Despite her earlier words, it took Cateline several minutes after Idelle leaned her sword against a tree and took up the back end of the stretcher before the older woman spoke further. When she did, her voice was stern, but without the trace of anger or judgment that Idelle half expected after their earlier discussion.

“Idelle. Can you tell me further about seeing Her Highness? If you weren’t confused, then you’re the only one I’m aware of who saw any trace of her last night. When and how did you meet her? And, while we’re at it, why didn’t you evacuate the city until now?”

Idelle glanced up at the sergeant’s back. She’d already decided to share as much as she could without discussing details of her powers, but she was starting to regret that decision. From Cateline’s point of view, it seemed hard to imagine someone in Idelle’s position coming back to explain herself if she had done something truly wrong. But, the more she thought about it, the wilder her story sounded, even without the most over-the-top details.

“Um. I woke up to fighting in the courtyard. I went outside to try and help, but Adrian scared them off.” Her description of events sounded almost comically understated to Idelle’s ears, but she hesitantly pressed on regardless. “I kind of panicked after that, thinking Cecilia was in danger, and I ran after them towards the castle.”

As they walked through the city gates, Idelle continued explaining how she’d found the castle left only with corpses, how she’d tried to track Cecilia with magic, and how she’d gone in search of the magical disturbance instead in her confusion. Cateline interrupted her there.

“Hold on. You were nearby whatever spell caused that… chaos?”

“Yeah. Why do you ask?”

Cateline stopped and looked back at Idelle. Miraculously this part of the city had been mostly spared from the fires. Idelle assumed that most of the nearby demolished buildings were intentionally torn down to create firebreaks. Either way, they stood in the shadow of a surviving house as the sergeant spoke.

“Did you find anything about it? Any soldiers who were in the area died there, and by the time we mustered a force to investigate the whole area was burning too heavily to break through.”

Idelle hesitated again. She couldn’t think of any way to explain even a little of that particular encounter without going into far too much detail about her powers. “No, I don’t know what it was. Only that Cecilia was nearby. I heard fighting and followed it inside a building. Someone attacked me until she spoke up and told us to stop fighting.”

“So you didn’t actually see her?”

“She cast a charm of light after that. It was still dim, but it certainly looked like her.” And she had known things only the princess could have known — unless the Cecilia that Idelle knew had been an imposter all along. But Idelle kept that last part of the thought to herself, for now.

Cateline let out a huff of air, turning away and starting to lead the way again towards the barracks, through the slowly thinning smoke. “And what specifically did she tell you, after that?”

“Honestly? Not much. She wouldn’t explain what was going on, she just kept asking me to not tell anyone that I saw her there. But, well. It seemed like someone should know; since she’s missing.”

The sergeant brushed over her hesitation. “Of course. But what makes you think she wasn’t just being kidnapped?”

Again, Idelle hesitated, the memory of Cecilia’s acid-filled accusations ringing in her ears. “She was with two of the attackers. I recognized them — they’d killed soldiers in that very building. And they listened to her when she told them to stop at first.”

“They could have just been trying to stop her from fighting back, no? Better a soft touch than risk an important prisoner dying.” Cateline said, a little pointedly.

Idelle didn’t want to argue about it further. “Yeah, you’re right. I… must have just been jumping to conclusions, or something. Anyway, the two with her collapsed the building on me after that, and I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was in a tunnel under the city, and I didn’t manage to find the way out until a little while ago.”

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Cateline whistled in response to her words. “I’d heard rumors of tunnels under the old city, but you’re pretty lucky to have survived that. Or pretty durable.”

The two of them reached the familiar courtyard in front of the barracks as she spoke, and Idelle forced herself not to flinch as she saw the remaining bodies still scattered in front of the doors to the barracks. No wonder they’d established a temporary camp outside the city…

Cateline turned back at the pause, and her expression softened a little as she saw something on Idelle’s face. “Are you sure you’re all right, girl? I’m sorry to interrogate ya like this, this must all be a lot for you to handle. It’s no wonder you’d leap to odd conclusions.”

