The village was empty, which wasn’t a surprise. Genys hadn’t tried to hide the fact that she was heading there, and to see that not one of the inhabitants of Ortni had decided to stick around made sense. If a small village like this had caught wind that a squadron of the Republic Militia was headed their way, it would make sense to leave. Their previous flyover had confirmed her suspicions, the city appeared fully abandoned. Well, at least as well as she could see it—the poison had begun to affect her vision and it was worsening by the hour.

What was surprising, or at least what made her at least a little suspicious, was how quickly they had all been able to leave. The village had no roads close to it, in fact, her recruits and her had to climb a couple hundred rough-hewn steps in the side of the rock face to access the village. Ortni wasn’t a place made to be accessible.

So why is it so important that no one talks about it?

Genys sent her squadron leaders out to the left and right, leading her group into the middle. She hoped they hadn’t noticed her limp which—in her opinion—had grown obvious. Their glitzers were readied, but not raised, meaning they had followed her orders exactly. It seemed like a small detail, but her recruits knew enough to recognize that one meant careful inspection and the other meant preparing for imminent battle.

Genys didn’t know much about Yarvan towns, but it seemed to her that many of these buildings had been vacated long before yesterday. Sure, there were some carts left in the street and doors ajar, but other buildings were stoned up—completely closed. Many were dilapidated.

It was tempting to chalk it up to a diminishing town. As the rest of Yarva had modernized, it became less useful. The young moved away and only the elderly remained as much for the habit of it as for anything—it was a common story in Yarva. But something told her that wasn’t the case here. Something else was going on, and it had been going on for quite some time.

“Jashr, take left down that street,” she said to one of the squadron leaders. “Verify it’s as abandoned as this one.”

It should be Jik leading that squadron. Jik who hadn’t returned and hadn’t communicated at all.

“What am I looking for Commander?”

The question annoyed her, and only because she wanted to know the answer too. “Anyone, anything!” she snapped back. The slight paralyzation of her lip made the words come out wrong. The last thing she needed right now was to sound stupid.

“Commander,” her right squadron leader, Tari said tentatively. “Do you get the feeling that—”

Genys didn’t let her finish. “We’re walking into a trap? Recruit, who do you think would be foolish enough to openly attack soldiers of the Republic? Don’t you understand what that would mean for all of Yarva?”

As she spoke, she didn’t know if she was saying it for them, herself, or if she felt like someone else was listening. She knew she shouldn’t have kept going, she knew it probably sounded like weakness—it definitely felt like empty bravado—but for some reason, she couldn't seem to stop herself.

“Annihilation,” she said simply. “Rising up against the Republic is a capital offense—treason of the highest degree. The punishment would be… severe.” She let that last word hang in the air.

She continued forward. “So no, I can assure you no Yarvans would risk attacking us.” And then before she could stop herself, “Even if they did have Thori weapons.”

“What about Thori with Thori weapons?” a booming voice said suddenly behind the group.

Genys whirled around. “Glitzers up!” she shouted. It sounded more like a scream. Behind us? How’d they get behind us?

There was a single figure, cloaked and imposing, standing in the middle of the street.

“Tari, apprehend,” Genys said quickly and quietly, motioning her troops into position. Then louder to the figure she shouted, “You are going to be disarmed, if you comply you’ll be rewarded, resistance will end in immediate elimination!”

Genys looked around suddenly at lowered glitzers. Her own was the only one pointed at the figure. Her troops hadn’t obeyed.

Betrayal, She thought. This is it. It was just me, always me. But why?

As Genys moved toward the figure, she expected burning glitz to rip into her back, but at this point, she didn’t care. If it was the end it was the end. She had been filled with pain and betrayal and loss, and she figured she had about a week or two left at most anyway. Why not die here taking a stand? At least she could take out this figure, this leader, whoever it was. And more importantly, she would finally know. She stepped closer.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“Tell me who you are,” she said, fully letting the fury into her voice. It didn’t matter anymore—control didn’t matter. “Tell me what you’re doing, tell me why!” She realized only now that her vision had gotten so bad the figure was only an out-of-focus lump in front of her.

“Tell me why! Why me? Why all this just for me!”

Her finger itched to pull the trigger. The glitz would take the man’s head off—of that she was sure—but not before she knew, not while there were still answers to get.

And then, all in one moment, the person in front of her came into focus. Genys tripped and dropped the glitzer in surprise.

