Rising Shards

While Tik was out, Kara and Mars invited us over to a corner of their office, where they were playing games.

"Sorry to bother you," I said.

"Nah, all good," Mars said.

"You put up with us on one of the most dead-end cases we've ever had, so we owe you all," Kara said. "Was gonna say we owe you one but it's more than that."

I could tell just looking at her shoulders and tail sink down in unison that Zeta blamed herself for the case being a dead end so far. In trying to find out more about her father and aunt, they hadn't discovered much at all yet.

"Not your fault," Mars said, also reading her body language. "Wanna play?"

"Heck yeah I do!" Oka said when she realized they were playing Farlet Kart. "This is like the only video game I'm good at. So far at least."

"Righteous," Mars said. "I need someone to play against who actually likes this."

"I don't dislike it, just. Stupid controller's too damn small for my hands," Kara scoffed. I thought she was referring to the smaller eGame controllers, common pack-in ones for party games, but she had the larger deluxe controller in her hands. She gave Oka that one, while Zeta and I took the spare models.

"I'm still pretty bad at these," Zeta said.

As we started racing, Kara stretched and leaned back.

"So, Kalei's got a secret, huh?" She said. "We should probably say in advance we can give advice on like how to deal with that without really getting into the direct gossip, yeah? What with us technically being teachers and all."

"I think that was obvious," Mars said.

"I just wanna reiterate, gotta be careful about this crap!" Kara said. "It's not like a murder case where we can just say whatever."

"Probably not the best way to describe our work," Mars said.

"Shut it," Kara said. "I guess if you know Kalei's lying already that kinda cuts half of what I wanted to say down."

"I was gonna give my spiel about tells in card games," Mars said. "If we get bored of this, we can put on Deluxe Card Explosion and play some poker or something."

"Well, we're not sure if it's a lie, necessarily," I said. "We can just tell something's different, and she's hiding it."

"Hm," Kara said. "And you've tried talking to her about it?"

"We have," I said. "Maybe we weren't as direct as we should have been, but I've asked point blank if something's wrong, and she's changed the subject."

My most recent attempt was a moment the two of us were alone at the cafeteria. Kalei seemed a bit tired, a bit more guarded, too, hunching her body in a bit, almost like she was trying to hide. Very different from her usual confident body language.

"Are you alright?" I asked, hoping my tone was clear. I thought about adding, "And you're sure nothing's wrong?" But I'd said that to her or statements of similar wording enough.

"Yeah, all good," Kalei said, a bit of a sigh to her voice. "You know what's not good though, that in-progress trailer for that Void Rangers game. They shouldn't have tried to get hype off of Tyrant Rangers' back, just because 'Rangers' is in the name doesn't mean they're the same thing, you know?"

The Void Rangers game did look terrible, and joking about that trailer did throw me off the trail for a bit, but by the time I realized that, others had arrived and I missed my window.

"Normally I'd say to let it play out and let her tell you on her own time, then," Kara said. "It might be something embarrassing that she doesn't want to talk about, and prying will probably make it worse then. But I'm gonna put a pin in actually saying that until Tik's back if it has something to do with Amara's business."

"Maybe it's a big conspiracy," Zeta said, her character in-game driving into a wall over and over. "And Kalei found out about it, and Aira and Syval too. But they can't tell us because of secret spy agent stuff."

"Oh, remember that Zak guy?" Oka said, eyes lighting up. While she said that she threw a bomb at my character, sending me crashing while I was distracted.

"Zak Cavalier?" Kara said.

"Yeah!" Oka said. "Kalei like. Knows him."

"He's a good dude," Mars said. "Dunno how he does like twelve jobs at once. Think he's over in Jiru right now, though."

"What, really?" Oka said. "You know that off the top of your head?"

"We're friends on Friendliest," Mars said. "He posted that he hasn't had a vacation in sixteen years. That's another good lesson, make sure to take vacations."

"Well, that theory's probably out then," Zeta said. "But there's definitely something going on with her, Aira, and Syval. Oh, and Marmalade, too."

"Do you think it's potentially related to the imps?" I asked. I'd encountered two so far, the book-obsessed Reed and some apparition of Thadley (or potentially the real thing). Both times someone was connected to it, a student or faculty member that had made a pact. That cloaked girl told us there were three more in our orbit. "You were told about the imp situation at the mall, correct?"

"Who, us?" Zeta asked.

"You told us about that, yeah," Oka said.

"Not you two," I said.

"Sure did," Mars said.

"One of the things we're looking into at the moment," Kara said.

"Do you have any updates?" I asked.

"Confidential, sorry," Mars said.

"That means we haven't found anything yet and want to cover our asses," Kara said. "Talking to Penteldtam and that creepy Falling Shards kid didn't really tell us much."

"But we are gonna try and catch the next imp and person who made pact duo before they bring anyone into the void," Mars said.

"OK, my next theory," Zeta said. "Surprise birthday party. My birthday's coming up, so..."

"You think Gerald of all people would want to help with your birthday party?" Oka said.

"You mean Syval?" Zeta said.

"Yeah, whatever," Oka said. "And no way would I let someone plan a surprise birthday party for you without me!"

"True, true," Zeta said.

We played a few more races (Mars was a formidable player but I managed to come in first about half the games), then realized how much time we'd spent playing.

"We have the shopping spree soon, so we must depart," I said. "Thank you both, though."

"We didn't do much, but you're welcome," Kara said.

"Having a respected outside party to bounce ideas off of and vent is a valuable resource," I said.

"You sound like Tik," Mars said. "I'd consider a career in...well, I guess we're art teachers right now, but you have some detective potential in you."

I blushed at the compliment. I hadn't considered it as a career, but it was a nice thought.

"I don't think I got past second to last place in any of those races," Zeta said as we regrouped outside of the River & Lyric trio's office.

"That aside, we still have a bit of time," I said.

"Got one more stop before we shop?" Oka said. "Heh, good rhyme, yeah?"

"Very commercial sounding!" Zeta said.

"Indeed," I said. "But before we go to that, I'd like to speak with someone. Tik never said we couldn't contact Amara, and I think she could help us solve all of this."

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