“His chest was ripped open by claws,” Seokga continues, leaning heavily on his cane as he increases his pace. “I’ve seen enough wounds made by fucking Unrulies to tell. Claws lack the precision of a knife. The edges were too jagged. And what creature has claws?”

—nine-tailed—foxes—

“You think Nam Somi did this.” Kisa hurries to catch up with him, holding baby Hwanin tight. “The gumiho.”

—so quick—to accuse her—

“Who else would fucking do it?” he snarls, and when she cringes away, he also winces. He shouldn’t have snapped like that. He needs to get himself under control. Now.

“No,” Kisa says firmly, apparently having heard his thoughts. “No, it’s all right. Your brother was just, er, turned into a baby. Murdered. But—what motive?”

“Nam Somi is a murderer,” he grits out. “I know of her terrible deeds…” Somi is the only gumiho in existence to have figured out a quicker way to steal souls, the only gumiho to have become a mass murderer in so short a time during the Dark Days.

“I’m not saying that isn’t true,” Kisa admits, and Seokga’s mind is flooded with her rapid musings, so fast that he can barely track them. Luckily, those rapid fragments are collected and neatly arranged into coherence for her next sentence. “She stopped by the sick bay earlier today and quite literally admitted to being a serial killer, but her bone to pick seemed to be with, well, you. And…historically, assassinations of leaders tend to have some political aim. Lincoln. Doumer. Rabin. Even as far back as Rimush of Akkad. That’s something we really do need to consider.”

Seokga has no idea who any of those people are. To be frank, he doesn’t quite care.

Kisa follows him as he stomps past the greenhouse, where the party has hesitantly begun again. Officer Korain is by the window, watching the trickster god with folded arms and a furious expression. Kisa gives him a nervous wave. “Seokga, I really do think we should tell security. We need to check the security cameras, find out where the murder took place—and by who—before we jump to any conclusions.”

“And let it get back to the pantheon that Hwanin was murdered on a ship that, coincidentally, I was on? No.” Seokga sharply turns into the corridor of suites. “Once news of Hwanin’s death breaks, his son, Hwanung, will officially ascend to the throne as interim emperor until his father reaches maturity. Hwanung doesn’t like me and will probably throw me from Okhwang again. I’d be the number one suspect amongst the pantheon. So we absolutely cannot tell them until we’ve found the perpetrator.” He strides up to a door.

“Is that Somi’s room?” hisses Kisa. “Seokga—”