Razille had been standing slightly behind and to the side, as if she did not entirely trust herself to be seen at full angle. Now her face changed. The color drained from her features so quickly that Solis noticed it at once. It was not the usual pale of night. This was something deeper. Fear, maybe. Real fear.
He frowned. "Hey, Raz, why are you looking pale?"
Razille did not answer immediately. Her mouth parted, then closed again, as if the sentence she needed had become too heavy to carry. Lily, mid-explanation, stopped too and turned fully toward her.
"Razille?" she asked, and for the first time her voice lost a little of its iron calm. "What is it?"
Razille's eyes were fixed on nothing. Her shoulders had locked in a way Solis recognized from the brink of panic. He had seen that same stiffness before in the dead moments before a fight, when somebody remembered something too late and the body knew before the mouth did.
She whispered, almost to herself, "M... my father, Kreg is going to come from there."
Nobody spoke.
The rooftop, the inn, the city, all of it seemed to fall backward from those words. Solis felt the hair at the back of his neck rise.
Is it that Kreg who invaded Prism Kingdom ages ago? The one sealed down in the runes?
When Orsic ran trials on him alleging him of freeing that man, he had his suspicion. Well how can a mere human live upto hundreds of years? But if he is truly coming himself to attack then it's going to be a big problem.
As this man is the atrocity whom Commander Cassius fought valiantly and eventually eraned the Legendary Postknight status. This means Dark knight Kreg is not a foe to joke around with.
Lily went still. The night, which had felt large a moment before, suddenly felt like it had a ceiling.
Razille looked at them with wide, frightened eyes, the kind that belonged to someone who had just seen a door in a room open onto a memory full of knives.
"Kreg will not come by road," she said, each word harder than the last. "He is not going to force the city gates like before. He will come from the coast."
Lily's face sharpened. "Explain your reason."
Razille drew a shaky breath. "His Blacknight Dragon Sword. It grants him the capability to fly."
Solis felt the statement hit him like a blow to the sternum.
He had heard of weapons that could strengthen, sharpen, protect and even consume its user. He had heard of swords that carried spirits, blades that could sing to blood, relics that could answer will. But the idea of Kreg flying in with the Blacknight Dragon Sword turned his thoughts cold. This was not a man marching, not a man needing roads. This was an enemy who could descend from above, over walls, over blocked routes, over cavalry and barricades and all the proud little plans men made for ground warfare.
Razille's face tightened as if she hated that she knew this. "I have seen what that sword can do." she said. "Not directly. Not fully. But enough. The Blacknight Dragon Sword is not just a weapon. It is the other half of a thing that wants to reclaim the sky."
Lily's mouth had gone thin. "You are certain?"
Razille gave a short, unhappy nod. "I am. I did not want to be. But when he took the Blazing Dragon Sword, the two together... they are not just tools. They are a pair. And one of them can let him break distance."
Solis's hands clenched around the axe haft. His mind was already working, already trying to fit a flying Kreg into the kingdom's shape. If Kreg could attack from above, then the south-east coast was not only vulnerable, it was a trap waiting to be sprung. The K.P.P. would not expect aerial assault from a man they still imagined moving through camps and road lines.
Lily looked between the two of them, the composure of a princess under strain, and she was immediately all purpose again. "This changes everything." she said cupping her chin with her lesft hand.
Solis found his voice at last. "Why tell me this?"
"Because," Lily said, "we need someone who will believe it and act quickly. The larger command structure will be slower to adjust than Kreg will be to exploit it. If I go directly to the palace, Orsic will slow the response or redirect it. If we go through the wrong doors, the warning becomes a policy debate while the attack already executes."
Solis's jaw tightened. The name Orsic made the roof feel narrower. "So, you came here because you think I can help?"
Lily nodded once. "You are close to the Postknights who still think clearly. Your friend, Vaidya is a strategist, yes? And your people listen to you. You may not be a commander, Solis, but you are harder to ignore than a messenger. I need you to help us by lending your groups strength. At least, just enough to avoid massive disaster. After the attack others will be warned and will have time enough to take precautions."
Razille, who had been staring into the dark like a guilty witness, finally spoke again. Her voice had an edge of self-disgust to it. "If Kreg attacks from the south-east, he can strike the supply line first. Then the harbor routes. Then whatever local patrols are left. He will make it look like the city was foolish for trusting the coast."
Lily's gaze sharpened. "Exactly."
Solis looked at Razille. "You know all that from him."
Razille's answer came after a beat. "I know him. I know how he thinks when he wants to take his revenge just to teach a lesson."
That sentence sat heavily between them.
