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The carved hallway eventually broke off into a large branch that led to an open air platform. From here Laurent could see all the twisting branches that made up the citadel’s grand central tree and the surrounding forest, which has been transformed into a hub of landing platforms and wooden pavilions that lined each tree’s bark. Dozens of council members and soldiers darted through the air in all different directions, while others walked calmly along the weaving branches and hanging bridges. The bright morning light made it hard to see what wasn’t being shaded by the leaves, but eventually Laurent caught sight of the council chamber. 

It was one of the higher structures built in the citadel and like others outside the main tree trunk, it had been reinforced by a manufactured wooden platform and stilts. Laurent always hated how inorganic it looked. It sat in the trees like a huge box of slabs of carved wood and didn’t match the natural look of the older structures below the canopy. Not to mention it was often the place where bad news was always shared. Laurent took in a deep sigh and leapt off the flight platform towards the council chamber. 

Its balcony was a crescent shaped platform that hugged the slightly curved walls of the council chamber. Laurent landed carefully onto the wooden surface and Dante followed. Together they walked up to the ornately carved door frame where a small group of soldiers were huddled together in front of it, blocking the entrance. Their wings buzzed as they murmured indiscriminately among themselves and they didn’t seem to notice Laurent and Dante as they closed in on them.

Laurent hesitated for a moment before raising a hand.

“Excuse me, soldiers,” he tried. 

They continued talking to each other as if he wasn’t even there. Laurent felt his wings twitch and he just waited for the chance they might turn around. But they didn’t even waver. From behind him, Dante gave Laurent a gentle shove on his arm. 

Try again, Laurent interpreted. He cleared his throat and pulled at the loops of his tie.

“Soldiers!” he exclaimed this time. “There’s an urgent meeting the lieutenant and I have to attend to… Please remove yourselves… back to….”

His voice trailed off as the soldiers slowly turned to stare at Laurent one by one and their conversation fizzled out. They didn’t look very entertained by Laurent’s spiel. He tried to keep his composure as their eyes darted up and down at him. 

“Sorry, captain,” one of them finally murmured. 

He was a newer recruit from what Laurent could recall, and his uniform reflected it. Laurent wasn’t the best at memorizing new faces, but then again, he could barely look most of his soldiers in the eye. Everything Laurent said to them always came off as some kind of massive faux pas and made him immediately regret ever thinking of speaking to anyone. And the displeased looks the soldiers were giving Laurent reinforced that.

But it seemed that his weak effort had somehow caught their attention and eventually the other soldiers in the group stood up straight, stepping to the side.

“Apologies, captain,” another said, with little conviction. She pursed her lips and gave an odd glance to another one of her companions across from her. “We just heard that there might be an update on Margot….”

“Yeah, is it alright if we wait out here?”

“We won’t get in the way.”

Laurent shook his head with a nervous laugh, and a guilty feeling spread throughout his heart and chest. They did sound truly worried. But he knew if he gave in, it wouldn’t exactly help with his current reputation as a commanding leader. “Um, I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that’s not something we can….”

“But we’re all worried! Just let us—”

Dante suddenly pushed past Laurent and raised one of his hands.

“Soldiers!” he yelled.

They all scrambled into a line. 

Dante stepped back to Laurent’s side and gestured at him. “You are in the presence of your captain! Show some respect! And this is a private meeting regarding someone’s life!”

The soldiers all started nodding and raising their hands in hasty salutes. 

“A–Apologies, lieutenant!” 

“Guards are going to be stationed outside the chamber, they are going to kick you out of here anyways. So no sneaking around!”

Dante narrowed his eyes at them before turning to look at Laurent with a reassuring smile. But there was a slightly intense glint in his eye. Okay, try to sound authoritative for once, Laurent thought. Capitalize on Dante’s help, keep your wings straight and your posture up. You’re their captain. Act like it.

Laurent looked at all of them and nodded calmly. His chest was tight with nerves.

“Please report back to the atrium,” he said. “We’re all worried about Margot, and your lieutenant and I are not going to withhold any information from you all. As soon as we learn what happened, we will report back to you. Just… give us some time to learn what’s going on.”

The soldiers all exchanged subtle glances between each other. Clearly something unspoken was being exchanged between them. It didn’t help Laurent feel like he was very successful in convincing them of his diplomacy, but after an awkward moment of silence, they gave more hesitant nods.

