Infuriatingly, Emmy and Patrick refused to leave Finn alone once they'd seen him back to his room.
Even worse, they refused to help him sneak back into the Vault to continue the inventory or the library to go through the Histories and see if there was any clue as to why the Yins would turn against the Ye family.
They barely let him out of his bed unless it was to use the chamber.
"Stop sulking." Emmy snapped. "You have to rest, and you know that."
"I am rested!"
"You're pale as the ghosts we saw at Tira-Lian." She snorted. "You'll keel over after a few steps." She ignored his pout as she let the maids in with breakfast. Smacking her brother when he drooled over the plates of breakfast cakes piled high with fresh fruit and cream, fried eggs rolled around vegetables, carafes of strong tea, and sweet coffee. The maids set out enough for an entire company with nice plates and silverware that cost more than the tiny apartment Emmy and Patrick shared.
They also delivered another dose of medicine from the healers that Emmy had to pour down Finn's throat while Patrick lay on him so he couldn't escape.
She did feel a bit bad afterward, just the smell of the potion was terrible, and if it tasted anything like it smelled, well, poor Finn.
He gagged for a moment after he finally swallowed it, and then turned a glare on her she honestly didn't think he'd had in him.
It wasn't enough to make her feel a single ounce of regret, but it was impressive. Was this how parents felt when dealing with their sick children?
Emmy was certainly empathetic, but her patience was already running thin. Thankfully, the arrival of the food seemed to distract Finn from his confinement, and they managed to spend the next hour stuffing their faces until there was nothing left.
"Have you guys heard anything from the front?" Finn was in regular contact with Eirian and usually knew more than the two of them, but a single day in the hospital was enough to make him paranoid that he'd missed something.
"Princess Soliel is taking her forces north to join Lord Ye and Lord Zhao." Eirian had sent the same news to Finn a few days before, but Emmy'd received a note from a friend telling her the same yesterday. Along with excited ramblings that they were going to follow the Princess into battle again, and more than a few of them were hoping to see her magic in action.
"Sounds like this war will be over a lot faster than the last one," Patrick said around a mouthful of berries.
Emmy glared at him. "You're never going to find a wife if you keep talking with your mouth full."
Patrick rolled his eyes like a typical younger sibling, unconcerned with his future or any chance that Emmy wouldn't be there to look after him.
It made Finn laugh, though, and that was good.
"Beng Shai is dead. The tribal alliance will fall apart soon, without someone capable of replacing him." Emmy added. "There's a bet going around about how long it will take."
"That's good, right?" Finn chewed on his lip, nervous. "That everyone thinks it will be over soon?"
Emmy nodded. "The people who live in the Camelia have been fighting the tribes their entire lives. There's no one who knows them better. I think the bigger threat is what's happening here."
"Poisoning Lord Colfax is pretty bold," Patrick agreed.
"Especially since they did such a sloppy job," Emmy snorted. "It's almost suspicious how easy it was to discover."
Finn frowned. "You think it's a trap?"
"Or a misdirect." Emmy nodded. "It just seems too easy, and nothing about this entire situation has been easy so far. It's been almost ridiculously difficult."
"I was surprised by the link to the Yins too…but they are a noble family." There was a hint of bitterness in his voice, and he knew noble families better than either of them. "Even the best of them are capable of terrible things if they're trying to preserve their status."
Emmy raised an eyebrow, surprised at his less-than-positive opinion about the world he came from. "Agreed. Just because they were low on the list, we assumed it wasn't them."
"It still might not be," Finn sighed. "Someone stealing the family crest points to the Yangs. The poisoning points to the Yins. The families at court going after Lord Zhao are the Wens and Crusoes. Snake is the only person we know for sure was stealing from the Vault."
"And she's too smart not to be long gone," Emmy muttered, still bitter that they'd most likely never be able to bring her to trial for her actions.
"We're missing something," Finn muttered, lost in thought. "There's something obvious that we should be seeing. Something simple." Because most of the time the answer was simple, and when it wasn't, it was because you had misunderstood something, made some assumption that wasn't as correct as you thought. They had a lot of clues, a lot of possibilities, but nothing that was concrete enough to take in front of the court. If they accused the wrong person, they'd never be able to accuse anyone else. The entire investigation would become a joke and could damage Eirian and Chenzhou's rule significantly.
"We need to do something." Patrick pointed out. "The poisoning was so obvious, there's nowhere to go. Unless we start looking at who has a grudge against the Yins, instead of the Ye family."
"Maybe there's someone who hates them both?" Finn suggested.
"I'm sure there's more than one." Emmy sighed. They needed a fresh start or a different way of looking at everything. "We should start eliminating suspects, instead of adding more." They turned to her in surprise.
Finn perked up. "That's a great idea." He ignored her as she rolled her eyes at him, "Let's start with the first suspect we had."
Patrick frowned. "The tribes?"
Finn shook his head, "No, the first one inside the Camelia."
"The Yangs." Emmy nodded along. "One of the most unlikely, so they should be easy to eliminate. Plus most of them are at the front, so it shouldn't be too hard to get in and look around."
"We should keep it quiet, though." Finn turned pensive. "Just in case."
"Patrick and I will go tonight." Emmy decided, and Finn scowled. "It'll be better for the investigation if you aren't with us. Especially if we do run into someone who recognizes us."
He didn't like it, but he didn't really have the energy or the ammunition to argue, so Finn sulked as she and Patrick planned their path into the Yang family home.
~ tbc