Lily folded her hands, the posture of a ruler having to make decisions without the luxury of comfort. "For now, we have a direction. I will go to the captains who can still move quickly. Seraphine if I can find her. Cassandra if she is not already buried in command. I will tell them the coast is no longer a secondary concern. The south-east is the opening."
Solis took a long breath. His body was already putting pieces together. He had no desire to delay. He had no appetite for being the one who stood still while the wrong thing marched closer. But another thought pressed in too. "If Kreg really comes from the sea, then how do we stop him?"
Razille answered before Lily could. "With height and timing. If he is flying, he will use the element of surprise. He will come low enough to strike and then climb again if the first pass fails. We need people ready with anti-air measures. Not just at the coast. Some in the inner ring too. It has to be layered."
"Hmm. Vaidya with his wind magic would be able to help but I am not sure if only him can sure us to buy time. Also your Highness! What will Raz do? Is she going with you or help us on the coast?" Solis asked, though he already knew how strained they were.
Lily's eyes flicked away for the slightest instant. "Yeah, that's going to be a problem. Vaidyais still too young. Kreg is a veteran. For him dealing with him is a piece of cake. That's why Razille will go with you and Vaidya to the coast to stop Kreg."
Solis turned slowly, looking from Lily to Razille, he asks instinctively, "What is the guarantee that she won't betray us again?" Then back to the moonlit city beyond the roof's edge. A hundred little pieces moved in his mind. The relief shelters. The coast. The limited Octaknight numbers. The king's trust. Orsic's urgency. Kreg's intelligence. Razille's fear.
Razille couldn't speak up much. She knew. She had done already a lot of trust damage. Lily too didn't speak. She wasn't sure what to say.
A silence clutches them all.
He said finally breaking the silence, "Uhh... okay. Then... your highness will tell the people who can move without asking Orsic for every breath. Commander Cassandra. Captain Colins. Captain Seraphine if we can find her. And we make sure the coast gets reinforced before dawn."
Lily's expression softened a fraction. "Yes."
Razille added, "And we should not assume he will go straight for the outermost line. If he can fly, he may strike a point that forces the defenders to split."
Solis nodded. "A feint."
"That is Kreg's style," Razille said. "He likes to make people feel safe in the wrong direction."
The words made the night feel colder.
Below them, from the inn's stairwell, a faint noise sounded, the sound of footsteps and then a door closing. Someone was coming up from below. Solis's hand tightened on the axe again out of instinct, but Lily held up a hand.
"Wait," she said.
For a heartbeat the four of them froze, each aware that the rooftop meeting could still be witnessed or interrupted. Solis's muscles tensed. Vaidya and Ada were still downstairs. Dahlia too. If the wrong person came up, the whole scene would fracture.
But the footsteps paused at the threshold. A voice from below called up, "Solis? Ada says dinner is getting cold."
It was Vaidya.
The tension broke by half. Solis exhaled sharply through his nose. Lily looked almost amused for the briefest instant, which was perhaps the most royal thing she had done all night. Razille, however, remained pale and alert.
Lily moved closer to Solis. "We will need you," she said. "And I mean need, not invite. If this is true, there is no one better to convince the others quickly."
Solis gave a dry half-laugh that had no real humor in it. "That sounds terrible."
"It is terrible," Lily replied. "That is the point."
Razille folded her arms, then looked up at the sky as if asking the stars for some simpler form of this all. "I wish I had better news."
Solis looked at her, at the guilt still clinging to her like a shadow that refused to fall off. "Then help us make better use of the news you do have."
Her eyes met his. Something in them shifted, a tiny loosened knot. She had been carrying a burden too big for one person and he could see now how much it cost to stand beside a princess after having been the cause of so much damage. She was not clean. None of them were. But this was the kind of night where clean did not matter nearly as much as honest.
Lily said, "Okay let's start this operation as soon as possible. We don't have much time to spare."
Razille gave a small, bitter sound. "Yeah... true. Kreg's already fast-tracking his plan after I left from his camp. I am sure he will."
"Okay. Let's make sure. We are faster than him then." Lily encourages everyone by showing her determination.
Solis could not help it. A tiny smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. For all the danger and all the hidden traps, there was something grounding in the princess's plainness. She didn't speak like a pretty painting. She spoke like someone who had decided that fear was not going to have the last laugh from her.
He sheathed the axe, then picked up Tedric's medallion from where it had rested in his lap. The carved bird caught the light for one last second before he tucked it inside his shirt.
He looked at Lily and Razille, at the strange pair standing on his roof in the middle of a war, and nodded again.
"Alright," he said. "Let's roll out."
And the night, for all its cold and dark, seemed to lean in to listen.