“Captain,” they quickly acknowledged before splitting up and rushing past him and Dante. They leapt off the balcony and buzzed back below to the main citadel. 

Laurent watched them leave, feeling a pit grow in his stomach. And once they disappeared he heaved an exhausted sigh. He could barely command a group of four soldiers. It was embarrassing to think that he was in charge of anything more than that.

Dante crossed his arms. “Laurent….”

“I know, I know,” he sighed. 

“You can’t let these rookies start walking all over you like that already.”

“Yeah… I’m just a little out of sorts right now. More than usual.”

“You’re good to get through this meeting, though, right?”

“O–Of course.”

Dante pursed his lips and wrapped an arm around Laurent’s shoulders, giving his back a large shake before leading them towards the door. Laurent dragged his feet as he was pulled along. Dainty flowered vines covered the doors to the chamber and Dante held them aside before Laurent pushed the threshold beneath open.

They entered the foyer, greeted by two guards on either side of the small space. Dante quickly let go of Laurent and let him lead the rest of the way. The guards barely gave them a glance but saluted as they strode in. 

“Captain. Lieutenant.”

Laurent and Dante gave their respects back. At least the soldiers stationed as guards never seemed to give Laurent any problems. Most likely because they had the easiest jobs and weren’t at risk of being sent to their deaths by Laurent’s incompetence.

He felt a gross twitch in the back of his throat and he jolted. Crying or throwing up would not be a good look for him. But before he could dwell on that possibility, Dante’s arm swung up behind Laurent again and pushed him forward to the corner of the foyer, away from the guards. Their wings brushed up against some of the vines that hung from the walls. 

“Laurent, I can tell how stressed you are,” Dante said in a low voice. “I hate to see you like this.”

His dark eyes examined Laurent intently. The light brought out the crimson flecks in his brown irises. Laurent stared into them for a second before tearing his gaze away from him.

“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” Dante asked.

“Of course I don’t,” Laurent hissed in a suppressed voice. He didn’t want anyone but Dante catching any of this.

“I can cover for you, if you really want to.”

“Sure, sounds great, but what kind of captain would I be to bail out on something like this? This is my problem!”

“I get it! But… you look like you’re about to throw up.”

“Well it’s great to know I’m suppressing it so well.”

Dante winced. He nervously gave the guards a quick glance, then stared back at Laurent. He kept maneuvering his head around so Laurent would look in his eyes.

“Look, Laurent,” he continued. “This is an intense situation, alright? This is something new and different to all of us. I don’t think anyone is going to blame you for being upset, so just let me know if you need some air or something.”

Laurent sighed and blew a strand of hair away from his face, trying to distract himself from the sick trembling sensation that was still present in the back of his throat. Breaking during a vital meeting between council members and soldiers was not going to add to his particularly great reputation. And it would be especially disrespectful to Margot.

But Dante wasn’t entirely wrong. This situation was different. Laurent had heard the buzz throughout the whole citadel regarding Margot’s fate. It was the first time in ages he’d ever felt an underlying sense of unease spread throughout the citadel. While most of it was speculation, talk of weapons and death and humans had suddenly entered the lexicon. 

Talk of a soldier killed on patrol.

Dante grabbed one of Laurent’s shoulders. “Laurent?”

“Sorry.”

“You’re still with me?”

“Yes, but —”

“But… It’s not just your problem. And I’ll be here, backing you up,” Dante continued. He shook Laurent’s shoulder gently. “If they ask us anything, remember what we laid out — I don’t want to hear you going off script and saying anything about how everything was your fault and you’re the one who gave the orders. I was there… I was the one who pushed you to….”

He faltered for a second. 

Laurent slowly put his hand over Dante’s and patted it. They looked at each other for a second before Dante shook his head and snapped back into attentive posture. 

“Let’s just go in there and try to be the best leaders we can be,” he said. “We have to get this right, for Margot’s sake.” 

Laurent nodded hesitantly.

“And make sure to keep your wings up, Laurent. They’re down.”

Laurent flicked them up again. He was relieved that Dante was one of the few people that genuinely seemed to like him. If anyone else was his colleague, surely things would be going much worse for Laurent.

