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Alek’s mouth curves with a smile that’s a little sly. “I was able to piece together a pretty good idea. These are the seven members who appear to have always gone along on the excursions he was a part of. There are a couple of others who bounced back and forth between groups, but I’m guessing they’re not quite as involved.”
I expect a series of names with a few notes jotted for each. Instead, the first page he shows me has a sketch at the top. Simple, sparing in detail, but keenly drawn enough that I’m sure I’ve seen that man in the dining hall a few times.
Alek’s smile turns sheepish. “I thought it’d help if you had a visual so you can recognize them on sight. As much as my limited skill can allow that.”
My gaze jerks back to him. “You drew this? It’s very good.”
He chuckles awkwardly. “I mean, no one’s going to frame it.”
“No, but it does what it’s meant to do. You captured the shape of his features accurately.” I risk extending a teasing bump of my elbow. “You didn’t tell me you were an artist.”
Alek holds up his hands. “I’m really not. I just—I do try to get down the information I want to convey as clearly as possible. And sometimes a quick sketch can accomplish that better than any number of words could. I’ve mostly created diagrams and the like.”
Whatever amount of experience he has, he obviously has an eye for lines and shading. The scholar has a lot of surprises up his sleeve.
“Well, itisgood, and much appreciated,” I insist.
Alek walks me through each of our main suspects—names, areas of study, godlen they dedicated to, gift if he was able to determine one, classes, clubs, and known habits. Not all of the faces in his sketches are familiar, but there’s a guy who’s been in some of Stavros’s classes, a woman I think I noticed when I went on a hunt with some leadership division students, and two others I have a vague sense that I’ve seen but can’t place.
I commit the images and facts to my memory as quickly as I can. Carrying Alek’s carefully constructed profiles around with me is too risky.
It’s amazing that he managed to compile all this information so quickly.
After going over the last of them, I brush my hands together. “All right. I’m prepared to put on a show of being morally degenerate. It shouldn’t be too hard—Stavros thought I was right from the start.”
Alek brings his hand to his mouth to cover a snort. As he eases the pages back into a canvas wrapper, his expression turns more serious. “I’m glad I could contribute something useful. We know how far these brutes are willing to go… I wish you didn’t have to take on all the risk of getting their attention. If it would work for me to put myself out there—”
A different sort of ache passes through my chest. He really means what he’s saying, even now.
He doesn’t know even half the risk I’m planning to take on yet.
I touch his shoulder to stop him, doing my best to tamp down on the tingle of warmth at our closeness. “It wouldn’t work. It makes much more sense for me to shoulder this challenge than it would for any of the rest of you—and I’m okay with that.”
And you’ll hardly be alone in it,Julita puts in.
I glance back at the profiles. “What about the former bug club members who’ll have graduated? We know Torstem’s been roping in orphans for a while.”
Alek’s gaze goes distant with thought. “I did check the older membership records. The trouble is, it’s impossible to know which graduates were just bug enthusiasts. I’m following some threads to check for suspicious behavior after they left the college. The graduates I’ve looked at from particularly prominent families are still under one or both parents’ shadows, though, so they’re not in a position to enact new policies or anything like that yet.”
I give a rough laugh. “That’s a little good news. Of course, even if Ster. Torstem only started funding the orphanage fifteen years ago, I guess we don’t know whether he already had allies then or if that was the start of the conspiracy.”
“I think we can reasonably hope it doesn’t go much farther back than that. They would have needed sacrificial accomplices to practice any kind of scourge sorcery.” The scholar snaps his fingers. “But that reminds me! I also thought I should look into Torstem’s gift, so you can be prepared if he tried to use it on you.”
I should have thought of that myself. “Is it in the school records?”
Alek grins. “No, but he conducted trials before he came on as a law professor. The courts require all staff to disclose their gifts, and I was able to get access to those files. He’s dedicated to Creaden, unsurprisingly, and his gift on record is the ability to quell anger. Possibly other agitated emotions as well, given the flexibility most gifts have.”
The ability to quell agitated emotions. My jaw clenches. “How very convenient for persuading kids to be at peace with the idea of carving themselves up for his use.”
Alek’s smile falters. “Yes, I think it’s likely he applied his gift for that purpose.”
“All the more reason we need to bring that asshole down before he ropes in any more orphans.”
“I’ll keep digging up all the information I can. And like I said, if there’s anything specific you’d want me to look into, don’t hesitate to tell me.”
The offer stirs up the uncomfortable questions that’ve lingered in my head since the night in the tower.
I pause and then prod myself to speak. “I have actually been wondering—and if anyone would have come across information on this, I’d wager it’d be you… Have you read any accounts of the gods outright talking to people before? It wasn’t something I thought generally happened.”
