Weiss had learned a lot of things over the years. She'd learned that the tooth fairy did not exist when she was eight, catching Klein in the act of leaving a candy in the place of her tooth after staying up late, hoping to catch the fairy and make a wish instead.
She'd learned how to mask her emotions and keep her face calm even if she was not under the guidance of an aggravating actor hired by her father. The man had long ago left for warmer shores, making quite a name for himself in Vale if she recalled correctly.
She'd learned how to manage her finances and make tough decisions under the tutelage of her father, who may have been cold and distant, but cared enough to leave her a stable kingdom and large treasury to inherit once he'd perished.
And from Jaune she'd learned how to care, how to protect. How to allow her to forget her lessons and responsibilities and let a little bit of her real self out for a few moments.
It was time to show Alexander Nikos just who exactly he'd pissed off.
It had been almost disappointingly easy to move Klein to better, safer quarters in the family wing of the castle. Oh his lackey's kicked up a fuss in the court but they had been easily silenced. She had hoped Nikos himself would make a move, expose himself and give her something incriminating to allow her to oust him from her court.
She cursed herself for thinking that. For thinking that it would be easy. Nikos had been a step ahead of her this entire time, and had proved himself to be a formidable opponent when it came to matters of intrigue. She would have to up her game.
It started with responding to the clear leaks in her guard. If she couldn't trust her own men then she certainly couldn't trust anyone else, and while she knew she should focus on winning more support in court, it was ultimately soldier's that would tip the scales.
Nikos could bribe whichever destitute noble he wanted. It would matter little if he made any overt moves against her. He was playing games in her kingdom and while he only had a few corrupt, easily bought guards, she had an entire kingdom at her back.
That brought her to her second priority. Finding out where Nikos had gotten so much money.
The Mistrali were rich, they had been the victor's of the Great War afterall and they had very much enjoyed the spoils of it. But while Nikos could formly enjoy access to their royal coffers, that had been revoked once he had been betrothed to Weiss. And while he certainly would have some form of personnel wealth, he wouldn't have enough to bribe her guards, bribe some minor nobles and place a two million bounty on a dragon. He was getting wealth from somewhere and she needed to find and cut off that source of income.
Money made the world turn round afterall and without it Nikos' schemes would grind to a screeching halt.
So whilst the newly promoted Sergeant Major Nightingale began an investigation amongst the guard for anti-corruption and bribery, Weiss had sent out a dozen or so spies to investigate numerous banks and merchant guilds in Mistral that could possibly be loaning money to Nikos.
Her Spymaster, a lithe, quiet man from ancient and loyal house Zeki, had organized the operation in tandem with another operation. Her third and final priority in her battle plan against Nikos.
Rooting out his spies.
Whether they were chamber maids or cooks, stable hands or squires, besotted ladies or servants. They would be rooted out and eliminated from the equation.
Perhaps if they admitted who their employer was, she could charge Nikos with acts of subterfuge against the Kingdom and cancel her marriage contract with him.
Her father had left little to no room in the contract he had made with Nikos' sister. Only the most outrageous acts, from conspiring to overthrow her or murder her, could break the contract. Not even if she and her entire court stumbled across Nikos sleeping with another woman could she break the contract.
That meant that his spies were her best bet for fighting their marriage contract directly, whilst Nightingale handled security concerns and Zeki rooted out his source of income.
Three operations aimed to weaken the constricting hold that the snake had over her court and kingdom.
Nikos was going to pay for making her revoke Klein's knighthood.
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Laia Well wasn't an idiot. She knew the risks of what she was doing, but gods be damned if they weren't worth it. Alexander whatever his last name was may be Mistrali but he damn well paid good.
She'd felt guilty at first of course. Queen Schnee was kind, had even given her and the rest of the Burg's servants a pay rise. It had been enough to buy her little Timmy the herbs he'd needed from Doctor Stone to heal his cough.
But then Timmy's little chest had gotten worse again from knewmonia or something along those lines. A worser illness with even more expensive cures. Laia had tried her best before she'd accepted the offer, she really had! She owed the queen that much at least. But even after a week of overtime she was nowhere near to being able to afford her Timmy his medicine and since Doctor Stone refused other offers of payment she could either earn a little more money through slightly dubious means or watch her little boy die a month away from his ninth year on this godforsaken earth.
Besides, all she had to do was listen and tell her handler what she'd heard. She'd never been told to go out of her way to find information, so she hadn't seen the need to. If some prick of a noble boasted about the size of his militia or whatever then fair game was fair game. But she didn't have to sneak into rooms or hide in closets or anything like that, so she figured maybe it wasn't so bad. It wasn't like that creepy spymaster the Queen had would take much notice of her, low profile and all that.
That was until said spymaster was sat in her husband's chair, playing with a her sickly son after she'd just got home from work.
"Ah Mrs Well." The man greeted, releasing her son, who'd let out an an excited cry of "Mummy!" before hacking a sickly coughing fit.
"A-Huh-M-Mister..." Laia thought for a moment, dropping her bag by the door and picking up her little boy, rubbing his back softly. "Z-Zeki?"
"That's correct." The man stated impassively. "Not many remember my name Mrs Well. I'm impressed you have done so."
"O-Oh well." She replied, cursing her stutter and her handler, who'd told her to watch out for Lord Zeki or something along those lines when they'd first met. "It's not often you get visited by nobility. Well, I don't get visited by nobles at all milord, you've surprised me is all."
"Hmm." The man replied, light blue eyes piercing and cold. "I wouldn't lie so blatantly in front of someone so young Mrs Well. It teaches them bad habits."
Laia swallowed nervously, clutching her arms tighter around her boy, who shifted uncomfortably and whined.
