Chapter 98: General Zarthan
Selene said nothing for the entire ride to Khar’noctha, and Ryuji felt her grief and fury pressing against him through the new warmth he still hadn’t fully learned to manage, sharp and constant, refusing to settle into anything he could easily name.
"You don’t have to hold it in," he said finally, breaking the silence somewhere past the volcanic ridges.
"I am not holding anything in," Selene said, though the tightness in her voice suggested otherwise. "I am simply trying to decide what I actually feel before I say something I cannot take back."
"Fair," Ryuji said, and let the silence sit, respecting the particular difficulty of a grief that hadn’t finished sorting itself yet.
[System Log: Day 99]
[GENERAL ZARTHAN HAS BEEN NAMED AS A POSSIBLE FALSE PEACE AGENT WITHIN THE DOMINION’S COURT]
[THE WIFE’S EMOTIONAL STATE REMAINS UNRESOLVED]
[GIVEN HIS ROLE IN HER TRAINING AND UPBRINGING, THIS REPRESENTS A DEEPLY PERSONAL BETRAYAL DISTINCT FROM PREVIOUS DISCOVERIES]
Voldranis met them at the gate, ember eyes carrying the particular weight of a king who’d spent his entire reign trusting a man he now suspected of murder by association.
"He does not know we suspect him yet," Voldranis said. "I have kept the investigation contained to a handful of trusted scholars. If word reaches him too early, he may destroy evidence or flee entirely."
"You’re certain about the correspondence," Selene said, void energy simmering sharp at her fingertips.
"I am certain the correspondence pattern matches known false peace methods," Voldranis said. "I am not certain it is truly Zarthan sending it, rather than someone using his authority without his knowledge. That is precisely why I want your household present. Your husband’s new gift may prove more reliable than any scholar’s handwriting analysis."
Ryuji felt the weight of that expectation settle heavy in his chest.
"I’ve never used it on someone I need to be right about this badly," he admitted.
"None of us have," Voldranis said. "I would rather have imperfect certainty than none at all."
They found Zarthan in the training yards, considerably older than Ryuji had imagined from Selene’s occasional mentions, seven feet of scarred muscle and fire-veined skin, drilling a group of young soldiers with the particular patience of someone who’d trained recruits for centuries.
He noticed Selene immediately, and something warm crossed his weathered face, entirely genuine as far as Ryuji’s new sense could tell.
"Selene," he said, voice carrying like distant thunder. "You’ve grown considerably more dangerous since I last watched you spar. I felt it the moment you crossed into the courtyard."
Selene’s composed expression cracked slightly, old affection warring with fresh suspicion.
"General," she said carefully. "I need to speak with you. Privately, if you’re willing."
Zarthan studied her for a long moment, something shifting behind his ember eyes, and Ryuji felt genuine confusion radiating from him, unmistakable and entirely without guile.
"You look at me like a woman preparing for battle," he said. "I confess, I do not understand what threat you believe I represent."
They moved to a private chamber off the training yard, Voldranis, Selene, and Ryuji alone with the old general, and Ryuji felt the weight of the confrontation settling heavy despite Zarthan’s evident, genuine confusion.
"Correspondence has surfaced," Voldranis said, careful and measured, "matching patterns the false peace has used elsewhere. It traces back to your authority within this court."
Zarthan’s massive frame went very still, and Ryuji watched something break behind the old general’s eyes, not guilt, but a considerably older, deeper grief.
"My authority," he said slowly. "Not necessarily my hand."
"Explain," Selene said, sharp.
Zarthan exhaled, the sound like a forge bellows working slow. "I trained a young officer two years ago. Talented. Ambitious. I gave him access to my personal seal for administrative matters, trusting him the way I once trusted every soldier who earned my respect through discipline rather than flattery."
"His name," Voldranis demanded.
"Corvain," Zarthan said. "He requested reassignment to the border garrisons six months ago. I approved it without hesitation. I did not think to question why a soldier this promising suddenly wanted distance from the capital."
