#nabor

If Sliske were Nabor, where would he stash his most precious findings?

In a place where old Azzy and his backup dancers would never think to look, perhaps?!?

The bedpans!!!

...

...I guess not.

Hah! But this does remind me of your little revenge plot on Verhoket and Lojatto! Yes, the pompous pontificator that eyed Azzy’s position and his little sycophantic pet that always trailed him like a lost duckling. After their smear campaign on your asylum, you invited them over for a personal tour, as I remember. How I would’ve loved to see the looks on their faces when you handed Verhoket that bedpan and then offered to cleanse his hands with alcohol and flame!

Was that what got you on Azzy’s list?

Or, was it…

Was it, Nabor, this?

Oho, yes. This is what did you in, wasn’t it? This is what called Azzy to your doorstep with murder in his eyes.

This, my friend, is delicious.

Dear old Azzy - he’s a bit of a masochist when it comes to who he shimmies up close to, isn’t he? Poor thing does fear his own shadow, in a sense. Or, at least, what that shadow can do if it isn’t reigned in by a crystal-linked chain, hence his need to be leashed like some feral dog. And you smelled that from a mile away, my boy. Good job, I must say!

Such detail, these observations!

Some are a bit fuzzy, I must say, but others are spectacularly on the money.

And…

Oh.

Well, then.

I see why Zaros appointed you to this position, my friend.

Not many people can dig that deep into old Bunny Ears’ mangled psyche.

‘The Mahkorat - revenge for a murder. No crystal left - no evidence, no memories. Azzanadra is impulsive - he was coerced, maybe, by someone he trusted.’

You got close, there, Nabor.

A bit too close.

If Azzy hadn’t locked you in here, I might have.

Oh, look!

Look here, old friend! I’ve found your glasses!

Hah, you never needed vision correction, did you? Nevertheless, you insisted on inventing something that could magnify the smallest of objects to, what was it? ‘Make precision procedures easier?’

Why then, did my boy Nabor not just adjust his very eyes?

Well, Nabor?

Was it for the sake of your mortal understudies, to mass produce for their use? Was it for pure amusement? Well, whatever the case, seeing you with that collection of scrap metal and glass attached to your face always used to pull a chuckle from me.

Now, I suppose, they don’t quite fit anymore, do they?

No, and they look atrocious on your face now. Let me just set those next to what’s left of your crystal, there. Hmm... It looks out place.

There.

Like crystal, like glasses. Dust.

...

Hah! You know what they say about Mahjarrat with large crystals.

Though, I was never sure if that applied to you, my boy.