Justice is Blind [Veritas]

Rest days - even rest-mornings - seemed all too infrequent, these days.

Even if Jerrith was getting a bit better about taking his daily chores gracefully than he had been immediately after being plucked from the Hall, it was still a lot of work. And there always seemed to be more of it, even on days when he was supposed to have some time to himself.

Trying to squeeze in time to study or practise on top of that had left him with precious little free time, and he'd needed to make do with a cursory wash here and there - or a quick plunge in the lake on his way back to the barracks, some days. Having a morning where he could just sit in the near-empty baths and soak... that was a delight to treasure.

And then, of course, something went and ruined it.

It was a refrain he was woefully tired of hearing, and every time he thought he'd put it to rest, Magpie got him in even more trouble. At least this time it was just a somewhat-repellant Candidate accosting him, not a sharding angry dragon.

"All right, all right," he groaned. Couldn't he have had five sharding minutes before needing to deal with this mess? But knowing that there was a problem, he wasn't going to delay in fixing it; that wouldn't be right, not when he was the one at fault, however indirectly. "There's no need for threats. Everything else he's swiped, I've returned as soon as I was aware of it. Just... give me a moment to get dressed again."

He rose far enough out of the water to reach for his towel and apply it to his hair. Not to the point of being truly dry, but enough that he wouldn't be leaving puddles in his wake, at least. As he continued from there, he went on, "He always brings things back to his nest in my room, so finding it shouldn't be hard. What is it he's taken?"

After a few more cursory rubs with the towel, he stepped out of the basin and reached for his trousers. Some part of him was aware that he ought to have issued an apology, but honestly, it wasn't as though Jerrith had ever been unwilling to clean up his own messes, or Magpie's. There was simply no call to be that abrasive toward him when all the grabby little flit was guilty of was coveting something pretty.

If what Magpie had snatched proved to be especially valuable - or worse, fragile and damaged - then he could apologize. But if the man wasn't going to show the slightest bit of civility toward Jerrith, well, Jerrith wasn't very much inclined to be more than minimally civil in turn.

"A jacket?" Jerrith blinked, and frowned thoughtfully, as he settled his tunic. Not bothering to pack his things neatly, he just wrapped up what was left in his towel and brought it along, still dripping a little. He remembered the man's jacket, of course - how could he not? He'd have to be nearly blind to have missed it, and even if he remembered sounds and words better than sights, he did have a memory for detail. And that was one detail that stood out most obviously about Qosis.

It was strange, though. Not only did the jacket probably weigh more than Magpie did, it wasn't the sort of "colourful" that the flit normally went for. Shiny things, things of many colours - those were what piqued Magpie's curiosity. "Maybe not impossible," Jerrith granted, "but it's certainly outside of his usual style... wait a moment." He frowned into the strangely well-lit room. "I was sure I left the glow shut..."

The creature under discussion was, in fact, just making a reappearance with his latest acquisition, a round-ish shell that shimmered with all sorts of colours, still wet from where he'd plucked it out of the lake. Picking up some sense of His's thoughts - that His was coming to take back one of his treasures again - he squawked in displeasure. It wasn't fair! He'd been hunting for his treasures around the lake, just like His had been telling him! This was his treasure, and His wasn't taking it! Not yet! He'd find a place where he could enjoy it for a few moments more! With one last scolding thought, he vanished between.

Jerrith blinked at this display. "Whatever he was carrying just now," he said, "he's sure he got it from the lake, and it was much too small to be your jacket." Still, maybe he'd got that jacket earlier... though such a thing should have been visible in Magpie's little nest from across the room, nevertheless Jerrith went right over to it. Shells, rocks... nothing looked like metal, even when Jerrith sifted through the folds of the blanket, even when he picked it up and gave it a few shakes. Just rocks and shells.

Wordlessly, Jerrith shook his head. So far as he could tell, Magpie had not, in fact, taken anything he shouldn't have - Qosis's jacket or otherwise.

Which meant his lovely bath had been interrupted for nothing.

Great.

Come with me? Just who did this... trader think he was?

Jerrith bit back a retort, counting ten measured beats under his breath. It was a wonder that they hadn't disturbed Niton so far; he didn't want to be the one who finally did so. As he followed the man outside, he made a point of lingering to shut the glow basket.

Once outside and with the door shut, though, he didn't take another step; he leaned back against the door, arms crossed. "Not. So. Fast," he growled through gritted teeth. "Perhaps you didn't hear me the first time, Candidate." Five turns his senior or no, Qosis did not have rank on him to be ordering him about. "Everything that Magpie has taken - every bauble, every trinket, every shiny whatever - has been in that nest. Your jacket wasn't there. I don't think he did take it in the first place, and it'll take more than its mere absence to convince me he did. Perhaps you should retrace your steps before you lay any more unfounded accusations."

