"I didn't notice them. When I took the mask off the first time." And for a moment, Eirian wondered how long ago that had been, and then he continued, and her heart cracked a little further. "He was dying and I wanted…I wanted to save him…to see his face at least once. I didn't notice them at first. While he was…"
Dying, Eirian silently finished, because it was understandable. The tattoos were so faded that Fox must have been using potions to fade them faster than normal. The Bandri's tattoos were added to over the course of their lifetime, growing with them similarly to Eirian's mark, and barely faded due to their use of crushed black beetle and red achor powder.
No wonder Fox had never taken off his mask. He'd have been outed in an instant, and since no Bandri had ever made it inside the walls of the Camelia, he'd probably have been cut down immediately.
The courage was astonishing. He'd been working for them for over a decade, and no one had figured him out.
Or had he been?
His loyalties were as up in the air as everything else they thought they knew about him.
Yuze stared down at Fox's still face. The natural color of the tribes was there, sun-stained and worn, but it had softened under the darkness from his mask, and now it had a sheen of death. A pallor never seen anywhere else.
He was young, too. Eirian realized. The way he'd carried himself had made him seem older, but he couldn't have been more than a year or two older than Chenzhou.
"Do you think he was the Bandri Emmy saw?" Eirian wondered. It made a terrible kind of sense. With his face unknown, Fox could have as many as he wanted inside the walls of the Camelia.
The ultimate deception.
Yuze reluctantly nodded. "It makes sense."
"Do you think Snake knew? Were they working together the entire time?" It was mind-boggling to think about, but the possibility couldn't be ignored.
"She called him a traitor," Yuze recalled, voice distant. "When I called her one. I don't think they were working together. When they saved me, she left him behind. I think they hated each other."
Eirian nodded. That made sense with the way they'd been fighting over Yuze.
….
A terrible thought struck her. Had that also been part of Fox's deception? All that fighting and flirting and careful attention.
Had any of it been real?
Eirian swallowed down the urge to ask. Even if Fox had confessed to something, anything in the moments before he died, it was of little concern to the overall issue. But it was likely everything to Yuze.
She changed direction, wanting to avoid any more strain on Yuze's fragile health. He didn't seem ready to let go of Fox's body yet, though. "How did the Bandri capture you?"
Yuze tensed as he thought back. "I was in the tribes camp." He turned to her, a sudden spark of energy. "There were agents from Song and Snow meeting with the tribal leaders."
Eirian straightened. "You're sure?"
Yuze nodded. "I was listening to them. It was stupid, I got distracted, and a few of the guards stopped me. They didn't recognize me. One of Beng Shai's commanders knew I wasn't a tribesman."
"How?" Yuze was highly skilled as a spy, or he wouldn't have become the First Eye of the Camelia.
"I don't know." He admitted. "But he managed to convince the others. I went along, waited for a chance to escape, but it never came. He took me straight to Beng Shai."
"Mingzhe was right, then." Eirian frowned. "The tribes are working with Song and Snow."
Yuze shifted, his shoulders slumped. "You already knew?" His voice cracked at the end.
Panic coursed through Eirian. She didn't want to distress Yuze in the state he was in, making it seem like they'd figured everything out without him, while he was suffering terribly; to do the same thing seemed unnecessarily cruel. "No! No. Mingzhe suspected. And only a couple of days ago. He had no proof."
Yuze was silent, one of his hands fisted in Fox's shirt.
Fox's body would have to be wrapped and treated for transport soon. Eirian wasn't sure how pleased Chenzhou would be to take him back to the Camelia for burning, but he'd put his feelings aside to help Yuze, and it might be best for the spy to see Fox burn. To see him all the way to the end and get some form of closure.
Especially since there would now be questions about Fox and his motivations and actions until the end of time. There'd be no answers, well, there'd be some answers, but they wouldn't be answers, because Fox was dead and you could only learn so much about the dead from the living.
Was there something Death could do? If Eirian found a way to get back into the World of the Dead, could she find Fox's spirit and ask him?
Did it even matter?
If Fox was a liar in life, then he'd probably be one in death, too.
They'd likely never know the full truth. Or even why Fox had chosen the path he had.
The idea of all those unanswered questions was infuriating to Eirian, but she had enough emotional intelligence to realize it would probably be devastating for Yuze.
One of the soldiers on guard signaled her. They needed to go soon. They were still in enemy territory, and there weren't enough of them to have any safety in numbers. Yuze needed medical attention and rest. They could put Yuze in a wagon as they continued north, give him a sleeping potion, and probably a few pain potions based on what she could make out of his injuries. It would take him months to recover fully.
Physically, at least.
There was a very good chance that his heart would never completely heal. She needed to get him to Chenzhou. They'd been so close for so long that Chenzhou would know best how to help him.
~ tbc