The soldier she was talking to snapped to attention, pushing past his comrades still in disarray upon their arrival. Canelis didn't care if she bumped against shoulders on her way to follow her current target. Behind her, alarmed dagrine neighs resounded along with all kinds of complaints from the merchants and traders held up in line.

Bricks surrounded her the moment she left the sidewalk flanking the busy trade route and stepped inside hallway punched straight through the fortress walls. The outposts were in the walls themselves? Amazing.

But...why would the Riogener approve of such a risky design? For one, the lack of foundation with the arcs made up a weak spot in the fortress' continuous run. Secondly, despite the metal gates placed at opposite ends of the hole, there was still a risk of it being run-down and Xai-Ren being invaded. It's not that hard to run a gate over.

"Crown General, in here," a voice belonging to the soldier she followed distracted her from figuring out the possible effects of the hole in the wall further. She turned to find the soldier waiting by a set of stairs leading upwards into the dark. Would she go with a complete stranger into a place with virtually no windows or any other ways of escape? Maybe. She'd just hold the badge glinting in the guard of the soldier's sword. Or maybe she'd just kill him before he decided to betray her.

Without a word, Canelis ducked behind the soldier as he disappeared into the stairs. If he had an inclination that he shouldn't trust Canelis, he didn't show it. Showing one's back to an enemy was the most idiotic thing a pixie could do.

The stairs went on for a while. About thirty steps up, enough to bring them to a height of at least ten fairies from the ground. It would be high up to see oncoming attackers coming from Ok-Sa and it's too low to be obvious from an onlooker. Perhaps, there was still salvation on this design. Were they doing the same thing on the southern wall? Was that why it was taking so long and so many soldiers?

The stairs halted to give way to flat ground leading to a set of doors flanking the right side of the corridor. Sunlight was scarce even though it was in the middle of the afternoon. Instead, the same orbs of light powering the ambience in the Royal villa floated in the space, making their shadows dance by their feet as they went. The soldier stopped by a specific door, this one made of sheared wood, and ducked his head once more.

"The Marshal is inside," he said. "We didn't have time to inform her of your arrival so please forgive her shock."

Canelis ducked her head in reply. "Thank you, Officer," she said. "You are dismissed."

She waited until the soldier has vanished down the stairs before turning the knob to the door and swinging it in. The hinges gave a small whine when the door revealed a young woman seated on a desk, scratching her scalp with a graphite stick.

"Sarbe, get me a glass of Virenza when you come back," the woman said, not bothering to look up at Canelis. "Oh, and get Latoris to fill up on the daily quota for dagrine dump. We need those if we are to get the garden in order."

"Unfortunately, Marshal, I am neither of those two," Canelis spoke, relishing how wide the woman's eyes went when she realized there was a brand new person in her room.

The Marshal sputtered. "C-Crown General," she edged out of her chair and stood up, bowing again and again in front of Canelis. "I was informed of your arrival but I didn't think you'd be here so early. Please forgive me if you find my earlier actions inappropriate."

Canelis laid a hand in the air. "At ease, Marshal," she said. Just a week ago, she wouldn't have dared utter the command. That was because a week ago, she was still a lieutenant, ranks lower than a Marshal. "I believe I have caused quite a ruckus with the merchants down in the trade route when we had to cross the road so I apologize for that in advance."

"That's not necessary, Crown General," the Marshal shook her head as if she was aiming to make herself dizzy. Some of the escaped strands of her dark, curly hair bounced against her forehead. "Nothing you do makes a hassle for us. You are always welcome to cross roads as you wish."

"But that's not why I'm here," Canelis said, tucking her hands behind her like how she saw the other Commanders did when dealing with officers with ranks lower than them. "Have you the inventory logs for the past three months at the ready?"

The Marshal's eyebrows arched and her eyes sparked with familiarity. "Certainly, Crown General," she tore away from their conversation with a bow before flitting to her desk and retrieving three bound tomes—a similar one from what the Riogener had shown Canelis when she had first gotten the assignment.

Canelis flipped to the first page of the first record she found as the Marshal stood beside her at ease but still attentive enough for anything she might need. With a sigh, Canelis skimmed the records, not finding anything amiss. She checked the in and out of the previous months as well as the present stocks of some items and she saw that most of them didn't indeed align.

"Have you asked Inventory what's going on?" Canelis turned to the Marshal who snapped to attention.

"We have, Crown General," the Marshal said. "There has been an extensive check throughout the various warehouses we have in these outposts. My men and those in the inventory have all been investigated. All of us are at a loss as to where our stocks have been disappearing to."

