Snake had skirted back and forth around the villages in the Central borderlands since she'd left the Camelia. Close enough to continue gathering information, but out of sight enough that no one would be able to pinpoint her location.
She'd heard of Anna's departure from the Camelia, more surprised that there was no whisper of punishment than at the fact that she'd left. Anna was not the kind of woman who could remain after realizing what she'd done, whether it was her pride or her fear, Snake didn't know. Nor did she care.
It was one less person for Snake to worry about in the Camelia, but it did mean that there was a good chance Anna had at least told Lord Ye that it was Snake she'd been talking to. Whether or not he'd put together what she was doing, she didn't know, but it was better to err on the side of caution, so Snake was keeping her distance until she heard something useful.
Her luck wasn't all bad, though, because almost immediately after she'd left, the attacks on Lord Zhao's soldiers had come out, and all of the Camelia had turned their attention to dealing with the Bandri and Beng Shai's betrayal. Even Snake had been surprised to hear about them. The northern tribes weren't generally her area, but the entire situation seemed odd. Beng Shai was a skilled leader by all accounts, but to plan something so big and to execute it so quickly and so efficiently was unlike any of the tribes in her experience.
Her employers thought so too, because they'd tasked her with looking into it while they kept an eye on what was happening inside the walls of the Camelia.
Snake wasn't stupid enough to trust them to look out for her, but they were still a useful resource she could manage, and now that Yuze was out of the estate and in the field, she could engineer a way to run into him and gauge what he knew.
Fox had gone north with Lord Ye, which meant he was out of the picture for the time being and far enough away that Snake could actually look into what he was hiding without having to constantly look over her shoulder.
***
The morning they'd found three more artifacts missing, Finn had officially had enough. He'd been tearing his hair out trying to plug all the leaks in the Vault for the past few weeks, and now that Eirian was in the field, the Vault was his only priority.
That, and playing with Brendan when he had the time, but Min was starting to teach him to talk and trying to teach him to write, which Finn thought was still a year or so away, since Brendan mostly treated anything you gave him like a sword and stabbed it at things.
He'd even gotten Eirian a few times before she left, which was hilarious.
That and the Vault had been enough to take Finn's mind off the recent letter from his parents. It was rare for them to reach, and when Marian had brought him the letter, he'd felt more trepidation than joy.
And he'd been right too.
They wanted to know when he was returning to the capital. His initial plan had only been to stay at the Camelia and serve in the Crimson Army for two years, and that technically ended in a few months. His family hadn't really been supportive when he'd left, but they hadn't been unsupportive either, just apathetic. He'd been surprised they knew his time was supposed to be coming to an end and wondered if Marian or one of the Colfaxes had reminded them. They had the closest ties to the Vermeers out of anyone at the Camelia, and his parents nursed their connections and alliances with far more care than they nursed their children.
He was just surprised.
He's still surprised a few days later, but the longer he has to sit with it, the more he realized he wasn't ready to leave. His parents had written about finding him a position in the city guard in the capital with his sisters, since he didn't have any desire or skill to attend one of the universities or apprentice under any of the family artists. None of that appealed to Finn.
Not as much as figuring out who was stealing from the Vault.
And then joining Eirian on the campaign…maybe.
Finn was under no illusions about his fighting ability, but it was startling to look like he had a gift for organization and projects, something there were plenty of in the Camelia.
And he'd finally built up the courage to approach Captain Li about the tentative plan he'd been thinking about recently, about setting a trap to see if they could at least catch those actually stealing from the Vault and maybe tracking them to the buyers from there.
It couldn't be just Snake, based on the sheer number of artifacts that had gone missing recently.
If he could pull it off successfully, he could prove to his family that he belonged at the Camelia.
That he was useful.
***
Fox had left Yuze to ride north, and he wasn't entirely pleased about it. The bright blue feather he'd taken off the arrow at the massacre was in a pouch on his waist and had yet to lose its luster.
They belonged to a very specific breed of plump prairie bird and took their color from the beetles that made up a significant part of their diet and were valued for their ability to remain shiny long after they'd been removed from their source.
The other feathers were gone by now, carried away by the wind or the carrion eaters as they'd stripped the flesh from the bones of Lord Zhao's soldiers.
There were enough of them in the prairie land that it would have only taken a few days for most of the bodies to be reduced to bone and armor.
He'd have preferred to stick close to the First Eye, so he wouldn't be caught unawares by anything his fellow spies reported, but he was relieved to be assigned to the northern borderlands.
That was where Fox's interests lay after all.
And he would be working directly with Lord Ye, who was the final decision maker for the campaign.
It would have been nice to work closer to Yuze, on a personal level, but personal interests were something Fox had chosen to sacrifice a long time ago.
There was work to be done and revenge to be had, and Fox had oaths.
But after…
Maybe after that, there would be time.
~ tbc