Elkay stood by the window, looking over the city of Thre-Vretania. The weather had been weird lately, blowing dust across the city’s streets, with heavy cloud ruining the strength of their solar panels. Elkay’s office was just as dusty as the streets below, with the high winds lifting it easily above the ground.
Part of Elkay’s mind was slightly worried. Someone could try and assassinate him here. He was in obvious view of the nearby buildings. But luckily, Elkay’s own legion of Rethan soldiers was there to protect him.
Speaking of which, one of them knocked on the door. One of his new, younger bodyguards, going by the name Ontros.
“High General, ser?”
“What is it?” Elkay had been enjoying the peace and quiet. It was rare that he’d get the time to just look outside for a bit.
“Feyar of the Arbiters is here to see you.”
“Send him in.”
Ontros nodded and disappeared. In his place stood Feyar, wearing a basic set of Ksa armour. On his left arm was a heavy shoulder plate with a bronze, four-pointed star attached to it, one of the lesser-known symbols of the R-Class Ksa. Under his arm was a large, bursting folder, full of files.
Elkay had admittedly almost forgotten about this meeting. Feyar had urgently called earlier that morning, requesting to speak to the High General personally.
“Good afternoon, Feyar. How are you?”
Feyar bowed slightly. “God afternoon, High General Elkay. I am not well. There is much to discuss.”
As Elkay sat down behind his desk, Feyar swiftly placed the folder in front of him, opening it up to a sheet of paper marked ‘summary’.
“Please. Read this.”
Elkay skimmed the summary. But he didn’t even manage to finish the first paragraph. It was clearly about the former High General, but something was off. He looked up at Feyar, a confused, almost scared look on his face.
“Is this correct? You believe that Photeianos is responsible for four hundred and fifty murders?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
Feyar sighed. “Four hundred and fifty confirmed murders. The real number may be much higher. The numbers dropped significantly while you were Vice General, as Photeianos’s popularity faded. The majority of these deaths were Ksa, so the records would have been deleted and the majority would not have cared about them.”
Elkay said nothing and continued reading. He felt betrayed, and every sentence made him angrier and angrier. All this time and he had been completely unaware of any of this. Elkay wanted to lash out in anger, but he knew better.
“Ser?” Feyar asked as Elkay put the paper down.
“Why have you not arrested Photeianos already?” the High General growled. “Why are you even here?”
Feyar stepped back. He almost felt intimidated. “We need your permission to arrest him, ser. Plus, I thought… I don’t know, maybe you would… not want us to. Plus, a lot of these crimes were committed outside of Limitation Laws. We might not be able to get him on trial…”
“I want him arrested!” Elkay interrupted. He was both furious and horrified. “I… I could have been the four hundred and fifty first…”
“There were a lot of attempts. Not just on your own life but on the lives of previous Vice Generals…”
“But… why has this taken so long to…”
Feyar sighed. “I wish I could have finished this a long time ago. But Photeianos essentially barred us from working on anything related to him. A lot of this, I had to compile in secret. Everything has been done by the books. We had to, lest we risk our own lives…”
“Well…” Elkay hesitated. “You have done a good job. You have my permission to do whatever it takes to bring justice to this case.”
“Thank you, ser.” With a bow, Feyar turned to leave. But to his surprise, Elkay stood up and bowed as well.
“No, thank you. Thank you for your hard work.”
“I thought you would be angry at me,” Feyar admitted.
“No,” Elkay sighed. “I am angry at myself, for being blind to it all. If only I had known sooner…”
“It is no one’s fault but his,” Feyar explained. “You were not to know. You are not to blame. Part of the decline in his crimes is directly because of your tightening of laws. I repeat, neither of us are to blame here.” With a tut and a small smile, Feyar started leaving. “Now, I must excuse myself. I have work to do.”