Leander broke in, hands out to calm Nova. "Louis Reveur didn't say who was behind the assassination attempt, or who's responsible for the takeover tomorrow."

Mr. Potestas's argument that the current president's restrictions kept magic safe were compelling. Justin Marius, according to Nova, sounded as if he wanted to take that even further. Cristo's purpose had been revealed: to pin the assassination attempt on a candidate who wanted to keep this civilization safe from magic's potentially dangerous consequences.

"The investigation will be thorough. We'll gather the evidence before we make any accusations," said Leander.

"Riiiiight," said Cristo, slowly, trying out with multiple syllables a combination of disagreement and hesitation in opposition to the word's meaning. "But there's two separate issues: a criminal investigation that may take weeks or months to determine who was behind an attempt to murder Ilan Potestas, and an election happening at dusk tomorrow in which the person responsible may become the president of an infinitely powerful company. If Marius is using a hit to take the presidency, we need to be watching him."

"But with nothing to tie Mr. Marius to the crime, there's no probable cause to investigate him," said Leander. "The only basis for your accusation so far is that he's the most likely candidate to win an election tomorrow if Mr. Potestas is taken out of the equation. That's speculation."

"I'm not talking about a criminal investigation. I just need to know about any interactions Marius might have had with Gaia Solin's supporters. Any opportunity he may have had to coerce, bribe or blackmail any executives at the company."

"Under what authority are you gathering that information?"

"As a private investigator. Hopefully on behalf of Constellation's Invernali branch at the request of Exequi Ilan Potestas, into possible election fraud at the company."

The obvious question came too easily: "Do you have a private investigator's license?"

Cristo turned to the boss as if Leander were an annoying house fly, and instead of answering he waited for something from Potestas, arms folded in front of him, seething.

The boss said, "If you don't have a PI license, I will gladly accept your tip and open an investigation immediately. Your involvement won't be necessary."

"Tomorrow I'm going to the Constellation central office to uncover how Marius is manipulating voters, and you can  help me. I came to you because I know you'll do anything to preserve Gaia Solin's presidency."

"Oh, you want private information on Constellation executives from Invernali's director? Is that all?" said Nova.

"No," said Cristo, and he turned to Stephen Potestas. "I need one other thing. It's a big ask, and I'm getting the sense that you don't exactly trust me. That's okay, because I don't need to be directly involved. I'm concerned that something might go wrong with the security features on the star dial after the election. Control over star dial capabilities and development needs to be handed over to a new president when one is elected. It needs to be done carefully, because the star dial is the source of immortal life."

Something funny happened when he said that. Cristo paused for no reason that Leander could see mid-speech and took a swallow as if he had just said something he wasn't supposed to, and everyone else broke eye contact and looked away. This was the first Leander had heard that these people were immortal. He wondered what the awkwardness was all about.

The silence lingered for a few seconds before Cristo shook his head and went on with his point. "Even if Gaia Solin is reelected, something could go wrong in the future. Another election, perhaps. Aurelian Potestas, I'm asking that you locate the proprietary connection to the star dial that provides immortal life to Soliara's citizens, secure it, and develop a spiritual backup."

Stephen looked up, nodded slowly and spoke as if he'd momentarily lost his voice and was now getting it back. "That's not an unreasonable suggestion." The first few words crackled in his throat. "I can request oversight of the star dial."

"It's unreasonable," said Nova, "when we have no idea who Cristo is or what he's after."

Leander felt his body involuntarily shudder. "Don't mess with the dial," he found himself saying. "If it's working the way it's meant to, don't change anything." He had a bad feeling, like Louis had watched over this society for decades and they never needed him, like he'd been killed on the cusp of something finally happening and all of his knowledge and experience to deal with it had died with him, like at a glance these people were playing with forces way outside their own understanding and they wanted to play politics over it, like this stranger who showed up lying and stealing was leading them who knew where and if he had his way something very bad was going to happen. Like he didn't know so much as the laws of physics of this place where everything was about to change apparently in twenty-four hours and he had no framework with which to know what to do a damn thing about it.

All he knew was that Cristo needed to be stopped and the boss, his son and this woman who acted like an adopted daughter needed to know just how much he was manipulating them.

But Nova was on it. "This entire assassination attempt could be a staged ploy to admit access to the dial," she said.

There wasn't a moment's pause as her words rang in everyone's ears.