They walked together into the grand chamber of the council room. It was a large circular space with tall curved wooden walls and a delicate latticed roof bordered with more flowering vines. With it being so early in the morning, the huge patterned beam of light entering from above was cast askew onto one of the walls, although it was bright enough to illuminate the entire vicinity. The huge round table in the center of the room already had a handful of figures seated around it and Laurent tried not to freak out as they all turned to look at him and Dante.

“Captain, Lieutenant, glad to see you made it,” a gentle voice called out. 

Laurent looked across the table and saw Lady Cerise staring at him. While her tone was welcoming, her face was stern. She was wearing a flowy white silken gown that reflected the light in the room and practically made her glow. A fine white veil hung over her head and rippled down her hair and wings.

“Of course, my lady,” Laurent said. “We’re happy to help.”

She gestured towards the seat next to her and Laurent made his way to it. Sitting beside Lady Cerise was the court magician, Cedar, an old geriatric fairy gentleman. Laurent and Dante worked with him frequently on their patrols to check the anchor points of the border. He was often rude and loud, calling Laurent names that even he was unaware of and smacking him in the legs with his staff. As Laurent sat beside the other side of Lady Cerise, Cedar glared at him, his grumpy look contrasting with the lady’s elegance.

Laurent and Dante rolled their eyes at each other. Word was that Cedar was being replaced soon, so at least they had that to look forward to. And with the border expansion imminent, a newer, younger mage was likely to make the part. 

A few more fairies made their way into the council room, including a couple members of the court and one soldier. Laurent’s heart dropped as he recognized her as Margot’s patrol partner. She stood nervously on the opposite end of the table. Unlike the rest of the court, she was clearly not trained to hide her anxiety. Her wings twitched and she kept rubbing her hands together nervously. She briefly looked across the table at everyone and Laurent immediately looked away before her gaze reached him. He was not ready for this.

“Thank you for joining us, everyone,” Lady Cerise announced. She stood up and everyone at the table followed her lead. “We are here to discuss the rumors about an anomaly being seen outside our borders, as well as the following disappearance of one of our soldiers. As we know, it has been years since any violent outside activity has affected our home, so I have brought together anyone who might be able to help us understand the full situation and potentially help.”

She sat down and everyone followed suit again. 

Laurent could feel a heaviness in the room and the sensation of a dozen gazes prickling up his spine. Everyone was waiting for someone else to speak first, and Laurent was definitely not going to be the one making the first move. He shifted uncomfortably in his stool.

“Could we please have Margot’s partner speak and tell their story, perhaps?” Lady Cerise suggested. 

The nervous fairy across them jumped as everyone suddenly turned to look at her. Her wings trembled, but she slowly pushed herself up.

“Please introduce yourself,” the lady continued. “And explain why you are joining us.”

“Azalea…,” she said slowly. “I’m a soldier, and I was with Margot when she got… knocked out. By a human?”

Murmurs erupted across the table. 

Azalea watched as everyone suddenly turned to the person next to them and began muttering to each other. The space filled with noise and Laurent and Dante glanced at each other nervously. Dante raised an eyebrow at him and Laurent pursed his lips back. 

It was a little strange hearing everyone react as if this news hadn’t already been circulating throughout the entire citadel for days. Perhaps hearing it straight from the source finally made the council realize that things might actually be bad. But then again, nothing had been confirmed… yet. All they knew for sure was that Margot was missing. And Laurent could only pray that it ended at that. 

And that she would be found… of course, Laurent thought to himself. 

Lady Cerise raised her hands and the murmurs quickly subsided. 

“Please, Azalea,” she said. “If you could recount to all of us how you and your partner initially came to encounter this alleged… human.”

“Well, the reason we were out there was because the captain had positioned us in a new border zone,” Azalea explained. 

She slowly turned to look straight at Laurent and he stiffened in his seat.

“He said they were testing out candidates for a new position or something, for the expansion? So he and the lieutenant asked if me and Margot could be some of the first people to check things out.”

Everyone else suddenly turned to look at Laurent and he felt as if he was about to be knocked over. His face twitched despite his best efforts. But he wasn’t entirely sure if he should jump in yet or risk sounding a little too eager to explain things. Laurent was still trying his best to internalize Dante’s prior reassurance. 

Thank goodness Azalea continued before Laurent could break.

