Interlude - Revelations

“None of this feels right, my lady. We’re losing too many of them, losing Darks who no one should know about. Last night one of ours found a Dark we’d warned dead in an alley. Near the castle gates.”

“What you say is true, Breyda. They have a grip on our dealings; an uncanny knowledge of all that goes on here. But it makes perfect sense, don’t you think?”

“My lady?”

“That as soon as we began to pour our efforts into telling the Darks they were being targeted, our enemies would see and take advantage? We were doing their job for them, Breyda; finding the Darks so that they could tag them and kill them later.”

“You think they’ve infiltrated us.”

“Yes, and to the highest level. It is someone who has access to the list, the one that tells of every Dark we’ve found and talked to. The person who is doing this has been faithful to his true employers in every way, making contacts with them at regular times. The opposition knows. Everything.”

“Surely I don’t have to tell you that what you speak of is impossible. Beside the two of us, no one has access - ”

“Do you remember the boy, Breyda? The one you imagined had killed the four boys? The one you’d imagined was the World Breaker?”

“Yes, my lady. He disappeared into the Hathan streets. Hopefully he is still alive.”

“You don’t hope. You know. Your contacts have had him followed, and they know where the boy is.”

“My lady, this is ridic-”

“Do you think I did not weep when the trackers told me where they’d seen you? Who you’d been talking to? You’ve been my friend, Breyda. A brother. Do you think it did not lay heavy on my soul when I knew that you, of all people, were the traitor? So, for the sake of the gods, Breyda, speak of me no longer as your lady. You’ve betrayed me. You may have destroyed our entire struggle! If indeed the boy is the World Breaker, and you told them where to find him, Meil is doomed. Do you not understand that?”

“It…it was never my intention for you to find out this way. I was offered…they knew what I was, they were going to kill my family! What could I do? I never did it for any bad reason, you need to know that.”

“…Breyda, that does not ease the thing I’m forced to do. You would have done the same for me.”

“Please, my lady! Lock me away, I’ll never speak again. I swear it.”

“I cannot let this thing go unpunished. If I did what you asked, and you watched them murder your family you would wish that I had done this thing.”

“Gods forgive me, forgive me.”

“Azalta! Ruxt! Come here!”

“My lady, forgive me. I would never have done you harm, my hand was forced. Do not think ill of me.”

“I will not, Breyda. You were a good man. Azalta, Ruxt. Captain Breyda has betrayed our cause. Take him from here, and kill him. Return his body to the family he has so loved. They deserve that.”

“Goodbye, My lady. I have failed you.”

“Goodbye, Breyda.”