Over his morning tea in the Atrium, Sao pondered Saki while trying not to look at her. He was quite certain she was doing the same. Every time he glanced up her head was down, but her thick dark hair always seemed to be in the process of shifting, her shoulders just settling, her hand in just then coming to lay on the counter.

She might have been shy. A sour face with a bashful center, there was plenty of charm in that. Sao wanted to find her charming, because he didn’t like how afraid he was of her. That fear had largely come up through osmosis. When patrons called out to her with their good mornings and how-you-beens, she did not respond. She did not take orders. There never seemed to be working staff anywhere near her customary stool at the end of the bar, but when she called, one always came running, eager for orders. She only rewarded them with a dull glare before returning to more interesting matters on her phone.

Even Rai was uneasy toward her. He gave the contents of his cup a thorough inspection before sampling. “I thought I saw her spit in the coffee yesterday.”

He had just arrived on an early express bus. Under his leather jacket he was in a semi professional button-up and slacks, having come from a presentation at the courthouse that he was eager to put behind him. All he could talk about instead was his nighttime train ride.

“Can you guess the markup on snacks? A bag of chips, thirty bucks - the small bags too. Water, twelve. Coffee—” A memory too horrifying to share. He drank the coffee he had been given.

Sao glanced up. Saki looked down.

“Except for the river - although from the smell I’m convinced it was more open sewer - the scenery for the first hour was all industrial. I’m talking about factory parks and giant warehouses. There was this giant abandoned stadium out there too, rotting from the top so the upper rim looks like a skeleton. I should have taken a picture, but it was too dark.”

Sao got an earful about the man in the seat across from Rai’s and his videography.

“Sounds like you got the whole railway experience, just short of murders and monkeys,” Sao said when he was finished.

“Well, maybe next time.”

Sao was surprised he hadn’t taken the chance to write off any ‘next times’. He smiled. “And how was the bus ride this morning?”

Rai sipped coffee and shrugged. “Fine.”

‘Fine’ was all the superior pragmatic form of transport had to offer. Sao smiled wider and didn’t stop even when Rai scowled at him. He felt lightheaded. The night had not been pleasant. First the dream and then the surprise call from Triad at some ungodly hour. The call had woken Marsh (actually, he’d been the one to pick up) and his kindly host had not been able to hide his irritation.

“Rough night?” Rai asked.

Sao yawned. “Not as much as yours, I imagine. Did I forget to cover anything on my face?”

“No, you look fine.” Which made Sao wonder why the question had come up in the first place. He hadn’t slogged his way to a comeback before Rai had another question. “What did you do with the flower Tinsel gave you?”

Absently, Sao reached for his chest, the buttonhole. The flower was gone. “It might have fallen out when I…” He hesitated to finish. “When I ran after the train. Anyhow, you gave it to me, not Tinsel.”

As soon as the words left his fool mouth he dreaded what Rai would shoot back. Saki was eyeing him with one eyebrow raised, like she knew.

But Rai just put his cup down and pushed himself off the bar. “Let’s walk.”

—

The appointment with Rip in the north dormitory - one of the older residences, inside the walls - took priority over the one with Triad. Sao couldn’t fault Rai there. Triad had been tight-lipped even over the phone, and bloodied entrails on the ground were a larger concern.

It was a bit of a let down when the first thing Rai did was assure everyone that it hadn’t been any kind of meat, but plant matter.

He’d had to lead with that because Rip was too fearful to come out of his locked room.

Rip lived in a three-person suite on the ground floor just down the hall from the dormitory’s largest bathroom. The suite consisted of a central large bedroom with a bay window, and two smaller ones behind doors in the left and right of that room. Rip’s room was on the left, and the door was thrown back, revealing a desk overflowing with snacks; sacks of chips and candy and what must have been a whole pallet of bottled sugary drinks. But no Rip.

He had vacated in a hurry upon the appearance of the bloody mass and was hiding in the empty, windowless right-side room. It was lucky there was a spare room for him as their third roommate had moved out three months ago. They were informed of this by Rip’s roommate, an eccentric fellow first-year named Omy, who commanded the central room.

Omy was a small, carefree individual with a droopy face and equally droopy sweater, and despite the heat of the room, was wearing a woolly brown hat with ear flaps and hanging pompoms. He did not bother to conceal the little roll of paper in his hand which was stuffed with dry brown flakes, and was finishing off a bottle of orange squash that was clearly from Rip’s stash. The entire suite had a faintly sour odor.