In the meantime, he owed Magpie an apology. He reached out for the flitter's presence in his mind, sending soothing thoughts, thoughts of praise. Magpie was a good flitter, to look for treasures by the lake. His treasure was his treasure, and he could keep it with the others. Could he put his treasure with the others and come?

The black fairly promptly popped back into view, blasting him with a (well-deserved, he had to admit) fierce scolding. But within a few breaths he fluttered down to land on Jerrith's outstretched arm. Pointedly ignoring Qosis for the moment, Jerrith murmured reassurances to the upset black, stroking his chin.

Though... the thought occurred to him that if the man could keep a civil tongue in his head, the fire-lizard could cover a great deal of ground, and search much more effectively than the pair of humans put together.

Inwardly, Jerrith fumed, though he did the best he could to keep that from getting to Magpie. He'd never been inclined to violence, and had always been rather puzzled at people whose first reaction to an insult was an urge to strike the one who'd given it.

Until now. Suddenly he was finding himself faced with a very real urge to give the smug trader a good taste of boot leather. Or to recover his precious jacket and feet it to him whole. Or possibly shove it somewhere else if that proved to be too much work.

Thinking of the very sternest of his instructors, and doing his best to match the steel in that voice, he growled, "Don't even dare to make a comparison between a crisis - assassins in the Weyr, riders and dragons dead - and the disappearance of your precious jacket. You insult everyone who died that day, and everyone who knew them."

And the man had the gall to lecture Jerrith on how he treated and trained his own flit...

Deep breath. Anger didn't get anything done. The sooner the man had his sharding jacket, the sooner this mess could end. Jerrith just hoped there'd still be something of his half-day of rest left over - and that someone wouldn't see two idle Candidates and press them into duty.

"He hasn't been out of the egg a month," Jerrith answered, coaxing Magpie up onto his shoulder, the black digging his claws into the padding as the harper set off at a jog; he might be shorter of leg than Qosis, but he knew how to move at an easy lope. "Yours is the only complaint I've had in almost half that time, and I'm less convinced with every word out of your mouth that there's any substance to it. So much for 'not bright enough to train.' As for your lessons, you can keep them to yourself - at least until you demonstrate you know such common courtesy as to apologize when you unfairly accuse someone."

He saved his breath for a few moments, turning his attention to Magpie. He pictured the trader-Candidate's jacket, wondering where had Magpie seen it last? Wings half-spread for balance, Magpie peered quizzically at him, then craned his neck to look back at Qosis and utter a puzzled chirp, sending back an image of Qosis wearing the very jacket in question.

The beasts might not have very good long-term memory, but if he remembered that sight clearly, and no other, it didn't seem at all likely he'd run across it somewhere else - in his own possession or not. Find it, Jerrith tried to communicate - images of the flit flying about, maybe coming across the jacket lying somewhere. Leave it where it is, come back and tell me. It took a few tries - by which time the pair had almost reached the common room - but then Magpie chirped in understanding, took off, and vanished between.

Presently, he sent back imagery of... the Weyr lake. Well, that made sense, that was where Jerrith usually sent him. It was also a wide-open place where his wings and eyes would be to best advantage.

"He'll look around outside," Jerrith reported. "Out there, he can search faster than both of us together, anyway. And yes," he added before the man could utter any kind of remonstration or command, "he knows not to even try to take it. Just to seek, find, and report."

Klah would be at the dining hall, sure. And so would many, many members of the kitchen staff, all of whom knew he was a candidate, any of whom might notice his lack of obvious chores and "forget" that he had a rest shift this morning. Oh, they might be contrite once he had a chance to prove that it was so, but by then, his morning would be gone and he'd be lucky to be released in time for his assigned chores in the afternoon.

All for the sake of this... this preening cock-wherry.

At that last remark, though, Jerrith stopped in his tracks.

Just how much of an ignorant sap did the man think he was?

No... no. Be the bigger man, he told himself.

"Trader, it's no secret that I don't like you. You took charge in a crisis, and for the sake of that, and having been brought up to some notion of decency, I'm not just telling you to find your..." He deleted a few choice curses, and with only a short beat, went on, "...jacket on your own. But."

There was no point in trying to draw himself up - at his full height the older Candidate still towered over him - but he let his gaze make plain that he wasn't going to be intimidated, either. "If you honestly think you can slip that plain a lie past me, by Faranth I hope someone finds the thing and feeds it to you. It's a waste of my time and yours not to go to the last place you may have had it."

