Free Missing Elements (The Lament Book 3) by P.S. Power

managed to get a
clue as to which door she needed, since she noticed a familiar man slowly
walking toward the end of the hallway. Dressed in a white robe and everything.
He clearly couldn't see very well, which probably meant the flash flare that
had left several people temporarily blind had hit him harder than that. It was
sad, since his job was probably ruined forever if that was the case. Judges needed their eyes to work. Clair had hinted that there were other ways too, but that
they weren't as reliable.
    Without being able to see they
couldn't read people as well, and that meant they couldn't tell who was lying
at a perfectly high level. Since that was about half of what they did, it made
a difference.
    "Judge Brown!" Her
voice was light, and happy sounding, which got the man to turn and look at her.
Despite her fears about his vision, he clearly made out where she was.
    "Hello? I'm afraid that I
don't recognize you at the moment. A bit of temporary eye problems. I can't
actually see your face. It's hard to explain." His voice was warm enough,
but the line sounded rehearsed.
    "No need to really, I was
right there next to you when it happened. Or, not right next to you,
since that was Judge Clair and the other Judge, but near enough. Pran? The girl
with the rifle?" She wondered if he'd recall her at all, but there was a
smile on his lips.
    "Ah! What brings you to our
hall here today? Aren't you a Bard?"
    She nodded, then realized that
might be hard to see for the man.
    "That's right. I'm setting
up a special shipment for some people and was wondering if there was a need for
a Judge somewhere between Gladstone and O'Brien. I know that Luis is on that
route and there will already be a stop there." At first it didn't make
sense that she'd tell him that much, but then the reason occurred to her. Half
blind or not, the man smiled.
    Then told the world about
her words. It was a habit the Judges all seemed to share. Helpful, in the
moment. Normally it was a bit less so, especially for people that got by on
lies most of the time.
    " True . I don't know,
naturally. I was just coming to see the High Councilor for my section, to see
what my disposition is. I've been given leave to take what time I need to heal,
but it's a bit boring, simply sitting in my room all day. On the good side, it
seems that I really am healing up and should be able to resume my work in a few
months. It was feared for a while that I might need to retire."
    Given that he probably didn't
know what else to do with himself, except be a Judge, she thought she
understood. They were really good at being what they were, but it was all they were. From the time they were tiny children, they learned their skills,
and did almost nothing else. Like Guardians. Bards too, but what she'd learned
was more varied, wasn't it?
    Still, when the Art School had
kicked her out, she'd nearly had to go and prostitute herself for money to eat.
Brown here was too old to make much that way, if it came to it, so would end up
being a charity case, most likely. Retirement was normally just a reduced
version of whatever job you'd done when you were younger. If you couldn't do
that, someone else would have to take care of you.
    "I... Might have something
for you, if you're willing to play a little fast and loose with the rules?
Nothing that would invalidate any oaths, I don't think, or break the law.
I'll... We need to run it pass your boss. It won't pay much, but you can listen
to me play and meet people, I bet. It could be useful too." There was a
lot more to it, but talking about it in the hallway was stupid . So much
so that she shut her lips suddenly, and took the other man's arm, which was
enough for him to lead her to the right place.
    The set up here was different. It
was a two room situation, like what Clarice had, but the back room was the
small one, and the front had several Judges sitting at desks, working. All of
them clearly in trance states. The one in the front, a young woman