"Still awake?"

"Eh, can't sleep," Jasper grunted.

"You know," Ihra grinned as she sat down next to him, "It might help if you weren't sitting on a log, staring at the fire. You can't take the next watch if you don't get any sleep."

"I'm up anyway; you could sleep if you want," he offered absently, still staring at the fire.

Ihra ignored the offer, studying him with a small frown. "So what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. I'm just not tired."

"Very convincing," she rolled her eyes. "You'll have to do better than that."

"Nothing's wrong; I just…" Jasper trailed off into silence as he struggled to formulate his thoughts. "I'm worried about this mission," he admitted. "I know it's not the first time we've been in over our heads, but it's been a rough start. We were lucky to get out of that prison."

"It wasn't luck," Ihra disagreed. "It was skill. There aren't many mages who could've broken us out of there, but you did."

"I'm glad it worked, but we were still pretty damned lucky. If their commander had arrived with reinforcements in time…we would have been screwed."

"We don't match up well with these stoneflesh, Ihra," Jasper sighed. "We've got a missing commander, who may or may not be dead, an unknown traitor back at the fort, and a small army of stoneflesh who brush off half of my spells like they tickle. And let's not forget to mention the unknown deity who's supercharging them."

"Didn't you tell me the task was meant to be hard?" she countered. "Wasn't that the plan?"

"It wasn't my plan," he snorted, "but…yes. I just…I don't want to use that potion, Ihra. I don't want any of you to die. And if we hadn't escaped when we did..." He left the obvious unstated.

The elfling hesitated a moment before reaching out and grabbing his hand. "So we plan better next time. And if it helps," she smiled, "I think I know where the next camp is."

"Really?" His head whipped up.

"Really." She pulled a scorched map out of her pocket and carefully pried it open. Portions of the paper flaked off and disintegrated as she laid it in front of the fire, but the lower half of the map was largely untouched by the damage.

"I found this in the pocket of one of the stoneflesh you killed. Unfortunately, part of the map was destroyed-"

"Probably by my own damned spell," Jasper grumbled.

"But I think I found a clue anyway," Ihra continued. "Take a look."

It took Jasper a moment to find their place on the map, but once he spotted Dur-Suqerbettu, he was able to follow the road down to the little village they'd visited the day before. From there, he could only guess they'd detoured to one of the nearby mountains. The map was fairly detailed, marking not only the fort and the surrounding villages but quite a few roadside taverns, outlying farms, and points of interest along the road to Merôm, but he couldn't figure out what Ihra had seen that made her think she knew where another Zalancthian camp was.

"Alright, I give up," he gave in after a minute or two. "What am I supposed to be looking for?"

Ihra leaned forward over his shoulder and pointed to a mountain near the village they had passed. "This is where the camp was," she said confidently and, sure enough, as Jasper looked closer, he saw a small salt mine listed.

"Okay, I don't see anything special about it, though."

"Look at the name of the mountain," she prodded.

"Har S̆or?" he said uncertainly. "What am I supposed to be noticing? That it's named after an animal?"

"But it doesn't say Har S̆or," she pointed out. "It should, but it's actually written as Hor S̆or. And I'd assume the cartographer just made a mistake, but look over here." He followed her finger to another mountain on the opposite side of the fortress. "This one is also misspelled. Hor Gebor. All the other mountains are labeled correctly."

"I mean, that could still just be a mistake," Jasper replied. "But it is suspicious that of the only two mistakes on the map, one of them just happens to be over the camp. But what about the other camps? We know there's at least three of them, maybe four."

"They might have been in the burnt section."

"Eh, maybe," he agreed. "I guess it's worth checking out. Too bad it's on the other side of the fort…although," he paused in thought. "It might give us a chance to sniff the traitor out."

Stolen novel; please report.

"How?""As far as I can tell, there's three main groups of soldiers at the fort. There's the men guarding the first keep, who were under the direct command of the missing commander Uzzîl, the men guarding the second keep, who directly report to Toril, and then the village guards who were led by that dumbass sergeant who shot at us at the gate," Jasper summarized. "The traitor could be from any one of those groups, but with over six hundred men, there's too many for us to weed through on our own."

"Even with your truth spell?" she questioned.

"That spell will run me dry in less than an hour," Jasper shook his head. "With that many men, it would take us days to question them all. Maybe it would be possible if S̆ams̆ādur came with us, but I don't think I can do it on my own. But if we could narrow down the list of suspects, it might just work."

"And how are you going to do that?"

"Like I said, there are three groups of soldiers at the fort. If your guess is right, we have to pass through the fort to get to the next camp, so we'll spend the night, and while we're there, we'll make sure each group knows of our travel plans, a different destination for each group, and then we'll see where the bandits show up. If the bandits show up at all three places, then I guess the plan will have failed, but if they ambush only one place…"

"Then we've narrowed down which group the traitor is in," Ihra finished for him.

