[Amari POV]
That first minute ended quickly. Leroy looked at me properly, then returned his attention to the map table.
"Then we will not waste time," he said.
That was the first thing he said that made me like him a little.
He picked up a stone marker and placed it near the northern edge of the outer forest. Red pins marked positions near the wall, while black ones sat farther into the trees. Three small metal discs were arranged near a narrow cut through the valley.
Vale stepped closer to the table. Ormond stayed beside Leroy, watching Kitsuna with a guarded expression.
Kitsuna stood behind me and slightly to my left.
Leroy tapped the first red marker. "This was the first confirmed change. Thirty-two days ago, monsters pushed at the east watch road. It was not enough to threaten the wall, but it was too organised to be natural."
"What kind of monsters?" I asked.
"Stone-backed crawlers," Ormond said before Leroy could answer. "Six together. They normally stay near cliffs and hunt alone."
"Six together?" Kitsuna asked.
"Yes."
"That isn't normal."
"We noticed," Ormond said.
Vale glanced at him. Ormond tightened his jaw, then returned his attention to the map.
I looked at Kitsuna. She let the exchange go.
Leroy moved another marker. "Twenty-seven days ago, a mixed pack hit the lower west road. Snow wolves, two horned brutes, and three mud hounds."
"Those don't hunt together either," I said.
"No," Vale said. "The wolves should have avoided the mud hounds, and the brutes would normally charge anything that moved. Instead, they pushed toward the watch road, forced the patrol to reposition, then broke away before a full response arrived."
"Why did they break away?" I asked.
"Something must have pulled them back," Leroy said.
"Or punished them for staying," Kitsuna added.
Leroy gave a small nod. "That is our conclusion."
Ormond turned to him. "My lord."
Leroy nodded again. Ormond went to a side table and brought back a stack of reports. He set them down in front of me with more force than he needed.
"This covers the last month," he said. "Reports, patrol notes, monster remains, recovered tracks, and statements from the wall crews."
The pile was thick. It was hard to call the problem small with that much evidence in front of me.
I set my mission packet beside it and opened the first report.
Kitsuna looked at the stack. "Lovely. A forest tried to kill people, and now it's paperwork."
Vale's mouth twitched. Ormond did not find it funny.
Leroy folded his hands behind his back. "When I requested support, I expected more than two people."
I read the first few lines, then turned the page before looking up.
"You asked us to confirm Federation interference, Count Helbram. The request wasn't for a full military response."
Ormond shifted beside him.
"Small problem?" he said.
"That's how the request was classified," I said.
"My men are missing."
"I know what the reports say."
"No," he said, taking half a step forward. "You read it in a folder. I sent them out."
I paused, then held his gaze. "You're right. I read their names in a report. I didn't send them out. But I still have to work from the request command received. It asked us to confirm Federation interference, not to launch a war response."
The room went quiet. Vale's hand moved closer to her belt. Kitsuna turned her head just enough to look at Ormond. He stopped moving forward.
Leroy's anger remained, but he held it in check. I kept my voice even.
"I'm not saying the missing men don't matter. I'm explaining what we were sent to do. If this is a contained border issue, sending a large unit would waste resources and alarm the northern houses. If it's something larger, we need to confirm that before a full response."
Ormond's nostrils flared. He looked ready to answer, but Leroy spoke first.
"I requested what could be requested without causing panic across the northern houses."
"I understand why you kept it contained," I said. "I also need to be honest about what that means. We were sent to confirm the threat first."
Leroy looked from me to the map, then gave one short nod. "Fair."
Ormond glanced at him.
"Not pleasant," Leroy added. "But fair."
Kitsuna smiled faintly behind me. I kept my attention on Leroy. If I looked back at her, she would say something and make it harder to keep the conversation serious.
Leroy picked up another marker. "This is where the first scout team disappeared."
He placed it near a forest trail about half a day beyond the wall, where a narrow path bent around a rocky rise.
"When?" I asked.
"Eighteen days ago," Vale said. "Two experienced scouts were sent to follow tracks from the west road attack. They checked in at the first marker post. There was no second check-in."
"Did you rule out a communications failure?"
"One failure was possible," Vale said. "Two at once was unlikely. We sent a recovery pair the next day."
"And they disappeared too?"
Leroy placed a second marker on the map. "Yes."
Ormond's jaw tightened. It did not make him easier to deal with, but I understood why he was angry.
"How many are missing now?" I asked.
"Eleven," Leroy said.
"In one month?"
"Yes."
"Why wasn't that in the first request?"
Vale answered. "Some weren't confirmed missing when it was sent. Others were overdue, but hadn't been officially declared lost."
Kitsuna gave a quiet snort. "A nice way to keep the number low."
Vale looked at her. "It is."
"The first four were scouts," Leroy said. "After that, I sent a five-person specialist unit."
He placed five small black pins deeper into the forest.
"Only one came back."
That changed the way I looked at the map. Even Kitsuna's expression shifted. She wasn't surprised, but she was paying closer attention.
"Was he alive?" I asked.
"He was," Vale said. "But his account didn't tell us enough."
"Was he badly wounded?"
"Yes, but that wasn't the main problem." Vale pulled a thin report from the stack and handed it to me. "His memory of the route is missing. He remembers entering the forest and his captain ordering a halt. Then he remembers being found near the old ditch road, with frost on his armour and blood in his mouth."
I read the report quickly.
"Frost? In the middle of the afternoon?"
"Middle of the afternoon," Ormond said. "There was no snow in the lower forest that day."
Kitsuna leaned over my shoulder and read the first few lines upside down.
"Hm."
"Everything is interesting to you," I said.
"It's made with ice magic, Amari. My speciality."
Leroy looked at her. "Have you seen anything like it?"
"No."
I turned the page. "The survivor heard something under the ground?"
"Yes," Vale said. "He described it as a low scrape. Not footsteps or digging. He said he could feel it more than hear it."
"What area did he return from?"
Vale pointed to the map near the old ditch road.
"How far was that from his assigned route?"
"Roughly six miles."
"That's too far for him to have wandered while injured."
"No," Vale said. "That is why we asked for outside confirmation."
Ormond folded his arms tighter. "And because the wall attacks didn't stop."
Leroy nodded. "They increased after that. Smaller pushes, more often. Monsters hit the wall or the roads, then pull back. Sometimes they don't seem to be trying to break through at all."
"They're keeping you busy," I said.
"Or keeping you looking at the wall," Kitsuna said.
Vale placed three markers on the map. "These are the areas we're watching."
I leaned closer. The map showed a rocky ridge northeast of the first missing scout route, a dead streambed between two ridges, and a dense patch of old pine marked with warning scratches.
"What pointed you toward these three?" I asked.
Vale answered. "Tracks disappear near all three. Communications and tracker signals flicker near the streambed. Patrol animals refuse to enter the old pine. The rocky depression has no direct evidence, but monsters have been seen moving around it instead of through it."