21 #3

“For the investigation?”

“For the C-7 routes, Rheskan, and possible access to Ydrael.”

“Of course.”

Neral wrote capture alive.

Aelyn leaned toward the table.

“The order must include protection for witnesses, archives, and freed people. Every seizure will have a public inventory.”

“That turns a hunt into an inspection,” Varek said.

“You called it an investigation.”

Darian accepted the clause.

Varek changed his strategy.

“The figure follows information about Ydrael. We have a convoy ready to carry plans from Luzmer to the western station. We’ll let the schedule circulate.”

Aelyn tapped the table with a finger.

“You propose using documents as bait.”

“Genuine documents inside a protected transport.”

“What else will it carry?”

“Guards, plates, and a prisoner who can verify the route.”

“The prisoner’s name.”

“Selection pending.”

“Then the civil affairs office rejects the operation.”

“Security falls under the regent.”

Darian looked at the map. He could refuse to sign, demand that the prisoner be handed over to the civil affairs office, and place Varek’s refusal on record.

The discussion would continue before the Council.

The convoy could take him to the woman and to Rheskan.

He drew the map toward his side of the table.

He wanted to be there when the wagon opened.

“I’ll lead the escort,” he said.

Aelyn turned her head.

Varek concealed his satisfaction.

“The regent has other obligations.”

“The figure has entered Caleryon, destroyed commission facilities, and created a crisis in two ports. My presence demonstrates control.”

“It also makes you a target.”

“That’s my decision.”

Varek agreed.

The operation would leave in seven days. Neral would draw up false routes and one true one. Aelyn would have access to the civilian inventory. The plates would be registered. Darian would choose half the guards. Varek would choose the technical captain.

Each condition divided authority while leaving the trap in place.

The meeting ended at dusk.

Varek left the reports on the table. Aelyn took the red book. Neral left with the draft.

Darian put Jalen’s testimony inside his folder.

Varek stopped in the doorway.

“If she’s alive, she has spent almost four years organizing a threat under your rule.”

“She’ll find our signatures on every order along those routes.”

“That worries you more.”

“I’m worried about the kingdom she’ll find.”

Varek rested a hand on the doorframe.

“The kingdom will have to choose between an heir turned rumor and a regent who keeps its gates open.”

“The white gates are full of erased names.”

“Then paint others.”

He left.

Darian stayed alone with the map.

He opened Jalen’s report. Beneath it was a note Varek had yet to see. The guard had sent it under the regent’s private seal.

I believe I had seen that woman before. She gave me no name. She chose to free the detainees and left the way open for my sister. Ask why the commission’s books say everyone left.

Darian read it twice.

He carried the note to the lamp.

The edge touched the flame. Jalen had entrusted the suspicion to his private seal. Darian moved the paper before the guard’s name could blacken; his freed sister was listed beneath it too. The note documented a family the commission had erased.

He pulled the paper away.

He put it inside a box with the ring Isolde had left on the mosaic, the death decree, and a copy of the Cendral report. The band struck the wood as he moved it. Darian moved it away from the paper and locked the box with his personal key.

The suspicion stayed outside the official file.

Then he took the operation map.

* * *

Aelyn waited in the gallery of fountains.

Darian passed beside her.

“You asked to lead the convoy,” she said.

“Varek will do it anyway.”

“Your presence gives him legitimacy.”

“It also gives me command over half the force.”

“That sounds like what I said when I accepted the civil affairs office.”

“Your office has saved people.”

“It has also signed decisions that are still hurting them.”

Darian looked at the water in the channel.

“Do you think it’s her?”

Aelyn took her time.

“I think you want an answer before deciding what you would do.”

“You’ve received messages from Arkhe and Luzmer.”

“You have the prisoners’ accounts in your office. The messengers deliver each copy without identifying the previous route.”

“You could recognize her method.”

“So could you.”

Darian touched the folder’s left edge with his thumb. As a teenager, Isolde had mocked the gesture. She said he was checking whether the words could escape through the margin.

