The Queen Soleah had her hands full ever since Lira's death. While it would have been easier to have her king support her and continue his duties, she understood that the man was so close to death from overwork that she needed to tackle the issues herself.
His mental health and cognitive functions had noticeably declined ever since the war started, and it was not something she had been pleased with. Somah was the love of her life, and if he had died, she would truly be lost.
Her arms struggled against the door for a moment before finally giving in to her force and opening a way for her.
It's so dark here. Soleah closed her eyes and raised her hand forward. Aqua had taught her Aether conversion, and it was time to use her spells without a crutch.
"Let there be light.[Light]."
A small orb of light materialized in her hand and soon after floated before her eyes.
I hope he can rest up. He had been overworking himself for far too long. She sighed.
"Now what did Lira leave behind?" She elegantly trotted over to the Spymaster's former desk.
Her daughter was able to procure a rather hefty stack of information before, which assured Soleah that Lira had much more to hide than was known to both her and Somah.
Upon taking a seat and opening a drawer, her eyes fluttered at the sheer amount of documents that Lira had stashed away. Why didn't she destroy them?
No, it was clear why. Even Red Dawn would need information, even if it was clearly many times more powerful.
Lira had set us back far too much. In hindsight, she had underestimated the former spymaster. If Aqua was not as swift as she was in dispatching the infiltrator, then her kingdom would have suffered extinction.
She slowly picked up a heavy stack of documents and plopped them on the table.
"This will take all day… where is she?" Her eyes wandered to the open door. She had expected a guest who would help her learn everything Lira had hidden from them, at least what she had not destroyed.
The Queen was not so naive as to think she could find everything in Lira's office; however, she only needed some base she could work from. "Blind and deaf… We were blind and deaf."
It pained her to admit it even to herself. "If not for Aqua…" She gritted her teeth while reading information.
"I need to be careful; a lot of this could be fake." She shook her head and crumpled the parchment.
It's safe to assume that anything that we know of and is written here is false, while anything we do not know is true.
Her eyes darted from one corner to another. She quickly slid anything that was false to the right side of the table and anything she believed was true to the left side of the table.
"Your Majesty. I am…here." Lucia struggled to catch her breath. She gripped the edge of her uniform and bowed.
Soleah raised her head from the parchment and looked up toward Lucia. She was rather impressed by Lucia and had decided that she would be promoted as her personal assistant.
It was a position that remained open as Soleah could not trust many people; her last assistant had proven to be unreliable and a traitor to boot. Until recently, she had not found a better candidate than Lucia.
While the girl was clumsy and prone to envy, she was also very intelligent and loyal.
"Please take a seat. I require your help." Her voice was stern and serious, without the usual warmth she carried when around Aqua and her children.
"Understood!" Lucia's back straightened as her eyes darted around the room. Soon she found a small chair and took a seat opposite of the queen.
"Now, Lucia. I am working on sorting these documents according to their likeness of containing truth. On the left pile, you can find anything I believe contains truth, and on the right are obviously fake correspondences we can dismiss; however, I require a second pair of eyes just in case I miss."
"Your majesty… that's impos—"
"Do not flatter me; this is serious. I cannot afford to make a mistake right now, and you have potential. If you help me, you will become my personal assistant. Deal?" She tapped her fingers against the parchment.
"Read this." She gripped the document and handed it to Lucia. "Tell me your thoughts."
The servant cautiously grabbed the document, and her eyes darted from one side to the other. She slowly read through it and slowly took in information.
This was a big chance for her to ascend in the hierarchy, and thus she had to be thorough.
"It is a report on the Savage tribes of southern lands…"
"Exactly. Now tell me, Lucia. Is there something strange in it to your eyes?"
Her eyes squinted, and her hands trembled as she took in the information. "It says that we and savages are on a very similar technological level… but that we will be extinct by the next century if major improvements are made."
She peered at the Queen for a moment, "Are you sure I should look at these papers?"
"Yes. Go on." Soleah gestured for Lucia to continue.
Lucia sighed and retrieved the next paper. Each information she learned filled her with dread. It was not something a mere servant should bear upon their consciousness.
No, it was the wrong way to think that way. Every person needed to understand the position.
"Tell me, Lucia. What do you make of these reports?"
The young servant plunged into her own thoughts. The queen believed the reports were true, which made it clear that spies were most likely loyal to the kingdom.
However, she worried about one thing. "Your majesty, how do you know these spies did not lie?"
"That's a good question. Let me answer it very simply. The information fits with what Aqua told us. We are primitive and weak, there is no doubt about it." Soleah leaned forward and smiled.
"These reports, they are true and are retrieved from trustworthy spies… however, the final node in our network, Lira, was compromised, and just before this important information reached your ear, it went silent."
The eager maid slowly made way through multiple documents.
Soleah nodded along. "Now, do you notice anything strange?"
Lucia puckered her lips and clicked her tongue as she analyzed the information. It took her fifteen minutes, but she shook her head. "There is nothing about Red Dawn. You spoke about it as if it were a great threat, yet no true information can be found here."
The queen clapped her hands together. "Excellent, so your cognitive abilities are rather sharp as I have suspected. You are just what I require."
"Huh?" Lucia reeled back at the comment. "R…really?"
"Stop with that attitude, I am one who asked for your help, did I not?" The Queen did not raise her gaze from the documents she had scanned.
"I will not fail you, your majesty!"
"I know you won't. So we will go through everything we think is true, and bounce ideas off each other. Isn't that fun? You can make decisions for the kingdom~"
Soleah giggled. It was irresponsible to cast such a heavy burden on a young servant; however, she had no choice. She had sent most of her children on different tasks according to their skillsets, and Aurora had to keep an eye on Sheira.
There was nobody in the palace she could both trust and have faith in their cognitive abilities.
However, Lucia had proven her loyalty, and Aqua had trusted her. It was an impressive feat that made her a prime candidate as her helper. It's pretty clear she isn't satisfied with her current position.
"I understand! You won't regret choosing me, your majesty!" She squinted with a serious expression. Self-admittedly, she was not the smartest and had no clue why someone like Soleah would ask for her help, but now that she was requested, there was no space for failure.
"Enough of pleasantries, now let's start off with the dire situation in the 7th moon temple. What would you propose be done? We have lost soldiers, but we do not know what truly happened."
"If I were in your position, I would send scouts. Respectfully, your majesty has lost both eyes and ears of the kingdom. I believe it would be a good idea to send scouts to uncover the truth. If you blindly throw soldiers, they too might die…" Her hand trembled. "At least that's what I think."
"Hmmm… I believe you are right about this, Lucia. However, those scouts might be lost too." For a moment, she thought about asking Aqua; however, the girl seemed not to consider the kingdom her true home and thus was likely to react negatively.
Just a bit more, and she will love this kingdom just as much as I do. In a way, she felt as if she was manipulating Aqua's feelings; however, she truly wished for the girl to consider the elven kingdom her true home.
She shook her head and turned to Lucia again. "And when do you think we should do this?"
"As soon as possible. Every moment that passes makes it harder to uncover the truth. Even now, it's uncertain if you will uncover anything."
"Hmm… I heard that Azure will speak to the Golden Rose… if what I heard about them is true, they could conduct this mission without any losses." She scratched her chin. "I hope they will obey."
There was no time to dwell on it; instead, she pulled out the next information. "Lucia, I hope you didn't intend to sleep tonight. We will need a lot of time to analyze this."
"It's not a problem, your majesty!" She gripped her dress. She was far too excited at the prospect of helping Soleah to sleep anyway.
"Good, I was right about you. Now, let's discuss this dire technological state."