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"Discoveries" (Former Unicorn Brigade) Jillia surveyed the destroyed camp on horseback, the height letting her see all of it at once. The destruction was absolute. Burnt circles where tents once stood, the smell of smoke still hung in the air. Hearing a report of the massacre was only numbers. Seeing it for herself was entirely different. She could visualize the young men in their blue and white youth brigade uniforms, sitting around camp fires talking with their friends. Sleeping peacefully in their tents, knowing that in the morning they would return home to their families, thanks to the peace treaty just signed. But it was not to be so. She'd failed them, and every other person in Highland by loosing that peace. Jillia drew in a slow breath and turned to her entourage. "Search the camp! Deacon, look for signs of survivors! I want the truth of what happened." They all went about their tasks, leaving Jillia alone with nothing to do. She dismounted and walked to the nearest of the destroyed tents. Something at her feet caught the light. Jillia knelt to pick it up. It was a gold ring, nearly covered with soot. She wiped it clean with the hem of her skirt and examined it again. No. She nearly dropped it. No. It couldn't be. He wouldn't go this far, he just wouldn't! Jillia blinked several times, trying to make sure what she was seeing was really what it appeared. But it was. The golden ring bore the crest of the Bright family. "Lady Jillia," the investigator, Deacon, called to her from the north end of camp. "There's something you should see." Jillia stood up, brushed off her skirt, and went to see what it was he'd found. Deacon indicated a set of footprints on the ground. "Most of the boys fled east, where enemy archers lay in wait, but I found a set that backtracks and goes up this way," he was walking that direction as he spoke. They neared a waterfall. "Here is where the tracks end. Either the boy learned how to fly or he was taken downstream by the water. And, Lady Jillia, I can asure you that there has never been a Winger in the Highland Army." Jillia looked at the tracks herself and had to admit that Deacon's theory seemed likely. "Do you think he could have survived the fall?" she asked. "If he didn't hit any rocks on the way down, or get knocked unconcious when he hit the water, it's possible. It's also equally possible that he drowned," Deacon replied frankly. "These boys were training for quite a while, so it's not unlikely that his body could withstand that kind of punishment until washed ashore." Jillia nodded. "Where would the river take him?" Deacon frowned. "Out of the mountains to the south, Princess. Into Jouston territory." Jillia's eyes widened. They either had a loose soldier in Jouston after revenge, or a source of information in the City-State's hands. He was also the only person who knew the whole of what happened, other than two men she wouldn't truth any further than she could throw them. "Tell everyone to gather in the middle of camp immediatly. We'll leave for Kyaro in one hour." The investigator was gone in a moment. Jillia looked down at the footprint and ring in her hand. "Damn you, Ruka," she whispered fiercely. "Why did you have to murder children?"
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