“I told you it was probably just garbage,” Omy said when Rip emerged from the spare room. He let Rip sit at his desk and kicked his feet up on the bench in front of the window.

“But why was it here? And what was the smell?” Rip asked. He looked at Rai, then at Sao and then down at his hands, his face red. “I know I smelled blood.”

He hung by the door of his old room before going in to snap up a bottle of soda for himself, as if some monster in the dark were waiting. Sao watched him crack the bottle open. His fingers slipped several times before succeeded. Rip’s eyes were sunken in dark pits, like Rai’s. But unlike Rai, he didn’t seem to be functioning very well without sleep.

“There’s a reason for that. Can you tell us first what you saw last night? You messaged me the picture at just about 4am.”

“I saw the stuff closer to 2:00. That’s when I got back from one of those Valentine things with the guys. Ace was acting stupid to make up for missing the night before, but I didn’t want to drink, especially since…” He gulped. “I dunno. Happy seems to think after Zed and Ace, we might be next.”

Rip raked a hand through his hair, which resembled dry black quills, though they were drooping slightly. His large eyes could have been endearing if the face surrounding them were not so haggard and hostile.

“So I got back and went to my room. I thought I smelled something off, but sometimes it’s hard to tell.” At this, he shot a glance at the spliff Omy had just raised to his lips.

“Sorry,” Omy said, but not before taking a puff.

“Doesn’t matter. I didn’t bother to look out the window until I heard the noise.” He looked fearfully at the window behind Omy. “Someone was walking around right under it. I could tell - because nobody ever has a reason to walk on the inner side.”

While Ace and Ayer’s rooms had been in detached buildings, Rip’s was in one of the older dormitories, contained within the walls around the school. It looked inward at the campus; at the valley with sled tracks going down into the sports field. A little beyond that, Sao could make out the copse of trees that hid the alumni house.

“So I looked out and looked down,” Rip said. “And when I looked down the smell was really bad and I saw it. All that dead stuff, in a pile of red spreading out in the snow. And I saw a - a man, bending over it and messing with it, like he was forming a shape, or ripping something up—”

Rip wheezed and Omy lurched up with mild concern. “Relax, Rip. You should have a gummy.”

“I don’t want a fucking gummy. And you saw him too!”

“I saw him leaving, yeah.” Omy balanced his homemade cigar against his bottle on the edge of the bench and began throwing open drawers, pawing around in a stash of crinkling plastic bags. When he didn’t find what he was looking for, he yanked a tray out from under his bed that contained more of the same.

“You keep talking about this person,” Rai said. “But you never told me what he looked like. Did you recognize this guy?”

“Uh, he was tall and wearing a black coat,” Rip mumbled. “But I couldn’t see his face, and he ran as soon as I started yelling. So I might have been mistaken.”

Omy unearthed a bag of red cubes. “C’mon, Rip. There aren’t a lot of guys who look like Professor Triad.”

Rai’s eyes widened. “Professor Triad was here last night?”

“Yeah.” Deflated, Rip leaned on the desk for support. “Yeah, that’s who I saw. I mean, we both saw him. But… I thought, that’s crazy he isn’t even in town. He’s been out for like, a year.”

“We’ve heard he came back recently,” Rai said, glancing at Sao. “We'll actually be talking to him later.”

“Shit.” Rip laid his head on the desk, inhaled some of the brown dust and sneezed. “Do you think he wants to kill me? Or, I dunno, hurt me? For what we did to those girls. I mean… I don’t know.”

“What girl?” Omy asked.

Rip shot Omy a demeaning smile. “Look at this guy who’s never touched Neocam in his life.” He shook his head. “You guys know. Me. Ace, Happy and Zed. We’ve been taking the pictures. Happy or Ace comes up with the roofies and picks the girls. They didn’t start it, and we aren’t the only ones. But the last one, Tinsel… yeah.”

“I take it you were behind ‘Waitress’,” Sao said.

Rip shrank at the word. “Yeah. The theme was her future jobs, right? I couldn’t think of anything else.” His voice dropped to a huff. “The other guys wrote way worse things.”

“But you still think you might be targeted like them. For some sort of revenge.”

Rip receded into his own shoulders, holding his drink in both hands. “Why would Professor Triad do that, though? He never cared before.”

