact, that he deplored, was that he was righteous, too.
"So. Ilya. Say we find out a decisive element in our investigation. What would you do about it?"
Ilya hummed, humoring Ezera.
"It depends. If it were conclusive, I shall report. If it demanded a stronger resolve, I would investigate more deeply into the matter."
"No matter how long, or how far it takes you?"
"No matter. Would the Professor accompany me in that case?"
Ezera felt no hesitation when he answered.
"I would," he replied with a hint of resignation. "Yet I fear what we will find."
"That is understandable."
Ezera chuckled darkly. He didn't understand how this man could sound like this, so reasonable, even in the situation they found themselves in.
Fair enough, Ezera hadn't yet informed Ilya of the full circumstances of said situation. He would, soon.
"You said..."
He didn't get to complete that sentence. Another voice, soft with sleep, surprised them both.
"Who is it?"
Ilya and Ezera both turned, taken aback by the sudden awakening of Ming, who, while still down, had his eyes wide awake and fixated on Ilya, warily.
"Ming? What, when did you wake up?"
"Just now. I felt something weird. Professor, who is that person?"
Ezera grimaced internally. This was less than ideal, but at least there was no panic. What had Ming felt that he hadn't waken over before?
Ezera reminded himself that he shouldn't lie to his students- he shouldn't lie to Ming. He had promised himself not to betray their trusts, after all. He told the truth, however so vaguely.
"That is a friend," he said to the boy. "I do not know his real name, but he is trustworthy."
Ming squinted, cold and fragile, as his voice was when he whispered:
"I don't know that."
Ezera's heart broke upon hearing it. He found himself looking to the side, and by pure coincidence at Ilya. The man's features had somewhat softened. His voice seemed soft too, in the silence of the night, as he greeted.
"Hello, Ming."
When Ming turned to Ilya, Ezera feared the worst. But it was Ming's turn ti be taken aback, as he stared into Ilya's straight eyes. Oh, Ezera realized, with a surge of feeling. This was why Ilya had always seemed more reliably that all others from the beginning.
When Ilya spoke to people, he made sure to look at people in the eyes. Openly. Almost honestly, were it not for his natural neutrality.
Out of all the adults in Ming's life, Ezera had probably been the first to look at him in the eyes, and without any contempt, open or hidden. And Ilya might well be the second.
Good. Hopefully.
Ming still didn't answer Ilya. Instead, he turned to Ezera, gently frantic.
"Professor said... He said he would go far and long? With the other man?"
Oh. Ezera cursed at himself. He should have been more careful with what he had been saying.
"I would not," he reassured the boy, refraining to reach out. "At least not without telling you all. You know I wouldn't leave you like that."
He wasn't lying. But at the same time, it was exactly the matter that preoccupied him. Neither of them knew how this investigation would end, and Ezera was afraid to ask. This could be separation, or literally anything else.
He didn't want to be responsible for deepening these kids' abandon issues. And... He didn't want to leave them alone.
"Really?" Ming sounded unsure.
"Of course. Ming, when have I ever lied to you?"
"Mh... But Professor and the other man are looking for something?"
He would not lie.
"That's right," he confirmed. "Something important. For both you and I."
Ming looked at him, pensive. And Ezera felt his blood pump in his veins in nervosity, an anxious agitation he had felt a lot of times before. Did they trust him? Did they not? That was always the concern in these moments. The anticipation was painful.
"Professor is not telling what."
"No. I'm sorry."
"But Professor will not leave."
"Never long, Ming."
"Then... The other man," and Ming had been pronouncing the words with a mix of distrust and curiosity, "will not try make you leave?"
"I won't," Ilya said, recognizing he had to speak, and Ezera confirmed, because he was The Adult that Didn't Lie.
"He will not."
Ming nodded.
"I see. Then... Professor can tell me when he thinks it is right. He knows more than us, and he knows what is right."
Ezera smiled, feeling the urge to cry as he had a few days before over his charge. No, he thought, your professor doesn't always know what is right. He didn't deserve this trust. When ever Ming had learned to trust him like that? What had Ezera done to earn it now, when he was so often preoccupied by other things instead of being there for them?
He said none of that.
"Thank you, Ming. Go back to sleep, now, please. You'll need the rest tomorrow."
Ming hummed and lied down. His eyes didn't leave Ilya, still wary but more curious, until he closed them again, engulfing himself under the covers.
Ezera sighed once he could hear the gentle sound of even breaths. And he turned to face Ilya.
"There's something I need to show you," he said. "And then... You'll be telling us what to do."
This was for the sake of the children, he reminded himself. Even if that meant he had to stay 'far and long', away from them... Right?
Right.