Chapter 301: Chapter 301 - Thinking Hard To Keep From Thinking
Before I knew it, I brought her one of my bottles - along with the sleeve of nice soda crackers I’d been saving for when I attempted to make my own soup. And however long I was gone into the kitchen... into myself... she didn’t seem to point it out.
If she is even in a state to keep track of time. I helped her sit up and held her at her lower back for support. Watching her try to drink without spilling told me exactly how bad her hand tremors were.
Suggested exactly how much worse it could get... or could have been. For a moment, I feel my teeth scrape together before I find my next ’focus’.
"Tell me more about this... training accident. How did real silver end up there and no one notice?"
"We regularly run security drills. Someone grabbed or stored the wrong canister type unit. Equipment mixup happens. It’s not the first time, though it has been a while."
> No. Something like that does not just ’happen’. Not with something that dangerous. <
Helene knew of a few sorts of philosophical sayings in this world. Such as that things that can go wrong, inevitably will go wrong. Or that one should not be quick to attribute malice to anything that could be explained by incompetence.
The last I actually particularly enjoy and find ironic that she had heard of, as I do have a tendency to think of people as being more ignorant than evil, myself. Even the selfishness of others is often not malevolence. Not by itself.
However... in my world, there were no ’accidents’ when it came to royal security. Any and everything that ’slipped the net’ was considered deliberate malfeasance until proven otherwise.
The fact that Kyrie Voss truly is dismissing it as an accident... tells me that she has an unwillingness to see the potential. The possibility of a selfishness in any of her people that would work through traps and tricks.
Which I suppose I understand? Werewolves would rather maul their enemy directly. They aren’t above ganging up to do so, but backstabbing and assassination outside of group fight mechanics?
Well, you simply cannot be considered an important leader if you do not live with the very real risk of those things. At least, you will not live as one for long if you remain ignorant of them.
I make her lay back down, since she doesn’t seem that interested in the food. Though who knows? Maybe she just thought the crackers were for me since I did open and eat three.
"...Who has access to that storage?"
"All of Rimecoat security. Luca oversees it directly, but several people can retrieve equipment for training scenarios."
Her eyes seem tired, so much that I feel bad for pushing. But I need... something to do. That I *can* do. And being curious and suspicious-
> No, that is not always called Paranoid. Not when you end up right in the end. <
"And who decided to run this particular drill today?"
Pale lips frowned at my interrogation, but she was always too quick to give me what I wanted. She really should put more fight up against me and not just... against herself.
"It was... routine. Part of weekly exercises."
"But who specifically called for using the dispersal units? Who was in charge of setting them up? Who arranged who would be likely to encounter specific ones?"
"I..."
She closed her eyes as if concentrating, before opening them. Not just frowning, but looking very unhappy at me. Which tells me that I’ve probably gotten what I’m getting at through.
"I’m not sure without checking. Luca handles the scheduling. But the security team leads can all adjust equipment based on the provided scenarios."
I stood up and began pacing. I’d love to abruptly discount the Beta, both because Kyrie trusts him and because Claire... actually, I don’t know if she trusts him at all?
But that still leaves many different levels of people who could have influenced what happened from the inside. Any of whom could have been compromised in their self-interest. Bribed, blackmailed, or buttered up.
> No, not literally butter- you’re just messing with me now aren’t you? Feeling better now? <
Blue eyes blink at me as the spirit turns around and lays on the forest floor. The same sort of forest I first came into this world at.
"Kyrie, in my experience... and you know that when I say this I mean from my kingdom. When someone in power is harmed by an ’accident’ within their own usually well thought out protocols... it’s rarely an accident."
"You actually think someone did this to me deliberately?"
The disbelief in her voice told me whoever planned this understood her psychology well enough. To design the attack as something she’d dismiss as routine mishap. So that even if she did come out of it okay, she wouldn’t look into it too far.
Honestly, that doesn’t really help me help her narrow down who is physically responsible for the sabotage. But it does paint a picture of who could have ordered it.
My first instinct is often to suspect the people with the most to gain and then move out from there. Because like another statement she’d read before claims... the simplest explanation is often the right one.
"I think someone wanted you at least incapacitated and weakened. Probably unable to respond to something else."
"The pack doesn’t know. I acted like I received a call, left and dosed myself with scent blockers, then sent out an e-mail notice that I’m on a plausible emergency business trip to give me time."
I blink at her chain of thought. It was a lot more... subterfuge than I expected. She coughed before starting to struggle out of the covers.
"But if someone is planning to move against us while I’m down..."
"No, that was good thinking. We keep it that way. Keep resting."
I sat down on the side of the bed, my hand pressing down over her abdomen. Telling myself it is to keep her from struggling and getting up.
Telling myself it absolutely was not because I needed to use touching her just to prevent the urge to cut and run from returning. It shouldn’t be my responsibility that she grew attached.
> I didn’t choose to come here, to meet her, or to have her... try. <