She fell into the arms of High General Pyrn.

----------------------------------------

“I couldn’t risk telling you in Izutis, but I sent missive after missive informing you of everything.”

Genys slowly opened her eyes. Her head was light, she could feel her heartbeat flutter weakly. It made her neck hurt where her artery was.

“Wha—,” The fall had taken a toll on her and she melted in and out of consciousness.

“Drink this,” Pyrn said. He pressed something lukewarm to her lips. Something inside her told her to not drink, but the thought was broken into pieces by her shifting mind. After a couple of swallows, coherence seemed to slowly return.

The sky was a bit darker. It had been an hour or so since she had collapsed. Pyrn must have been trying to rouse her that whole time.

Pyrn.

She pushed him away, and it seemed she was stronger than he had expected. She almost fell to the cobblestone floor of what she soon found was a three-walled temporary structure of some sort just inside the main square.

The square was full of Yarvan warriors.

“Rebels!” she said. Her voice was louder than it had been before.

“You’ve been lied to,” Pyrn said. It was the same tone had had always used, as impenetrable as a brick wall, but somehow not unemotional or cold.

“Rebel lies!” she spat out. She shoved again and rose unsteadily to her feet. “Where’s my glitzer!”

“You’ll get it back commander,” Pyrn said in the same strong, gentle tone. “Just listen to me and then you’ll get it back.”

Genys knew she was unsteady, she knew she wouldn’t be able to summon close to the amount of strength that she had weeks before, but there was a new sort of energy filling her like a warm cloud, and there was only one thing to do with it.

She lunged for the small glitzer at Pyrn’s side. She had noticed it was there the moment she awoke, but she hadn’t looked at it directly. That was a trick she had been taught, it was a trick he had taught her.

But Pyrn was characteristically quick. He moved out of the way and pushed her arm to the side. Even in her rage, she noticed something was off. Pyrn had always been a hulking mass, a wall of muscle—but now there was something different. Something about him was slimmed down, starved—sickly almost. He was able to push her away, but he wasn’t as strong as she expected. It seemed to cost him. That’s when his cloak fell open.

What she saw stopped her in her tracks. Her emotions had been everywhere, raging out of control. Killing Pyrn was the only thing she could think about… until she realized.

He’s missing an arm.

“Wha—what is happening?” Genys demanded.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Pyrn said. “Before anything else, I want to tell you I had nothing to do with your sister. I wasn’t involved. The Yarvans weren’t involved.”

Genys turned away for a moment. The tears welled up before she even noticed they were coming.

“I hesitate to bring it up but you had to know,” Pyrn continued. “It wasn’t us Genys, I swear it.” He took a step closer and she didn’t back away. She looked up at Pyrn and saw suddenly his eyes were filled with tears as well.

“You have to let me explain all this to you,” he said. “The Republic is not what it seems and it hasn’t been for a while now.”

“You’re the Shadow,” Genys said. Her voice was surprisingly calm. Pyrn nodded slowly.

“Those reports came in over a year ago,” she shook her head in disbelief. “You’ve been a rebel all this time? You knew all this time?”

“I kept it from the Militia,” Pyrn said. “I couldn’t risk knowledge of our plot getting back to the Senate.”

“Your plot?” the words were sour in Genys’ mouth.

Pyrn seemed to straighten. “Genys you need to understand something. This was never a rebellion against Tinaria, it was a rebellion against something much more dangerous.”

“You’ve joined forces with the Thori!” Genys spat. “The Thori that slaughtered my recruits!”

Pyrn held up his only hand in an effort to calm her. “We never worked with the Thori Genys. Thori is our enemy.”

“Our entire efforts here were to avoid the Thori becoming our enemy!” Genys said. “All that evidence, months of spies and reports… I’m only here because of potential connections between Thori and your plot.”

Pyrn shook his head. It threw her off guard because of the tiredness in his voice. It was almost as if he was… sad—and there was something genuine about it.

“Commander, we aren’t allied to the Thori,” Pyrn said. “As I told you, they are our enemy.”

“You lead Yarvan rebels!” Genys shouted. “The Republic of Tinaria is your enemy!”

Pyrn was silent a moment. He took a deep breath and for some reason it caused a chill to run down Genys’ back. Whatever he was about to say, she could already tell she wasn’t going to like it.

When the General finally looked up with his bluer-than-blue eyes he said simply, “The Republic of Tinaria and the Thori Empire are one and the same.”