Leaning against the door, Rai folded his arms. “Professor Triad knew about this?”

“Everyone does, right? Except guys like-” Rip jabbed the top of his bottle in Omy’s direction. Omy remained unbothered. “Triad knew for sure. I’m pretty sure he’s on Neocam for his hospital publicity stuff - but even if he isn’t watching the school online, he’s the Investment Club advisor. Apparently before this year he literally went to all their events. He probably saw the girls Ace and Happy left lying around in person, maybe saw them in the act.”

Sao’s throat tightened.

“He never cared before. But maybe we made him upset. I just don’t know how…”

“Do you know,” Rai asked, setting a hand on the desk beside Rip’s head, “if Triad was familiar with Tinsel, the last girl you messed with?”

“I don’t know. But— but he might, right? She does a lot of events. Oh my god, do you think they were sleeping together? That would explain everything. He’s going to pick us all off but since I’m not drinking and going out he’s threatening me at home with—” Rip coughed. “What were the plants? Why did they smell like blood?”

Rai stared him down. “Because they were soaked with blood.”

Rip whimpered slightly and slithered off the chair. “But why would he do that?”

There was nothing but the sound of the plastic bag still crinkling merrily in Omy’s hand. Rai seemed intent on reducing Rip to dust under his glare so Sao reluctantly came to the rescue. “You said you smelt the blood long before you saw or heard Triad outside your window. It might be the case that someone else put the bloodied stalks there, and Triad came by later for a different reason.” He glanced at Rai. “We’ll ask him to explain himself when we speak to him later.”

“Maybe he thought the stuff fell out of your room,” Omy suggested.

Rip almost burst into tears. “You’re the one who keeps trying to grow weed in here! It never even works! Bet he thought you were the crazy person who threw all that out there!”

“I guess so.” Omy looked sadly at the snow-covered planter outside his window. “But where would I get the blood? Where did all that blood come from, anyway? It wasn’t just like, from a cut, that stuff was soaked.”

“I grabbed the plants before security got rid of it, so forensics are having a look,” Rai said. “I do have a theory. But we don’t want to spread rumors before they’re confirmed.” A pointed look at Rip, who was now sitting miserably on the floor.

“Whatever,” Rip sobbed. “Maybe I should just give up. Let him take me and bite me and rape me or whatever and get it over with. Every time I close my eyes it’s all I can think about. I can’t sleep.”

“These guys just said Triad’s probably not the blood nut. You need to relax.” Omy proffered the bag of red candies to him. “It’s the good stuff.”

Rip’s arms remained limp but he scowled. “You know these guys are cops, right?”

Puffing blissfully, it was obvious Omy didn’t care. Rai didn’t seem to care either, he was on his phone. Rip pulled his knees up and laid his chin on them, looking very young and lonely. And exhausted. Sao could sense him shutting down like an overheated machine. He couldn’t help but sympathize, although he didn’t exactly want to after all Rip had said and done, but a sleepless night was not something he’d wish on anyone. At least Sao’s nightmares never succeeded at keeping him awake.

“Give me a gummy,” Rip mumbled as Sao and Rai stepped out of the room.

—

Security let them into the medieval foyer of Eggers Hall for their appointment with Professor Triad. Triad was running late, it seemed to Sao, by his own design.

As during their first visit, there was audible movement coming from inside - muffled thuds and brushing across the floor, feet pacing on a carpet. However this time, after Rai’s knock, the noise continued. It seemed to come closer to the door and Sao braced for it to open, but it did not. The sound retreated back into the depths of the office, and petered out.

“I can be here all day,” Rai crowed, an echo of how he’d gotten Triad out the first time.

There was some padding that approached the door again, and Sao thought he heard labored breathing - but the knob did not move, and again the noise faded.

Rai stepped back and rested his back against the window across from the door. “Well, someone’s inside.”

Sao looked up and down the long gray length of the hall. A few of the offices had doors ajar, or had light visible in the space under their doors. Triad’s did not. “Do you think he’s alright?”

The shuffling noise had started up again. Rai shoved his hands in his pockets and dug around. “Maybe he’s getting dressed. Or hiding evidence. He can’t stay in there forever - let’s give him a few minutes.” He drew out a crackly bit of plastic. “Ever had one of these?”

Rai had managed to convince Omy to give him one of the red cubes. It was much larger than it had looked in the bag. “Maybe,” Sao said, “If it’s what I think it is.”

