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“What’s this?” Reohn nervously asked.

A rifle with a dim glow was placed on the desk in front of him. It had the same type of dael technology attached to the muzzle, but it was clearly not one of their own. The shape of the gem was all off.

“It was taken from a Rydes soldier yesterday. Someone gave our scientific documents to the enemy and now they are making things like this.” Heonse angrily spat out the words. “It might have been that cult brat, but we are going to need to check the women working here to be safe.”

Reohn’s blood ran cold. He was terrified. There was already so much to worry about these days and now he had to be paranoid about a spy.

“Damn it.” Heonse slammed his fist loudly on the table. The gun rattled. “First, we lose one of our spies and now we have to deal with one of theirs. Don’t worry, we’ll check out your fiancé first so we can cross her off the list. Go get her for us.”

The mood was already heavy by the time Reohn arrived at the school. It was just a few days ago that Mylise was labeled missing. She hadn’t shown up to work for a week and no one had heard from her. He also heard about the strange situation with his brother. They were supposed to be talking with him today. He walked through the halls trying not to draw any unnecessary attention. What was the standard protocol to secretly bringing someone in for interrogation?

“Hey, Sibelle. Can you come with me a second? Ah, you can bring your purse.” He smiled to his cute confused fiancé. She was on lunch break in the staff room.

Sibelle gave him a look, but stood up to go with him without questioning it. “Will I be back in time for the start of class?”

“Hopefully, but I’d plan to be late.” He really didn’t know how long it would take. This kind of thing had never happened while he was here. The other ladies were staring at them. It wasn’t every day someone famous like Reohn comes by the staff room. He rushed Sibelle along.

Sibelle stayed quiet as she walked next to him. She had a feeling that she should. Reohn noticed how tense she looked. He tried calming her as it was the least he could do. “It’ll be alright. There’s been some trouble, but they just want to clear possibilities.”

She looked rather troubled. “Why me?”

“Well, it’s just that you’re a woman and a pretty important one at that, so...” He didn’t want to say the real issue out loud. Other people were looking at them still as they went. He hoped she could piece it together.

“Because I’m a woman, huh...” She didn’t say anything more.

Sibelle sat on the other end of a dark table in a cramped room far removed from the main areas. Across from her sat four officials including Heonse and Reohn, though it almost seemed like a conflict of interest to have him included. All were well-established men. It made her nervous. One of the officials started asking her questions. His voice was polite and calm.

“Ms. Caprimul, we have reason to believe a government employee here has committed treason against their country. There is currently no evidence that points to you so this meeting is mostly a formality. Do you understand?”

Sibelle nodded. Her voice soft but clear. “Yes, sir.”

“We hear that you normally go straight home to your dorm after work hours, is that correct? Do you visit family on holidays?”

“I don’t really go many places, no. Um, I go only for some holidays since they live rather far.”

“You’ve moved to this city for work, I see. How do you feel about the Rydes and their country?”

Her eyes darted to the side to think. “I... I don’t have much of an opinion. I suppose I dislike them, but I’ve never met one personally.”

“Isn’t that good enough to clear her of suspicion?” Reohn spoke up.

Heonse replied. “She doesn’t have much of an alibi after work and spies can trade information to other citizens working for the enemy. They use bilingual citizens to seem friendlier and prevent mistranslations.”

The first official voiced his opinion. “Still, there’s not much of a lead here. If we could just check the contents of your purse.”

Another official took out every last item from the large black purse. There were many bits of paper folded up that seemed of interest among the more feminine items. They were shocked when they opened one up. They grabbed at more of the papers feverishly. They couldn't believe their eyes.

“Sibelle! Please explain yourself! These are top secret documents from the dael research room! That room is only unlocked a short time after your classes are over. How did you get these?”

“What?! I don’t know how they got there! I’ve never seen them before!” Sibelle waved her hands frantically in front of her shocked face.

“How do you not know what you’re carrying around?” Heonse sternly replied.

“I always have loose bits of paper in my purse! I rarely clean it out!” She was on the verge of tears.

“Wait, there’s got to be some mistake!” Reohn yelled in her defense while slamming his hands on the table. He quickly tried to think of any possibility to why his fiancé was carrying classified information in her purse. “W-what about Mylise? Kothur told me she was acting strange last time he saw her on their day off before she went missing. Yeah! Could it be possible she’s trying to frame her somehow?”

Heonse looked at him with disgust. “That lunatic. What the hell is he doing seeing his female coworkers after work? We can't trust the word of a man like that.”

“Mylise was already working for us against the Rydes, that would be highly unlikely. Besides, she has an alibi. She volunteers at the psychiatric hospital after work. The staff there could vouch for her.”

“It doesn’t have to be Mylise, it could be someone else! There’s just no way she would do something like this!”

“Reohn, please!” The government official silenced him before turning to the poor crying woman again. “Sibelle, this amount of evidence would account to high treason. If you admit yourself guilty, your punishment will be lighter. However, if you don’t, you will be put to death. Please choose your next words carefully.”

She rubbed the tears out of her eyes. It was so she could look him straight in the face. Even though her voice was shaky, she responded with her head held high. “I’m not guilty. I swear.”

The interrogation concluded. They interviewed all of the other ladies and other people of interest, but no one came close to the amount of evidence Sibelle had. The dates on the documents matched when Mylise had volunteer work. After all, it was the path of least resistance to convict her. It became an open and shut case for them.