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Trinity
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I wanted to be part of the interrogations this time, both inside and outside of the city. I needed to know what everyone knew without the filter of someone else's explanation. No matter how thorough the person relaying the information was to me, there would always be something that was lost in translation. There would be a subtle way that they moved that could tell me whether they were lying to me. Maybe, they were incapable of maintaining eye contact. There was always going to be something that was missed when someone relayed information. And this was too important for me to lose that information.
So, I joined the guards as they conducted the interviews. I was pretty sure that they thought that I was just going to be observing while they talked to everyone. I had really surprised them all when I started asking questions myself. Again, there were things that I wanted to know that these people didn't seem capable of finding out for me..
The interviews went well though. I got to find out a lot about the Fae and the city, but I didn't learn anything about the case. That was enough to piss me off. Why was it that no one knew what was going on.
All in all though, there were only six Fae from inside the city who were not present at the light show, and more than half of them were people who were busy inside the chambers for the Queen, Athair mòr, and myself.
After we eliminated those four people, that only left Hibiscus and a woman named Babby. And Babby was a brownie that usually worked in the castle. She was off that day and had decided to sleep most of the day and night. She hadn't even known what was happening until she was called to the meeting in the morning. So, in my opinion, the only suspect that was inside the city limits was Hibiscus. She was the only person that made sense in my mind.
Still, I needed to explore the rest of Fae and talk to all of those people. I couldn't pin this on Hibiscus until I knew for sure. Plus, there was that man that she said she saw. Aunt Glory and Athair mòr both knew who he was, yet I hadn't heard anything about him yet.
"You will find out about him when you meet him." Athair mòr said every time that I asked him. "I do not wish to cloud your judgement about him." At least he was taking that part seriously. All I knew about this mysterious person was his name, Alloy. I guess that made sense with his metallic appearance.
Well, there was one other thing that I knew, this was what I had learned from Aunt Glory. Alloy lived on the very edge of Faerie with his friend, Sterling. Apparently, they were two of the only Fae in existence that had magic that was specifically geared toward metal. Sterling was apparently only good with silver, but Alloy was skilled with all metals and could mix them to make whatever it was that he needed.
There was also the fact that the sword pinning Frida to the wall when she was killed had been a specially made sword that only Alloy and Sterling knew how to create. The fact that the killer used that meant that she, or he, knew Alloy and Sterling.
I knew that I needed to meet these men, the supposed makers of that sword. They needed to tell me whether or not they had given it away to someone else or if they were involved in the murder.
Another thing that I had been able to figure out for myself, if Aunt Glory and Athair mòr knew Hibiscus since they were little, and Athair mòr apparently knew Alloy since he was little, then it stands to reason that she would know Alloy as well.
So, why is it that she was pretending to not know who he was? If she truly was brainwashed, she should still remember him, shouldn't she? Or did it mess with her head that much?
I was just running in circles with all these questions in my head. I needed to get out there and talk to more people. I needed to explore the rest of Fae, find out who was where, and find this killer.
When I did start exploring the area I found out something interesting. Apparently, the gate that we came through to get into the Fae city was not the front of the area. It was the middle. Yes, that sounds odd, but let me explain how the land of Fae works here.
The Fae city was in the middle of the realm. There was a magical gate that would take you to the city from the human world, but that was if you had the intent, and permission, to enter the realm. That's why the humans couldn't come in here.
If you were leaving the compound, then you left the same way down the same roads. However, if you weren't leaving the lands of Fae, you would see what was beyond that magical gate. And what was there was a beautiful setting with rolling green hills, mountains, forests, lakes, and rivers, it was an entirely different place and it looked a lot like the place that Danu had taken us, except that it wasn't on the cliff at the coast. I was sure that, if I searched, I would find that place here.
The entire realm of Fae, all the land that it encompasses, was quite large. There was only one city, where the Queen lived, but there were several small towns and villages that were set up for the others. And then there were the people that didn't live in a village at all, they just had houses on the outskirts of the realm.
Reece and I were travelling the realm and talking to everyone individually. Many of them had come to the city for the light show and parts of the festival so they knew what was going on, but they didn't know the full scope of it. There were many people who broke down, crying with fear over what was going on.
Sometimes, I truly ended up hating the fact that I was interviewing everyone, but it had to be done. And those times that I hated what needed to be done, I apologized to them for disturbing them. Still, I was not getting any closer to solving this crime.
