I wiped my eyes a little fiercely, and nodded.
“Yes.” I cleared my throat. “We did.” I frowned, thinking. “We began talking about it at the end of our first school year. Alaric told me during summer term that he worried his father was getting more fanatical about his political beliefs, and that it had something to do with Dark Cathedral. The weekend after Beltaine, Lord Greythorne said a number of things that gave him reason to worry. He also made it clear he expected Alaric tospeak and act more in alignment with what he called ‘the family position’ on Magique affairs.”
My jaw hardened as I remembered Alaric telling me in a Bonescastle restaurant how his father, slurringly drunk, said that he, Alaric, should be thinking about what he would do after Dark Cathedral’s “Project of Worlds” came to fruition. He’d bragged that they’d have their pick of lands to occupy, and slaves to barter for and purchase, both as a permanent workforce and as “entertainment.” He’d scoffed that Alaric needn’t worry about university for much longer, as no one of royal lineage would need work, ever again.
“Alaric talked about running if things got bad enough, even then,” I continued, clearing my throat. “But we didn’t actuallydoanything until that summer, when I approached him about trying to determine the identity of the Priest. I thought that would be easiest, as an entry point for Dark Cathedral, and really, safer. Alaric’s father constantly pushed him to listen to the broadcasts, anyway, so he’d at least have an excuse if we got caught.”
I swallowed, realizing again that it had been me who dragged Alaric into this, not the reverse. Granted, Alaric jumped on the idea with enthusiasm, but I’d been the one to say it first. I’d started us down this track.
Still thinking, I bit my lip.
“Alaric didn’t want to ask his father to notify him about any upcoming broadcasts, for a number of reasons,” I explained. “For one, he strongly suspected his father would want him to mirror home, and listen with him at the Greythorne estate.”
I glanced around at their faces. “I don’t know how many of you have listened to the Priest speak, but there’s a reality-distortion element, one that’s difficult to resist. Alaric really struggled with it, even when it was just him and me. We tried various methods to lessen the effects on his magical aura, andon his mind, but none of them really worked. Even so, he told me he struggled noticeably less with me, and exponentiallymorethe one time he listened with true believers. He didn’t trust his father not to exploit that.”
At their blank stares, I waved a hand vaguely, and added, “He also didn’t want his name down asofficiallybeing a member, because, as he explained, that meant swearing a loyalty pledge to Dark Cathedral. Once he’d done that, there would be a number of other expectations and requirements, including a deep security scan of his magical aura, various magical vows and rituals that would ensure his loyalty, additional rituals that ensured they knew his whereabouts at all times, monitoring of his associations, and so on. Alaric didn’t wantanyof that, for obvious reasons. He refused to let his father ‘brand’ him, as he put it. He was determined to find a way to listen without permission, instead. He had good guesses as to which of our classmates would’ve made those pledges already. But we only managed to intercept five before––”
“Five?” Quicksilver broke in.
He stared at me, his light-brown eyes suddenly razor sharp.
“Are you saying you and Alaric Greythorne listened tofivefull broadcasts by the Priest?” His mouth hardened. “Including the coded instructions at the end? Without Dark Cathedral having any awareness of you pirating their signal?”
“Yes,” I said, puzzled.
I glanced around at the others, but they looked equally astonished, even Valor.
Why were they so surprised? Wasn’t that why I was here?
“That doesn’t include the truncated message here, at The Eyrie,” I added.
When no one else spoke, I went on, still cradling the mug between my hands.
“I’m pretty confident we got notice of all thepublicmessages at least, from the end of July until mid-September.” I gazed unseeingly at the floor. “Alaric was adamant we not miss any, as he felt sure something big was in the works. His father was also making increasingly violent threats against him, saying he’dforceAlaric to take loyalty vows, if he didn’t align with the family soon. He wasfuriouswhen Alaric refused to commit to the first of the binding spells before the autumn term began. Alaric said he only got away with it because, for that for that particular ritual to work, the petitioner needed to consent.”
Glancing around the circle, I frowned at their dumbfounded stares.
“He was scared,” I said simply. “We both were. It made us a little obsessive. We spent a lot of time working on various protections around our attempts for that reason. We eventually wanted to intercept private messages too, not just the Priest but between royals higher up in the leadership structure, but we never got that far.”
“Can you explain how it worked?” Forsooth asked, politely. “How the two of you accomplished the signal hijack with the public broadcasts?”
I thought about that, and shrugged, lowering my mug to my chair’s arm.
“Our method ended up being pretty simple, really,” I admitted. “It was Alaric’s idea to use drakai to keep an eye on some of the royals he knew personally, the ones he figured were true believers, versus the curious or those who just talked big. There’s apparently a bit of a groupie situation with the Priest, so we tried to exploit that to find those who’d actually taken vows. Alaric sent drakai out, twelve each day, listening in at the houses we’d decided might be worth targeting. We learned pretty fast who got consistent hits. When one of his drakai reported back, Alaric came to my room, and we’d listen to thebroadcasts together on a receiver he’d programmed himself. We used my room because Alaric had reason to believe his might have listening devices, and I was better at chimaeric illusions.”
I fingered my necklace, then realized what I was doing and dropped the green crystal against my skin.
I fell silent when I noticed their increasingly stunned looks.
For some reason, those shocked stares made me defensive.
“And really, I’m making it sound more segmented than it was,” I added. “We worked together on most things, including to refine the programming on the receiver, and to make our magical signatures untraceable.” I picked up my mug, and gripped it in both hands. “Since Alaric organized the drakai, I handled most of the research, mainly to decrypt the more obscure and esoteric phrases used by the Priest. You probably know this, but a fair amount of his broadcast is in code. He uses poetry, scripture, songs, even coded mathematical equations. I also got tasked with tracking the Priest during the broadcast itself, since it was too risky to have Alaric do it, partly because he was more susceptible to the reality-distortion, and partly because he’d far more likely be recognized. I set up shielding chimaeras and illusions over my suite, and Alaric tested them, and he helped me with––”
“Ms. Shadow.”
I turned to find Professor Blackstone, the school’s senior potions professor, staring at me with his unnervingly pale blue eyes. His expression betrayed nothing, so I waited.
“What is it you intended to do with this information?” Blackstone asked. “Were you to discover the identity of the Priest, or discern plans in place for Dark Cathedral, what were your intended next steps?”
