49 Wade's Bad Call

\t"Why?" Wade asked the captain in his quarters. "Why did you send them out? My investigation has only been going on for a short while."

\t"And have you had any results?" Marcus asked. "In a week you have not managed to find any clues, only to narrow down the possible suspects. Your list is too long. Also, our promise does not protect them from the front lines. They are men, so it would be questionable if I let them rot in the base, although they were increasing morale with their little contests. Nevertheless, what have you found so far? Give me your words, not some report."

\t"Well," Wade pulled out a long scroll with lists of names on it. Some were crossed off, but little over a hundred remained. "The mages I will save for investigation last, as they are not considered part of your army. I will also save the higher ups for later because I cannot directly interrogate them. In this past week I have interviewed most of the suspected lower soldiers. None of them have shown any hint of being a traitor, although there is one…No, forget it. He's not like that."

\tMarcus ripped the scroll out of Wade's hands: "Who?"

\t"I-It's Hopi, he's a guard at the Virility household."

\t"And why is he on this list? Have you not interrogated him yet?"

\t"Well, he was absent during the night." Wade explained. "I tried to tail him multiple times, but he keeps disappearing. Also during the first mission, he disappeared for a long time and reappeared right before the Manticore attacked. He does have a motive for betrayal as his squad treated him as an Elf. The reason he's not a prime suspect is because he fought the beast with Doevm and Frey. While he is acting a little strangely, he is not a man capable of this level of sabotage."

\tMarcus folded his hands together and sighed, "So you're saying you suspect someone who is very close to Doevm and Frey to be a traitor? You also did not immediately inform me of your troubles and chose to keep this information to yourself. On top of that, you let this suspect go on a mission with Doevm! Unbelievable, why did you let this happen? You have five seconds before you're demoted to a foot soldier and thrown in the front lines."

\tAt this outburst, Wade only smiled. "He's not going to die because of some traitor. You haven't seen Doevm in action as I have."

Two years ago…

\tWade opened his eyes and groaned. He had been quick with his life essence, but he couldn't defend most of the blast. His legs were burned, and his toes had been blasted off. He estimated he had only a few seconds before he fell unconscious again. Looking up, the sight of Doevm with a frost tipped spear made him think he was hallucinating. He rubbed his eyes, but the scene didn't change. The tier one beast, something Wade had trouble handling, was on the backpedal. No matter how much he wanted to see the rest of the battle, he couldn't hold his eyes open.

\tWade recovered in six months. He went to Jameson, who was alone in the library: "Your son has magic. I saw him use it to kill the tier one beast a couple months back. He was incredible."

\t"He has magic?" Jameson asked. "Listen, you can never tell anyone about this." He looked down at the flower garden, where he held practice with the guards and Doevm every day.

\t"Why?" Wade asked. "What good would it do to ignore this? He has a gift. He should be sent to a magic academy. He'll achieve great things."

\t"I have no doubt Doevm will be a great man someday. I've seen the determination burning in his eyes. People like that will not stop until they achieve their goals. I should know, because I was like that once. Despite what you think, he should not be sent away to study magic. Magic academies, they don't sit right with me. Whenever a mage enters that place, they come out different. They are almost like different people. I say this from experience with a friend. He was an upstanding knight. After he was found to have magic, he was sent away. When he came back, he saw people as objects. A certain arrogance surrounded him, and I don't want Doevm turning into that. Doevm's not just smart, he's a monster. He is already mature enough to understand the world." He pulled out the reports he had done on Doevm and handed it to Wade.

\t"He did all this," Wade gasped. "With no training? Does he have some master? Fighting, mana, intelligence, charisma, and even literacy. He's absolutely perfect."

\t"I have no idea." Jameson took out a book. "I did hundreds of tests without him noticing. I asked him where a book was, and he pointed it out to me without even looking, which signals perfect memory. In his match with Frey he had a perfect stance, which gives him strength. He can talk his way out of situation. He inherited my determination. Now that he has mana, he is possibly the strongest person at his age-group. I would have thought a kid like Doevm would be impossible. I cannot afford to tell anyone this, even the lord. Do you understand what the magic association would do to get their hands on him? He is probably the hero, if not stronger than that."

Back to the present…

\tWade couldn't tell the captain anything. Doevm would come back alive no matter what happened. The greater "danger" that befell him, the more he would stand out. Doevm needed to be a captain by the end of the war, and the fastest way to do that was to prove himself. Wade didn't need to tell Doevm, as the kid most likely figured it out already.

However, if Hopi wasn't the spy, that would be disastrous. While Marcus had given Wade hints on what the spy was doing, he couldn't pin down the spy's objective. From one viewpoint, it seemed like the spy wanted to destroy the squads. However, after the first day, when squad six was ambushed by a Manticore, the attacks stopped. Squads ventured out safely. They had too little data. A part of Wade hoped the spy would target Doevm, because then they spy would fail.

\tNo matter how good the spy was, he didn't know Doevm had magic, nor how great it is. Frey, on the other hand, made Wade nervous. That kid's heart was as big as his body. He was trusting and loyal. He had been training with his squad too much for Wade to tell him about the danger. Hopi wasn't in Frey's squad, but he wasn't for sure the spy.

Despite every secret floating around in Wade's head, he still needed to give Marcus a reason why he withheld the information. He pointed to the scroll: "The mages here are all outside of my jurisdiction except for this one, Ashtehar. He is not part of our country's mage association; he is a war monk. I questioned his apprentice and found out he was missing during our mission. He came back when we came back. He gave no reason for abandoning his post and the guards didn't see him leave. If anyone is the spy, it's him. Hopi might be suspicious, but he would never stab his comrades in the back.

Marcus leaned back in his chair, "Nice speech. Now what's the real reason you didn't tell me? I could have held Hopi back and questioned him. Doevm and Frey would have been a lot safer. We would have a definite answer out of Hopi. You could ask me for help."

\t"Permission to be blunt sir?" Marcus nodded. "He's had enough of that crap. He's been betrayed his whole life. By his race, our race, his family, his friends, everyone has questioned him. He doesn't trust anyone anymore. Before he joined the guards, he was about to kill himself. I brought him in and trained him. I saw that frail and bent man turn into someone who would walk with his head held high. Please, service is the only thing keeping him sane. I'm disgusted at myself for questioning his loyalty, but the proof shows he is suspicious. He's wound up tight enough as is. If you take him in and question his loyalty, he'll lose it. He's a good man, he was just dealt a bad hand in life."

\tMarcus laughed, "I once had a friend like that. His name was Jameson. I was his subordinate believe it or not. The way he moved through the battlefield was downright beautiful. One day, as we were heading out to battle, he told us this was his last time stepping foot on the battlefield. We all thought he was going to be a great general. He said he found a better cause than mindless killing, then he went and became a noble's dog. We never saw him again after that. People aren't as predictable as you think. Admit it, your comradery blinded you. You could have just killed Doevm. Get out of my sight!" He slammed the desk. "I was wrong about you."

\tWade casted his head down. The first stage of grief, denial, was over. "You're right. I made the wrong call." 'Doevm's strong, but he's just a kid. What have I done?'