Cristo couldn't give Nova's fear-mongering time to settle its hold over them, and he didn't have a good response planned for that either, because no one should have been able to come up with such a quick objection to his idea. That hadn't even begun to occur to Stephen the genius engineer. Now Nova had Leander worried. She was a great tactician.

So Cristo didn't argue. "That's fair. Take your time and reconsider that bit of company policy. Nothing needs to change immediately. Justin Marius has some radical ideas about amending immortality, but I don't expect him to change the policy overnight." Indeed, it would take him ten decades to rationalize the revocation of millions of immortalities, condoning his political opponents to the cycle of life and death, maintaining immortality only based on a meritocracy. And charging exorbitant fees to every immortal in the empire for the source of their eternal life. That gave Stephen a little while to determine the importance of building a backup key to save the lives of everyone Marius wanted to return to mortality. Cristo, however, didn't have a little while. He had one day to make sure Marius didn't become president.

Nova seemed appeased, yet annoyed at being appeased. She crossed her arms over her chest again and returned to her previous argument.

"We have no idea who you are or where you came from. You don't work for Constellation and neither did Louis Reveur, so I don't know why you're so invested in the company's future, or how you know so much. This could all be a trap set up to get information out of Exequi Potestas. You could be behind the assassination to get information, not to mention an illegal magic connection. Which you're not getting." She looked down at the gun on the table meaningfully. "I don't believe you. I think you made this up." She looked down at Ilan in his desk chair. "Boss, I beg you not to trust strangers who slipped past your security to sneak a gun illegally connected to Potestas Tower magic into your masquerade party — a gun taken from the warm dead hands of your friend Doctor Reveur, whom they could have killed for all we know — and have now concocted a nonsense story."

Cristo should have expected her outrage. It got worse as she went on. "And don't get me started on Cristo's delusions. He thinks he knows me, and he's convinced that I know him when I don't. I want an explanation." Everyone in the room stared at him. Cristo didn't have an answer for that either yet. Not a good one, anyway.

"He's crazy," said Nova. "He can't even begin to explain."

"That's true," said Cristo. "Not that I'm crazy. It's true that I can't explain. Nova . . . Aurelian Dasilva, I apologize for the confusion. I don't understand what's happening and the part of it I do, I can't tell you. I promise it's not important — or at least it's not important to our ability to stop the takeover. I need twenty-four hours, and then you can do whatever you want to me. Arrest me, torture me, shoot me. If you do it now, Gaia Solin will lose control of the company."

Nova crossed her arms. "I don't care whether Gaia Solin remains president—"

Ilan cut her off. "If he's telling the truth, I'm willing to hold off on the interrogation until after the election."

"That's what I was going to say," said Nova. The old man smiled up at her. "You'll be willing to hold off, it it keeps Gaia in office, boss. Your call," she shrugged. "So if I disregard the crazy things you said to me, Cristo, how are you going to prevent the takeover?"

"For one thing, boss," said Cristo to the big man, "it's crucial that you try to keep yourself alive for the next day or so." Ilan Potestas let out a laugh, nodding, and Cristo imagined even Nova had to find the joke amusing.

"I'll continue where Louis left off. I need to investigate how the opposition faction plans to manipulate so many voters. Maybe I can reveal coercion and electoral fraud."

Potestas Senior took Louis Reveur's gun from the desk. Cristo eyed the weapon as if he really needed it. It would have been suspicious if he didn't. The boss said, "I need to carefully consider whether to become complicit in your investigation," and he pocketed the gun.

Then he made his way to the door, and Nova and Stephen followed. "There's one more thing, Boss," said Cristo, and the three turned back toward him, but only Potestas Senior would understand. "Leander is here to replace Louis Reveur."

"What does that mean?" said Nova.

"Never you mind," said the boss. To Cristo he elaborated, "I never believed that story. Louis trusted me enough to tell me, but I never believed him. Maybe he was just crazy. Maybe he was wrong about everything. This included. Goodnight." He put his back to them and left the office.

A/N Thank you for reading Stars Rise, a novel in the Constellations universe. Please stay tuned for the chapters to come, and if you like the story, you will love the short Constellations on my profile: When Inyanga Goes to Magicians College, Bay Works At the Cloud, and It Feels As If A Spell Has Been Placed Over Izara's Neighborhood.

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