Princess Hazelyn's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Princess Hazelyn needed one spy she could trust, and she had none. She stood in a cold storeroom beneath the castle, far from the throne she had left behind. Her lavender gown dragged through brass dust. Her tiara felt heavy and useless here. Ethen carried his whole cause alone, and she meant to build him a hidden order of loyal eyes and ears. But a single wrong recruit could sell him out and end everything. For three nights she had watched candidates slip through this room. Not one had proven safe. Tonight she tested the last one. She set out a false letter on a crate, sealed with a forged mark. It named a secret meeting place and a time. If her recruit carried the lie to an enemy, she would know. If he kept it quiet, she could trust him. The door creaked. A young grey tabby cat padded in, clockwork parts clinking in the small pack on his back. His cinnamon eyes found her at once. "You left that letter where anyone could grab it," Ramen Wandercog said. He did not touch the crate. "Sloppy. Or a trap." Hazelyn kept her face still. "Read it." He lifted the letter, scanned it, and set it back down exactly as he'd found it. "This meeting place is wrong. The seal is wrong too. The real mark has seven gears, not six." He tapped a gear on his chest strap. "Whoever you're testing, Princess, you should test them with something true. A lie this clumsy only catches fools." Her heart jumped. He had spotted the trap and refused the bait. He had not run to tell a soul. Instead he had come straight back to warn her. "How did you know the seal?" she asked. "I fix things. Locks, letters, old engines." He shrugged, and a spring in his pack chimed. "I notice when parts don't fit. Yours didn't." Hazelyn crossed the room and took the false letter from the crate. She tore it in half. "I was not testing someone else," she said. "I was testing you." Ramen's ears flattened, then rose. "And?" "You passed." She held out her hand. "I serve Ethen's cause. He thinks he stands alone. I am building people who will stand with him, in secret. I need someone who sees what others miss. I need you." He studied her hand a long moment. Then he shook it, his paw small and cool against hers. "I'm in," Ramen said. "But a spy who works alone gets caught. One recruit isn't an order. We need more, and we need them fast." Hazelyn nodded. He was right. She had her first loyal recruit at last. Now she had to find the rest before Ethen's enemies found them first.