“Well, the captain said that he paired me and Margot together because we both had good different skills, my fencing and her mapping? So we would be some of the first people to be part of the Veil’s border expansion and go chart some unknown territory.”

Some of the council members leered at Laurent and for once he wasn’t exactly sure why he was getting dirty looks. He did feel like he made the right decision choosing Azalea and Margot. They were some of the nicer soldiers under his command and did have the aforementioned skills. And when the council introduced the idea of adding new units for the expansion, Laurent and Dante both agreed that Azalea could potentially be a second lieutenant. Laurent probably wouldn’t have been so sure about the entire situation if Dante hadn’t talked with him about it. And Margot’s art skills could’ve translated into an assistant to the court magician, mapping out anchor points and drawing maps and sigils. 

But now she was gone. 

Maybe that’s why they were glaring at Laurent.

“And on our first day out,” Azalea went on, catching everyone’s attention again. 

She hesitated for a moment. “Um, on our last day out… We were escorted outside the Veil and told to be back before sunset, the captain and lieutenant gave us some routes we could take….

“And so we just did what they told us to do, noting down monuments and scratching markers on the trees… But there wasn’t really much out there. The trees were really high so I had to chase off some birds, but it wasn’t anything too difficult, nothing different than what we’ve been prepared for in training. But everything went down when we saw….”

Everyone around the table leaned in with bated breath. 

“The human… who was walking below the trees.”

Silence filled the space. 

“What did it look like?” an advisor suddenly burst. “Was it huge?”

Another council member beside Dante also shouted. “How tall was it?”

“I hear they mimic fairies’ appearances without wings!”

“But there hasn’t been any evidence of human activity for years near us, has there?”

Everyone started talking over each other while Laurent and Dante stayed quiet. If anyone could answer that last question, they could. Throughout the few years of their lucrative patrol duties, Laurent and Dante had encountered multiple instances that proved that humans were still roaming about, although they were still some of the rarest encounters they ever had. Huge unnatural items forged by no fairy hands. Strange sharpened stones that had a cold sheen lodged in tree trunks. Large bunches of branches heaped into smoldering piles that had been burned down to ash.

Laurent and Dante had initially brought up these concerns to the court, but it always caused such a ruckus behind the scenes that they mutually agreed to keep things to themselves after a while. After all, it was simply evidence that humans had once been there, and Laurent and Dante couldn’t be sure if they were always there or newly appeared. Thanks to the anchor points’ rotations, it made it difficult to keep track of what had changed outside the Veil. Even the court agreed that as long as no human had been spotted, the evidence should not be recognized as a potential danger. Eventually Laurent and Dante’s reports were diverted to the council, who mirrored the court’s lack of concern.

Maybe it was that carelessness that led to this situation. 

Suddenly Lady Cerise stood up with a scowl. “Please! Calm yourselves. Allow Azalea to finish her story, she must be upset enough just recounting it.”

Azalea rubbed her arm and looked down, vindicating the lady’s statement.

“This is news to all of us,” Lady Cerise said. “A human is a dangerous anomaly, and it may have taken one of our own from us. We need to approach this situation with grace. Please, continue when you are ready, Azalea.” 

“O–Okay,” she responded. “Well… the human was walking between the trees, and it looked like it was by itself… Me and Margot didn’t really see anything else.”

Azalea’s wings twitched. 

“Before we even saw the human, we heard some crashing noises across the forest and we thought it might be an earthquake or something. A bunch of bushes were rustling and making noise, and then birds flew off. We knew something must bw going on, so I told Margot that it could be a dangerous animal and we should take to higher ground.

“And then that’s when we saw it… an enormous figure, as tall as the trees.”

Everyone around the table let out soft gasps. Lady Cerise seemed to frown for a second, but this time, she didn’t interrupt the rounds of murmuring that rippled across the tables. Her silken veil just glinted in the light, this time with a cold aura. 

Azalea spread her arms out to either side of her, measuring the air. “I bet just its eye was this big!” 

Whoa, Laurent thought to himself. He hadn’t quite thought about the individual parts of a human which culminated in such an enormous being. Every fairy had brief lessons about the existence of humans throughout their studies, but the isolation of the citadel made it so that humans would never be encountered. They weren’t necessarily reduced to simple tall tales yet, but Laurent supposed that a lack of an imminent threat made most fairies simply ignore humans’ existence entirely. But they sounded terrifying. 

