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Part 1

Part 9, 89th continuation

Landing Page

Bertram knew Peric well enough to know why he was avoiding the question and, as their eyes met, it was obvious that he was right. There was only one thing Peric could have found out that would make him so uncomfortable with talking about it, but it wasn’t a surprise. Bertram had a feeling they would travel to four of the five hames before returning to Sheepshank, because he knew the Motharans were unlikely to want help, even if they were dealing with the counterfeits, while Fasach and Theas… well, the races there probably wouldn’t want to accept any help, but that didn’t mean they didn’t need it.

“You don’t need to continue,” Lucille said, as though she’d realised why Bertram had asked the question he had. “Is there any way you can prove to Hereward or Durai that what you saw was the truth?”

“No.” Peric sighed. “All I have is what I know, thanks to what I did, but there is no way to prove that what I know is true.”

“Will either Hereward or Durai want to believe what you have to tell them?”

“I doubt it and, to be honest, I’m not sure I want to either. The thought of… I always knew that this was a journey that wasn’t going to come to an easy end, but I didn’t imagine for a moment that I wouldn’t find an ending here.” He nibbled his bottom lip and Bertram tried not to show how amused he was that Peric had picked that up from Lucille. “Going home is all I want to do and if what I found out is true that’s not going to be happening any time soon. Even though I want to do everything I can to help solve the case I want to go home.”

Lucille reached out and squeezed his paw. “I know, Peric. You can, if you really need to, go back to Sheepshank. This is something I can do myself if you don’t have the strength to continue.”

“Thank you, Lucy, I do appreciate the offer, but I’m not going to leave you to do this all alone. We started this together, you got involved in something you didn’t have to be a part of, and there is no chance of me walking away, no matter how hard things get, when I know that you’ve put yourself in danger to help us.” Peric smiled. “You aren’t just in danger here, but by getting close to us you’ve broken the first rule and you’ve told us what that means for you if the wrong person finds out.”

“If it hadn’t been you it would have been someone else.” Lucille smiled back. “The choice was mine to make, I made it, and you don’t need to take any of the burden of that choice on your shoulders. I’m grateful that you gave me a chance to be a part of this, even though Quiar is terrified that something will happen to me – which tells me that we have to expect more trouble and makes me certain that whatever you learnt is the truth.”

“Telling Hereward and Durai would be a mistake,” Meriwether said, surprising them all. “At the moment things are difficult enough and telling them that you found out about the involvement another hame from the mind of someone who tried to kill Lucille and Bertram is going to complicate things, because they aren’t going to believe it is the truth. Why would they? This is Seahorse Port, the home to races from all across Quiar, so the likelihood is that they’ll think whoever you saw has lived here for years.”

Peric shook his head. “By not telling them people are going to die, because they won’t be prepared. If I tell them, even if they don’t believe me, at least they’ll be the ones to make the decision, which will take the burden off my shoulders.”

“Instead, when they realise that they made a huge mistake by not listening, it will place a huge burden on theirs and right now I don’t think Hereward needs that. He might well be angry with you afterwards, people might end up getting hurt, but in the end it’s something that you’ll be able to fix by solving the case, by finding the person who created the counterfeit ring and bringing an end to it for good.” Meriwether rubbed his antler. “We do what we can to prepare the guards, we help them in any way we can to understand that they don’t know what they’re going to come across because this is a counterfeit ring and we’ve seen unexpected things before, but in the end, Peric, that’s all we’ll be able to do. Even if they did know there are no guarantees that would protect them.”

“I disagree.” Hearing Sini speak wasn’t a surprise, but she had been so quiet Bertram wasn’t sure she would say anything. “Maybe telling Hereward will place a burden on his shoulders, but it’s his burden to take, not Peric’s. Peric found something out, by unusual means, and in the end it’s up to Hereward what he does with that information, as Hereward is the one who’s going to take his guards into a situation he won’t know enough about to keep them safe. If Hereward chooses not to believe Peric, for whatever reason, then that’s his choice to make and we won’t know for certain until he does make it.”

“What would you do, Sini? Put yourself in Hereward’s position and think like him, rather than like yourself, because you have an amazing ability to put yourself into other people’s shoes, to be them for a little while, unlike the rest of us. Hereward can only be himself and, honestly, he doesn’t have the imagination to see that there might be people from outside of Seahorse Port involved in this.” Meriwether sighed. “It also doesn’t help that Peric took the situation into his own hands and dealt with it. Had we managed to get the assassin to Hereward things might have been different, but the likelihood of that happening was very low. She was in danger from the counterfeit ring, because she didn’t manage to remove Lucille and Bertram from the equation.”

Bertram watched Sini as she thought about what Meriwether had just said. She had interesting eyes, ones it was possible to see everything and nothing in, and in the end she nodded. “Hereward is set in his ways, but that doesn’t mean he won’t believe Peric. With everything that’s happened he must be able to open his mind enough to know that there might be others involved… and yet I can’t help thinking that he won’t. He’ll take what Peric says as information from an untrustworthy source and do the same thing he does with all such information – store it away for a later date.”

“There is another option,” Bertram said, suddenly thinking of something that might work. “An anonymous tip, telling Hereward whatever it was that Peric found out, and then, if something does go wrong, the burden won’t entirely be on Peric’s shoulders. That doesn’t mean Hereward won’t still be angry for Peric not telling him what he knows, but it’s an option that might work. It’ll also mean that when we start preparing the guards for what they might not know they’ll have a reason to wonder if we’re right.”

Relief filled Peric’s eyes, as Bertram had given him a way of doing what he really wanted to do while combating the fear of being disbelieved. “I think it’s a wonderful idea.” He smiled. “I’m going to go upstairs and write a note to send to Hereward.”

For a moment Bertram watched Peric walk away. “That was a good idea,” Meriwether said, “and at least it will place some of the burden on Hereward’s shoulders, but he is still going to be angry with Peric for not telling him. Being logical with him, asking if he would have believed it if he had been told, would be the best way to deal with that.”

“I’m going to talk with Kai and get the preparations made for whatever happens with the guards, as well as our trip to Fasach. Both Peric and I are going to need good disguises.”

“Suddenly the mice make sense. It must have been the Fasachis involved, giving the white mice the option of being safe in Larnach if they attacked the guards in Seahorse Port.” Meriwether shook his head. “The counterfeits aren’t coming from there, though. Whoever’s making them is magically strong or has someone working for them who is and that makes me think they’re coming from Theas.”

Bertram nodded. “They probably are, but right now we need to follow the trail that we have, otherwise we won’t know who’s in charge of the counterfeiters or even where we need to begin looking. All we can do is take things step by step until we find the person who started all this.”

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.

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Date: 2014-05-06 12:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com
No typos found.

What an awesome ethical discussion! I think Sini was right, and Bertram's solution was clever.

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