2412 Rab 30, Daleth

Every head turned towards her when she sauntered into the meeting room in the heart of the ruins. The generals gathered around a flickering lantern, their shadows dancing with every sway of the flames across different directions.

"We have a problem at hand," she said, sitting on the spot deliberately left for her. After spending the rest of the night beside Cailen, she still didn't feel like she deserved to be here, but she knew something they didn't. Rather, she saw something they wouldn't. "If you please hear what I have to say."

The absence of General Anerin's green armor was a scar Canelis didn't want to peck, so she averted her eyes on his usual spot and focused on General Varkas instead. The woman's tenacity and her ability to survive was something Canelis respected as well.

"Go on, Crown General," General Helzare said. "You couldn't have come at a more appropriate time. Perhaps you have something to add to the final stretch of the plan?"

She frowned. "There would be no plans until I'm done with what I came for," she said. Before they could ask anything, she turned and stuck her hand into a satchel she brought with her. The sheafs of parchment crinkled when she whipped them out. "I went through the espionage reports that guided the mission I was sent out to last, along with General Evi Anerin. And I found something strange."

General Varkas' expression changed, as if her cheek was melting from one side. When Canelis blinked, it was replaced by a concerned stare, urging her to continue. That's...

Canelis cleared her throat. "While the paragraphs and the accounts described followed the code of espionage, I spotted a few things," she said, handing the other generals the sheets. She had studied them for hours before she made it into this meeting, so she didn't need to look at them to prove her point. "I said it before—they are too detailed, as if the spy had spent some time inside the fortress and have only been describing it from memory."

"And in one of the paragraphs by the third page, somewhere in the middle," Canelis continued. "There have been mentions of shifts in patrols at exact hours of the day, and if I recall correctly, the spies have only how many hours to do these tasks?"

She glanced at General Vadrona who controlled the espionage division along with Commander Faira. The General didn't miss a beat as she tapped her chin and glanced up. "Sixteen hours, give or take," she said. "I remember thinking we didn't have enough time before launching the mission."

"Anyone here who have done a sliver of spywork in the past?" Canelis met the generals' eyes one by one, until it settled on General Slynn. The beads and pendants decorating her hair and neck clinked together when she straightened. Canelis ducked her head at the general. "I'm sure, General Slynn has something to share. What would you have gathered if you were given only sixteen hours?"

"The basic layout of the place, the points of security, the build of the outer layers, materials, the entry and exit points..." the general answered, her voice fading out.

"Would you have noticed how the inner walls worked, or how intricate the weapons' descriptions are?" Canelis jerked her chin at the parchments making rounds among the generals. "Because they're all discussed there, as if the spy held these weapons or have seen the inner parts work, down to the last detail."

"Maybe they really saw it and were just showing off," General Helraze said with that smart mouth of his. Maybe he was the traitor all along.

Canelis turned back to Vadrona. "How many spies did you send?" she asked.

"Three?" the general answered.

"And what did they all say?" Canelis prodded,

Vadrona's eyes narrowed. "The same thing," she said. Canelis saw the gears in Vadrona's mind starting to turn as well when the general knitted her eyebrows. "Which, in itself, should have raised a warning."

Slynn bobbed her head. "No two spies would have noticed the same thing," she said. "That's why we often send more than three during covert missions, and then, it's the commander or a general's job to piece their reports together."

"And upon checking these individual reports, it seems as if they can stand on their own, and no matter how hard we try, the other two can't complement it," Canelis said. "Which brings me to my main point: there's a traitor among us, and they might as well be in this very room."

General Adino scoffed. "How would we have not known it, then?" he asked. "We have known each other since we started out in the army! If anyone's a traitor, wouldn't we have known them already? Sniffed them out before they could do any real damage?"

"Or maybe we have all been traitors all this time," added Helraze.

"How can you even be sure it's a pixie?" General Xilren demanded, throwing her hands in the air in an exasperated wave.

Canelis whirled to her. "I'm not," she said. "In the battlefield, what killed General Anerin wasn't an enemy soldier. It was a pixie. And if they are one of ours, they wouldn't have plunged it neck deep. There are quicker ways to kill a fairy."

And if they were all in the army, they would know that. It couldn't be taught by someone who didn't spend at least ten years inside the ranks, and even then, not everyone could do it perfectly at the first try. Whoever infiltrated them wouldn't risk being discovered through that method, so they went for the unorthodox way—a quick but messy stab.

"Which meant they could not have been a pixie," Canelis said. "But a fairy who can look like one."

Suspicious eyes turned against each other as the generals shot guarded looks at everyone in the room. "How can you be sure they're within the inner court?" General Adino asked. "Maybe it's you!"

"If you continue to point that finger at me, General, I might assume it's you," Canelis leveled her gaze at the bluish glints of the dents in his armor. "But I am certain because all of our missions, at least some vestiges of it, have not been laid out in full to our platoons. A general does not reveal their secrets to anyone, and a soldier's job is to follow whatever order their commander gives out. But if the enemy starts to figure out even those that should have only been known to this sacred circle, what does it mean?"

General Vadrona folded her hands together. "That a general has let it slip," she said. "And there's only us to blame."

"Who is in charge of these parchments?" Canelis gathered them into her hands when they had finished their rounds. "General Vadrona, where did you first get it from?"

The woman's eyes flashed towards the only person in the room who hasn't said anything since the talk of the traitor came to light. "General Varkas," Vadrona revealed. "She handed them to me, claiming the spies gave it to her instead of going straight to me."

Canelis leaned back, having done her job. "There we have it," she said. "And who's so eager to attack the fortress before they attack us?"

The same answer lay before them.

General Varkas sneered. "That proves nothing," she said. "I'm as loyal to the Riogener as all of you."

Canelis leveled her gaze at the general, her magic blaring in her ears. "Last I checked," she said. "We don't have one."

Before any of them could react, she sent a beam of solid light into Varkas' form. The other generals fled to the walls while Canelis rushed forward and pinned Varkas to the ground before the impostor could summon her magic. When the dust cleared, a different fairy replaced their general under Canelis' hold. Pale green hair, orange pupils, and a complexion as soft and white as the clouds.

It's a shard fairy, alright.

The traitor hissed at them, but before she could do anything, Canelis snatched a dagger from her boots and swiped it against the impostor's neck. Blood seeped out from a small but deep gash behind the neck, right where the head met the spine. Life was quick to fade, and only glass shards crunched beneath Canelis' boots when she stood up.

"Now, they have given us a valid reason for bringing them down," Canelis said, sticking the knife back into her boots. "Let's take back what is ours."