Nobody slept that night.
Kelser laid on his bed staring at the ceiling of the tent. The candle burned down next to him. He did not move. He did not blink.
On one side of the scale two hundred and eighty seven dead people. Tomas. Lily. The baker. All the men on the wall.
On the other side Elara. The woman who had held his hand when he died in the sewer. The woman who had sat next to his bed for two days without sleeping. The woman who had kissed his forehead when he woke up.
He still did not know.
He got up. Put his coat on. Walked out into the night. The city was quiet. Too quiet.
He found Jian passed out on a table in the middle of the square. Empty bottles all around him. Kelser kicked the leg of the table.
Jian woke up. Fell off the chair.
"Fuck", he said. "What."
"I need you to tell me something", Kelser said. "And don't lie. Don't be my friend. Just tell me the truth."
Jian sat up. Rubbed his eye. He saw Kelser's face and he stopped joking.
"Okay."
"Do you think it was her?"
Silence.
Jian looked down at the dirt. He picked at a crack in the wood of the table.
"I don't know", he said finally. "I have been asking myself the same question for three days. I keep waiting for one of you to do something that makes it obvious. And neither of you do."
He looked up.
"Tian is a liar. But he told the truth about one thing. Nothing that happened makes sense if he did it. All of it was perfect to make us hate him. All of it was perfect to make us fight. And he just walked up here and told us that. Why would he do that if he was guilty?"
Kelser said nothing.
"And Elara?" Jian continued. "She is the only one who knew everything. The only one who could have been everywhere. The only one who knew exactly how the poison worked. But... fuck man. She cried for three days when you were unconscious. She almost killed herself pulling the poison out of you. Who does that? Who acts that good?"
He hit the table with his fist.
"I don't know. That is the worst part. I don't fucking know. And I will never know. Because if she is innocent and I accuse her I break everything. If she is guilty and I don't we all die."
Silence again. A dog barked somewhere far away.
"What do I do Jian?" Kelser asked. His voice was small. For the first time ever he sounded scared.
Jian looked at him.
"There is only one thing you can do. You have to ask her."
"And if she says yes?"
"Then you kill her."
"And if she says no?"
Jian stared at him for a very long time.
"Then you believe her. And you never ask again. And you kill anyone who ever says her name and guilty in the same sentence. Including Tian. Including me."
Kelser walked back to the healer tent. It was almost dawn. The sky was that pale grey colour right before the sun comes up.
Elara was sitting on the steps outside. Waiting for him. Like she knew he was coming.
She did not look angry. She did not look surprised. She just looked tired.
"You are going to ask me", she said.
Kelser stopped three feet away from her.
"Yes."
He pulled the piece of parchment out of his pocket. Laid it down on the step between them. The symbol.
"I saw you draw this. Five months ago. By the river."
Elara looked down at it. She did not deny it. She did not say it was a lie. She just nodded.
"Yes."
"Why?"
She looked up at him. Her eyes were wet. But she did not cry.
"Ask me the question Kelser. The real one. Don't dance around it. Don't be polite. Just ask me."
Kelser breathed in. His chest hurt.
"Did you put the poison in the water?"
Time stopped.
For ten seconds nobody breathed. Nobody moved. The whole world was just the two of them and that symbol on the step.
Elara looked him directly in the eyes.
"No."
Silence.
"I did not kill Tomas. I did not poison the water. I did not kill any of them. But I know who did."
She leaned forward.
"And I know what the symbol means."
Kelser felt the ground move under his feet.
"What is it?"
Elara took a deep breath.
"It is the mark of the Asura King."
And before Kelser could say anything else she said the thing that broke every single thing he ever believed.
"And you Kelser. You are the one who is going to become him."