Chapter 10: The Confession in the Snow
Commander Vance spat a mouthful of dark blood onto the pristine white snow, his chest heaving under his dented breastplate. He looked up at Valerie with defiant eyes, but the cold reality of defeat had settled into his posture. He knew the council would never acknowledge his failure; in their eyes, he was already disposable.
"Lord Reginald," Vance wheezed, his voice ragged from the cold and the impact of the blow. "He... he knew you wouldn't take the eastern commission quietly. He ordered the unit eliminated before you crossed the border, and blamed it on mountain bandits in the official dispatches."
Valerie lowered the heavy war hammer slightly, resting its iron head on the frozen ground. Behind her, Julian had finished cutting the ropes of the captive soldiers, who were quickly grabbing abandoned weapons and securing the perimeter.
"And Cassandra?" Julian asked, stepping down from the ridge and walking over to stand beside Valerie. His blue eyes were cold, devoid of any triumph. "Was she aware of the execution order?"
Vance let out a harsh, bitter laugh that turned into a cough. "Lady Cassandra doesn't sign execution orders. She simply provides the rationale that makes them necessary. She told Reginald that if the myth of the bloodline dies, the empire falls into civil war. To her, murdering a few loyal soldiers is a small price to pay for imperial stability."
Julian absorbed the words in silence. The cold logic of Cassandra's philosophy sickened him far more than Vance's raw brutality. Systems built on manufactured divinity required constant maintenance in blood, and the council was more than willing to bleed the entire nation dry to preserve their privilege.
"What do we do with him?" one of the freed soldiers asked, stepping forward and glaring down at Vance with undisguised hatred.
"We leave him his horse and a single ration," Valerie said firmly, securing her helmet back onto her head. "He rides south, back to the capital, and delivers a message to Lord Reginald and Lady Cassandra. Tell them Captain Valerie and Scholar Julian are coming home, and we are bringing the real history of the empire with us."
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Vance slowly pushed himself up, clutching his bruised ribs, and mounted his horse without a word. He turned the animal southward and spurred it into a gallop, disappearing into the swirling mist of the mountain pass.
Valerie turned to her men, who stood tall and resolute in the freezing wind, their loyalty forged in the crucible of betrayal. "Gather the supplies and secure the wagons. We aren't going to the eastern frontier. We are marching back to the capital."
