Chapter 97: Disquisition
Jinhai didn’t wait for them.
He was already steps ahead.
Sandals scuffed soft against damp stones.
Darin and Elyra traded a look before catching up.
"He’s fast for someone who was sulking on a bridge a minute ago," Elura muttered under her breath.
"He wasn’t, he was thinking," Darin replied.
"Children tend to space out when they...well, that’s what I think," Elyra said.
Jinhai could hear her, but he didn’t say anything, and just kept his pace.
The path narrowed past the bridge, hedged in by leaning white-leaf trees whose branches had grown into each other over decades, forming a ceiling that just felt surreal.
The morning light came through in broken pieces here, stuttering across the stones, across Jinhai’s shoulders, across the back of his robes, and with each the sound of leaves brushing against the gust of wind made them feel as if it was a path to heaven.
But Darin noticed something. It was just eerily quiet.
"Shouldn’t there be more monks around?" he asked.
"There should be," Jinhai said.
He didn’t explain further. Elyra opened her mouth, thought better of it, and closed it again.
They rounded a low outcrop of rock, and the ridge came into view.
A wide stretch of open stone shouldering out over the slope, a single tree standing crooked near its edge, and beyond that, nothing but sky, and the long fall of the mountain toward the frozen north.
Jinhai stopped walking.
Darin and Elyra followed his gaze and looked at the ridge, but none of them spoke.
"That’s where I found him." Jinhai said.
Elyra’s exhaustion seemed to leave her all at once the moment she heard the tone of his voice.
For a moment, Jinhai did not seem like a calm munk.
The stone itself was unremarkable, there was no blood or any signs noticeable even if Darin saw it from a distance. Someone had already swept the leaves back into place.
"The moved the body," Darin said.
"This morning, before you arrived. There was a man here already, older, didn’t wear munk’s robes."
"Someone got here before us?"
"Court officials, I told you," Jinhai said.
"But he didn’t feel like one, didn’t have a uniform, didn’t give a name, or should I say he didn’t need to, the abbot bowed to him the was we bow to the sun."
Darin exchanged a glance with Elyra, neither of them liked what that implied.
"He was with the court?" she asked.
"Yes, but his position felt higher," Jinhai said.
The wind moved through the crooced tree, and for a moment none of them spoke.
"Anyway," he said. His voice climbed back to its usual self, "Hungry? Breakfast’s probably cold by now, but I know where they hide the good buns."
Elyra stared at him. "A man died here-"
Darin raised his in a gesture, telling her to stay quiet.
"Yes, and I still have to eat," Jinhai replied.
"Very well, usually its our duty to help the munks, but my mom used to say that you should never decline something a monk offers," Darin said.
"She must’ve been a pure soul, I’ll pray for her," Jinhai then gestured, "If you will follow me now."
The dining hall was smaller than Darin expected.
Low tables, no chairs, cushions worn thing from decades of the same knees, a pair of monks moved along the far wall, refilling water jugs, careful not to look toward the three of them.
Jinhai dropped onto a cushion, he tore a bun in half and slid one piece across the table without asking if Darin wanted it.
"Eat, you’ll think better."
"..." Darin bowed a little, and tore the remaining bun into two pieces, passing the other half to Elyra.
Elyra sat stiffly, and just accepted it, taking small bites of the bun already as her eyes flicked between the two of them.
"So," Darin said, "the abbot. When do we meet him?"
Jinhai didn’t reply for a moment, he just chewed his meal.
"You don’t need to." He said.
"We’re investigating a death in his monastery."
"You’re investigating a death I asked you to investigate." Jinhai said it casually.
"What do you mean?" Darin asked.
"Who do you think signed the request? The abbot doesn’t even know your names yet." Jinhai said.
"He didn’t send for the academy, I did."
"The abbot will thank you when you leave, he might even mean it. But he’s not who you answer to here."
Elyra’s mouth had gone slightly open. She closed it.
Darin set the bun down, not in an offense he felt, but in a more specific...unpleasant recalibration of realization.
"A child, a monk, requested cadets from the Lunar academy where even Dukes fail to hold influence, and that too through the fifth Prince’s household, that’s not something a child does on instinct." Darin said.
"I never said it was done instinctively, I’m merely clarifying the situation, and the dynamics you have built on assumptions," Jinhai said.
"..."
"..."
"..."
There was silence.
It was then Darin understood, the passing monks were not daring to meet them because they were outsiders, but they were just avoiding Jinhai.
He thought a lot in the moment of silence.
"Fine," Darin smiled slowly.
Elyra furrowed her brows to that response.
"Then as our employer, what do you actually want from us?" Darin asked.
"If it was just investigation then you would’ve helped the abbot, you could’ve asked officials, or anyone. But there must be a reason for going through a lot of trouble, and making several excuses, just to bring us here," Darin continued.
"Find out what killed Senior Shen." Jinhai shrugged. "The court will look for who, I don’t think that’s the right question."
Darin’s brow furrowed, "Those aren’t different questions."
"They are." Jinhai picked at the bread again, he was distracted.
"A ’who’ gives you a face to punish, a ’what’ gives you a reason to stop it from happening to the next one."
Elyra glanced at Darin, and she noticed his expression changed to surprise once again.
"How?" He muttered under his breath.
"How do you know there have been similar cases like these?" his voice was clearer this time.
"There has been no publication, there has been no proper investigation, even the professor knew of it not until recently, and the locations have been several miles apart for monks who live in their monasteries to know of," he said.
"Questioning my knowledge would be like placing doubts in your most meaningful asset," Jinhai said.
"Tell me, how many beads are there in the mala?" Jinhai asked.
"A hundred and eight," Darin sighed, and replied.
"When you pray daily, you don’t count the beads in your mala, but brother Shen always did. He had the habit of counting his beads." Jinhai said.
"He used to count them in the morning, he used to count them in the night, before he started his prayers, or whenever he felt boredom."
"There were no wounds, no blade, no bruising, nothing you’d call an attack, so what would even cout as a ’what’, here?"
Jinhai continued speaking.
"The mala." He said.
"Someone who counts the number of beads before prayers, had a mala of hundred and seven beads held between his fingers,"
"My request is not that you find the killer."
"Find me the missing bead."