Cassian stayed crouched on the branch, the grin already creeping onto his face. He could step out now—Robert wasn’t a threat—but curiosity beat caution. Whatever the man was up to, catching him doing sothing embarrassing sounded far more fun.
And sure enough, his hunch paid off.
Two won stepped out of the brush, pretty enough—nowhere close to Brigid or Lumine, but easy on the eyes, curves in the right places. All three soldiers perked up with hungry smiles.
"Why are there only two?" one of the soldiers muttered under his breath.
"Relax," Robert said, puffing his chest with a satisfied smirk. "You two can have them. I already enjoyed myself last night."
The girls sashayed closer, voices honey-soft and flirtatious.
"Hello, boys..."
One gave a playful tilt of her head. "So what pulled you three out here—deep in the jungle, in the middle of the night?"
Cassian almost snorted.Yep. He’d guessed right.Robert wasn’t waiting for scouts or reinforcents.He was eting his night entertainnt.
Cassian had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from bursting out—he was dying to jump in and ruin their mont, but collecting a little more dirt on Robert was too tempting.
Robert cleared his throat, trying to look suave. "The very sa thing that brought you two lovely creatures out here," he said.
One of the girls arched a brow and smirked. "So—looking for a dick, then?"
Her friend giggled, and the two soldiers with Robert burst into laughter.Cassian nearly fell out of the tree laughing, but managed to choke it back.
Robert flushed red and snapped at his companions, "Don’t laugh, idiots—she ant you two as well!"
They shut up instantly, and the girls giggled harder.
Cassian grinned wickedly from above. ’Oh, this is going to be fun,’ he thought, settling in to watch the ss unravel just a bit more before making his entrance.
Robert eventually peeled away, leaving the two soldiers and the giggling girls to their "fun," wandering a short distance off like he was giving them privacy.Cassian had already gotten his fill of watching Robert embarrass himself — he was just about to slip through the trees and tail him when a sharp yelp made him halt mid-stride.
He turned back.
The two n stood frozen, eyes wide — not with surprise, but with slack, glassy expressions. The girls’ playful smiles lted instantly, replaced by open disgust.
"Ugh. Pigs," one of them spat, wiping her hands as if the re idea of touching them was filthy. "I wouldn’t lay a finger on them even in their wet dreams — and now I actually have to go through with this."
Her partner huffed, flicking her fingers as a faint pulse of mana settled over the entranced soldiers.
She glanced toward the shadows where Robert lingered."This is the last ti," she snapped. "Next ti you can forget about asking us to pretend to be cheap whores."
The second woman stepped beside her, brushing at her sleeve where the soldier’s hand had grazed her, face twisted like she’d been sared with rot.
"And if you want us to play whores," she snapped, "at least bring decent–looking custors next ti."
Her partner scoffed, flicking her hair back. "And if they’re not handso, fine — but at least let us kill them afterward."
The two brain-fogged soldiers just stood there swaying, enchanted vacant smiles plastered on their faces — unaware that their imagined lovers now looked ready to set them on fire.
Hidden high in the branches, Cassian watched the scene unfold with a tightening jaw.He knew what he was seeing—he just didn’t want to admit it.
Robert sighed like a man stuck babysitting unruly children.
"Ladies... ladies," he groaned, rubbing his temples. "How either of you made it through mage training is beyond . If we kill them, questions will pop up everywhere. And if we don’t scramble their heads, how do we interrogate them without them rembering we did it?"
Both won snorted, unimpressed.
Robert continued, sounding more exhausted with each word. "Those two ca from supply squads for the Magisterian reinforcents. So just get it over with—ask about routes, where they pull supplies from, who handles the logistics. And when you’re done, rewrite their mories into sothing pleasant."
Cassian stayed frozen among the leaves, unable to look away.
Cassian’s jaw clenched so hard he thought his teeth might crack.
Why?Why Robert?
They’d shared fires, traded jokes, bled beside each other on cramped battlefields. Robert had watched his back more than once. Cassian rembered the man hauling him out of a swampy ambush, cursing the whole ti yet laughing afterward.
And now here he was — casually ordering hypnotism, information extraction, mory rewrites.
Cassian’s fingers twitched on the branch. He wanted to leap down, grab Robert by the collar, snarl in his face and demand answers. What changed?Were you always like this?Was I just blind?
But he forced himself to stay still.This was proof — finally — a face to one of the spies. He couldn’t blow it just because he was angry.
His heart hamred against his ribs. He felt sick. Betrayal hit harder than any blade. He thought of the camp, of Lumine, of the soldiers back in Magisteria — all laughing around fires, trusting n like Robert.
He wanted to shout at him.
He wanted it not to be true.
He wanted this to be so twisted joke.
Say it’s a prank, idiot.Cassian silently begged.Tell them you’re just ssing with these girls — tell we didn’t fight side by side while you fed information to the bastards hunting us.
But Robert didn’t laugh. He just rubbed his temples like soone tired of dealing with fools.
Cassian swallowed back the urge to reveal himself. He finally had sothing real — real enough to hurt. Revealing it too soon would ruin everything. Worse, he didn’t even know where Robert fit into the chain — puppet, handler, or sothing deeper.
So Cassian forced himself to sit still on the branch, nails digging into bark, anger boiling low and sharp.
He had one spy identified.
But it didn’t feel like victory.
It felt like losing a friend.Or realizing he never actually had one.
And for the first ti that night, Cassian didn’t know whether he should expose Robert — or hunt him quietly, understand his role, squeeze every drop of truth out of him before choosing whether to slit his throat or try to save him.
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