“Some kinda CBD, assuming it really was supposed to help Rip chill.” Rai held it up to the stingy daylight coming through the window. A light snowfall was coming down, gathering around the pane. “Don’t look so nervous. There are plenty of legal edibles. Although, this one came out of an unmarked, unsealed bag under some kid’s bed. How bad could it be?” Rai dropped it in his mouth.

“How is it?”

“Too sweet.”

Too sweet for the man who liked his coffee with the whole sugar bowl upturned in it. Sao smiled and shook his head. “Well, at least you’re not pushing product. I’ve been a bit put off any candy from strangers since the time I was accidentally dosed with amphetamines in some caramel.” It really had been an accident on all fronts. The tampered food was intended for a child, and the child had unwittingly passed the ‘treat’ to Sao as a gesture of goodwill. That had been over a year ago. His smile faded. “I suppose packaging didn’t mean anything in that case. It was re-wrapped in its original wrapper.”

“I guess so. But in this case, the candy’s advertised for what it is.” Rai swallowed. “Not that it’s gonna do anything to me.”

“Yes, I assume you wouldn’t have eaten that right before an interview if you were expecting any adverse effects.”

“Sure.” Rai flicked a sugar grain off his glove. “I used to think the stoners at my school were cool. They always looked, I don’t know, unbothered. Not defiant, just above everything. Even when they knew they were skirting the rules, in front of authority. Like the kid today. I hung out with them for a while, before I met that girlfriend I told you about. Didn’t last long. I guess neither of those lasted. I should have just stuck it out with the stoners but they got sick of me even faster than she did.”

Who would you even be without your defiance? Sao wanted to say. He also wanted to tell Rai to stop bringing up his ex-girlfriend. Rai seemed to take some sick pride in tearing himself down with the subject of her, her combined adultery-suicide attempt and subsequent blame game that had led to their separation. If that weren’t frightening enough, when Sao now imagined the girl (whom he’d never actually met) it was Saki’s sullen glower that came to mind.

“So you were too cool for even the cool kids,” Sao said.

“In a manner of speaking.” Rai smirked out the window. “Couldn’t get stoned. Complete waste of product. Or maybe they thought I was going to narc on them. Well, now if I want some of the old atmosphere, I go to Trae.”

Their mutual friend Trae, a mellow Life Fountain who used his powers at a hospital in Central. Sao was fond of him; Rai less so. Trae didn’t care much what Rai thought and liked them both equally. There were certainly traits in common between Trae and Omy, but Trae was about twice Omy’s height and had a waistband ten times as wide. Sao felt the tension in his chest ease a little. “True enough, Trae’s not the type to be bothered. But what substances would even work on him?” He was careful not to compare Trae’s resistances with Rai’s. Trae’s full-fledged Life Fountain abilities seemed yet another sore point for Rai. At least it was one he didn’t enjoy talking about.

“I don’t know. He seems to get high on his own aura. Considering what it does to the brain after too much inhalation, I wouldn’t be surprised–”

The door cracked open. For a second they were left looking through the gap into empty darkness, then Triad’s wan visage slid into view. With his height he had to bend downward to see them, performing something like a shallow bow.

Rai wiped all expression from his face. “Professor. Can we come in?”

“Investigator.” Triad looked like he might say something more, but only nodded, his wisps of white hair floating about him like a ghostly halo. The door opened, revealing further dark.

Reflecting upon it later, Sao wondered if the moment he’d chosen to receive them had been intentional.

—

They had a split second look at the office before Triad closed the door and plunged them all into pitch black. Rai caught sight of a desk, a dark wooden one even bigger than the dashboard he had at home, stacked with paper, and on the walls huge built-in shelves with a lot of shiny plaques, and not a lot of books. There was a heavy maroon drape hanging from the ceiling behind the desk, long enough to gather on the floor, indicating a long window like the one outside. Aside from that, the room was strangely barren.

In the impression he’d gotten before the light vanished.

“Professor Triad?” Rai ventured.

He heard Sao kick into something and yap like a startled dog, but not a squeak out of Triad. Gritting his teeth, Rai pulled a glove down to reveal the aura of one hand, the light of it filling out the small space around him. Several flickers of light came from the wall straight ahead, and he saw that the plaques in the shelf were mostly picture frames and a couple of trophies, the glass and steel catching his light. Sao sidled up to the beacon, close enough to be seen but not too close. He nodded nervously toward the far side of the room.

