For a moment, the rooftop forgot how to breathe.
Solis stood with his axe still half-raised, the moonlight laying a pale edge along the blade. His heart gave one hard thump, then another, because the two figures that had just stepped out of shadow were wrong in the way a knife in a loaf is wrong.
Princess Lily stood there.
Not in a carriage, not behind a wall of guards, not as a symbol painted in silk and law, but right in front of him on the roof of Dahlia's inn, her cloak drawn close and her face lit in the silver wash of night. A princess, in person, in the open air, standing before a common rank Postknight who had not even finished drying the sweat off his neck.
And behind her stood Razille.
Solis's breath caught harder at that second sight than the first. Princess Lily was astonishing. Razille was a shock that struck deeper. It had been a long while since he had seen her, and the last time their bodies had shared the same room, she had turned the dark around his chest like a cruel hand and stolen the Blazing Dragon Sword from his grip while he was choking on his own strength. That memory had a rawness to it that never really left. It stayed in the bones.
He had not expected her here. Not now. Not beside the princess. Not like this.
The silence stretched.
Wind moved over the roof tiles and touched the medallion in Solis's lap. Somewhere below, the inn kept breathing with the low murmur of shelter, the clink of bowls, the distant voice of someone asking for water. But up here the world had narrowed into three people and a thousand unasked questions.
Lily was the first to break it.
She looked at Solis with directness that made it clear she already knew what was passing through his head. "Yes," she said, calm but urgent, "I am aware you have many questions. A lot of them. But we do not have the time to answer them all."
Solis stared at her. He had not even decided which question to ask first. Why are you here? Why are you with her? How did you get past the palace? Why are you standing on a rooftop in the middle of a war? Why are you looking at me like I am the one who can still save this?
Lily took a step forward before he could find his voice. Her posture was composed, but there was a strain in it, as if she had already been running for hours before reaching this roof.
"I... no we need your help," she said. "We may know where the next attack will come from."
That did it. The shape of the moment shifted from shock into danger.
Solis wanted to ask how she could know that. He wanted to ask why he was being told this and not the castle or the captains or the whole chain of command. But Lily had already lifted a hand, stopping him before he could open his mouth.
"Do not ask yet," she said. "Time is short. There will be an explanation later, if we are still standing... alive."
Solis swallowed. He had been trained long enough to recognize urgency when it wore a royal face. He lowered the axe and bowed quickly, not because he had found comfort, but because he had found the correct shape of response.
"In what way can I help you, Your Highness?" he asked.
Lily gave the smallest nod, like someone grateful to find that the floor was still beneath them.
She glanced once at Razille, then back to Solis. "If my suspicion is correct, then Orsic has been feeding Kreg information of our weaknesses."
Solis's brow tightened. "Orsic? The commander of K.P.P ?"
"Yes," Lily said, and there was a tone in her voice now, not quite anger, not quite grief, but the steady beginning of both. "Razille told me there are insiders. People in Prism who are not loyal to the kingdom. If he is one of them, then he knows where our lines are the thinnest. He knows where the army is smallest. He knows where we will be least prepared."
She stepped closer to the edge of the roof and pointed south, though the darkness below hid the city's shape. "The south-east coast."
Solis looked where she pointed, though he could not see the sea from here. He knew the direction by habit, by the city's layout. The south-east had always been troublesome in theory. Long coastlines, a scattering of older watchposts, and not enough Octaknights assigned there because the kingdom had always judged the sea less likely to matter than the roads and gates. Kreg had no navy. Or so everyone had said. That had made the coast feel like one of those places people mentioned in meetings and then ignored when they were tired.
Lily spoke the thought aloud before Solis could.
"It was considered reasonable," she said. "We do not have a proper naval force. The court would rather concentrate on the land routes and the inner walls. But Orsic… Orsic pushed it forward too fast. He did not want anyone to reconsider it."
Solis crossed his arms, his gaze narrowing. He did not like how that sounded. "So, you think he hurried it on purpose. Are you sure about it? I mean it's a pretty big accusation on the head of entire Grand Prism Army."
"I do." Lily said. "He gave it the weight of prudence, but he moved the decision too quickly. He did not want any objections. That is what makes me think he knew where to direct the next blow."