Chapter 68: Closer Than Expected

Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Closer Than Expected

Alouis found Ren in the palace’s secondary archive two days later, a cramped, rarely used room full of personnel records and staffing histories that Ren had taken to combing through methodically, determined to contribute something concrete to the mole investigation rather than simply waiting anxiously while others handled it.

"You’ve been in here for six hours," she said, settling into the chair across from him, something concerned beneath her usual practical tone. "Reven’s asking after you." 𝚏𝗋ℯⅇ

"I’m fine," Ren said, not looking up from the stack of records he’d been cross-referencing against recent palace access logs. "I just keep thinking, if someone’s genuinely working against us from inside, there has to be a pattern somewhere. Access they shouldn’t have had, timing that lines up too conveniently with when information reached Castellan’s contact."

Alouis studied him for a moment, then reached over and pulled a portion of the stack toward herself. "Then let me help," she said simply. "Four eyes work faster than two."

They worked together in comfortable silence for a while, and it was Alouis, eventually, who found it, a single entry buried among months of routine staffing logs that made her go suddenly, sharply still.

"Ren," she said, voice careful. "Look at this."

He leaned over, following her finger to a name he recognized immediately, old, uncomfortable familiarity settling cold in his chest.

Lyra.

"She transferred into palace administrative service four months ago," Alouis said slowly, pulling up the full record. "Shortly after Reven’s public announcement, under a recommendation from a sponsoring officer whose name doesn’t actually correspond to anyone currently serving in that officer’s listed post."

Ren felt something cold and certain settle into place. "A falsified recommendation," he said. "Someone got her placed here deliberately."

"It gets worse," Alouis said, scrolling further. "Her clearance level, for an administrative position this junior, is considerably higher than it should be. Someone approved an exception, and the approval signature traces back to a now-retired officer who, according to this same record, has been dead for over a year."

Ren’s stomach turned, the implications settling heavy and sickening. Lyra, who’d spent weeks tormenting him at the outpost, who’d twisted an innocent moment into a rumor that reached his father, who’d apparently never actually left his orbit at all, simply following him here under false pretenses with access she had no legitimate right to hold.

"We need to tell Reven," Ren said, already rising.

They found him in the command wing, and his expression shifted from focused exhaustion to something considerably sharper the moment Alouis laid the evidence out in front of him.

"She requested a transfer here specifically," Reven said, scanning the record with mounting, controlled fury. "Months before my identity was even publicly confirmed. Which means whoever placed her here anticipated this entire situation unfolding, long before any of us did."

"Do we move on her directly," Yegard asked, having joined them partway through, "or do we watch her first, see where the thread actually leads?"

"Watch," Reven said after a moment’s consideration, something calculating replacing his initial fury. "If she’s reporting to someone, moving on her immediately only tells our enemy we’ve found them. I want to know who she’s actually working for before we act."

Ren felt old, complicated anger resurface at the plan, old history with Lyra tangling uncomfortably with the much larger stakes now involved. "I want to be there," he said. "When we finally confront her."

"You will be," Reven said, something understanding in his tone despite the operational focus of the moment. "But carefully, and only once we actually have something concrete connecting her to Castellan’s contact."

The surveillance took four more days, careful, quiet observation that revealed Lyra meeting, twice, with an unidentified contact in one of the palace’s less-trafficked service corridors, brief exchanges that intelligence officers confirmed, through careful lip-reading analysis of recovered footage, included references to "the investigation’s timeline" and "accelerated extraction."

"Extraction of what," Ren asked, watching the footage replay during a tense briefing, dread building with every viewing.

"We don’t know yet," Reven admitted, something grim in his tone. "But given everything else we’ve learned, I suspect it’s considerably more likely to mean extraction of information, or potentially a person, rather than simple intelligence gathering."

The confrontation, when it finally came, happened fast and without warning, palace security moving on Lyra during what should have been an unremarkable afternoon shift, and Ren found himself present as promised, standing alongside Reven and Yegard as she was brought into a secure interrogation chamber, her earlier confidence visibly cracking the moment she registered exactly how much they already knew.

"You," she said, something venomous flashing across her expression the instant she saw Ren. "This is your fault. Everything that’s happened to me since you ruined my position at that outpost."

"I ruined nothing," Ren said, keeping his voice level despite old, familiar irritation resurfacing. "You chose to spread lies about me, and apparently, you chose to accept employment from whoever’s actually been orchestrating attacks against this family. Those are your choices, not mine."

"You don’t understand what it’s like," Lyra snapped, something desperate cutting through her usual sharp confidence, "watching everything I wanted simply handed to someone else, someone who didn’t even want it the way I did. They offered me a way back in, a way to actually matter again, and I took it. I don’t regret that."

"Who offered you," Reven asked, voice cutting cold and sharp through her bitter admission.

Lyra’s jaw tightened, old defiance warring visibly with obvious fear now that the full weight of her situation had properly settled. "I don’t know their name," she said finally, something considerably less confident entering her voice. "Only a title. They call themselves the Architect. That’s all I’ve ever been given."

"What have you told them," Yegard demanded, something dangerous in his controlled tone.

"Security patterns. Palace layouts. The children’s routine schedules," Lyra admitted, something close to genuine fear finally cracking through her bitterness. "They wanted to know everything about the household’s movements, vulnerabilities, points of access."

Ren felt cold horror settle hard into his chest at the confirmation, old anger tangling with fresh, protective terror at how thoroughly Milo and Finn’s safety had apparently been compromised without any of them realizing it.

"And the extraction," Reven pressed, something urgent cutting through his controlled fury. "What were you preparing to extract, and when."

Lyra hesitated, something calculating flickering behind her fear, and Ren watched her weigh whatever leverage she still believed she held. "I want protection," she said finally. "Formal immunity, guaranteed safety, before I tell you anything further."

Reven’s expression went hard and cold. "You attacked a child’s safety for personal gain," he said, voice flat and final. "You don’t negotiate from a position of strength here. You tell us everything you know, immediately, and perhaps this Council considers leniency given your cooperation. Or you remain silent, and face the full consequence of what you’ve already confessed to."

Something in Lyra’s expression finally, completely broke, the last of her defiance crumbling under the weight of genuine, desperate fear. "Three days," she said, voice shaking now. "They’re planning something in three days. I don’t know exactly what, only that they said the children wouldn’t be a priority target anymore. They said their focus was shifting entirely toward him." Her eyes flicked toward Ren, something almost apologetic beneath the fear. "They said, once this phase actually begins, there won’t be any more need for subtlety at all."