Page 46 of A Drop of Corruption

“No,” she conceded. “I rather doubt if you can just go about knocking on doors and stumble upon some squirrelly fucker with a big trunk of costumes and wigs. We are still staggering in the dark. But your work will create a spark of light, I think—and with that, we can perhaps begin a bonfire.”

“I’ll start first thing tomorrow, ma’am,” I sighed. My feet began to ache in expectation of the sheer amount of land I’d have to traverse to find all of these folk.

Ana looked me over. “Still haven’t quite settled into your role as investigator, have you, Din?”

“I look, and talk, and ask your questions. I chase your knaves and scoundrels. Is that not enough?”

“It is for me,” she said. She shot me a sharp look. “But I wonder if it’s enough foryou.Mostly because your current method of emotional management is obviously not working!”

“What do you mean, current method?” I asked, perplexed.

“I mean,” she fumed, “that Iknowyou slipped out the other night, boy, despite my specific orders that you rest! And while I do not know where your spiritual serenity lies, I am pretty sure it isn’t in another person’sbed,orass,or whatever thehellit is you keep getting up to in the evenings!”

I was so mortified that I nearly fainted straightaway. “Oh, by hell,” I whispered.

“I’m notpersonallyoffended by your behavior, of course,” Ana continued, “but I’d have thought it’d at least make you somewhathappier,given that there appear to be dozens of people willing to nightly part their legs or lips for you. I mean, thank Sanctum you’ve got some of the Empire’s best immunities in your blood, otherwise your wick would’ve surely rotted off ages ago!”

“There is no need for this talk, ma’am!” I hissed.

“Oh, don’t bother with discretion now!” she said. “You’ve all theprudence of an inebriated cow! I’m half surprised people don’t gossip that you are a whore for hire, and I your pimp! It’d all be very amusing, if the reason for your consternation weren’t so obvious!”

“And what reason do you think that is, ma’am?” I demanded, flustered.

“It is that you believe we do little significant in our work!” Ana thundered. “And thus, you dream of transferring to the Legion!”

I gazed at her, stunned. I had no idea she’d known of my secret wish. I wondered how I had been so obvious.

“How…” I said. “How did you…”

Ana sighed and tried to collect herself. “Your mind is easy to guess at,” she said. “For you are a decent sort, Din, and a decent young man dreaming of serving our most honored Iyalet is not the most preposterous thing. And I know you did not choose the Iudex. Rather, I choseyou.Yet tell me—do you really think you do no good in your service, child? That this duty does notmatter?”

“I…I do try to think so, ma’am,” I admitted quietly.

“But?”

“But…when we come, the deed is already done. The body is cold, the blood cleaned away. We often find the killer, but that heals nothing, as far as I can see. It only leads to a rope, or a cage, and many more tears.” I swallowed. “Is it so strange a thing, ma’am, to helplessly look upon the slain and dream of instead saving lives?”

“Ahh, but you forget the emperor’s most famous teaching, Din,” Ana said. “Ironic given that the words are so pertinent to this case!”

I nodded glumly as I realized what she meant. “Sen sez imperiya.”

“Yes.Youare the Empire, and all your deeds matter, both large and small! You know the words, but I do not think you know the lesson, not yet.” She cocked her head. “I’ll make a deal with you, Din. When the time comes that you are eligible to transfer to the Legion, I’ll write your recommendation myself.”

My face flushed, for I could not bring myself to admit that with my father’s debts floating over me, even her recommendation would be of no help. “Ma’am,” I protested. “You…you really shouldn’t…”

“Don’t be ridiculous, child,” she sniffed. “I can do as I’d like, and I’d prefer an investigator whowantsto be here. Yet I suspect that when that time comes, you may not wish to transfer.”

“Why not, ma’am?”

“Because you are a reasonably smart boy. I suspect you shall come to realize what many Iudexii eventually learn—that though the Legion defends our Empire, it falls tousto keep an Empire worth defending.”

I had no idea what to say to that, so I merely bowed my head. But then a thought struck me.

For so long, I had accepted Ana as a component of the Iudex without thought: for all I knew, she had popped from the womb bound up in blue, and with a blindfold on her head. But now I wondered: whydidshe serve in the Iudex, of all the Imperial Iyalets? Why here, when her genius could suit nearly any other department, with their own innumerable puzzles and problems?

I asked her this, and she smirked. “Hmm. I thought I had done my best to dissuade such ponderings, Din.”

“It only seems fair, given that you know so much of my own mind, ma’am.”