Yuze had gone to Eirian's rooms looking for Chenzhou and panicked when she'd explained he'd gone to see Anna.
Yuze didn't have enough information to know how deeply involved Anna was in terms of her or Snake's treachery, but he knew he didn't trust her with Chenzhou.
Eirian and Mingzhe had been concerned, moving to follow before Yuze told them to stay back. This was his realm, and he'd known Chenzhou and Anna the longest.
And in intelligence, the more people involved, the more dangerous the situation beca.
His racing heartbeat cald a bit as he found the guards where they were supposed to be along the way. There was no sign of trouble, no sense of danger; in fact, the closer he got to their rooms, the stiller the air beca.
Was he too late?
His heart rate skyrocketed again. Beating so hard he thought it might beat right out of his chest as he burst into Chenzhou's rooms.
They were filled with a somber silence, and a quiet Chenzhou sitting at the end of his bed.
There was no sign of Anna, though he recognized so of her belongings.
"Chenzhou, where is Anna?" Chenzhou didn't look injured, and he was breathing, and awake, and aware. Yuze darted around, sticking his head into the rooms that branched off of the main bedroom, but there was no sign of Anna. "Chenzhou-"
"She's gone."
Yuze raced back to him. "Gone? Gone where? When?"
"Just now. She asked to send her away." Chenzhou sounded distracted, like he was still working sothing out in his head and wasn't fully present in the room with Yuze.
"Chenzhou-"
"I know. She told ." He put his head in his hands as his shoulders started to shake.
"How much? How long has she been selling information?"
"She wasn-" Chenzhou took a deep breath and willed himself still. "She wasn't selling information. She thought she was talking to a friend."
Yuze growled in frustration. "Don't be naive."
Chenzhou's head snapped up, and there was fire in his eyes. "I'm not. She was angry, Yuze, she wasn't thinking. The bigger danger is Snake. Why was she even talking to Anna at all?"
Yuze shook his head, frustrated. "I don't know. I haven't seen her since I found out. I ca to warn you first."
Chenzhou softened. "Thank you, brother. Anna…she told as soon as she saw . She was beside herself."
"Did she say when it started?"
"After Eirian and I left for the King's funeral."
Yuze relaxed. "Well, that's…better than I was expecting, but that doesn't an she didn't share anything dangerous."
Chenzhou gestured to his desk. " She said she realized what she'd done when she caught Snake looking through my letters."
Yuze cursed and darted to the desk. Chenzhou's private letters contained information that could be catastrophic in the wrong hands.
"I sent Anna back to her family," Chenzhou explained and took on the faraway sound again. "She was crying so much. I made her cry, Yuze."
His voice broke as he spoke. Turning into sothing heartbreaking and small.
Yuze dropped the letters and returned to Chenzhou's side, taking a seat next to him. "You didn't- Well, maybe you did, but that doesn't justify what she did."
Chenzhou seed to shrink a bit as he sighed, "She would never have done this if I hadn't-"
"You hadn't what? Grown? Survived? Hold yourself accountable for your own actions, but don't use them to excuse anyone else's." Yuze sighed. Relationships were not his specialty. He was terrible at them, as proven by Akari, but as he'd at least had ti to discover what he'd done wrong.
Yuze craved Akari's company, but he'd never spoken to him about the things that weighed him down and kept him up at night. Akari had asked, once, in the beginning of their relationship, and the answer had disturbed him so much that he hadn't slept for a week. It had affected his ability to work, and he'd told Yuze that they couldn't talk about it anymore.
That had been the beginning of the end, really.
At least now that he could look back with a sowhat unbiased eye.
Chenzhou and Anna had rarely talked about Chenzhou's responsibilities. Yuze had been the one Chenzhou had co to when he couldn't sleep from worry.
And now Chenzhou was so comfortable discussing things with Eirian, regardless that it had been born out of his acceptance of his death, it really wasn't a surprise that sothing strong had ford between them.
Trust was the most intimate feeling that could grow between two human beings. Chenzhou and Yuze trusted one another and would be side by side as brothers for the rest of their lives. There was no question. The only thing stopping them from being life partners was a complete lack of romantic interest on either side.
That wasn't the case with Eirian, who was open about her desires and fearless in that regard in a way few people managed to be.
Even Mingzhe was understandable in that way. Like Chenzhou, he had few people he trusted, but he trusted Eirian, and he and Chenzhou were starting to trust one another.
And now with Brendan…
It wasn't hard to see them falling together in a knot that could beco so strong it never broke.
"People change over ti, no matter how much they try not to. That doesn't excuse betrayal. Plenty of relationships end without treason."
"Anna was not willfully trying to harm or the Calia. And she's never going to return now." Despite knowing their relationship was over, even without the betrayal, he still sounded sad about it.
"Celebrate the good, acknowledge the bad, and move forward." Yuze's ntor had told him that over and over when they'd been travelling together, but it hadn't really made sense until he beca an adult and learned that sotis, no matter how hard you worked, it still didn't guarantee everything would work out the way you wanted. "I'm going to find Snake. Emmy saw her eting with the Bandri."
"Inside the walls?"
"Inside the walls. I think she'd probably been the leak all along and involved in the items missing from the vault."
"Find her," Chenzhou ordered, rage starting to build. "We can't afford soone working against us from the inside with the King occupied and peace on the line."
~ tbc
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