Felicie's Subterfuge

Message in a Scarlet Letter

Message in a Scarlet Letter

The Illusion has broken.

It was a one line message, written in military code, that, to those unaware of what it was referring to once decoded, would mean absolutely nothing.

To Felicie, it made her sick to her stomach as she rushed with all haste back to the palace. The scarlet letter clenched tightly, almost protectively in her fist, as she sprinted from the dock the aircab landed on, jumping from the vehicle before it made a complete landing.

She didn't care when people starred and murmured as she raced past them. Her heart was thudding painfully in her throat, a sickening combination of fear and dread roiling together in her belly causing her guts to twist painfully.

The shadows of the palace fell around her as she ran up the stairs, ignoring the elevators as being too slow, and sprinted up the halls towards the war room.

Sybille, the paladin in charge of strategy and logistics, for whom all war messages passed through so she could coordinate the battles, was usually working there. She tended to stick near or around the war room until late at night when she went to bed. Felicie honestly couldn't say when the last day Sybille had taken a day to herself was.

Quite predictably, when Felicie burst in through the doors, Sybille was sitting at her desk in the corner, writing orders and messages that she would be sending to the front line. Felicie's rather abrupt arrival didn't even make her jump. She merely turned her eyes, frowning when she saw that state that her fellow paladin was in.

"What is it?" She asked, setting her pen back in its slot as she stood.

"It's Addie." Felicie's voice shook held out the scarlet message.

Sybille walked across the room, moving quickly but calmly, and plucked the damning message from her palm. She was capable of reading code without needing to formally decipher it and she frowned over the message.

"Did you get this just now?"

"Do you think I'd wait to give this to you?!"

"Calm down, I'm only asking. This didn't come with the regular reports this morning."

"It's not Addie's handwriting." Her voice broke in despair.

"No, it's not." Sybille turned with it, moving back to her desk. Felicie stayed just a step behind her. "This is one of our other spies."

"Is Addie..." Felicie trailed off, unable to continue the sentence.

Adelphie, called simply Addie, was a paladin capable of shifting her body and face into nearly any configuration possible. The power, and her past, made her a perfect spy and she spent most of her time within Gascony, gathering information and stopping battles before they started.

Because of her skills and powers, when it came to coded messages, Addie was frequently referred to as an Illusion. If the Illusion was broken, then...

Sybille said nothing for a long minute. The strain of it wore down on Felicie's heart. Though Sybille wasn't saying it, that message could only mean one thing.

Moaning in agony, Felicie collapsed to the ground, her knees refusing to hold up her weight as the horrific realization set in.

Addie was dead.

"I'm sorry, Felicie." Sybille murmured, setting the message on her desk

"That does not make me feel better!" Felicie shrieked, grabbing her own head as she fought to keep from crying.

Sybille ignored her screams and instead began looking through the past messages on her desk. The soft shuffling of paper made Felicie stare at her in disbelief.