“It looked like it could’ve been a masculine human,” Azalea explained. She kept waving her hands around and outlined them in a square shape. “I didn’t get a great look at its face, but even for a human… I guess it seemed kind of broad. It had no wings, short round ears and dark hair.”

Lady Cerise simply nodded at each of Azalea’s descriptions. 

“That’s all I noticed, and me and Margot decided to hide… but then… we decided to stay low rather than take off completely.” Azalea hesitated. “We did hide up in the trees, but we were also afraid the human might see us if we moved around too much.

“I–I was afraid that the human might accidentally stumble upon the anchor point, or follow us back through the Veil… so I told Margot we needed to watch it… but… I never should have suggested that.” 

Laurent frowned. Azalea must be feeling just as guilty as Laurent. But she wasn’t the one who put herself in that position. If only Laurent had never given into the court’s requests and sent two soldiers who had never been outside the Veil off on their own. His chest grew tighter as Azalea suddenly cringed and continued.

“A bird came out of nowhere and chased me and Margot off the branch we were sitting at. We had to fly over the human’s position, and that’s where it must have seen us. Because then, there was a loud noise. It was so loud it almost knocked me out of the air. My ears were ringing and for a second I could barely think straight.”

She held her hands to her temple. Her face was dark.

“I don’t know what happened, but Margot was blasted out of the air. It was like she was hit or taken or something, by something… She was gone in an instant. I’m guessing it had to be the human. That noise it made was so loud it made the bird freak out — well, it freaked me out too. I flew into a tree a–and fell onto the ground, but then I ran beneath some plants. I saw the human take a few steps beside me and the ground shook like crazy. I think it was looking up where me and Margot had just flown over. It might have been holding something, but it wasn’t any kind of weapon I could recognize….” 

Lady Cerise raised an arm. “And what of Margot? You didn’t see a single trace of her after the noise you heard?”

Azalea shook her head. “Well… I just left. I flew back to the citadel. She didn’t follow me… but I didn’t see her falling or on the ground or anything. The human’s hands were empty. Maybe the noise confused her like how it did with me. She might have flown off in the other direction. But I… haven’t gone back.”

A couple members across the table gave strange shrugs and shook their heads. They might have been trying to be subtle, but Laurent caught a glimpse of it. Perhaps they were disapproving of Azalea’s decision to take off, but Laurent couldn’t blame her. He could only imagine what he’d do in her position. If Dante got blown out of the sky like that, Laurent believed he would go back for him… but then again… Laurent wasn’t exactly the bravest person he knew.

“But, I think…,” Azalea started. “Well….”

“Please continue, we need all the details we can gain,” the lady said.

“Well… I thought I saw blood.”

--

The meeting had spiraled into a frenzy after that detail. At least, as frenzied as a bunch of detached council members could behave. Azalea was told to sit down and after some more questioning, was eventually whisked away by a guard, looking more upset than she had been since recounting the story. Laurent watched her as she left. 

She had reassured the council that the blood was likely from the bird, which appeared injured already. It must have sprayed in the air with the flap of its wings. Azalea said that it was a brief burst and quickly faded. She had turned her head right around to fly straight into a tree, where she banged her head and fell into the muddy ground. But that didn’t do much to convince them that Margot may have been worse than missing. 

She may be injured. Or dead.

Laurent trembled at that prospect. He didn’t know what to believe. Did humans have some kind of magic that could spirit people away? Or perhaps it was an uncanny ability to move quicker than fairies could even see. He could only hope that Azalea was right about Margot flying off in a different direction. But whatever situation she was in, it wasn’t good. And when the council had begun to discuss whether or not Margot being alive was good or bad for the colony, that’s when Laurent started to zone out. His stomach hurt.

“What if the human has Margot and begins to torture her to tell her where she came from?” one advisor had asked. “The whole colony could be at risk!”

“Oh don’t be dumb,” another said. “We don’t even know whether or not we speak the same language. I doubt it could get anything out of her. Humans are big — big and stupid.”

“Well, that’s not really correct,” another voice piped up. He was a professor from the citadel, Laurent recognized. “Humans are actually much more intelligent from what we know. We have evidence that our languages overlapped at some point, and that they show intelligent behavior like using tools and retaining complex memories! And that’s even worse, because being smart and dangerous is worse than being dumb and dangerous! They aren’t just animals that mimic us, they can communicate between each other on their own just like us. Like you said earlier, they even look like us. The similarities don’t stop there!”

