Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

In Every Corner

"What's going on?" The Chairwoman of the galactic assembly asked, stepping out of her private rooms and into the hallway. The windows overhead rattled and creaked as, outside, a sandstorm raged against the council building. Great billowing clouds of blue rolled in waves against the windows, and she could hear the sound of sand particles gently tapping against the glass.

The air inside was thick and hot, though it was beginning to cool off as the dust storm blocked the sun.

The hallway before her was a cacophony of people talking hurriedly in muted voices, though they hadn't been quiet enough to avoid disturbing her in her rooms. She stepped forwards and the group parted for her. She was not wearing the council drape, but almost wished she was as she stepped into the group of people.

As she walked she came upon a large sheet of fabric thrown over the floor, a lump underneath.

Someone stopped her, "Chairwoman, Perhaps you shouldn't go much further."

She looked down at the sheet a sort of sick feeling rising in her chest.

"What is this?'

There was a sort of shifting around the room.

She turned to glower at everyone, and they hurried to answer her question, one of the council pages stepping forward.

"It's Makam, ma'am. Someone found him like this not a few minutes ago."

"Like this?" She asked, though she already knew.

They looked down and shuffled their feet, "Dead."
"And do we have a doctor to verify.

A Rundi standing o the other side of the body lifted one of his hands in greeting to her, "I am ma'am. I examined the body. He had been dead for at least half an hour by the time I arrived." He trailed off waiting.

"Well go on, tell me what we know." She said

Rundi were annoyingly tight lipped at times, preferring only to answer direct questions in many case. She had been like that herself on a few occasions, but working with aliens for so long had rid her of that particular habit. Tesraki were similar in that they liked to speak in circles, but the Vrul and the Drev were unheedingly blunt.

When it came to humans, you tended to get a mix.

The doctor stood straighter, "As I was saying your honor, I determined the time of death was around thirty minutes to an hour ago and was likely related to a sudden and catastrophic collapse of the vascular system. Foaming around the mouth is indicative on ingestion of some sort of toxic chemical. Based on what I have seen in my travels aboard in the universe and a few medical documents sent over to us. I might assume it was some sort of poison.

There was a mummering I the hallway.

This was big news.

He had died very close to the chairwoman's personal chambers.

Had this been an assassination attempt?

Was someone gunning for her position?

Was it some kind of accident?

Was someone getting ready for something bigger and more serious. It was difficult to know of course.

The chairwoman herself doubted it. She did not know this Rundi which meant he was not particularly high up on he chain of command and would have had no way to get to her in time. Unless this was some sort of Demo of the poison, she was not sure how it could be linked.

She turned to look at the others, "What do we know about his behavior over the past few days. Anything suspicious, any health complains."

There was another pause and then one f her other pages stepped forward, "I knew Makam personally your honor." They paused and shifted their feet again as if looking for the proper words to put into place.