A breath. "If you've done something not strictly within the rules and are worried I'll run to the Master about it, you needn't be. I won't lie for you if I'm directly asked about it, and take me between for a fool for even risking my neck this much for you... but I have better things to aim for in life than that kind of petty vengeance. So long as I'm not questioned outright by someone with business to know, I'll keep your secret if it means even possibly bringing this foolishness to an end a little sooner."

It took some effort for Jerrith to not roll his eyes. By Faranth's golden hide, who did this man think he was? Jerrith didn't need his approval. Or his advice on dealing with emotions. Or his advice on dealing with fire-lizards, for that matter.

But he'd started this. So long as Qosis didn't do something truly obnoxious, he might as well see it through.

Magpie fluttered over at the sight of them crossing the Bowl, chittering a query, but all it took qas a quick thought of Keep looking and an image of the flit circling the Bowl some more for the little black to get the notion and zip off again, leaving them to it.

Then indoors again. Branch after branch, passage after side passage - Jerrith filed away the order of their turnings. He might not be able to find this place again in a few candlemarks, but at least he ought to be able to keep from getting himself lost.

Then a door. A locked door.

"Three ways deal with a lock," he said, half thinking aloud. "No, four. Can't just get around it, though..." It was a pity that he couldn't just tell Magpie to go between to the other side of this door. Not without a visualisation... and even if he could see anything of use through the keyhole, the flit probably wouldn't be able to do much, not even get the door open. "So... a key, or a pick? Or a ram," he added, though he did so dismissively. If Qosis wanted to break the door down, Jerrith would not have any part of it, but he didn't think the man was that much of a dimglow.

Wait. Maybe Magpie could be useful.

"My harp uses gut strings, not wire... but if," he put some mild stress on the if, "a key is out of the question, I do have some stiff wire to brush out pipes." And it was tucked into a little kit which was... sitting on the dresser. Distinctive enough to envision, small enough for Magpie to carry - at least briefly.

Not that Jerrith knew much about picking locks, but he had seen it done a few times, and a piece of stiff wire was one thing he did remember.

Best not to bother if Qosis just had in mind getting someone to unlock the door, though.

It was as well that Jerrith couldn't eavesdrop on Qosis's thoughts; he still had a good deal of lingering irritation, but it wasn't enough to prompt him to turn on his heel and leave the trader to his tasks.

Almost.

Maybe he shouldn't be helping the man get past a locked door, but whatever; in for an eighth, in for a fiver, as one or another of his classmates had said. "Give me a few moments," he said, reaching out to the still-searching flit. "He has to get the thing, first." And in his fastidiousness, he'd shut the glowbasket in his room, so it would be dark. It figured, really.

After a few moments of praise for Magpie's search efforts, it wasn't very hard to convince the flitter that Jerrith needed one of his own treasures, and to indicate where in their home that treasure would be. But even if flitters were less night-blind than humans were, Magpie wasn't a wher, and he had to feel around on the dresser and report what he'd found. The first thing was soft - a hat or somesuch - but the second... that felt about right.

Which meant it was time to show Magpie where to bring the thing.

Jerrith scrutinized the space around him, constructing a mental picture of what it would look like from a vantage point in the middle of the hall, between the two Candidates. Qosis would loom a little larger in that view, of course... and...

Success; the black appeared in a flutter of wings, clutching a thin rectangular box in his forepaws. Small and light though it was, it was a heavy burden for the little lizard, and Jerrith scrambled to catch it even as Magpie tried to get his bearings, giving His a bright chirp of greeting.

"There's a fish in your future, little fellow," Jerrith said happily, his irritation with the other Candidate forgotten, at least momentarily. He opened the case as he spoke, fingers stirring the contents, nudging aside a few neatly-folded cloths. "Ah, here we are." Two things he selected and lifted up for appraisal. One was the slimmer wire he used to brush out holes and stops, thin enough to bend if one wanted it to, flexible enough to hold a shape under at least some pressure, light and springy. The other, which he used for brushing out the entire length of a flute or similar, was stiffer, almost like a wand; carefully, he wiggled the brush-tip free from the latter, leaving just the length of metal and its wooden grip.

"Might not be ideal," he admitted, not knowing anything substantial about breaking locks, "but they didn't take a run across the Weyr to get, either."

He wondered why, if Qosis had been unsurprised to find the door locked, the other Candidate hadn't anticipated the need before they came to this section of the Weyr... but he kept that wondering silent, instead directing his attention to the flitter now perching on his shoulder. He stroked Magpie's neck, mentally showering him with praise - not just because he deserved it, but, admittedly, to help keep him from making all-too-audible queries about his performance. A curious flitter might not be as noisy as battering down a door, but it could still attract unwanted attention.

