Enter Jasin's Sister An

The beginning of everything falling apart

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Note: An is Jasin’s older sister. She lives in Haranbeth, about four hours drive away. She usually makes it in three, sometimes two. Not that that’s important.

Petron is an old friend of everyone, and teaches art, as well as being an excellent artist. He really is only of importance to the plot to get things rolling.

An

It'd been over two months since I'd been out to see Jasin and Belinda and the girls. I kept saying I needed to get out there, but Jasin kept assuring me that they were fine, missed me, but understood why I wasn't coming out there as much anymore.

The phone rang, and I smiled as I answered it. Petron Simon. I hadn't heard from him in ages. He and his wife were teaching classes and making art, at the Kirion Library, way up in Lichtenlind, just below the Kirion Mountains.

After a rushed exchange of greetings, he immediately broke in with, "An, I'm afraid to call him. What with her being my recommendation, and us not getting along that well at the best of times. I thought, what with you being great friends and all, and I know how much he respects you, maybe you could break it to him."

"Wait a moment," I said. "Break what to whom about what?" I know, get Petron away from a canvas, without even a pencil in his hand for sketching, and he starts losing his train of thought. But he was usually more coherent than this.

"Tolly. I'm the one who recommended her to him, after she did such a good job on the Library's collection. Or we thought she did."

That still sounded like gobbledygook, but did ring a sort of bell. "Her? Her who?" Had Jasin been talking to me lately about some 'her' they were worried about? "That art cataloger? Glamora, something like that."

"It's Glorina. Glorina Hoi."

"But that was months ago . . ."

"Yes, she should be finishing up sometime soon."

"That long?"

"You know that Tolly has an impressive collection." Petron sounded more amused now, not panicked. Good.

"And what about her?"

"We just got the preliminary report back from the Formal Inquiry on her this morning. And it's bad, An. Really bad."

"Bad?" His words triggered a memory. "But didn't that investigation end weeks ago? And showed naught? I mean, nothing?"

"Good, you've talked to Tolly since then."

"Well, yes, but I haven't been down there at all recently."

"This is a separate Inquiry. After Tolly's men came around and asked all those questions, it started some of us thinking, remembering little things that hadn't meant much at the time, and we got together to fund our own."

"I can't believe that you would come up with something that Tolly missed."

"He had them focusing entirely on where she went between projects. And she apparently went nowhere, and did nothing. Which is odd enough on its own. But we uncovered art theft, good art theft, that we had to really dig to discover. Also lies, seduction, a whole lot of other things that she did without us noticing."

"And you want me to tell Tolly about this?"

"Well, he trusts you."

"No. I'll go down there and help with the aftermath, if needed. I've been putting off going for too long. But don't expect me to do your dirty work."

He sighed. "But An, we've been friends for most of our lives. Can't you at least call him to give him a hint?"

"No. You're on your own, bud."

"Fine, then. Maybe I'll try calling Jasin."

"Go ahead. But he'll tell you the same thing. At least he's closer, and can deal with any explosion sooner."

"And you'll be there a few hours later?"

"If I can get away. Sometime this weekend, definitely."

"That will have to do."

"Petron," I said hesitantly, "You said seduction. Did you . . ?"

"No," he said, determinedly. "She and I were never alone. Though it wasn't until the report came back that I realized why Shalani had been sticking so closely to me while she was here."

I was glad for that, at least. But had Petron always been this petulant? Maybe there was a reason we had barely spoken in years.

I shook my head. Tolly could be scary at the best of times. But delivering bad news, when you didn't get along with him in the first place. . . Ah, it was a few hundred miles between Lichtenlind and Tolichton. That should be enough to keep him safe.

Especially since Tolly couldn't travel.

---

In spite of my words to Petron, I was able to head out that afternoon, after a brief meeting with my bosses. They were pretty lenient about me taking time off, especially to see my brother and his family. Tolly was one of the major sponsors of our foundation, and they tried to keep him happy.

I arrived, parked in my usual spot in the alley, and went in. Belinda had left me an envelope by the back door with my keycard. A warning that the cataloger was in the guest room next to mine, and to try not to disturb her, but in the two months she'd been there, she'd been pretty quiet, and I'd probably hardly be aware she was there. From which I gathered that Belinda, at least, hadn't heard the news—or rumors— about Ms. Hoi.

After I dropped my bag in my room, I went and searched out my brother Jasin.

"An, you made good time!" Jasin said when he saw me. "Belinda will be glad to see you, but we're swamped right now."

"Glad to see you, too, Jasin," I said, clasping his hand.

"Did you hear from Petron?" he asked. "He'd said something about maybe calling you. We'll have to talk later, maybe in an hour or so."

"Yes, and I'm in no hurry," I said, and watched him rush off and greet and seat more people. I shook my head fondly. I never would have thought that my younger brother would be happy running a restaurant. As well as running an accountant's office. Well, actually, Belinda ran the restaurant, though Tolly still thought he did, with Jasin just helping in the evenings and weekends. But the point was similar.

I sighed, and looked around to see if I could find Belinda or Tolly. I thought I saw Tolly seated around the corner, just barely within sight.

Jasin came back through, and saw where I was looking. "Yes, that's Tolly over there," he said. "He's eating with Glorina. Ms. Hoi, that is." He paused. "Give me a moment, and I'll take you over to an alcove where you can watch them without being noticed or in anyone's way."

"Jasin Smythe!" I said. ""Do you really think I'm going to go spy on my friends?"

He paused for a moment, and cocked his head. "Yes?" he said, looking at me.

I laughed. "All right, you win. Lead me in there."

Jasin said, as he led me, "They've been eating dinner nearly every night for a couple of months. She's really charming and polite. I don't really believe Petron's rumors are true, myself."

"But Tolly evidently believes it," I said, watching their body language from that little niche. "He's furiously polite. I wonder why?"

"I've got to get back to work," Jasin said. "Don't stay back there too long."

I studied Ms. Hoi for a moment. She was a small woman, perhaps as small as Jelana, though of course it was hard to tell from that distance. She looked up in my direction. I stepped back and looked away. Her eyes apparently passed over me without notice, for when I looked back, she was looking at Tolly, smiling at him uncertainly. She had smooth glossy black hair that curled forward just below her ears. Her eyes, what I could see of them, were large and dark. Her motions were small, quick, and precise. Tolly's motions, by contrast, seemed larger, cruder, less well-formed. I blinked. That was not the way I was used to thinking of Tolly. And I could tell he was making more precise movements than usual out of anger.

After a few moments, she stood up, turned to him, folded her hands, pulled one leg behind her, and went down in a deep bow. Tolly gave a terse nod, then both of them moved off in opposite directions, she walking lightly, almost seeming to glide, him stomping off.

"She bows like that that to everyone," said a voice in my ear. I jumped, then turned to see Belinda. "It takes some getting used to, but she doesn't mean anything by it," Belinda continued.

"I didn't mean to be spying on them," I said to Belinda hastily.

"Well, whoever said you did?" she asked, reasonably. "Tell you the truth, I'd been wishing you'd step in and see what was going on."

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