“I speak of these things only to offer you tangible reasons for my refusal to set the investigation aside. I will be pursuing all possible traces until solid answers are unearthed. There is too much at risk, given what you have revealed here; I am certain that the criminal continued to pursue other avenues of study—but those avenues were not Barrani in nature. Barrani, as you are well aware, are not the only Immortals.

“Kaylin’s early investigation produced some answers and raised questions. She went to the Academia. The chancellor and the living heart of the Academia owe Kaylin a great debt. What questions they felt they could answer, they answered, although in the chancellor’s case, that amounted to nothing. The Arbiters who govern the library space and the scholars who taught when the Academia was not what it has become also answered questions.” She turned to Kaylin.

Kaylin, mindful now of the consequences of too much information, forced herself to adopt High Barrani. “Killianas believes that the student in question was not interested in knowledge for power’s sake; he also believed that her father was fond of her, from their interactions on campus. This implies that the Academia—or part of it—came before she attempted to destroy the Lake.

“Killianas’s drive is scholarship; his responsibility is the health of, the well-being of, the Academia. There is dependence on a student body—but I believe that dependence requires the right kind of student. Were I to study there, I would not be what he requires. His requirements seem independent of race; they may well be independent of frivolous things like personality.”

“Yet he was aware of her ambitions?”

“Only inasmuch as they devolved to knowledge and study.” She frowned. “I might be misinterpreting; I haven’t spent much time in the confines of the Academia, and much of what I’ve said is inferred. One of her masters was Larrantin. One was Arbiter Androsse—an Ancestor. One was Arbiter Starrante. I believe each considered her an excellent student—someone who worked hard to untangle each lesson she was given.

“It’s possible that in her studies there, she chanced upon ancient ceremonies, or information that concerned them; it’s possible that in her studies there, she came upon information about the plant.”

“The plant in its healthy form grows only in the green,” the Consort said. “I have seen it there. Teela has seen it there. It is quite possible you stepped over it, considering it a weed. It is a flower that represents the heart of the green; it is not rare there. But those flowers do not leave the green.”

Clearly, one of them had. “Is that by law or custom?”

“It is by the will of the green.”

“The will of the green is not exactly spelled out,” Kaylin said. She had some experience with the will of the green—most of it life-threatening, all of it infuriating in its opacity.