With Qosis getting the best of the glow-light,Jerrith didn't count his chances too high of seeing enough of what the man was doing to be able to do it himself. That was fine; not that he was above learning potentially-useful skills, but this one he didn't see himself needing often enough to really pursue. Bad enough that he was accomplice to thisfool's errand.

If he hadn't been holding the glow, he'd have tucked the tools back away neatly when they were returned to him; as it was, he just slipped them into the box and shut it, to tidy up later, and was still tucking the box into a pocket as he followed with the glow.

Seeing the manner of space into which they'd intruded, he frowned, but held his tongue. At least the place didn't actually look particularly lived-in. Except for that bed. Which made him wonder about just what Qosis had been doing here, but firstly, what woman at the Weyr would find his manner appealing, and second, it wasn't Jerrith's place to think about it.

He did raise an eyebrow when Qosis directed him across the room, but murmured a quick acknowledgement and went to comply. If the man wanted him to take the none-too-bright glow farther away... well, at least the jacket was bright; even a glimmer of glow-light would gleam on that hide if either found it.

The rope... no. He firmly resolved not to even ask; he probably didn't want to know. He just opened the closet and started searching through it - neatly, but as quickly and efficiently as that allowed, all while trying to keep the glow off to his side so it gave the older Candidate some benefit.

Qosis wasn't the only one to hear the footsteps; even as he stepped back into the open, first guessing and then seeing that the man had found what he was looking for(not that Jerrith was expecting an apology to be forthcoming despite it now being obvious that Magpie had not, in fact, stolen the sharding thing...), he too noticed those sounds.

One click glance told him that the floor between him and the door was clear. Without so much as a warning, he flipped the glow-basket shut, plunging the room into pitch darkness.

The last thing he needed right now was Magpie making a curious noise, so the next task on the agenda was to send the flitter home to wait for him. Only then did he creep forward, as fast as he dared in the darkness, fingers outstretched before him.

If the owner of those footsteps was coming to this room, they'd be in trouble no matter what they did. But if the steps were bound to pass onward... if he could just get to the door and at least get it mostly shut before the passerby brought their own light close to it...

Step, step, step... he couldn't be that far from the door, could he? His fingers brushed wood, but not at the right profile for it to be a door. A dresser, or a chair arm, or some such thing. He detoured around it and continued forward, the hammering of his heart so intense that it seemed it might rouse the whole Weyr.

His fingers brushed the empty doorframe between the bedroom and the sitting room. Halfway there, only. Shard it, this wasn't going to work; he couldn't get to the door in time without running. If the person there was going to notice the door, they would do so.

Shard it. He should have stayed in the closet. All he could do now was get the wall between him and the door to the corridor, and hope that whoever was passing by would just shut the open door and move on. Or maybe just move on. If they just went to get someone else before investigating, the Candidates could be long gone by the time that someone arrived...

Jerrith's heard had leapt into his throat when the woman first confronted them, and then he couldn't help but be mildly impressed at Qosis's dissembling. So it was that he was slow enough on the uptake to need that initial shove, though by the time the bigger Candidate had got him more than a few steps he'd got the picture: time to go, and fast.

He might get in trouble for this - the woman had obviously known who Qosis was, and Jerrith was well aware that his own long hair was quite recognizable. But what, really, would he be in trouble for? Breaking into a room, yes... to reclaim his fellow-Candidate's property.

He'd managed to escape much in the way of official attention over Magpie's post-hatching antics, so if this was the first thing he came to the Candidatemaster's attention about, well, it could probably be worse.

For now, he was glad he'd taken the time to note the turnings. Though he wasn't sure of exactly how the corridors twisted between intersections, he could walk along at a fair clip, one hand trailing along the wall, the other keeping in contact with Qosis; with only one glow between them, getting separated was not a good idea. After the first turning, he moved to the other side of the hall, the better to not miss that one; his sense of direction wasn't particularly excellent, but it'd do to cross a dark hallway.

And then there was light ahead, enough light to see where their next turning was.

There Jerrith paused, wiping some sweat from his brow. Charging into the light, after that length of time in the gloom, didn't seem like a very good plan; they could return to daylight a bit more gradually. Besides, if Qosis wanted to hurry on, it wasn't as though he needed Jerrith anymore.

All the harper said was, "I told you he didn't take it." No need to say who, or what. But in spite of himself and his earlier annoyance, his voice was more amused than angry.