Triad was slung over a long upholstered couch, a fancy piece with rolled arms and carved legs. A matching loveseat and chair were next to it, but the entire set was pushed against the far wall, leaving an empty expanse in the middle of the room, except for the shag carpet.

Triad raised his eyes to the light and recoiled, throwing a huge white hand over his face. He did not look well, and under the blue light his skin looked almost translucent. Except for a few black spots on his hand. “Please - turn it off, your eyes will adjust. Please.” His voice turned pleading. “I’ve had a terrible headache, the light...”

Rai pulled the glove back on, but left his wrist exposed.

“Thank you. And thank you for seeing - waiting for me.” Triad rubbed the bridge of his nose and dragged himself upright. “I was hoping we could just speak on the phone, but I thought you might want to see this.” Triad was so tall that sitting straight, his head was immersed in the shadows above. All Rai could see was his chest, and his hands, which were holding a wad of black hair wrapped in tissue. The wad must have left the stain on his hands - and there was the smell, rising above the pleasant mustiness of the room - then Rai knew it wasn’t hair.

“The plants found outside the dorm this morning.”

“So you know what they are.”

“I got confirmation it wasn’t a dead animal, at least. The kid who found the stuff let me know early enough about the discovery that I could get campus security to hold onto it instead of just burning it. The same kid and his roommate saw you by their dorm room. What were you doing there?”

“Picking up the plants before security came.”

“Did you put them there?”

“No.”

The whole setup was starting to feel a little ridiculous. Rai dropped into the armchair but it was a mistake to lower himself; Triad seemed even more gigantic. Rai sat up. “Elaborate on what happened before you picked up the stuff. Why were you behind the student dorms at 3 in the morning?”

Triad’s torso shivered and the edge of his face appeared from above, like a separate creature descending to look for his disembodied hands. “Do you know what this is? What sort of plant? And why the blood?”

“Professor,” Rai said slowly. “You’ve been watching a particular group of kids, two of them were drugged, stripped, bitten and had humiliating pictures taken and posted publicly.”

“Yes, I’ve heard. They’ve been going on for a while.”

“The latest hits on the boys might be some form of revenge. For some past victim or victims. You wouldn’t happen to know a girl called Tinsel, would you?”

“No. A victim?” There was a pause, and Triad’s voice took on a sudden sharpness. “Do you suspect this Tinsel person might have done those things to Zed? Or Ace? Could a girl really have-”

“You got it right the first time. Victim. She just wants the incident put behind her. Won’t even press charges when she knows who did it.” Rai scowled. “You know the names of the two recent victims.”

“Of course. Their pictures were sent out to everyone. It’s…” Triad lowered his head to massage his forehead, groaning in apparent pain. He left a rusty smear under his hairline. “Yes. I suppose you already suspected from the start, I’ve been watching the boys. Rip last night, because he separated from the rest so early. I know all four from the Investment Club since I advised them very briefly about a year ago. Not on a personal level but enough to make a connection. I was wondering the same thing as you - that their assaults might have been a retaliation.”

Rai bit his lip. He’d given away too much. Triad had taken the chance to appropriate the story. That headache wasn’t as debilitating as he said it was.

Sao piped up from the loveseat which he had claimed for himself. “Why didn’t you advise them to play it safe, then, if you were concerned they might be targeted? You didn’t have to lurk under windows. People seem to think very highly of you.” Rai couldn’t see more than the shine of his shoes, but he could hear the smile on his lips. “If your health is preventing meetings, we can pass on the message.”

“Your health didn’t prevent you from a marathon around town with me,” Rai said.

“It’s been getting worse,” Triad said. “And I wanted to be sure. Besides… I don’t think I’ll be able to watch them much longer, I have to… I have to leave again soon. That’s why I called you here. I’ll tell you what I know.” His fingers tightened around the congealing lump, then thrust them forward. His long arms almost jabbed the gooey mass right into Rai’s chest. “Do you know what these are?”

Rai unflattened himself from the backrest and glared into the dark where he thought Triad’s head might be. “Bloody plants.”

“Not some simple observation - the species. Did you see the flowers?” The hands eased back slightly, and peeled off the tissue, separated the sticky stems and prodded through them, eventually picking a bud at the end of a long stalk. Rai hadn’t noticed the buds - they were blood-colored and matted up like the rest of the clump, though once the long petals were unfolded he saw orange, the brown dappling, and a white protrusion unfurl from the center.

