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Hector tilted his head. ‘You think someone is trying to frame him?’

‘Well, either he did it, or someone went to a lot of trouble to make it look that way. I don’t imagine that Ibai “just happened” to stumble onto this dead body during the very brief window when none of his bodyguards had eyes on him. That would be one hell of a coincidence.’

‘Hmm. But if someone framed him, then how could they have known where he would teleport to? Like you said, that window of opportunity was pretty damn small, and Ibai isn’t exactly predictable.’

‘Yeah, that’s a good point. If someone did frame him, they did it quite well.’

A question occurred to Hector, and he realized that he probably should have asked it earlier. ‘Where is the victim’s soul?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Garovel. ‘It wasn’t here when we arrived, but I did sense that it was in here with Ibai just beforehand.’

‘Wait a minute, what?’ Hector looked over the scene another time. ‘So you know for a fact that the victim was alive and alone with Ibai just before we got here?’

‘Not necessarily alive. Just that there was a second soul with him and that now it’s gone.’

Hector gave the reaper a look.

‘I know,’ said Garovel. ‘It’s rather strong evidence that Ibai consumed the soul. I’m not disregarding that as a possibility.’

‘It kinda seems like you are.’

‘I’m just saying that we should be thorough about this. Whichever way this ends up going, we need to be certain. Or at least, as certain as possible.’

‘Except, if Ibai and the victim were the only ones in the room at the time of the murder, then I don’t really see how anyone else could’ve done it.’

‘Hector. This building is full of servants. People with ridiculous powers. People who would also know to account for the reaper’s ability to sense souls.’

‘You’re talking about the Rainlords. You really think one of them would kill one of their own just to frame Ibai?’

‘We don’t actually know that the victim was a Rainlord, yet. It could’ve been one of Asad’s people. Maybe a staff member here. And the Blackburns seem unlikely to turn on Ibai now, after how far they went to protect him, but almost any of the Sebolts or Delagunas might’ve wanted negotiations between the families to break down.’