Chapter 20: The General’s Suspicion

General Rhyder Drakeheir stood at the head of the polished oak table, his gaze fixed on the glowing strategic displays.

Maps covered the central screen, outlining supply lines, military staging areas, regional medical centers, and transport corridors. The meeting room inside the provincial defense complex remained tense, quiet, and rigid under his presence.

Raviah sat among the civilian consultants near the middle of the long room, her hands resting calmly over her leather document folder. She kept her face completely unreadable. Her eyes, however, rarely left the man commanding the room.

Rhyder’s dark uniform was immaculate. His broad shoulders cut a sharp silhouette against the white light of the digital displays, and his deep voice carried absolute authority whenever he spoke.

He questioned everything. Fuel reserves, hospital capacities, emergency communication networks, and regional grain storage were scrutinized one by one.

On the surface, it appeared to be a standard military readiness assessment.

Raviah knew better.

She recognized the exact vulnerabilities he was attempting to secure. They were the same failures that had torn the province apart during the first brutal weeks of the apocalypse.

He did not know the full truth of what was coming. He could not possibly know about the mutated beasts, the chitinous Zergs, or the awakening Elementals. Yet he was already preparing.

The briefing dragged on for nearly two hours before Rhyder finally dismissed the officers. The room cleared rapidly as consultants and lower-ranking officers gathered their materials and exited into the corridor.

Raviah gathered her papers slowly, intending to slip out quietly among the last group of attendees.

"Doctor Solomon." Rhyder’s voice stopped her just before she reached the timber doors.

She paused, turning around with deliberate grace.

General Drakeheir stood several meters away, his hands clasped firmly behind his back. His eyes rested on her face with an unnerving intensity.

"General?" she asked politely.

"Walk with me," he said, stepping past the head of the table toward the private side corridor.

Raviah hesitated for a fraction of a heartbeat before following him through the door. The heavy timber panel clicked shut behind them, cutting off the noise of the main hall.

The high-ceilinged corridor was quiet, lined with dark wood paneling and framed portraits of past commanders. Their footsteps echoed against the polished floorboards.

"You avoided answering my questions earlier," Rhyder said, his eyes looking straight ahead as they walked.

"I answered what was appropriate for the setting, General," Raviah replied smoothly.

"You answered carefully," he corrected, throwing a sharp glance in her direction.

A faint, fleeting smile touched the corner of Raviah’s lips. "Carefulness is a useful trait in uncertain times."

Rhyder slowed his pace slightly, turning his head to study her profile. "You seem unusually prepared for uncertain times."

"I am a physician," she said, holding her head high. "Preparation is part of my profession."

"Physicians order antibiotics and medical drapes," Rhyder countered, his tone dropping an octave. "They do not purchase twelve hundred acres of isolated farmland, industrial water purification systems, or redundant solar grids."

Raviah did not break her stride. She kept her eyes fixed on the corridor ahead.

"Sol Haven Agricultural Holdings is building a sustainable medical research initiative," she offered seamlessly.

"You aren’t employing enough researchers to justify twelve hundred acres," Rhyder noted. "Nor does medical research require blast-resistant doors on an old farmhouse."

Raviah’s fingers tightened slightly against her folder, though her face remained serene. He had dug deep into her building permits.

"We are planning for future expansion," she stated.

"Not yet," Rhyder quoted, his eyes narrowing. "That was your answer in the hall. Not yet."

Those two words hung between them in the quiet hallway like a heavy weight.

Rhyder stopped walking entirely, turning his full frame to block her path. Raviah stopped two feet away, forced to look up into his dark, penetrating eyes.

"What exactly do you expect to happen, Doctor Solomon?" he asked quietly.

"Nothing specific," she lied, her voice steady and soft.

It was technically true that she could not share the horrific details. If she told him that the sky would tear open in months, he would lock her in a psychiatric ward despite his own suspicions.

Rhyder stared down at her, his brow furrowing slightly as he searched her face.

"Then why does every single piece of data regarding your company suggest otherwise?" he asked.

Raviah remained silent, letting the quiet space between them stretch.

Rhyder took a slow, deliberate breath. "Because you are not the only one who has noticed something wrong."

Raviah’s heart gave a sudden, hard thud against her ribs. Her dark eyes met his instantly. "What do you mean?"

"Our defense intelligence divisions have been receiving irregular reports for the past three months," Rhyder revealed, lowering his voice so it barely carried down the empty hall.

He watched her reactions carefully as he spoke.

"Unusual environmental shifts," Rhyder continued. "Agricultural anomalies along the coast. Unexplained delays in international shipping channels, and sudden surges in private commodity purchases."

Raviah kept her breath shallow, listening to the exact sequence of early warning signs she remembered from her past life.

"Several government divisions have quietly increased their emergency procurement requests," Rhyder added. "And certain elite units have been ordered to increase readiness without a clear operational objective."

"Perhaps the state expects economic volatility," Raviah suggested, keeping her tone carefully detached.

"Perhaps," Rhyder said, though his expression made it clear he did not believe it. "But I have spent my military career evaluating patterns before major conflicts."

He stepped an inch closer, his imposing height casting a slight shadow over her.

"These reports do not fit standard economic models," he said firmly. "They point toward an impending systemic failure."

Raviah remembered the first timeline clearly. At this exact point, higher authorities had begun noticing small irregularities, but no one had pieced the puzzle together until the sky turned black. Yet Rhyder was already connecting the dots.

"You recognized those data points when I brought them up during the briefing," Rhyder stated, his dark eyes locking onto hers with absolute conviction.

"I recognized nothing," Raviah replied quickly.

"You hesitated," he countered. "Your breathing changed."

"I was simply considering the implications of your intelligence," she said smoothly.

"And what is your professional interpretation of those implications?" Rhyder asked, pressing the advantage.

Raviah stood her ground, looking directly into the eyes of the man who had died covering her body with his own.

"My interpretation is that insufficient information leads to fatal assumptions," she said softly.

"That sounds like a warning, Doctor Solomon," Rhyder noted.

"Consider it medical advice, General," she countered.

For a brief, unexpected moment, the hard line of Rhyder’s mouth softened. A ghost of an amused smile flickered across his face before vanishing.

"You are exceptionally difficult to read," he admitted.

"I consider that a professional necessity," Raviah replied.

Rhyder’s expression grew serious once more. His gaze swept over her jawline, her guarded posture, and the quiet grief lingering deep within her dark eyes.

"Your preparations concern me because they are logical," Rhyder said softly. "You are not building a sanctuary for an ordinary crisis."

Raviah offered no reply, holding her breath.

Rhyder leaned down slightly, his voice dropping into a dangerous, intimate whisper that resonated in her chest.

"If you know what is coming, Doctor Solomon... you should tell me."

Raviah’s throat tightened.

For a fleeting second, the immaculate uniform faded from her sight. In its place, she saw a blood-soaked soldier standing between her fragile frame and an advancing horde of monstrous Zergs.

She remembered the agonizing weight of concrete, his warm blood dripping onto her cheek, and the final command he had rasped before the world exploded.

"Live."

The man standing in front of her right now was alive, powerful, and uninjured. He was asking her to trust him. Raviah looked into Rhyder’s sharp, searching eyes. She was not ready to reveal the impossible truth of her rebirth or the nightmare of the apocalypse.

However, as the countdown to doomsday ticked away, she realized she could not build her kingdom entirely alone. She would eventually need the one commander in the country who possessed the tactical brilliance to hold the line.

And General Rhyder Drakeheir was already stepping into the shadow with her.