Chapter 37 CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: The Day After
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: The Day After
I woke up at the second hour of the afternoon.
The candle was still dead. The window showed pale daylight. Outside, somewhere in the academy, I could hear voices, organized and purposeful, the sound of the governance team working through the building.
I lay still for a moment and let the previous night settle into the category of things that had actually happened rather than things I was still processing.
Then I got up, washed my face, and went to find Ren.
He was in the study room. Books open in front of him. Looking at them without reading.
He looked up when I came in.
"You slept," he said.
"Yes," I said. "Did you?"
"Three hours," he said. "Then I woke up and could not go back." He looked at the books. "I have been trying to read Aether circulation theory for two hours and I keep getting to the third paragraph and stopping."
I sat across from him.
"The investigation team found the sub-level this morning," he said. "I heard two governance staff talking in the corridor. They were very quiet about it but not quiet enough." He paused. "They found more than we took out."
I looked at him.
"More containers?" I said.
"I do not know exactly," he said. "Just that what they found warranted calling in two more officers from Crestfall."
I thought about that.
We had taken nine. Davan had said nine was the count he was aware of. But Davan had not had full access to the sub-level. His information was based on the traffic he had observed from outside, not a complete inventory.
There may have been more inside.
"Do not speculate out loud about it," I said. "Not until we know what the governance team found and how they plan to document it. Anything we say now that does not match the official record becomes a problem."
Ren nodded.
He picked up his spoon, which was sitting next to a bowl of cold porridge he had apparently brought from breakfast and had not eaten.
"The lower table food," he said. "Still safe, yes?"
"Yes," I said.
He ate.
Sable found us about an hour later.
He came through the study room door and looked at the two of us in a way that communicated he had been looking for us specifically.
He sat down.
"Calloway wants to meet with all six of us this afternoon," he said. "She has completed the initial phase of statements and has begun the formal investigation documentation. She wants to give us an update on process."
"What time," I said.
"Fourth hour," he said.
He looked at the cold porridge and the unread books.
"How are you," he said. Not to me. To Ren.
Ren looked slightly surprised by the question.
"I am all right," he said. "Tired. Thinking too much."
Sable nodded. He looked like he understood exactly what that felt like from personal experience.
"The staff," Sable said. He was looking at the table. "Most of them were interviewed this morning. About forty percent gave statements that aligned with what we provided. Another thirty percent are claiming no knowledge of the sub-level activities." He paused. "Proctor Vayne gave a full statement."
I looked at him.
"She knew something was wrong," he said. "She did not know the specifics. But she had noticed inconsistencies in student health patterns over the years. Students who deteriorated for no clear reason. She had filed internal reports about it." He paused. "Those reports were redirected by the administrative system and never reached the academic board."
"Thane controlled the administrative system," I said.
"Yes," he said.
I thought about Proctor Vayne. Her clean, direct teaching style. She had been noticing patterns for years and had no mechanism to act on what she saw.
"Proctor Senn?" I said.
"No knowledge," Sable said. "He is genuinely clean. He just taught theory and did not involve himself in anything beyond his classroom." He looked up. "Aldric knew more. Proctor Aldric, who ran the upper Aether Theory sessions. He was part of the Inner Circle. He is currently being interviewed under formal caution."
The Inner Circle.
Thane had built it over two decades. Some of those people had known everything. Others had known pieces. The governance investigation would need to separate them carefully.
"This takes a very long time," Ren said quietly.
"Yes," Sable said. "It is."
The three of us sat in the study room for a moment without talking. Outside the window, the mountain was bright in the afternoon light. The kind of clear day that made the stone look almost warm.
"Lysa," I said.
"In her room," Sable said. "She is all right. Sera checked on her this morning." He paused. "She is adjusting. She knew something was wrong with her core but now she knows the full shape of it and knowing the full shape is different from the suspicion."
"She needs someone to explain what comes next for her core," I said. "Now that she has stopped eating from the upper line, the acceleration will slow. But the changes that have already happened are still there."
"Sera can help with that," Sable said. "She has lived with the aftermath longer than anyone."
I nodded.
We went to the meeting at the fourth hour.
Calloway was direct as she had been all morning. The formal investigation was opened. The regional governing council had been notified. A full board of inquiry would convene within thirty days. We would be required to submit formal written testimony in addition to our verbal statements. The academy would remain under governance oversight indefinitely pending resolution.
And Director Thane was being held in the academy's secure administrative suite under governance authority.
Not removed yet. Not formally charged.
"Why not removed?" Sable said.
Calloway looked at him.
"Because the formal charge process requires the board of inquiry to convene first," she said. "She is contained. She cannot act. But procedural protections exist for everyone, including people who have done what she may have done."
Sable held her eyes for a moment.
"May have done," he said.
Calloway did not look away.
"That is the language of due process," she said. "Not my opinion."
Sable looked at the table.
Ren caught my eye from across the room.
I knew exactly what he was thinking. I was thinking the same thing.
Thane was still inside this building.
The procedural process had just confirmed she would remain here for at least another thirty days, contained but present, and planning through every hour of it.