Ethan brought the ceremonial roster to the war room just after midday, spreading it across the table with the particular grimness of a man who'd found exactly what he'd been afraid of finding.
"Corporal Renfrew," he said, tapping a name near the bottom of the list. "Assigned to relic storage for the past four months. Requested the posting specifically — said he wanted quieter duty after his brother died in the border skirmishes last spring. Grief, ostensibly."
"Ostensibly," Darius repeated.
"He's also one of the three who volunteered for the dungeon shift the night Aeric disappeared." Ethan's jaw tightened. "Six years of service, clean record, nothing that would normally raise suspicion. Which is exactly the profile you'd want if you were planting someone months in advance."
I studied the name, trying to summon a face and failing — one soldier among thousands, indistinguishable until the moment he mattered most. "Do we arrest him?"
