Location; Main camp, command tent:
"WHAT?" A yell burst forth.
"This is, unfortunate." A quiet voice whispered.
"We have to get a team together, her retrieval should be of upmost importance!" All this outrage and something along the lines of planning was due to the letter that had just arrived by horseback, along with the testimony provided by the horse's rider.
"We could surround where she is being held and slowly sweep through it."
"Or we could alternatively send in a highly trained retrieval team."
"Everyone, shut up." And that letter held some important and highly coveted information, "We all know that Celestia can hold her own for a while, and even though she may know almost all of the most vital intel to our war effort, she would never blurt it out even after being tortured. So, let's contact the General of the army, Harvy, he will most likely be the best person we can contact in order to resolve this situation."
"Yes, that would be the best course of action... I'll go fetch a messenger pigeon and write a letter to him, why did he have to be out on an operation at this time."
Location; Battlefront, 2 days later, General of the army's position:
"Sir! A messenger pigeon from the main camp has arrived, it seems to be highly secretive. A note was also attached with a message written as follows, 'This is a highly time limited occurrence, it seems that someone has been captured and we need you to come back quickly." Long range communication had yet to be established where they were so messenger pigeons were still in use in these situations.
Harvy responded, "Is a replacement officer being sent to take my position?"
"Yes."
"How do you know?"
"It was written on the note."
"Why didn't you read that?"
"I didn't?"
Harvy put his fingers on his temple and started to massage it, he seemed to be quite stressed. "Just give me the letter."
The soldier handed him the letter and he read it, his expression turned grim and he followed the sudden expression change with a quiet set of words, "Get me a horse."
Location; 10 miles from main camp:
"Hmmm? Are your eyes red?" Someone questioned.
"Oh no! They would never be. And why would you even ask? I'm not a vampire." A voice responded.
"Sure, Calen."
"Sure what?" The voice, now identified as Calen, responded.
"For all I know you could be hiding your true identity while posing as a platoon commander!"
"Sure, sure."
"For gods sake, you suck."
"Ok, Wesley. Anyway, have we gotten a letter back yet?"
"No, it seems they either never got it or are to busy figuring out what to do and couldn't respond or forgot to respond. Which in my opinion, really sucks, I mean I would like to know our next orders or something but NO. That can't happen."
"You're very peeved today. Why is that? Because this sarcastic tone of yours will be the death of me, it's so hard to stand."
"HEADS UP. We're entering a checkpoint, ready everything for them to identify you." The stagecoach driver yelled to the back.
"Will do." As the stagecoach approached the checkpoint a door swung open and someone walked out with a checklist.
They approached the company of soldiers and asked where the head officer was, Calen stepped out. "Hello, I'm the head officer, what needs to be checked?"
The person responded with, "I'll need you to provide all of your credentials and personal information. This will all be verified."
"Will do." Calen proceeded to tell him everything he needed to know and after verifying everything but his race, he went to verify it.
"Hmmm? It says va-" Calen put his finger to the soldiers lips and mouthed, 'Don't say anything." And slipped him a gold coin. "It says Human, you may proceed to the main camp." He gave Calen the paper for him to provide at the main camps entrance to obtain entry.
Location; Main camp:
"So, how will we obtain her location?" Harvy started the meeting.
"We should probably ask the mages to pool their mana together and use clairvoyance or some other type of spell."
"That would leave them all drained of mana for at least a couple of weeks, we can't have them out that long."
"Maybe we could try and capture one of their higher ranking members and force them to tell us?"
"They usually kill themselves before that."
"This isn't getting anywhere."
"Well, what if we, caught the spy?" A large number of murmurs erupted in the room, many faces contorted with intrigue to the idea but also doubt towards if it would work or not. The person who had suggested the idea continued, "Now don't worry, I have an idea on how we could do it, Harvy, sir, do I have permission to suppose this idea?" Harvy responded with a nod of his head. "Well, first we can eliminate any lower ranks of being a spy because they wouldn't of had any way to know what was happening unless they were in the company taking place in the operation. So we should first test all of them once they arrive, but before that we should test the person who provided us with the information of the enemy General if they were part of our military, were they?"
