What Are My Orders

Fenneck walked into the conference with Alexei and saw Baegla sitting at the head of the table next to Lox, Jasna, Feliks, Catherine and Vyndius. "Good," Baegla said as they walked in. "I believe that's everyone who needs to be here for the official briefing." She started flipping throw the pile of scrolls and notes on her desk, all while snacking on a plate of biscuits. Fenneck and Alexei sat down at the table and waited for Baegla to start.   "As most of you know by now, Emperor Anessen Staladin was assassinated by a supposedly rouge KAV soldier," she informed them. "The woman in suspect is a wood-elf with red hair, known as Lieutenant Ivanhoff, who was reportedly in the KAV for at least the last hundred years or so. She has reportedly escaped Lenisily and is wanted by the new emperor, Emperor Ivan Pufuktin, former general of the KAV and bastard son of Anessen Staladin, alive. There are rumors speculating that he ordered the assasination and that he was alone with her the night before the innocent in the Krasnoye Fortress after a rather unfortunate incident with the former emperor that made other officials believe there to be tension between the father and son. Reportedly, Emperor Staladin wanted to spend the evening with the Lieutenant female wood elf, whose name has not been discovered, to participate in an act of love making. The night clearly didn't go as Anessen had hoped and he was reportedly found the next morning tied to the ends of his bed posts with scraps of black fabric around his wrists, completely naked with a large neck wound from a dagger, leaving his head barely held onto his body."   Baegla cleared her throat and looked over at Catherine and Vyndius. "Did I miss anything?" she asked them. Catherine cleared her throat and cast a look at Fenneck before turning back to Baegla. "Yes Baegla," she said. "We believe she escaped through the mountains between Flottenheim and Vladigrad so there's a good chance she ends up on our soil."   Baegla nodded thoughtfully. "As of right now, it is unclear as to whether her intentions were good or not. Many of us in this room have had enough encounters with General Pufuktin over the years to know that he is not an improvement as a leader of Lenisily. Regardless, she was a KAV soldier and we must treat her as such."   Baegla turned to Fenneck. "If you see here in the mountains, your orders are to contain her and bring her in for questioning. Do not assume anything and be prepared for the worst. We learned long ago the dangers of blind trust," she said, giving Fenneck a morbid look.   The room became solemn at the mention of Erikur's death. Fenneck nodded understandingly. "Of course," he said. "I'll up the patrols in the forest and let the frost giants know that she might be out there."   Baegla turned to Feliks. "What are your thoughts as a former KAV soldier and head of our intelligence force?" she asked the high elf. Feliks nodded pensively. "It's hard to say," he said. "They've changed tactics so much over the years and this is both something they would and wound not do."   "Having a whore slip in to sleep with the emperor is no uncommon thing," he continued. "Very rarely though is it a KAV soldier. More interesting in my opinion is that I find it very out of character for Staladin to want to sleep with a wood-elf. The few interactions I had with the emperor it was always made very clear how much he found other races disgusting and the idea of letting the emperor risk breeding with a wood-elf or a human or half-elf would have been the sandal of the century. I think there's something more complicated happening here."   "What's also suspicious is that Pufuktin ordered a code red for this woman, Lieutenant Ivanhoff but he made it very clear that he wants her alive. Ordering a code red on a KAV soldier normal means they've been compromised, therefore making them untrustworthy. She also went on the run. But Pufuktin seems very passionately motivated to locate her so, I suspect this might be a crime of passion."   Alexei shook his head. "You think... what exactly? How is this a crime of passion? Other than the idea that she hates Staladin, which honestly, who can't relate?" he asked Feliks. Feliks shrugged. "I think the woman in question but be pretty damn beautiful is what I'm saying. I think she has a very personal relationship with Pufuktin and I think Staladin had questionable motives for wanting to sleep with her, other than her good looks."   "I wish I was a sexy spy..." Jasna said wistfully. Feliks shook his head at her. "No, you don't," he said bluntly. "No in this business. The other point I want to make is that it's no small thing that she's a wood-elf. Wood-elves, especially woman, very rarely make it into the KAV. She'd have to literally be the best," he said. "Or, be really pretty."   "Or both," Vyndius suggested. Feliks nodded in agreement. Fenneck cleared his throat. "About that," he said. "When Erikur was... killed," he swallowed shook away his pain. "Catherine and I later went into the forest to see if we could find any answers to the KAV soldiers who did it." He cast a quick glance at Erikur's sister to make sure it was okay to share this.   "We talked to the forest spirits who told us that the soldier who killed him was... a red-headed wood-elf," he said slowly. Baegla straightened up and cocked her head thoughtfully. "Why have you never shared this before?" she asked him. Fenneck shook his head at her. "Because it felt very personal to me and Catherine. It also seemed rather... helpless in a way. I wanted to hunt her down but we also knew there was no way to do such a stupid thing while she was in Lenisily. I decided to keep it to myself," he said, prompting Baegla to raise her brow in annoyance.     Catherine spoke. "She was waiting at the base of a tree and tricked him by telling him her leg was injured so that he got close enough for her to... stab him," she swallowed painfully. "The trees told us that she apologized and that Erikur mumbled something to her but it wasn't audible. They said he made a ka-sound before dying almost instantly."   Fenneck nodded in agreement. "She then heard me coming after I shot her partner and then she used magic to heal him, a half-elf we think, and they escaped because I was distracted..." Fenneck stopped talking as he felt his blood pressure start to boil as he remembered Erikur's still body lying helplessly in the snow. He felt Alexei reach out and take his hand, pulling him back into the conference room.