“Looks like a kind of lily,” Sao said.

Rai took the flower from the disembodied hand. It looked limp and unhealthy in the light of his own fingers. “So what does it mean, that someone was giving Rip lilies? Valentine's present?”

“You’re closer than you think. These are Aurora Lilies. They originated on the Highland continent, a national symbol of the Arena region. That’s where I was born.” The hand pulled the rest of the soggy bouquet back to the lap. “You may have heard that most of my philanthropic work is focused on that area. I funded four hospitals, two clinics and two social work centers. It may sound ungrateful for me to say, but it’s not a nice place. It never was. The place was wrecked after years of fending off Central when the Scouts became the Army. The indigenous people won out, but it was never the same. Not that I’d know what came before my time - my grandparents’ time. I doubt it was ever some purehearted native utopia. I didn’t even know hospitals existed before my parents shipped me off to some aunt in Central.”

“Then your work must be highly appreciated,” Sao offered.

“Alright, alright. So they’re Highland flowers - do the flowers grow anywhere around here?” Rai asked.

“Recently, they’ve been cultivated by specialists. They produce a sap useful in testing magical properties.” Triad paused. His shoulders were heaving. Rai wondered if he was crying, but when he mustered the strength to speak again, his voice was dry, just winded. “They’re grown in blood.”

“Excuse me?”

“Traditionally, I mean. That’s how they became so widespread, especially in the places of conflict, of mass deaths. One of my hospitals is in a township reclaimed from a deposed dictator who executed hundreds of people in an ethnic feud. The remains were left out in a field, and the lilies have flourished on that patch of land for decades. It’s the lawn of one of my hospitals. There’s a picture on the shelf.”

Rai got up to look at the shelves, pulling his glove off again. The pictures made him feel uneasy. Triad was in just about every shot; an unmistakable shock of white hair and skin soaked with sweat, garbed in full sun protection. The Triad in the pictures was proud and happy, standing lean and strong in the Highland sun - totally unlike whoever was sitting on the long couch in the unlit office. Rai wanted to go behind the desk and whip the curtain back to see what they were really facing, but caught himself. He continued scanning the pictures until he saw what must have been the field. In front of the field was Triad with his lanky arms looped around two (relatively) stubby gardeners. Rai picked up the frame. The blooms in the picture were the size of a person’s head, and bright as supernovas. Aside from the dotted orange coloring, the dead oozing bud in his hand didn’t even look related.

He passed the picture to Sao and sat back down. “Looks like they can get pretty big.”

“They do. But only on clean blood.” Triad was wiping his hands with a clean tissue. Rai didn’t see any sign of the leftover bouquet. “At first, the hospital was eager to supply the fertiliser - we had donors. People willing to bequeath their bodies. But just recently, we found that despite resisting all sorts of weather including drought and first, the flowers are very sensitive to chemicals - any foreign substances, including medicines, which most of the hospitalized bodies contain. The field began to die, and we had to source blood from vetted sources instead. The lilies don’t pair well with civilization.” A slight bow as if in pain. “I suppose.”

“Alright. A vampire flower. Very Murnau. And your theory that someone decided to threaten Rip for Valentines?”

“It doesn’t have to be a threat. The lilies are often used as a symbol of matrimony.”

Rai was tempted again to go for the curtains. “I thought you said they grew mostly on sites where mass deaths occurred.”

“I suspect the tradition of the lilies as romantic offerings started as a tourist rebranding. The official story is that the man presents one to his bride as proof that he’d sacrifice blood and body for her. His own and that of their enemies. I suppose it could work the same way with the sexes reversed.” Triad contorted his long body and put the tissue on the counter behind him. Rai heard the tap of glass.

“So someone could have been dropping Rip a symbol of their devotion, or threatening him.” An unhelpfully large range of meaning.

“Personally, I…” Triad stopped to catch his breath, as though just turning his body had strained his lungs. “I see it as a threat. With the condition of the flowers… Excuse me.” He lurched up, half of his body disappearing in shadow. In two leggy strides, he was behind the couch, bent over the counter. There was a loud clatter, glass against glass. Rai stood, wondering if he should offer some light.

A small teardrop flame materialized on the counter - a candle. In front of it, Triad had laid out a syringe and a small glass jar. Seeing it, Sao rose to his feet too.