Ryuji felt the warmth in his chest shift, settling into something considerably clearer than the tension of walking in blind, and studied the old general carefully.
"He’s telling the truth," Ryuji said. "About all of it. I can feel it."
Selene’s void energy eased slightly, relief warring with fresh fury at the actual target now identified.
"Corvain," she said. "I remember him. He sparred with me twice, years ago. I thought him skilled but unremarkable."
"He was considerably more remarkable than either of us gave him credit for," Zarthan said, grief heavy in his weathered voice. "I trained him myself. If he has served the false peace beneath my own seal, that failure belongs to me regardless of whether my hand wrote the correspondence."
Voldranis studied his oldest advisor with careful consideration, something easing in his own guarded posture.
"You did not know," he said. "That much is now confirmed."
"Confirmation does not remove the failure," Zarthan said. "I trained a man who apparently chose to serve something considerably worse than ambition, and I did not see it happening beneath my own authority."
Selene crossed the chamber, and to Ryuji’s genuine surprise, embraced the massive general fiercely, the particular grief of someone relieved beyond measure that the betrayal she’d feared hadn’t actually come from the source she’d loved.
"You did not fail me," she said, voice muffled against his armor. "You trained me to recognize exactly this kind of deception. That is precisely how we caught it."
Zarthan’s massive arms wrapped around her carefully, considerably gentler than his imposing frame suggested he was capable of.
"I am proud of what you have become," he said. "Whatever else this reveals about my own failures."
Ryuji watched the reunion with quiet relief, the particular satisfaction of a mystery resolving without costing the household something it genuinely couldn’t afford to lose.
"We need Corvain’s current location," Voldranis said, already thinking strategically despite the emotional moment. "If he’s been operating from the border garrisons for six months, he may have compromised considerably more than correspondence."
"I can provide his last known posting," Zarthan said, releasing Selene carefully. "Though I fear, given everything you’ve described, he may have already moved beyond it."
Renka, who’d accompanied them from Millhollow and waited outside the chamber, entered at Voldranis’s summons and studied the notes Zarthan provided with practiced efficiency.
"I’ll have riders confirm his current position within two days," she said.
Selene remained close to Zarthan through the remainder of the discussion, something warm and grateful settling into her posture that Ryuji felt clearly through the new sense they now shared.
"You handled that considerably better than I expected," Ryuji said, once they’d finally stepped away to give the general and king privacy to plan.
"I expected to lose him," Selene admitted. "I spent the entire ride here preparing myself for exactly that grief. Finding it was Corvain instead feels almost cruel in its relief."
"Not cruel," Ryuji said. "Just complicated. You’re allowed to feel relieved and still be angry someone he trained betrayed everyone."
Selene studied him for a long moment, something warm cutting through her exhaustion.
"You have gotten remarkably good at naming feelings I have not yet fully identified myself," she said.
"Comes with the gift, apparently," Ryuji said, and Selene laughed softly, the particular sound that had become, across months, one of the things he treasured most.
They settled into the Dominion’s guest quarters as evening fell, exhausted but relieved, and Ryuji found himself, hours later, standing at the window with Selene beside him, watching Khar’noctha’s obsidian spires catch the last violet light.
"Selene."
"What."
"We’re actually winning. False peace’s plans keep falling apart. Alliance keeps growing stronger. Zarthan’s clear."
"We are," Selene agreed, something cautiously hopeful in her tired voice. "I am almost afraid to say it aloud, given how this world tends to respond to hope."
The words had barely settled when Renka’s urgent voice carried from the corridor outside, sharp with fresh alarm.
"Riders confirmed Corvain’s position," she said, breathless. "But that’s not the problem. He’s not at the border garrison anymore."
Selene’s grip tightened around Ryuji’s hand.
"Where is he," she asked.
Renka’s expression carried the particular weight of news that would land considerably harder than anything the day had already offered.
"Millhollow," she said. "He’s at Millhollow. Right where Kaelith’s still finishing the restoration alone."