Домагой Курмаич - Mother of Learning

Zorian observed the man and the room itself. Jornak was younger than he thought he would be, probably in his mid-twenties and with a very handsome, boyish face. He was immaculately dressed in expensive but conservative clothes, and the room he was in seemed to be designed to maximize his image as a cultured, well-read intellectual. The walls were lined with filled-out book shelves and small works of art laid scattered around the place to give it a bit of artistic flair.

Zorian’s parents had a similar room back in Cirin. Much like them, Jornak had probably never even read most of the books lining the bookshelves.

"So mister Dokochin," Alanic began. "I’m back. Don’t mind my two helpers here, they’re just here as support. Now that you’ve had a chance to calm down a little, are you willing to discuss things like a civilized person?"

Zorian gave Alanic a mildly questioning glance. Was he deliberately pissing the guy off? Jornak did not look calm at all. Alanic did not react to his silent question though, so Zorian simply trusted him to know what he was doing. He supposed that with him here, it hardly mattered whether Jornak wanted to talk or not.

Jornak finally deigned to look at them, giving Zach and Zorian a brief, contemptuous glance before dismissing them as unimportant.

"Your church really likes them young, doesn’t it, priest?" Jornak said, grimacing at Alanic unhappily. "I know my rights, mister Zosk. I will not talk to anyone until Mage Guild representatives and my lawyer arrive. Until then, I will patiently wait here and I’d appreciate it if you stopped wasting my time."

"Curious that a lawyer would want someone else to defend them," Alanic said.

"A surgeon would be foolish to try to operate on himself, and a lawyer is ill advised to represent himself in court," Jornak said dismissively. "I would not expect a Church dog to understand these things. People like you always think you’re above the law, anyway."

"Hmm," Alanic hummed, completely unaffected by Jornak’s caustic comments. "I’ll be honest and say I expected as much. Zorian?"

Zorian did not ask Alanic what he wanted. He already knew. He reached out mentally towards Jornak. The young lawyer actually had rudimentary mental defenses, but this was not something that could stop Zorian. He punched through those defenses as if they were paper and pressed down on the man’s mind.

Jornak’s eyes widened like saucers as he realized what was happening.

"Answer the questions," Zorian commanded.

"N-no!" Jornak protested. "This… this is illegal! I’ll… damn it. Damn it!"

"Did you kill Veyers?" Zorian asked, just to be sure.

"I didn’t kill him! I didn’t kill anyone! I already said I just found him dead one day! It’s the truth!"

"What was he doing in your home?" Zorian asked.

"That’s… we were friends," Jornak said, gritting his teeth.

"A friendship between a 15-year-old-boy and a 25-year-old man like you?" Alanic commented lightly. "Who is it that likes them young, again?"

"You people…" Jornak hissed angrily at him. He took a deep breath and forcibly calmed himself down. "Look… I promise to tell you the whole story. Just… release me from your mental compulsion. It’s hard to think with this thing muddying my thoughts."

Zorian gave Alanic a questioning glance. Alanic nodded for him to do as Jornak said, apparently willing to give the man a chance. Fair enough. He supposed they could always repeat the procedure if Jornak became uncooperative later on.

"I’m still keeping an eye on your surface thoughts," Zorian told him as he released the compulsion to make him talk. "So don’t try to lie to us."

"I don’t have to lie!" Jornak snapped at him. "This whole thing is just… damn it, Veyers! Even when dead, he still makes trouble for me."

"Yeah, he has that effect on people," Zach said with a sagely nod.

Jornak ignored that comment, gathering his thoughts for a moment.

"Alright," Jornak said. "So, I met Veyers almost a year ago when he came to talk to me about his legal options in regards to his… situation… in his House. I empathized with him then. What happened to him reminded me a little of myself. I too have had my birthright stolen from me."

"Really?" Zach asked curiously.

"I don’t want to talk about it and I ask you to be merciful and not force me," Jornak said. "It has nothing to do with this, and you can find out most of it through public documents. It’s not like I’ve ever hid my grievances, after all."

"Just give us the short version," Alanic said.

Jornak gave him a hateful look, but after glancing at Zorian for a second he decided to humor the scarred battle-priest anyway.

"In short, I was a relative of a small House that went extinct some time ago. Although not a true member of the House, I was the closest thing to a descendant and I was supposed to inherit their wealth and properties… but then a new claimant suddenly appeared, completely out of nowhere, claiming even closer relations. His proof of his lineage was painfully fake and all the documents obvious forgeries, but he was better connected than me and in the end, courts assigned everything to him and left me with nothing."

"I see," Alanic said. "And so you saw young Veyers coming to you for help and felt touched by this young man that was seeing his legacy usurped from him by branch members of his House."

"Yes, precisely," Jornak said. "In truth, I couldn’t help him much. Formal Houses like his own are given a lot of leeway in how they govern themselves internally, and general law is only somewhat applicable to his situation. Still, the boy seemed to appreciate my advice, and the fact that I cared … which not many people around him did, if he was to be believed."

"And him coming to live inside your home…?" Zorian prompted.

"That… you know he was expelled from his school?" Jornak said, frowning. "Well, he didn’t want to go back to his family after that. After wandering all over the city to cool down, he came over to my house and begged me to house him for a few days. He said he needed a place to hide for a while and think about what to do about things. How could I refuse?"

"That’s very generous of you, and I mean that sincerely," Zorian said. "But how does that lead to his body being stuffed into your icebox?"

"That… I didn’t know what to do, okay!?" Jornak said, becoming agitated. "I just came into his guest room one morning to see why he missed breakfast and found him dead. I didn’t know what to do! Despite all his problems, he was still a noble and House Boranova would never take this lying down. He died in my home and the wards didn’t register any intruder at all. How would I possibly explain this? I empathize with the boy, but I don’t want to ruin my life for him! Haven’t I suffered enough!?"

Jornak gritted his teeth and started pulling at his hair in frustration. With a sharp turn, he started pacing around the room again, gesticulating to himself and muttering under his breath.

It wasn’t an act, as far as Zorian could tell. Jornak had never bothered to reform his mental barriers after Zorian destroyed them, leaving his thoughts completely unguarded. Everything he said was truth as he saw it, and he was honestly panicking and unsure what to do.

"So, this could be a dumb question, but why keep Veyers' body in the icebox in your basement?" Zach asked suddenly.

"I didn’t know what else to do," Jornak said, still pacing around the room. "If I took it out of the house to dump somewhere, the trackers hired by House Boranova would find me the moment I stepped out of my house’s privacy wards. As for destroying it… well, I’ve never destroyed a body before! I mean, obviously I didn’t! How would I know how to do that? So I put the body on ice while trying to think up a solution…"