Aelyn saw it.

“You’ve kept a report separate,” she said.

Darian lowered the folder.

“Come on the operation.”

Aelyn looked at the hand he kept on the cover. She waited until he had to stop smoothing it.

“Varek wants to watch me near the trap, and you want to see whether I look at someone the way I’d look at Isolde.”

“I want civilian authority over the prisoners.”

“My team will go as far as the departure point. Neral will keep the inventory. I’ll stay in Caleryon.”

“Why?”

“Ardan woke twice this week. The last time, he asked about a western door. If the convoy is moving plans concerning Ydrael, the river tower may hold the part Varek leaves out.”

Darian thought of including that information. He stopped before adding it to the file.

“Keep two healers with the king.”

“Always.”

Aelyn walked away.

“If you find the woman,” she said without turning, “she may ask you to step aside. Think about what you’ll do with the guards who bring her to you.”

Darian held the folder against his body.

“I want to talk to her.”

“In the square, you promised her freedom.”

Aelyn continued along the gallery before he found an answer.

The gallery was left empty.

* * *

The hunt order reached Luzmer on the tenth day of Kaoran’s recovery.

They posted it on the three fire towers. It offered a reward for information about the anonymous figure, an injured older man, and routes linked to Rheskan. It required capture alive. It promised civilian review of detentions and punishment for anyone who destroyed documents.

“They’ve read our claims,” Tarin said.

“They’ve also turned them into a map,” Isolde replied.

Kaoran read the poster from the cart. Vela had allowed the move with his torso immobilized, frequent rests, and a warning to return if he developed a fever or trouble breathing.

“‘Injured older man,’” he read. “The description shows a structural lack of respect.”

“We could dye your hair.”

“Keep your birthday presents.”

Lenda carried a copy of the order and another of Eren’s book. She would leave for Caleryon by land. Sura arranged a boat for Isolde and Kaoran. The glass canal emptied out west of the checkpoints.

Before they left, Tarin showed them a new wall.

It bore drawings of Nydel, Arkhe, Arvek, Bren, Caleryon, and Luzmer. Different people had copied scenes they had never seen. A gray cloak changed bodies. Rheskan appeared in three sizes. Ydrael was a mountain with eyes.

In the center, someone had left a patch of stone without ash.

“The signature is missing,” Isolde said.

“The people decided to leave it that way,” Tarin replied. “Each city adds what it can prove. The gap reminds us of what we don’t know.”

“Anyone can fill it too.”

“That’s why the accounts are underneath.”

A box held names, costs, and the destinations of copies. The wall was legend. The box held facts.

Isolde added Kaoran to the list of wounded. He objected to the description “fracture during rescue.” He preferred “conflict with hostile architecture.” Tarin kept the first.

They left at dawn.

Rheskan opened the bond from the west. He showed a low-hulled ship, the unlit lighthouse, and a convoy preparing plates at a coastal station. He had watched new troops approaching from Caleryon.

The hunt was moving toward them.

Isolde sent an image of Kaoran immobilized, the boat, and the northern route around the lighthouse.

Rheskan answered with another route through open water. He chose it for himself.

“Darian is leading the escort,” Isolde said, reading the poster’s last line.

Kaoran looked up.

“What changes?”

“He knows my habits. He knows what made me stay when he wanted me to listen.”

Kaoran waited as she folded the order. Isolde smoothed the crease with her thumb, then opened it again at the line calling for capture alive.

“After almost four years, neither of us knows the person the other has become,” she said. “If he wants to talk, he’ll have to let me choose where.”

“First we find out what the convoy is carrying.”

Isolde put the poster beside the drawing of the lighthouse. Her hand trembled; she kept both sheets spread on her knee until she could make out the path among the marks.

The boat left Luzmer. Behind them were songs, drawings, and a statement already traveling through the kingdom. Ahead waited the West-9 ship, Rheskan, and two men who wanted to turn a legend into a prisoner.

The ash figure remained on the wall.

No one signed it.