[POV Liselotte]

  The uproar of the council hall still rang in my temples as we closed the door to Leah’s chambers at the academy. The silence that followed was thick—almost painful. Chloé remained leaning against the doorframe, ears lowered and brow furrowed, sniffing the air as if searching for a scent that did not belong to this building.

  But it was Leah who shattered the quiet.

  “What were you thinking, Lotte?!” she burst out, throwing her gloves onto the bedside table. “A reduced elite unit? Infiltrating the Whispering Forest to hunt maddened soldiers who don’t feel pain? That’s a suicide mission! You offered yourself up like you were some expendable pawn in that nest of vipers they call nobles. I won’t allow you to leave like that—not now, when the world is falling apart!”

  I stepped toward her, trying to take her hands, but Leah retreated a pace, her eyes clouded with a mixture of fury and fear.

  “Leah, please, calm down,” I said, keeping my voice as steady as possible. “Breathe. Nothing I said in that hall was a reckless heroic impulse. Everything you heard… was exactly what your brother needed us to say.”

  Leah froze, confusion knitting her brow. “What are you talking about? Elliot looked just as desperate as the rest of them.”

  “Listen to me carefully. I’m not going anywhere,” I continued, lowering my voice to almost a whisper. “I’ll simply need to wear a disguise for a few days. Publicly, the ‘Princess’s Guardian’ will depart tonight with the intervention unit. But in reality, that person will be a decoy. I’ll remain here, at your side—hidden in the shadows.”

  Leah stared at me, mouth slightly open as she processed my words. She was about to ask how we intended to pull off such deception when three sharp, rhythmic knocks echoed at the door.

  Chloé tensed, then rexed as she recognized the pattern and stepped aside.

  Prince Elliot entered. He no longer wore the heavy council cloak, and though exhaustion still marked his face, his eyes shone with cold, calcuted crity. He greeted us with a brief nod and locked the door before approaching.

  “I’m sorry for the spectacle in the hall, Leah,” Elliot began, moving toward his sister. “But it was necessary that everyone—especially those watching us from the shadows—believe we were losing control and that our strongest defensive piece was being sent away from the capital.”

  “Elliot… what is really happening?” Leah asked, still adjusting to the shift in tone. “Why all this theater?”

  Elliot sighed, crossing his arms as he gazed out the window toward the distant castle.

  “It’s impossible, Leah. Logistically impossible. An enemy force—no matter how maddened—could not suddenly appear in the heart of our territory, on the most heavily protected stretch of our supply line, without being seen. The Whispering Forest is surrounded by outposts. For that convoy to be attacked in such a manner, someone had to let them pass. Or worse—someone within our inner circle provided precise information about routes and schedules.”

  I crossed my arms and nodded. “I suspected as much the moment Elliot looked at me in the hall. There was something in his eyes that didn’t match the nobles’ panic. It was as if he was trying to tell me something without speaking. And then, while the dukes argued about burning the forest, I heard his voice in my head.”

  Leah blinked in surprise. “Your voice?”

  “Short-range thought transmission magic,” Elliot expined with a bitter smile. “A trick I learned from the old grimoires of the ancient archmages. Lotte was perceptive enough to catch the signal. I asked her to volunteer to lead the expedition. I needed the traitor to believe Whirikal was separating the princess from her most powerful guardian.”

  “Exactly,” I added. “Elliot suspects a high-ranking traitor. By making them think I’ve left to handle the forest crisis, we’re giving them the opportunity they’ve been waiting for. They’ll likely make a move soon—either sabotaging the elite unit in the forest, attacking your father’s encampment with fresh intelligence, or staging a strike here in the capital, believing you unprotected.”

  Elliot stepped forward, taking his sister’s hand.

  “Lotte will remain here, Leah. But to the world, she will depart at dusk in a guard’s armor. She’ll stay disguised—either as one of your new attendants or as a low-ranking guard hidden beneath a closed helm. We need the traitor to grow confident. We need them to bite the hook and reveal their position.”

  Leah looked from Elliot to me. The fear in her eyes slowly hardened into icy determination—the same steel she had inherited from King William.

  “And what about the men in the forest?” she asked. “If we send a decoy, who will save them?”

  “Chloé will accompany the real elite unit in silence,” I replied, gncing at the wolf-girl. “She can detect the corruption by scent before it’s too te. The ‘decoy’ wearing my armor will be one of Elliot’s trusted mages, capable of projecting my basic mana signature. Meanwhile, we clean house from within.”

  Elliot nodded solemnly.

  “Once we uncover who the traitor is—and how they caused our men to lose their sanity—we will end it. I cannot allow my father to fight a war on the front lines while a viper feeds within our own chest. Whirikal’s future depends on this shadow game.”

  I felt the weight of the Eternal Guardian’s medallion beneath my clothing. This was no longer a matter of brute strength or ice magic—it was a war of intelligence.

  The traitor believed I was predictable. A weapon the kingdom would send to the hottest point of battle.

  They did not know that Edward Celium had learned in another life that sometimes, to win the board, you must let your opponent believe they have already captured your strongest piece.

  “Tomorrow, the performance begins, Leah,” I said, taking her hand. “You’ll have to act worried about my absence. You’ll need to py the vulnerable princess they expect to see.”

  Leah squeezed my hand firmly, a smile forming—not one of fear, but of dangerous cunning.

  “Oh, Lotte… they have no idea who they’re dealing with. If they want a traitor, we’ll give them enough rope to hang themselves.”

  The pn was set in motion.

  Beneath Whirikal’s star-filled sky, the Princess’s Guardian officially vanished from the world. And in the depths of the academy, a new shadow began watching every movement of the nobility.

  The traitor was about to learn that in Whirikal, even ice has ears.