Someone shook their head and said, "No, they were an information broker, and some of the things the spy would need to know they simply couldn't of told the enemy. Now strategist Kegan, how do you propose we test everyone? What method?"
"Well, magic of course. If we use the spell mind probe then we can easily find if they are a spy or not."
Harvy spoke up, "Doesn't that spell cause damage."
"Only if the person it is being used on resists too much."
"Then could that theoretically hurt somebody?"
"Once again, only if they resist."
"Fine, continue."
"We'll test all officers. Now, Harvy, sir, can I obtain permission from you to test everyone in this room now?"
Harvy thought for a second and nodded and said, "Very well, commence the testing."
Kegan went over to a guard at the entrance and asked them to retrieve several mages, they ran off to do just that.
Someone spoke up as they were all waiting, "So, what damage could happen, Strategist Kegan?"
"Well, your entire brain could melt leading to death or you lose all your memories, or even your head imploding or combusting."
"That's... a lot of ways." The receiver of the answer was quite discombobulated, and right as he said that mages entered the tent.
"Alright, begin the testing!" Stratagist Kegan went over to one of the mages and told them what to do, the mage looked through his mind after activating the spell as instructed and yelled, "He is not the spy."
"Well, that's a relief, I mean this could've been one giant set up to kill us all with a spell that destroys your mind when you let your guard down!" Someone yelled.
"Hopefully not." The mages went through everyone, sweeping through them like a lotus swarm through a field and cleared one after the other until only Harvy was left. He let his guard down and a mage began testing him, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting for a yelling of 'Clear!' a response came. "Clear." It seemed that no one within that room had betrayed Minterl, but there were still many officers to test.
Several hours later:
"Damn it. We've tested all the fucking officers here and none of them were the spy. Where could they be hiding." Someone started off the reconvening of all the higher ranked officals.
"I guess they have to be within the group who went on the mission."
"But who would be able to communicate while traveling?" Everyone froze and then the person continued, "Who watched the group leave that day, I want a list of all of them and then who sent out a messenger pigeon 1-2 days after they witnessed them leave." An aide ran out to complete the task, why hadn't they though of it before, even if no lower ranks knew a spy could easily send out information about a group leaving to attack on an operation, especially if they knew the direction of where the enemy General was because they provided the information to the broker.
A bell began ringing, the group of soldiers who had went to kill the enemy General had arrived, "Mage, follow me." A mage who had been sitting in the corner of the room follower Strategist Kegan out of the tent, they began walking towards the front gate. But as soon as they stepped out of the tent an uproar ensued, everyone was yelling back and forth about how to organize all the information that would be given to them and how they would sanction and then execute the mind inspections as regular soldiers were less likely to not resist. What reassurance could they give? Also how would they make sure the spy didn't kill themselves? Kegan was glad to have left before that all began.
After they had "You're going to have a fun time inspecting all of these people I guess, haha, gahhhh, this sucks. You have a family."
The mage answer, "Yes, and sadly yours will lose a member tonight." The mage said a quick incantation as he had yet to master silent casting, probably due to being new in the military, and Kegan looked back confused and then exclaimed a short sound.
"Hu-" A pointed object protruded from Kegan's chest and he slowly looked down, the confused look still on his face and due to him turning around he could see the smug look on the mage's face, the mage was the spy, a traitor or perhaps an infiltrator. Kegan spit up blood which flew across the space between him and the mage and splattered on the ground, barely missing the mage. Why had he never thought that the ones running the test could be the spy, but he let go of that thought and decided to dedicate his last moments to thinking about something else, his family, at least they'd receive a pension for his service related death.
The mage looked down, frustrated and then coerced rock and soil from the ground to form another pointed object and shot it into Kegan's chest, again and again and again. Kegan now lay on the ground, his eyes a murky white as his pupils rolled to the back of his head. The mage walked off leaving him there to be found by an unfortunate and unexpecting soul.