“Well, why isn’t that research public?” 

“Did you ever go to school?”

More yelling across the table occurred. Laurent’s vision faded into a blur as he pictured Azalea’s frightened expression during her recounting of the event. He wanted to chase after her and apologize for everything. For choosing her, for putting her out there and for what she witnessed. But he didn’t even have the guts to leave his seat, much less make eye contact with her. Azalea probably hated him anyway. He put her in the path of a human.

He recalled Azalea’s terrified face when she flew up to him inside the citadel. She had scratch marks across her face. Her red hair was messy and the entire front of her uniform was muddied. She had started rambling incoherently about Margot, a human and rushing back to tell him that something had happened to them on patrol. At the time, Laurent could barely comprehend what she was trying to tell him. When he heard the word human, Laurent had immediately pulled her aside to the council’s way, where they had taken her in for questioning. He hadn’t seen her for a few days until now. 

They still hadn’t directly questioned Laurent’s choices for putting Azalea and Margot out there, other than some upset looks when Azalea briefly explained her time with Laurent being selected from the job. The council almost always looked upset anyways, yet something about the fact that they hadn’t even brought up his decision making this whole time made him think that they couldn’t care less about the fact that Azalea and Margot were put in danger by Laurent. Their main concern had now shifted to this human. And maybe Laurent should be focusing on that, too, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Azalea’s story. Sure, coming across traces of human activity on his job wasn’t unheard of for him and Dante, but a whole human — a creature of such a grand scale they rivaled the trees — being encountered freaked him out more than any little evidence he’d come across.

“Captain Laurent?” a voice called his name and snapped him back to the scene in front of him.

“Huh,” he mumbled. 

Dante whacked his legs under the table and Laurent looked around the table like a fool. 

“If you and your lieutenant could recount some of the things you’ve seen on your patrols,” Lady Cerise said in a flat voice.

“O–Oh, of course.”

Laurent wasn’t sure if he should stand up or what. He got lost in his thoughts. Plus, it felt wrong to take the stage after what had just been reported to them.

“Please stand,” the lady said with a sigh. Now she was getting upset with him.

“Right.”

He pushed his seat back and stood up. “Well, I’m sure as you all know, my lieutenant and I are some of the only people outside the direct court verified to know where the anchor points are… and we are the ones conducting patrols—”

“We just went over this already!” an advisor cried from Laurent’s left.

“Oh, right… ha ha.”

Dante winced beside him. But he stayed in his seat. 

Laurent gulped and continued. “Well — there was one time where my lieutenant and I came across what appeared to be a huge human weapon lodged in a tree… like a spear but much larger. It stuck out of the bark like it was a branch, but we both noticed it looked unnatural. It was much too straight. And we were right, because when we got closer, we realized it was a smoothened stick with a sharpened stone of some type at the end.”

“I–It may have been an arrow,” Dante added. “But we couldn’t be sure with the size ratio… unless humans are much larger than we are aware. There was rope tying the sharp end to the stick.”

Laurent nodded. For it to be a spear, humans may have been something similar to the height of a small deer. But to be an arrow used in a bow… then the human wielding it must have to be enormous. The arrows that some troops wielded were about the length of their arms. And the human “arrow” was long enough so that Laurent and Dante could mistake it for the arm of a tree.

“We’ve also seen other weird things like large pits of fire and ash,” Danted mused.

“Yes, and fire is almost always a human thing,” Laurent said. He learned that in school.

“Other weird objects, too, made of the same material as that arrow head. We saw some with a gold sheen to it, they were small items shaped like mushrooms strewn along the ground.”

“And there was that dark one with the gold and grey colors.”

“Which one was that?”

Laurent held his arms out, like how Azalea had earlier. He adjusted them so his palms were just outside the width of his torso. “It was about this long, like a fat tube, but one end was flat, and the other was a bit rounded.”

“Oh, right!”

“Okay, boys,” Lady Cerise interrupted them. For once, her own wings twitched, causing a ripple across the veil down her back. “I recall your previous reports on these items. But you haven’t seen anything recently, have you?”

“Well….” Dante and Laurent looked at each other nervously. 

