{listair}
listair's muscles ached as he packed up his tools. Nine hours of trying to focus on construction while wondering if his best friend was a would-be murderer had left him exhausted in ways that had nothing to do with physical labor.
"Psst! Dad!"
He nearly dropped his hamr at lisa's voice from a nearby alley. His daughter's silver-dyed hair caught the evening light as she waved him over.
"Have you been waiting here all day?" he asked, glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention to the nim girl flagging down a construction worker from an alley. That would be... difficult to explain.
"Of course not!" lisa grinned, reaching into a bag at her feet. "I've been very busy doing very important investigation things. Also, I got us these!"
She produced two street-vendor mystery at pies, still steaming. The kind that probably contained more mystery than at, but slled amazing after a long day's work.
"Well... Thank you," listair took one.
"Co on," lisa said, already heading deeper into the alley network. "I found out so things. We should probably discuss them sowhere less public."
"Should I be worried about, uh, how far your investigation went?" listair asked, following his daughter through Syux's back streets. He tried not to think about the various ways she might have gotten information.
"Not at all. It was all very pure and very innocent," lisa took a bite of her pie, managing sohow to make even that look suspicious. "Aaand you don't believe ."
"Nope. But, whatever, I don't want to know," he decided. "Just... tell what you found out."
"Oh, you'll definitely want to know this," lisa said, leading them toward what looked like an abandoned courtyard. "Though you might want to sit down first."
[Nine years of friendship,] listair thought as they found seats on so old crates. [And now I'm about to find out if it ant anything at all.]
He looked at his daughter. Whatever she'd discovered, whatever she'd had to do to find it out, she'd done it to protect their family.
"Alright," he said, settling in with his questionable at pie. "Tell everything."
lisa took another bite, clearly thinking about how to start.
[This,] listair thought with grim humor, [is either going to make feel much better or much worse about everything.]
Knowing his luck, maybe both.
lisa took another bite of her pie, chewed thoughtfully, then looked her father dead in the eye.
"Rax didn't order the attack."
listair's pie stopped halfway to his mouth.
"What?"
"He didn't order it," lisa repeated. "But he did sothing arguably just as stupid."
Thus, she began to explain about the drinking, about Rax bragging to the wrong person at the wrong ti. About accidentally painting a target on their backs through sheer carelessness.
"He was drunk," she said, watching her father's face carefully. "Proud of his friend who'd done so well for himself. Living in a noble's house, friendship with the forr court sorceress. He told this guy called Koros everything."
"Koros?" listair's voice was quiet. Dangerous.
"Soone I'm aware of," lisa explained. "Not soone I've really spoken to, though. Apparently, he got real interested in where exactly we lived." lisa took another bite of pie. "The rest, as they say, is arson."
listair sat in silence for a long mont. The remains of his pie cooled forgotten in his hands.
"You're sure?" he finally asked. "About all of this?"
"Dad, my thods got the actual late queen of Syux to spill centuries of royal secrets while riding my face." lisa rolled her eyes. "Trust , Rax was telling the truth."
"I really didn't need to know that about the queen."
"Hey, you asked about my thods." lisa shrugged. "Point is, I'm sure. He didn't try to kill us. He just... fucked up. Spectacularly."
"I was ready to kill him," listair said quietly. "Had it all planned out."
"I know." lisa reached over, squeezed his hand. "But hey, at least now you don't have to figure out how to dispose of a body. Though I do have so suggestions if you're still interested..."
That startled a laugh out of him.
"Sotis you worry ."
"Only sotis? I must be losing my touch."
They sat in companionable silence for a mont, finishing their questionable at pies while the sun set over Syux's rooftops.
"So," listair finally said. "Koros. Where do I find him?"
"No no," lisa shook her head, wiping pie crumbs from her mouth. "That's my job."
"Absolutely not. I can't let you put yourself in danger like that."
His daughter fixed him with a look that managed to be both amused and exasperated. She'd perfected that expression sowhere between accidentally blowing up half the academy's east wing and developing her first combat spells.
"Dad," she said slowly, like explaining sothing to a particularly dense child, "I've killed more actual, trained assassins than I can count. The Shadow Mages sent their best after and I turned them into girlfriends or corpses." She smirked.
"lisa-"
"This?" She gestured vaguely. "This is nothing. So angry nim with a match doesn't exactly rank high on my list of 'people who've tried to murder .' Hell, he's not even in the top twenty."
[That's... not as comforting as she probably thinks it is,] listair thought.
But she had a point.
His daughter wasn't that confused child anymore, studying magic relentlessly in her room. She'd grown into sothing... else. Sothing that apparently made ancient queens spill secrets and hardened assassins switch sides.
So, instead, listair's mind shifted.
[So... Rax really didn't betray ?] The thought hit him suddenly. [At least, not intentionally?]
Nine years of friendship. Nine years of trust. All nearly destroyed because his friend got drunk and bragged to the wrong person.
Sohow, that felt both better and worse than what he'd suspected.
listair stood up.
"Well... I guess that's it then," he extended a hand to lisa. "Co on. Your mother's probably worried sick."
"Alright. But, really though, dad," she added, "let deal with this."
"... I know," listair nodded. "I know."
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