"Exactly. And with a smaller group, interrogating them will be a more reasonable option - assuming we can get permission, that is. We don't actually have any authority over these guys, but that's a problem for another day," Jasper sighed. "At least it's a start."

"Feel better," Ihra asked.

"You know, I kind of do." Jasper stretched his arms wide with a yawn. "Even starting to feel a little drowsy no."

"That's too bad," Ihra's mouth twitched with barely concealed amusement. "'Cause I'm pretty sure my watch has ended."

"Damn it."

The storm clouds blanketing the sky were so thick that dawn never arrived. The steady cold rain continued as they packed up their belongings and choked down a soggy breakfast before departing. Afraid that the stoneflesh might have sent an ambush for them, they steered clear of the road, riding through the marshy bogs and flooded forests at such a snail's pace that they didn't reach the village until midday.

They stopped long enough to warm their gizzards in the tavern with hot stew and pitchers of ale before continuing. This time, they stuck to the road, hoping it was close enough to the fortress' patrols to be safe, and made it there before the gates closed for the night.

There, the group split up to enact Jasper's plan. As before, Tsia departed with steaming mugs of wassails to loosen the tongues of the men at the gates, while Nissilât returned Tōrîl to his men, leaving Ihra to talk with the soldiers of the missing commander's keep. Jasper accompanied her up the winding steps to the castle courtyard, but he had a different target.

Leaving Ihra to chat up the men who were drinking and gambling beneath the shelter of the courtyard's stables, Jasper headed straight for the keep. The guards glared at him as he approached, but he lifted the bottle of wine he'd bought off the innkeeper - at a truly outrageous price - and forced a smile.

"I felt bad about what happened the other day, and wanted to bring a gift for the lady."

"You can leave it with us. We'll make sure our lady gets it."

"That would be a sorry apology indeed," he chuckled with faux cheeriness. "I simply must speak to her myself - please tell Lady Damqa I'm here."

"You can leave it here, or you can just leave," the guard growled.

"Ah, I see the problem. You think I'm asking." A cloud of steam rose around him as Jasper allowed the flames to ripple up his arms, driving away the rain. "So let me rephrase. Tell Lady Damqa I'm here. In the meantime," the guards slid aside uneasily as he pushed past them, "I'd like to get out of the rain."

While the guards' expression matched the endless storm clouds of the land, none of them were brave enough to stop them. They trailed behind him with muttered grumbling as he entered the keep and, when he stopped beside the fire in the foyer, one begrudgingly headed up the stairs to summon the lady.

Jasper pretended to ignore the others while he dried his clothes, though he kept one eye cocked just in case one of them was foolish enough to try something. Truthfully, he thought they were being a bit ridiculous; sure, Damqa had fainted, but if it was anyone's fault, it was the priest who had channeled the divine presence without warning, not his. I suppose it's commendable that they're loyal, he admitted reluctantly, but it was still damned annoying.

"Lord Yas̆peh?" Jasper turned as a delicate voice called out to me, and offered a little bow. "Lady Damqa - I trust you're feeling better?"

As she stepped off the stairs, giving him a closer look, Jasper began to understand why the guards had been so unwelcoming. Although she'd looked fine when he'd delivered her to the castle, in the days since then, a yellow and purple-streaked bruise had emerged around her right eye. She must have struck it when she fell, and they think I did it.

"I had no idea you'd hurt yourself when you'd fallen, my lady. Please, allow me to heal it." With a twitch of his fingers, the bruise on her face began to fade, and he lifted the wine. "I brought a gift, if you've time to share it. It was the best vintage the tavern had on offer, although I'm afraid that might not be saying much," he added with a grin.

Her eyes brightened as she read the label. "You got Sōher to part with the strawberry merlot? He stocks this just for the annual fair. I can only imagine how much he charged you."

"More than it's worth, no doubt, but not too much for an apology." He handed the bottle to her. "Shall we?"

While a part of him had hoped that Damqa would lead him to her room - for the fair maiden more than lived up to her namesake's legendary beauty - he wasn't surprised when she led him instead to a sitting room. She dismissed the guards, much to his relief, but the maid constantly hovering in the corner made it clear that nothing further would be happening tonight.

It was disappointing, but perhaps for the best. He wasn't here on a social call after all. On the long, miserable ride back to the castle, Jasper had had more time to reflect on his plan, and the more he turned the pieces in mind, the more he'd wondered if he'd missed a suspect.

The delicate maiden didn't seem a likely suspect, yet he had to admit her situation was odd. The fort's commanders had disappeared one after another and somehow she, rather than one of the lower officers, had been the one to step into her father's shoes.

Perhaps it was just a case of loyalty, or perhaps the true traitor had manipulated events to place an untrained girl in charge of the fort, but he couldn't overlook the possibility that she could be in on it. So as they emptied the bottle of merlot, Jasper made sure to mention where they headed. A fourth location, just in case.

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