Idelle tore her eyes away from the corpses and closed them, forcing herself to take a deep breath despite the smoke. “Thanks. I’m all right. At least until the work is done.”

A shrug. “Suit yourself then. Just don’t forget that your mind needs rest, even if your body is still strong. Somehow. Any other secrets to share?”

Another memory of Cecilia’s voice rang in her ears again, taunting her as a hypocrite, and Idelle’s nails bit into her palms. She forced herself to say the words; even as part of her brain screamed at her to run and hide away in some dark corner or other.

Finally, she spoke. “...There’s one more thing, but it can wait until later. Adrian should know, too, if he doesn’t already.”

There. Now she was committed, for better or for worse. She didn’t have to explain everything, but the longer she waited to mention her powers the more suspicious it would seem. Especially now that Cecilia was… gone.

It was either this or run away on her own again, she thought to herself. And she was tired of running.

She hoped she wasn’t making a terrible mistake.

Cateline raised an eyebrow, but in the end she only nodded. “The Lieutenant is very busy, so it’ll have to wait if that’s the case.”

“That’s fine, it’ll have to wait then. It’s something more… personal, anyway. Nothing directly related to Cecilia.” Idelle reassured her. The lingering smoke caught in her throat, and she broke into a coughing fit, despite herself, unable to regain her breath for a long moment.

Cateline passed her a canteen. “Here. Water. Drink, then we shouldn’t stay here too long. The smoke is bad for your lungs.”

Idelle accepted it gratefully. At least Cateline seemed to trust her and be on her side, even if the sergeant didn’t believe her entirely about Cecilia. Thank the dragons.

Now that the adrenaline of spilling some of her secrets was fading, she was realizing how risky it could have been to accuse the princess of something like that. What if she’d be accused of treason or something? Or what if the other woman had been working with Cecilia and the attackers all along? Idelle had left her sword behind and come unarmed, after all.

Sure, she had a few secret weapons if it came down to a fight — or, perhaps better, if she had to flee for it, but even so… She’d seen the kind of magic and skills some of the stronger soldiers were capable of last night. She should be cautious, from here. Best to make sure she could trust people before sharing too much, and keep a few cards in her hand. Yeah.

Just in case worst came to worst again.

“Let’s go, then.” Idelle said. Cateline nodded, and the two of them once more raised the stretcher.

A moment later, they gently lifted the broken body of a young woman onto it together. Idelle looked away from the body’s face, from the neck that had been slashed open into a violent smile, despite herself. To think they still weren’t even done burying the corpses, most of a day later. How many of them must have died?

Cecilia, or whoever she was, would pay for that, she promised herself again. Whatever Cateline believed, Idelle knew the princess had helped cause this. The next time the two of them met, Idelle would face her with a clear conscience. So she wouldn’t hesitate to do whatever she needed to do until then.

The extra weight on the stretcher barely seemed noticeable to her.

“Are there still corpses of, uh, whoever it was that attacked us around?” Idelle asked as they started back out of the city.

Cateline spat to one side. “Of course. As if we’d bury them before our own dead. Why do you ask?”

“...I have a spell I might be able to use, to try and track them, or something. I don’t know if it will still work, though.” Idelle paused, then elaborated, trying to sound natural. “And I’d need privacy for it, to focus well enough.” She hoped she wasn’t making another mistake by bringing it up, but what harm could it cause? She was just asking, and she didn’t want to let any clues slip away from her if she could avoid it.

The possibility of being free to use her powers for things like this was one of the reasons why she was trying to open up in the first place, after all.

Cateline glanced back at her. “One of your blood magic tricks? I’d heard you were talented at them, was that why Her Highness recruited you in the first place?”

Idelle winced. “Something like that.”

“I’ll see what I can do, then. No promises, you understand. And let’s get everyone buried first. It doesn’t do to let the dead rot like this.”

“Yeah. You’re right.”

The two of them trudged onward; Idelle still pointedly keeping her gaze cast to one side. Pointedly avoiding making eye contact with the maimed sack of meat that lay peacefully on the stretcher between them.