Interlude: The Princess and the Rat

PRINCESS CAMILA STARED AT THE DOCUMENT IN HER HANDS, her brow furrowed into a grim frown. It had been delivered to her at the break of dawn by none other than Lord Silvano, of Lightbringer, and it detailed the ongoing efforts to concoct an elixir to save the King.

Thus far, the results were bleak.

False leads, monster attacks, dungeon breaks, or outright ambushes by hostile forces… these were only some of the myriad of obstacles impeding the Princess’ agents. Not even Anathema, the Kingdom’s premiere adventuring party, had found a shred of success, let alone the regular knightly orders.

“We’re being sabotaged,” the princess concluded. “I never had any illusions about the difficulty of this quest, but this level of interference is abnormal. Lord Silvano, someone is leaking critical intelligence to our enemies."

Princess Camila knew, better than anyone else, that her army and the Guild were not incompetent forces. The Kingdom of Sylphadim had roots going as far back as the Great War, two millennia ago, and boasted the military history to match.

The nation had overcome all manner of conflicts, crises, and disasters that the world of Krysterios could muster. But now, when the King’s life hung at a knife’s edge, his elite agents just so happened to slip and blunder.

It couldn’t be a coincidence. There had to be a traitor in her midst.

“I fear you may be right,” said Silvano, without a hint of treachery in his words. “Yesterday, I received an unofficial report from the Rose’s Thorns, pointing to the Cult of Croxas as our probable culprits.”

The papers in the Princess’ hands creased as her grip tightened.

“The Cult?” she asked, turning to Silvano. “I thought Godwin was investigating the remnants of Vandrikar’s vampire clan.”

“He is,” Silvano confirmed. “Anathema just returned from the field hours ago. They’re likely to submit a report soon, but I suspect it will be yet another false lead.”

“Why do you say so?” asked the Princess, her eyes narrowed.

“Because I believe Amelia over Sophia,” he replied bluntly. “Godwin will disagree with me, but I haven’t forgotten her origins. I trust you haven’t either.”

“Silvano, it was the slavers who had links to the Cult,” the Princess argued.

“Yes, and Sophia was their merchandise,” Silvano replied. “Merchandise who just so happened to become an S-Rank spellcaster, weeks after being freed by Anathema. In all my years, I’ve never seen a mole implantation more obvious than that.”

“So what would you have me do?” asked the Princess. “Anathema is the pillar of the Adventurer’s Guild, and Sophia is their primary mage. If I order her to be arrested, I’ll have to deploy the other S-Rank parties against Anathema, and all of this without hard evidence.”

It’d be an understatement to say the move could turn into a disaster, especially if Sophia was later proven to be innocent. In a worst case scenario, the Guild could mutiny, and Princess Camila would have no choice but to turn the Royal Guard on them.

“Then we’ll find the evidence,” said Silvano. “Thanks to the Thorns, we’re now aware of the Cult’s involvement. This opens an avenue of collaboration with forces outside of our own command.”

“You can’t mean — ” the Princess stammered.

“I do,” Silvano replied with severity. “We must call the Imperial Inquisition.”

It was a ludicrous proposal.

Certainly, the Inquisition was the ancestral foe of the Cult of Croxas, dedicated to hunting down and eradicating them wherever they may lurk… but they were also an elite military force of Sylphadim’s northern rival, the Empire of Aurion.

With barely five million subjects against the Empire’s sixty million, Sylphadim’s survival had always depended on alliances with the elves and dwarves. In present day, relations with the Empire were warm, but only as long as the Kingdom and their allies remained too costly to absorb.

“That’s far too dangerous,” said Princess Camila. “Letting the Inquisition into the heart of our realm would give them a treasure trove of intelligence. They might help us unearth the Cult, but this would leave us open to invasion.”

“And you think they won’t invade if King Cedric dies to his curse?” Silvano countered. “It’s no coincidence the Cult is impeding his recovery. The curse will turn him into a demon the moment his body expires, and there’s no chance in Faydan’s green earth that the Inquisition will miss this.”

Princess Camila grimaced, as Silvano uttered the most jealously guarded state secret of the Kingdom. The curse her father had been afflicted with was no mere threat to his life, but to his very soul. It was meant to transform him into a demon prince, turning his tremendous magical prowess against his own realm.

Thanks to the desperate efforts of the Temple of Maladriel, the curse’s progress had been slowed to a crawl… but it was only a matter of time before the King would succumb, leading to the birth of a dreadful monster.

“Father…” whispered the Princess, her voice thick with mourning.

She had quietly prepared the Adventurer’s Guild and the royal army to slay the King, should he come to transform, but the incident wouldn’t go unnoticed. Silvano was painfully right in saying the Empire would catch wind of it, and turn it into a scandal.

“Is there truly no other way?” asked the Princess, desperate for an alternative.

“Not if Anathema is compromised,” Silvano replied.

Both of them knew the Kingdom’s military was closely tied to the Adventurer’s Guild, so much so that a discreet investigation couldn’t be conducted without being sniffed out. It was in the adventurer’s line of work to run investigations in the first place; the military police would be spotted by the moles from a mile away.

For Princess Camila to have any hope of rooting out the Cult’s infiltrators, she’d have to use force. She would have to encircle the Guild, under the watchful eye of an organization more powerful than them… no matter the political capital it would cost her.

“Faydan preserve us,” uttered the Princess, her fists trembling at the dreadful decision she must make. “Bring me the good parchment, Silvano, and summon Lady Nia and Sir Roderick. I’ll call the Inquisition for aid.”

“As you command, your Highness,” Silvano said with a bow, before leaving the meeting room. His face was as grim as the Princess’, but for an entirely different reason.

To her, this had been an exercise to decide the fate of her nation.

To Silvano, it was a gambit to save his own hide.

With the Inquisition’s involvement in Sylphadim, the operations of both the Adventurer’s Guild and the Cult of Croxas would be paralyzed for a time, giving him a precious window of opportunity to track down the Dread Dragon.

Whatever madness had happened to it, Silvano’s head would roll the moment the Cult’s leadership learned of its disappearance… and Silvano had no intention to die.