Chenzhou and Henri stared at the pile of reports on the desk between them. Henri had gathered every report that had been sent and received during the short war and the months leading up to it. Yuze was investigating the tunnels, searching for a link to any of the noble families, but also Emmy and Patrick, whom they now feared were in trouble.
They should have come running as soon as word had gotten out about Finn, but they hadn't. Their friendship had seemed stronger than that, and the guilt was weighing down on Chenzhou, Yuze, and Eirian for insisting they were alright when Finn had expressed his worries.
Chenzhou wanted to review all the communications to see if there was any hint about the rumors, the investigation, or anything that might explain what was happening now. Someone had to have slipped up somewhere, and they would find it.
Unfortunately, Henri was the only one Chenzhou could trust to help him.
"This is just a review," Henri clarified, expressing intent. "Anything we find that might be related to the investigation will have to be turned over to Lady Ye immediately."
Chenzhou nodded. "I know. This is to save time. There's only so much she and Yuze can do by themselves."
Henri couldn't argue with that, so they got down to work.
The first few were nothing more than standard inventory reports. Food, weapons, and other supplies were being ordered before Mingzhe's troops headed out.
Chenzhou sifted through a stack of shorter notes, recognizing a few in Yuze's hand. He scanned through them. "These look like intelligence updates. Bandri movements to the north, a few witness reports from villagers. There was some movement in the central borderlands, but it looks like the agents didn't see any connection to the movements in the north. There's nothing here that suggests an ambush."
Henri frowned, looking through his own stack. "A few of these mention Beng Shai's movements, but…he's moving away from Lord Zhao's troops." Henri glanced at a map on the wall to orient himself. "Yes, they were moving away."
"What turned them around?" Chenzhou wondered. "There had to be something."
Henri nodded in agreement, flipping through more pages. "It doesn't look like it's recorded here. Everything leading up to the day of the ambush records Beng Shai moving away from the outpost."
"And there's nothing here to suggest that he even knew the location of Mingzhe's forces," Chenzhou murmured. He grabbed another stack. "These are dated after the ambush. The day of and the first few days after it's all normal. Manpower and supplies, a few more reports after movements in the south and central borderlands."
"Nothing in the north?" Henri asked with a raised eyebrow.
Chenzhou shook his head. That was suspicious in and of itself. "It looks like the first mention of something being wrong is three days after. A commander from the Yin's forces requesting a response to an inquiry about Beng Shai's movements. "Wait." Chenzhou frowned. "Three days after, one of Yin's commanders wrote asking about Beng Shai's movements."
Henri frowned. "He could have heard by then."
"No, he wrote Mingzhe's forces. The commander of the outpost. He would have been dead by then."
Henri straightened in his chair. "Well, he wouldn't have done that if he'd known about the ambush."
"Unless he was setting up an alibi," Chenzhou muttered.
Henri pursed his lips. "Fair. But that would suggest an extremely large body of participation in this. For someone that low-ranked to know what was happening."
Chenzhou looked thoughtful. "Someone higher up could have requested he write."
"There'd be a record of that." Henri pointed out.
"But no here." Chenzhou countered.
"We can't be sure without written evidence." Henri cautioned. "We can keep it as a possibility, but we shouldn't assume that's what happened."
Chenzhou nodded, unfortunately he agreed. "And we don't know who instructed him to write either, so it doesn't necessarily narrow anything down." Chenzhou set aside the letter and turned to the next one. It was nothing, but the one after that was another letter from the same sender to the same recipient two days later. "He wrote again, asking for a response. That was five days after the ambush."
"That was around the time they missed the first check-in. People started to notice. I have Lord Zhoa's requests for status reports here. Along with two from the First Eye asking for the same." Henri set them aside with the two letters Chenzhou had found.
Chenzhou searched through the large pile of papers. "There should be intelligence reports from that time…Found them." Yuze's agents reported in on whatever paper they could find at the time, so all the reports were different sizes and different colors. "Yes, here. More reports that Beng Shai and the Bandri were moving away from the outpost." He flipped through them all. "There's nothing here about any movements near the outpost."
"The same agent?"
"No, multiple. Too many for all of them to be in on it." Chenzhou squinted at one who's writting was nearly incomprehensible.
"It's possible they missed it. If Beng Shai was working with someone in the Camelia, they could have told him exactly how to escape notice by our forces. The tribes are agile; they could have moved quickly enough that the entire thing took a night, maybe a day. Unless one of the First Eye's agents was in the immediate area, it could have all taken place without a single witness."
"But only if someone at the Camelia tipped them off." Chenzhou's voice hardened. This alone was the confirmation they needed. It was a solid, indisputable link between someone in the estate and the tribes.
Henri looked just as angry as he nodded. "It's impossible to tell who, but once we do know…they won't be able to deny it."
Chenzhou laughed; he couldn't help it. "There was a small part of me that was actually holding out hope that it wasn't true." He gave Henri a brittle smile. "Delusional, I know, but hope often is."
Henri nodded, sympathetic. "I think we all had that hope. But we cannot let it stop us from pushing forward."
"No, we can't." Chenzhou agreed, even though he wished he didn't have to.
~ tbc