'Not long after the Battle of Sylvan, Glennet began investing heavily in the industries of war,' said Sela. 'He sank enormous sums of money into the Armorers' Guild, the Smiths' Guild. The Textile Guild, too, though I wasn't sure why.'
'Uniforms,' said Ironfoot. 'An army needs lots of uniforms.'
'So the baron wanted to get rich off of a war,' said Silverdun. 'That doesn't necessarily make him our traitor.'
'No,' said Sela. 'That doesn't. But there's more.'
She pushed another stack of papers in front of Paet. 'These are loan documents, filed with banks in the City Emerald, Estacana, and Mag Mell. Every penny Glennet invested in the guilds was borrowed.'
'I seem to recall rumors even when I was at court that Glennet had financial troubles,' said Silverdun. 'He loves his card games.'
'So he found a way to get rich off of the war effort,' said Ironfoot.
'But then a year went by and there was no war,' said Sela. 'The interest on those loans began to mount.'
'Glennet needs a war,' said Silverdun. 'The guilds can't pay him until the government requisitions their supplies.'
'And the government doesn't requisition supplies until there's a war.'
'There's more,' said Sela. 'And this is fairly damning, I'm afraid. I checked with the analysts upstairs and found that Glennet has been regularly sending spell-encrypted messages in the weekly packets to Jem-Aleth for the past year.'
'That's not uncommon, though,' said Paet. 'Glennet's involved in all sorts of Foreign Ministry business. He's got plenty of legitimate reasons to send such messages, and anything sent classified is required to go encrypted.'
'Well,' said Sela, 'we're required to retain copies of those documents. I decrypted one of them. One sent two days before we left for the Unseelie.'
Paet looked at her, wide-eyed.
'Well, I didn't decrypt it myself,' she said. 'One of the analysts may have helped a bit.'
'What did the message say?' asked Paet.
'It gave explicit details of our travel plans, including our physical descriptions, and our itinerary.'
'Dammit!' said Silverdun. 'Those soldiers on the transport to Preyia. They knew exactly who they were looking for.'
'The message also contained the location of our rendezvous in Preyia.'
Paet leaned back. 'Well. That is fairly conclusive, I think.'
'But why would he come after us?' asked Ironfoot. 'That's the part I still don't understand.'
Paet looked at him. 'Because Everess went all over the city selling the Shadows as the best deterrent to war that Elfkind had ever devised.
'And,' added Paet, 'if you were killed, then it not only stops us from doing that very thing, but also adds yet another reason to go to war, once your deaths are pinned on our enemies.'
'And I thought Everess was a bastard,' said Silverdun.
'I believe Glennet was Everess's mentor,' said Paet.
Paet looked at Sela, who looked pleased with herself. 'Sela, I must say that I'm amazed at this bit of detective work,' he said.
'No more than I was,' she said. 'I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it. And how good I was at it.'
'Simply astonishing,' said Paet, looking over the documents.
'I'm glad you think so,' said Sela, suddenly becoming serious. 'Because I've decided I don't want to be a Shadow anymore. I want to be an analyst.'
'What?' said Paet. 'Are you serious?'
'I am,' said Sela, looking down. 'I was raised to be something. A killer. A monster. But I was also trained very well to use my Empathy. I understand people, and what drives them and what they want. So I've made my decision. I'm not going on any more missions.'
'But you're a Shadow, Sela. You'll always be a Shadow.'
'Call me a Shadow, then. I can work just as easily in the lien. But don't send me out on any more missions.'
She touched the band on her arm, the crude thing that Ironfoot had fashioned. 'I'm never taking this off again.'