Canelis didn't reply and looked down at the records again. Her eyes traced the ones where she found an inconsistency. Flour. Eggs. Dairy products. Rolls of textile. Fairy potions—lots of them. There were also instances of stocks of ogronna, spicepods, and sugorice that have disappeared. Those were popular ingredients to the most common remedies.

She knitted her eyebrows. If these were thieves, they were surely extraordinary but in a bad way. If they really wanted to score some versallis, they should have gone for the soldiers' swords and armor. Those fetch a high price in the black market, or so Canelis was told. Why would they steal food and basic necessities?

Then, her eyes caught a strange entry she hadn't heard before. She turned to the Marshal. "What's a 'murwen leaf'?"

The Marshal glanced at the entry Canelis's finger tapped and stuck her bottom lip out. "That's what we use to deal with the plague."

At the notion of this, Canelis forgot the records and turned to the Marshal fully. "Plague?"

"Yes, Crown General," the Marshal said. "There has been some sort of magical anomaly from the outskirts of Xai-Ren, near the outposts. We believe it's coming from Ok-Sa, having been so close to the sea."

Canelis recalled all her geography lessons with her tutors. It's true. Ok-Sa really was a coastal city. Wasn't it inhabited at the moment? "What kind of plague are we dealing with?" she asked.

The Marshal sucked on her lower lip. "The kind that affects not just the body but the soul as well," she said. "It's known to cause extreme pain when it touches your skin and is known to alter specific aspects of one's soul, causing damage to it."

A dark cloud passed across the Marshal's face. "Most of the damages are permanent and we can't figure out how to stop it," she took a deep breath and glanced at the records again. "Murwen leaves help with easing the physical pain like the burns and scratches incurred. We couldn't do anything about the damages to the soul, though."

Canelis gritted her teeth. How was this connected to the discrepanices in the stocks in Xai-Ren? What was at work here?

"Why wasn't this reported to Yin-Alora? To the Riogener's office?" Canelis asked. "We could have done something sooner."

The Marshal shook her head. "We didn't want to put more pressure to the Royal office with this meager issue," she said. "Rest assured that it's being looked at as we speak."

Before Canelis could open her mouth to respond, screams of agression broke out from somewhere beyond the wall. A slight curse erupted from the Marshal's lips as she snatched her sword leaning against the wall behind the door. Canelis hadn't even noticed it there. She's becoming rusty.

"What's going on?" Canelis followed the Marshal who stormed past the corridor and tackled the stairs all in but a few seconds. "What's that commotion outside?"

The Marshal didn't turn, her footsteps sliding smoothly against the stone steps. "Not to worry, Crown General," she said, her voice breathless but still strong. "Renegades from Ok-Sa have been attacking us from the walls for the last four weeks. They usually go away when we made it clear we can decimate them if we wish."

Canelis's next question was then cut short when the Marshal leaped from the last two steps and sped out into the adjacent corridor. She didn't even turn back to check if Canelis was still behind her.

"Hold the gates. Flock the opening! Watch out for the infected!" came the Marshal's reedy but authoritative voice.

Around Canelis, pixies bearing swords and all kinds of weapons flooded the space between the gates. Outside, the trade route remained unbothered. Merchants and their caravans still went by in their course, though some heads began turning to the commotion happening just beyond them.

Canelis gripped for her sword but her fingers closed around air. Damned gods. She left her sword in her saddle! How dumber could she be this day?

She scanned the area, noting how and where to go if things go awry for her and the pixies. Metal clashed against metal, the sound echoing underneath the brick arch before scattering into the darkening sky above them. Sparks danced. Screams for order and surrender resounded.

A shadow flitted past Canelis' periphery. She turned to see a person clad in black, disappearing into yet another set of steps. This time, it led down. What was that?

Without thinking too much about it, Canelis sped after the shadow, tackling the stairs with the grace she has been trained with as soon as she was able to stand. Where was this leading to? Why was there someone going here when there's literally a fight outside?

Her eyes widened as the realization hit. Her feet touched down on solid ground as the stairs stopped. The black-clad figure was nowhere to be found. A distraction. That's what the commotion outside was. A way to gather all the soldiers from the outposts into one place while forcing them to forget the real reason they were sent in this place.

The stocks. The disappearing supplies.

She didn't get to scream when the back of her head flared with pain. The last thing she remembered was her cheeks hitting the ground and a boy exclaiming, "I got her!"

Had she been the target all along? If so, why?