Gershom
Once outside the burrow I watched as Ezekiel and Jerome transformed back into dragons and left. I then returned to the underground depths knowing that if I really wanted Hannah to come back this was the safest place to meet her. Inside I cast outwards as far as I could a telepathic sending telling her of my desperate need. If she didn't help me, my next plan was to go public with what I knew. I didn't have any proof only my word, but it might change Anne's sentence. In all likelihood, however, it would also get me killed.
Mulling over my limited choices, I didn't hear the footsteps that entered the burrow until they were only a few feet away.
"Gershom," Hannah's soft voice said. Turning around shocked it took me a few minutes to acknowledge her. "You came back." is all I managed to say.
Hannah's large rzerth eyes blinked repeatedly showing me she was feeling uncomfortable. "It turns out I couldn't even last one full day as an exile," she said with a heavy sigh. "It is different I am discovering leaving a place willingly as opposed to being forced out of it. I don't have enough of an imagination to pretend I was leaving of my own free will. Perhaps if you came with me, I could have pretended but all alone I only had my thoughts to keep me company."
Her centipede like body came closer to me. "I keep thinking about the murder. Felix, his father Keros or both used your feud with Anne to frame her for killing Felix's rival Linda Divine. The elder Keros Curran never attended a Res Publica meeting his only link would be through Felix. The entire reason Felix opposed Linda is because they had different ideas for the future of Res Publica. Because of a few close calls, Linda feared discovery and wanted to limit the number of their targets. Felix felt it was necessary to expand further. But regardless of their opinions, the entire organization had to vote on whether to discredit a Little Dragon, killing Linda wasn't really going to sway that vote in Felix's favor."
"So you are saying the rivalry between Felix and Linda isn't enough of a motive for Felix or Keros to kill her?" I asked confused.
"I am not sure that it is," Hannah said. "Yet it was done and now the weapon is useless. They can't kill any other Little Dragons because they framed Anne for it, and she is in prison. If anyone else dies, then the elders will know Anne is innocent. Felix and his father strike me as too intelligent to miss that point. So why was Linda Divine killed?"
She brought up a valid issue, one that Ezekiel, Jerome and I didn't consider. A great feeling of gratitude for Hannah's analytical mind swept over me. "I am really glad you came back," I said to her.
Hannah brushed off my words as she laid her rzerth body down in the burrow with an air of weariness, "I am still not convinced that joining you is wise. Your new plan sounds pretty insane to me."
"Going undercover is the only way I can discover where this weapon is being hidden," I said to Hannah.
"It is also a great way to get yourself killed," she added and when I was about to protest, she lifted up her front left appendage, a gesture signaling me to be quiet for a moment. "But you are right it is the only way, so we will forget being wise and concentrate on not dying as we carry out your scheme."
"We?" I couldn't help asking.
Hannah gave a positive shake of her head. "I am going to go with you. If I am not going to go into exile, I might as well go back."
Her complete change in attitude startled me. "Why?" I couldn't help asking her.
"Because of what you said earlier," Hannah said her voice heavy, "The Little Dragon race is facing a true threat to our civilization. Once I left and fear didn't cloud my judgement, I could see it and realized that if I didn't do something there might not be anything to come back for in the future."
Her explanation made sense, and it created a deep feeling of foreboding. Hannah was right something else was going on here, and it was up to us to figure it out. "So how do I become a member of Res Publica?" I asked her.
Hannah's rzerth mouth curved into a knowing smile. "Follow me," she said and the two of us left the burrow.
That ends Social Conundrums, Part XXV. Next month is Social Conundrums, Part XXVI. Learn more about the Little Dragons by reading the earlier blog post series titled Humanity's Evolution.
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