You dont need to over play your hand to show your hand

After a simple but delicious breakfast of eggs and bread with jam, and only a mild scolding from Foteini for throwing off her schedual, Mina as usual joined Panos and Old Lady Sofos for some morning lessons. Or, just Old Lady Sofos today, as Panos was nowhere to be seen.

“Well Mina, are you ready to begin?” Sofos asked as Mina came up to her.

“*Yawn* Yes Old Lady Sofos.” Mina said tiredly as she sat down at the table.

“I see the mission yesterday tired you out quite a bit.” Sofos remarked, sounding amused, and Mina nodded her head. “Well don’t worry, as a reward for doing so well yesterday, I have an easy lesson plan that I think you’ll find very interesting.”

Mina perked up at that, intrigued and eager despite her exhaustion.

“I’m going to share with you some exciting tales from Uraina’s history.”

And Mina’s face promptly fell, something Sofos instantly noticed.

“Something wrong Mina?” She asked.

“No. I just don’t really feel like learning about Uraina today.” Mina said.

“Really? You don’t want to hear about any of Uraina’s epic tales?” Sofos asked in surprise. “Not about the time she tamed the rebelling spirits of the weather? The time she teamed up with the goddesses of sea and song and nature to humble the cruel Teravox? Not even of the time she guided 5 champions of man to revive a barren wasteland and saved it from the demons plaguing the land?”

“I just… don’t see the point in it.” Mina admitted.

Because of course she didn’t. After everything she’d learned, of course she didn’t think there was any reason for her to hear about any of that. Plus, she was 75% sure the stories were fake anyways.

“I see. Well, if you’re that against it right now, I suppose we could leave these stories for another time.” Sofos relented. “Unfortunately, the stories were all I had planned for your lesson today. In that case, you may as well go start your farm chores early.”

“Alright. Thank you Old Lady Sofos. I’ll see you later.” Mina said as she stood up to go do exactly that.

“And I you dear.” Sofos replied.

Sofos watched as Mina walked to the hall door, and the moment the door closed behind her, Sofos’s eyes narrowed. After a moment’s pause, she stood up and walked over to the other side of the hall where Athan was training with a weighted sword.

“Athan, can I tall to you for a minute?” Sofos asked.

“Of course. What do you need Old Lady Sofos?” Athan replied without pausing his training.

“In private?” Sofos said firmly.

This did make Athan pause and give Sofos a raised eyebrow. The serious look on her face told him just how important this was, so he nodded, racked his training sword, and silently followed her to her room to get their privacy.

“What is this about Sofos?” He asked once they were alone.

“She knows.” Sofos said firmly.

“Who knows what?”

“Mina knows that she was summoned to fight and replace Uraina.” Sofos explained, making Athan’s eyes widen in surprise.

“Mina knows?!” Athan exclaimed in surprise, and Sofos nodded solemnly. “But, how? What makes you even think she knows?”

“Simple. She had no interest in learning Uraina’s history during lessons this morning.” Sofos told him.

…

“And how exactly is that evidence that she knows?” Athan asked, now confused. “I trust your judgment Sofos, but you’ll forgive me for being skeptical if that is the only evidence you have.”

“You are forgiven, but it’s the only piece of evidence I need. You need to think about what it means Athan.” Sofos explained. “We’ve made her believe that she’s Uraina’s chosen one, so naturally she would be extremely interested in anything to do with Uraina. The only reason she wouldn’t be is if she leaned the truth.”

“We had a fairly taxing mission yesterday. Perhaps she’s simply too tired to be interested today?” Athan pointed out, but Sofos shook her head.

“If she was that tired, she wouldn’t be interested in my lessons at all. She would have told me she just wanted to skip lessons, but she didn’t. It was only when I told her that today’s lesson is on Uraina’s history that she lost interest and walked away from my lessons.” Sofos explained.

“I see. I suppose you have a point.” Athan relented. “But in that case, how did she even learn the truth in the first place?”

“That is what I’m struggling to figure out.” Sofos admitted. “I’m confident that no one from our group told her. Even those of us that have more serious reservations about what we’re doing to Mina don’t want to tell her and risk rocking the boat. And I doubt she leaned it during your mission yesterday as she was quite happy and self satisfied when you all returned. However, I am sure that she somehow learned it sometime between then and this morning.”

“I see.” Athan said firmly. “I’ll trust your judgment on this. I won’t confront her right away, but I will keep an eye on her to see if I can’t get any proof of my own.”

“That is most likely for the best.” Sofos agreed. “Hopefully this won’t become a problem.”

“Indeed.” Athan said, though he knew better than to expect anything else.