"I think we should let the boy rest. We have important matters to discuss after all Mrs Well." Zeki said unsubtly, and Laia pressed a nervous kiss to her little boy's sweaty forehead.
"Go play in your room for a bit. I'll talk to Lord Zeki and then make some tea." She told him, gently putting the boy down. He ran to his room wheezily, and she heard him hack and cough once the door to his room closed.
"Your son. He's ill." Zeki stated and she turned to the man, shuddering under the sheer impassivity of his look.
"H-He is. Knewmonia, Doctor Stone says." She replied earning a hum from the man.
"Medicine is very expensive after the dragon attack." Zeki replied, and Laia shuddered as she remembered holding her man and her boy whilst something roared in the orangy darkness. "Yet your boy seems rather well. How have you been able to afford treatment?"
Laia said nothing.
"You used you week of overtime afterall not too long ago. Your supervisor claimed you were desperate for more, and cited the poor health of your child as the reason why."
Silence was her guardian. That was what her handler had told her.
"So I wonder. Where have you gotten the money to be able to afford your son's medicine?"
"Don't say anything. Not to Zeki. He'll pick you apart if you do and I won't be able to help you if you get imprisoned."
"Prostitution? I wonder what your husband would think about that."
"No! I'm not...I would never betray my vows." Laia exclaimed angrily. How dare that smarmy, bald twat question her loyalty when his entire job revolved around shadows and betrayal!
"Doctor Stone suggests otherwise." Zeki replied neutrally, and Laia felt her body run cold. "He claimed you offered a number of...alternative forms of payment once it was clear you could not afford your sons medicine."
"He refused them."
"He did. He even offered you a discounted price should you return with just a little more copper, but even then you said you couldn't afford it."
"..."
"How could you afford Doctor Stone's medicine Mrs Well?"
"..."
"Well?"
"One of the lasses at work told us about some man offering to give us a few coppers if we told him stuff we heard." She murmered quietly, hoping the man might spare her if she told him what she knew.
"And?"
"I didn't go to him at first. I-I like Queen Weiss. She seems like an alright sort. B-But after Timmy got knewmonia and my bastard supervisor wouldn't let me work anymore overtime I didn't have a choice!" Laia cried, tears building in her eyes.
"What is the man's name?" Zeki asked.
"He told me to call him X. I-I don't think that's his real name."
"An astute observation Mrs Well." Zeki replied, and Laia felt her cheeks heat up with embarrassment.
"I know what he looks like at least."
"And what does he look like Mrs Well? Spare no detail."
"He has brown eyes and blonde hair. He's got a little bit of stubble and looks like he doens't sleep often. He had a black cloak and brown clothing." Laia said, trying her best to remember how the man had looked the last time she'd met him.
"Anything else?"
"H-He doesn't sound Mistrali. He sounds like he's from Vale maybe. I remember one of the old cooks had a similar accent, and he was from Emerald Vale."
"Hmm." Zeki replied, stroking his chin inquisitively. "That is very useful indeed Mrs Well. I might be able to lessen your punishment for treason against the Crown."
"R-Really?!" Laia asked, chest swelling with hope.
"Yes." Zeki replied, looking her dead in the eye with the most passive gaze she'd ever seen from anyone in her life. "Your execution will no longer be public, so your son will not have to witness his mother hang."
The tears spilled out. A wrangled sob forced it's way out of her, and she fell to her knees desperately.
"P-Please don't-!" She begged, and the man stood, towering over her with a neutral look.
"Treason is a grave crime Mrs Well. It must be punished accordingly." He said, and she jolted at the sheer neutrality in his tone. He was talking about her death like it was nothing!
"Please! I'll do anything!" She weeped, and for the first time, the man did something other than move once.
He cocked his head slightly to the right.
"Anything?" He asked, and icy dread pooled in her gut. She'd heard of this happening to some other lasses ages ago, but she'd never thought it would happen to her.
"Anything." She reaffirmed with a shameful nod of her head, eyes squeezed shut as her mind was flooded with terrible thoughts about what he'd make her do.
The man kneeled in front of her, towering over her even at the lessened height.
"If you hear anything. Anything at all. You report it to me." Zeki said softly. "Whatever X tells you, you tell me. Whatever the other women at work tells you, you tell me. Whatever your supervisor says, you tell me. You will tell me anything and everything you hear from this day forwards. Am I understood?"
"Y-Yes." She stammered. "T-Thank you!"
"Don't thank me yet." Zeki replied mirthlessly. "I can still turn you in. But you can persuade me otherwise if you give me the name of whoever told you about this X in the first place."
Laia's eyes widened. Tammy was a good lass. Hard working even if she was a bit of a gossip and air head. One of Laia's fondest memories in life was celebrating New Year's with her one her anniversary, Tammy had even helped her cook the food for once. She couldn't sell her out!
"...Could she?" Whispered a selfish, traitorous part of her, that wanted to see Timmy grow up, to hold her grandchildren in her arms.
"What will happen to her?" Laia asked and Zeki cocked an amused brow.
"I will offer her a deal similar to what I made with you." He replied. "It is up to her whether she accepts or not."
Laia swallowed. Tammy may be an air head, but she'd now that Zeki's offer wasn't one she couldn't refuse, even if the dense idiot was besotted with X's looks for whatever reason.
Forcing down her guilt, Laia told Zeki the name.
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Two weeks later, one of Snowflake Keep's maids was hung for treason against the Crown. Swaying next to her was her blonde lover, a man who came from Vale. No-one really knew what they had precisely done, but all were glad two traitors had been dealt with.
All except one crying, guilt-ridden sister.