“We still see those objects around,” Laurent said slowly, then quickly added: “Once in a while.”

“Which objects?”

“T–The tube ones.”

Lady Cerise narrowed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“How are we sure these items are of human creation?” an advisor asked.

“Deer don’t shoot arrows into trees,” someone murmured.

The professor leaned forward again. “Plus, there are certain materials that humans have been known to use in their tools. Things that are far out of reach for fairies! If the captain and lieutenant describe the material of the arrowhead to me, I could tell you if it’s human or not. Or… I could go out there and check them out myself!”

“We aren’t going to have a professor go out in the field like that,” the advisor sighed.

“We shouldn’t be leaving the citadel, period!” someone else shouted.

“So we should just stop all productivity because of the human?”

Lady Cerise raised both of her hands up.

“I believe we should abort the border expansion for now,” she announced. “We may be reaching territory that is too dangerous for us now. If human activity is still evident at our present anchor points, it’s best we tread lightly with our current territory. In fact, we may have to pause our usual patrols during this situation. We need to contain any risks.”

She turned to Laurent and Dante. “We can’t have any more soldiers sent out past the anchor points. You two may have to stay within the citadel until we figure out a better way to approach this.”

“But we don’t come across anything as crazy as actual, living humans,” Laurent blurted. He probably shouldn’t have said anything, but it came out of nowhere. “Those things may have just been dropped by birds or something! Crows in particular… you know… how they are.”

He trailed off as Lady Cerise’s intense look intimidated him into silence. 

“Apologies, my lady,” he said. He folded his arms and sat back down. Dante shot him a pitiful look.

“Our court magician, Cedar,” Lady Cerise moved on and gestured at him. “I ask that everyone gives him time as he works on some new spells for the next rotation. Some new anchor points may be in question. Meanwhile, I will call everyone back in the chance we have a search party for Margot. It may be in our best interests to find her, despite the potential dangers. Then, after that, we could potentially resume our usual protocols.”

In their best interests, Laurent thought to himself bitterly. As if Margot wasn’t a real person whose life was in danger. To the council, she was just a piece in their diplomatic game. They wanted to find her so they could assure everyone a human wouldn’t show up stomping around the citadel, not to assure everyone that a soldier's life wasn’t taken. 

One of the advisors raised their hands and spoke. “How should we approach this news with the citizens? Should we share it at all?”

Lady Cerise nodded. “Good question. As of right now….”

She paused.

“I forbid anyone from mentioning the potential existence of a human. We explain that a soldier went missing on duty due to a freak accident. If Margot is found, then she can confirm Azalea’s claim about the human, and only then will we make a statement about it. For now, keep Azalea’s story confidential. We will convene later with her to discuss a placeholder story. We need to keep the citadel in order for now.”

Everyone nodded hesitantly across the table.

“Before we take a break, I would like to address a few more things,” Lady Cerise said.

Once again, she turned to Laurent and Dante.

“I’m sure the soldiers under you both will be doing their best to break you and get you to tell them what happened,” she said. “Please do your best not to give in.”

Oh, Laurent thought. That was definitely targeted just towards him.

“And I’m also sure that some soldiers will try to attack you for putting one of them in such a dangerous position. I’m sure you know that you made the best choice with Azalea and Margot. I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”

“Okay….”

Laurent did not like that wording. 

“So, until we reconvene with Azalea and get our story straight, I expect you to say nothing about this meeting.”

“Of course…,” he said.

He thought about what he told the soldiers at the door of the council chamber. He would have to return to them silent, despite promising a chance to report back about Margot. And now he’d be a liar. As if Laurent hadn’t already had been enough of a disappointment.

Lady Cerise wasn’t done. She gently reached out and put a hand over Laurent’s shoulder.

“As captain, you alone are responsible for your soldiers. Even if it hurts, these are the burdens you must carry in order to retain honor for the whole citadel. Don’t let anyone else get in the way of your duties.”

She smiled at Laurent. 

He nodded. “Of course.”

(Couldn't decide if Finch should be looking front or not, so you decide) Also, Part 12 does exist I swear! (half of it) :,)

I just survived another semester where I had to co-write the prologue of a visual novel (which I can't even guarantee will ever see the light of day haha, I'm still recovering). Thus, it wasn't until a couple days ago that I started writing for fun again.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE :)