6-7 minutes

Using my divine power has been easier this year. I haven't had to raise the temperature as much, or as often. It also means the normal range of the Yesters in April has been reduced, Aden said.

He spoke deliberately, as though weighing each word before he said it. Ilyin nodded slowly in response.

This is the cold we'd see in March, in other years, he continued, that's what allowed the Lady of Mille to take the risks she did.

Hiding herself in the back of a cart was surely a risk. The Acid Merchant, it seemed, covered the cart in thick cotton blankets whenever they sent food to keep it from freezing, but still unless she knew of others traveling in such a way before, how could she know she would survive the journey?

She would have been trapped in the cart the entire way escaping it would have simply left her stranded out in the open in winter. Add in the chance of being caught at the mansion, and the Lady of Mille took quite a risk indeed.

Have you read the document I sent to you about Elo? she asked. There was more they needed to discuss than the warm winter there was the information that had been gleaned from Elo's territory. Perhaps he hadn't had a chance to read it? A lot had transpired since he'd returned to the mansion.

Of course, Aden said, smiling. There was no way he wouldn't have read something she'd touched. It was as lovely to him as she was, and he'd been reading it in every spare moment since he'd returned.

From what he knew, she had never done anything of importance in the Viscount mansion. She'd greeted guests of Viscountess Arlen on occasion, but not much more. Viscount Arlen had kept a tight grip on the affairs of his territory until the very end. Aden felt sure that if Ilyin had been given a hand in it, Arlen would have prospered. Reading her report only made him surer.

In the mansion, it had been a tradition not to enter another family's territory since long before he was born. The tradition became even more rigid when the previous Duke had ventured more often into the warm region. It made Ilyin's ploy of sending knights into Elo's territory for their protection so unexpected. And so very clever.

It had been a wise choice. Biflten mansion was the safest place in this frozen region, since only the Duke of Winter could truly stop the monsters. Because of that, elders would commonly spend their time in the mansion. And since the elders, who cared for so much of their families' important business, spent so much time here, those areas were rich veins to be mined.

Ilyin struck gold, he'd thought as he'd read the report.

I need to look into it further, he said, but. I can guess how many soldiers they have in their secret stronghold.

You saw the report on the provision.

Ilyin had been paying attention to Shining Elo's provision situation. She'd noticed the discrepancies right away.

The Delrose knights found documents suggesting that the Elo family didn't have a chance to move to their stronghold. Ilyin had examined the documents they'd gathered and sifted out the vital parts. The size of Elo's stronghold was well known. But the documents showed that the provisions listed for the stronghold were far beyond what their garrison called for.

Where would the rest be? Why, to Elo's second, secret stronghold, of course.

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I also saw the names of those who were left in the mansion, Aden remarked.

Less familiar with the names of Elo's people, this was something Ilyin hadn't been able to properly examine. Aden rubbed his chin somberly.

Over the years, they're being switched out slowly. It could be seen as normal but.

It was something that would have been hard to Ilyin to notice since she hadn't been long in the mansion. It was something few would notice, slow and subtle as it was. Aden tapped on the bed a thing he did habitually when he was thinking.

Also, it seems they're thinning out their guard. Or more correctly, they're moving their important people to the secret stronghold.

It was the sort of thing only the master of Delrose, or the people around the Grandmaster might notice. But he saw many knights from other families as both the Grandmaster and master. He knew them well and could recite the names of all of them. But it was harder to notice who was here and not in the bustle of daily life in the mansion.

The knights with the most experience have slipped off to Elo's stronghold in the past few days, saying they either wanted to guard the stronghold personally after the Yesters' attack, or simply yearned to return home, Aden said. In their place, less-experienced knights have been coming to the mansion.

It had been happening regularly, continuously. Aden's tapping finger stopped suddenly.

Then . . ., he muttered, trailing off into this thought.

Ilyin's face darkened as her mind came to the same place as his.

If what the Lady of Mille said is true, she began

If it was true that Shining Elo, Green Elo, and the Yesters were combining forces, then Elo's movement of their knights was a strategic move. And if the Yesters attacking Elo had been a scripted pretense

What are the Elo knights like, she continued, the ones that are here?

It's exactly what you think, he said.

None of them carried rank or the weight of serious responsibility unheard of for the mansion. They were all green, clueless. That led Ilyin to a frightening conclusion.

Elo might be sacrificing the other location that isn't their secret stronghold, she said slowly. Then what would happen to those they left behind, when the Yesters kept attacking?