A Traitor in the Court

HOLY SHIT, THAT WAS BAD.

The alarm spell I left at the chamber triggered while I was praying with Amelia, and I used telepathy to connect with her so we could both see and hear.

I expected to spy on some cult member or another, but what we witnessed was the Hero of Lightbringer, Lord Silvano himself, cavorting with the Cult of Croxas.

“That treasonous piece of shit!” Amelia yelled in fury, unable to contain herself as she shot up from bed. Her face was flushed red, veins bulging from her forehead.

I rushed to cast a silence barrier around us, but Cerys and Xana soon came running into the room in their pajamas, swiftly awoken by Amelia.

“John, what happened?” asked Cerys, worriedly staring at the two of us.

Oh boy, here we go.

“My surveillance spell just triggered,” I explained. “Two people entered the chamber of the Dread Dragon. One of them was a high-ranking cultist, and the other…”

“It was Silvano,” Amelia said bluntly, seething with rage.

“What?” Cerys and Xana asked in shock.

“Silvano is the traitor,” Amelia reaffirmed. “He’s the one leaking the Guild’s movements to the Cult, and Faydan knows what else.”

“It can’t be…” Xana stammered, taken aback.

“Show us, John,” Cerys demanded, trying to open a telepathic link with me.

I obliged, and let Xana in on the spell. With our minds magically connected, we replayed the recent memories in my head. The two girls’ eyes went wide open, as we saw Silvano’s exchange with the cultist loud and clear.

“It all makes sense now,” said Amelia in a moment of clarity, as Cerys and Xana stood open-mouthed. “Silvano had access to the teleportation circle, back when King Cedric was ambushed. Being the Hero of the Realm, he was never even close to the list of suspects. My father took the blame and was thrown into prison, and Mirabelle and I… Oh, that son of a bitch!”

She struck the desk with her fist, smashing it to pieces with one clean blow.

“He reached out to me!” she yelled in indignation. “When I was crying in despair after fighting with Mirabelle, he was the one who pulled me out of it. He pointed me to the Guild, and I became an adventurer because of him. But now he’s trying to kill me? Unbelievable! Unbelievable…”

Amelia, the brave paladin I’ve grown to admire, broke down in tears before us.

Cerys, Xana and I promptly moved in to support her. There were no words we could say to soother her, so we held her instead. Amelia resisted at first, but we didn’t give in, and she slowly accepted us.

In the end, the Roses’ Thorns wound up crying in each other’s arms.

* * *

MAN, THAT WAS UGLY.

I’ve only ever heard people crying like that at funerals, and this was worse. Even Cerys and Xana started crying with her partway through. I knew Silvano’s betrayal would be a heavy blow to them, but I underestimated just how bad it was.

Fortunately, Amelia wasn’t alone. Cerys and Xana were also heartbroken by the news, given they have their own history with Silvano, but they put aside their concerns and focused on supporting their friend instead.

In the end, after crying for several painful minutes, Amelia calmed down.

As much as she could, at least.

“We have to kill him,” she said, her eyes full of grim determination.

“I agree,” Cerys supported her, not sparing an ounce of sympathy.

“He’s already dead to me,” Xana finished, her face twisted into a scowl.

How the mighty have fallen. Lord Silvano turned from hero to villain for the girls in a heartbeat. I’d be trembling in my boots if I were him.

“The question is how,” I noted, as much as I loathe to pour cold water on them. “We know he’s a traitor, but that will be a hard sell to everyone else. Hell, we met the guy a few hours ago and he had us right in his pocket. We can’t just try to murder him out of the blue, or he’ll turn the Royal Army against us.”

If Silvano is compromised, then the same is probably true for many of the Kingdom’s power brokers. The military, the Adventurer’s Guild, the temples… maybe even the Crown itself. We have no idea how deep the Cult’s corruption has gone.

“We’ll have to expose him first, but we have to do it smartly,” Cerys suggested. “There’s no telling who else has turned coat with him, so we need to run an intelligence operation before going after Silvano himself.”

“Want me to track him?” Xana asked, eager to volunteer.

“No, it’s too dangerous,” Amelia shut down the idea. “He might’ve been reduced to a miserable cultist, but Silvano is still a former S-Rank adventurer. He was among the strongest ones, too.”

“But I’ve got magic now,” Xana noted, clenching her fist.

“Yeah, and you’ll expose John immediately if you use it,” Amelia replied.

Xana’s ears bent down as she grumbled with disappointment, but Amelia is right. Going after Silvano would come at a great risk, so we need a safer alternative, even if it’s more roundabout.

“Say, Cerys, is there a way to dispel an enchantment?” I began probing an idea.

“What kind?” she asked, looking attentively at me.

“Remember the cultist I captured when we first met?” I reminisced. “Back in the forest, when I was a bear, I dragged a guy with black armor with me. I didn’t know the common tongue back then, so I used telepathy to learn it from him. The problem is, most of his mind was warded, so I couldn’t see anything useful other than that.”

“But if we broke the protective ward…” Cerys pondered, catching my drift.

“We could plunder their minds, and store them in memory crystals,” Amelia continued. “It’s not their conventional use, but with John’s magic, we should be able to repurpose them.”

It’s a terrifying proposal, now that I hear it from someone else’s lips. I have no idea what these crystals are, but I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough.

“What about the mental ward?” Xana asked, picking up my earlier question.

“A spellbreaking needle will do,” Cerys replied. “Think of it as a lockpick, used to break into magic circles. You can’t use it in the middle of a fight, but if we subdue the cultists, they won’t be able to resist me.”

Excellent.

The plan is shaping up nicely, and all the girls are on board. With a little bit of polish, we’ll come down on Silvano like a pile of bricks. The bastard is cunning and treacherous, under his heroic façade, but we have one massive advantage over him:

He has no idea we’ve found him out.

As far as he’s concerned, the dragon’s corpse just went missing, but he has no clue that the Rose’s Thorns have learned of his betrayal. He doesn’t know I’m with them, either, nor that we have forged a contract.

So, we will lure him.

We’ll let him and the Cult think we’re weak. Then, when the pieces fall in just the right place, at the right time, the jaws of the Dread Dragon will snap shut on them.