“I know how this looks,” Triad said. The effort of moving his jaw brought tears to his eyes. “I know from all the questions you were asking that you suspect blood was drawn from the arms of the victims. You won’t be seeing me around those boys again, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Rai bounded forward and grabbed the syringe. “You don’t have to do this.” He held it in a fist with the needlepoint out like he was brandishing a knife, felt idiotic, and lowered it behind him, putting a limp hand between him and Triad instead.

Triad blinked and stood up straight, his head diving into shadow again. “Oh. Oh, I see how I might have come across overdramatic. No… I meant I’ll simply stop following the boys. This is just a painkiller. You can look at the label.”

Rai snapped the glass jar up and squinted. The light of his wrist shone through the clear liquid, illuminating a sticker label. “This is pretty strong stuff.”

“It’s prescribed. You can check with the local hospital, I can give you access. I’ve found it’s the only thing that helps.”

Rai cautiously returned Triad’s medicine to the counter and left him to it.

“What is your condition, if I might ask?” Sao said, asking anyway.

Triad might have shaken his head, a movement that shook the long body under it like tassels of a jellyfish. A jellyfish in a black buttoned shirt - with the buttons off by one, Rai noticed.

“The doctors don’t know. But it’s not good,” Triad said. “I can tell. The pain has been getting worse.”

It was hard to respond to that. Even Sao didn’t have a soothing comeback. Rai went back to the armchair, but didn’t sit. “Are you sure you don’t know a girl named Tinsel?”

“Investigator, I really don’t get many of the female students in my classes or clubs. And to be perfectly honest, I don’t feel much toward the female victims, as you deemed them. These vampire stunt photographs have been happening for the better part of the decade, and I wonder if a woman might have started it herself for attention. Whether that’s true or not, there must be dozens of culprits. If a woman puts herself in the position to be victimized after that much warning, I assume she knows the risks.”

“What, so they should lock themselves in and avoid any and all events?” Rai sneered. “What a surprise this place has a ratio of women lower than any other school. And think about it: how are those beloved boys of yours going to enjoy themselves without any girls to gawk at? What’s Valentines going to be like, I wonder?”

The sound of Triad’s raspy breathing filled the room. Sao was completely silent. Rai knew they were both looking at him, probably unimpressed.

Triad picked up the syringe and Rai took an involuntary step backward, and almost tripped over the carpet. “You’ve made your point,” Triad said. He dipped the end of the needle into the glass jar. “I don’t know what you expected from me. I’ve always been more of a businessman than philanthropist. The second role would not have existed without the first.” The plunger of the syringe rose slowly. “I’ve told you what I intended to. Let the two final boys be punished, if that will make you feel better.”

“I’m sure that your support will have them sighing with relief.”

Rai ripped off one of his gloves so he could see where he was going, and picked the bloody flower off the chair where he had dropped it. The petals were all matted together again. He headed for the door.

“If there are no further questions,” Sao said politely, and followed.

“Just…” Triad’s voice seemed to crack. Rai looked back at the shape just barely visible by the candlelight. “You, Rai. Your mother is Roha Kir. The Life Fountain.”

If there was something Rai didn’t want at the moment, it was personal questions.

“And your father - I read about him. He was famous. He was crushed in an avalanche, and your mother kept him alive. His head was gone but she helped him survive somehow. They say he was conscious, and sane too. Regrew half of his head with aura alone.”

Rai chewed his lip and replied tightly, “Like you said, she’s a Life Fountain.”

“It was a miracle. Neurological repair is considered difficult, even among Life Fountains, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. It’s too dangerous to rush the regrowth of brain cells. There’s the usual gambling with tumors and worse. With my dad… it was kind of a one-time thing. The rest of his body stayed pulverized. Having a working brain probably did more harm than good.”

Sao was inching closer and closer to him, urging him to get out of the door before he put his foot in his mouth.

Over on the sideboard, the needle finally drew out of the pot. Triad, his back turned, held it up in the almost nonexistent light, inspected it against the backdrop of damask wallpaper. And it wasn’t an illusion of the flickering candle - his hands were shaking. Rai wasn’t sure he wanted to see what came next.

“It was still a miracle,” Triad said to the wall.

“My dad should have expected what he got.” Having firmly lodged his foot between his teeth, Rai swung the door open. Light sliced through the room but came just short of tearing through the spot where Triad was standing. A creature of shadows until the end. “We’ll be seeing you.”