Chapter 81: THE FOURTH KIND OF FAILURE

DIANA’S POV

West Rime was the first destination Diana checked against Vharos’s medical history.

Raigoro sat in the second chair beside Vharos’s observation area with the limited sabotage summary open across one knee.

Diana wrote: MISSING WARDSTONE AND VHAROS DECLINE.

She read it once, erased it, and replaced it with: DATES.

Master Clair noticed.

He said nothing.

Diana returned to the medical summaries.

Vharos had been quieter for several days after the painful night in the cavern.

He was still chronically ill.

Still eating inconsistently.

Still sleeping more than a healthy dragon would.

But Healer Lou had recorded no acute decline that morning.

His recent improvement remained small but measurable.

Two days earlier, Vharos had crossed from the lower cavern to the upper resting shelf under his own power without needing to stop halfway. Yesterday, he had completed a controlled wing extension without the tremor that had ended the previous attempt.

Diana had written BETTER in the margin.

Master Clair had written beneath it:

IMPROVED TOLERANCE. NOT RECOVERY.

Diana still considered that unnecessarily hostile.

It also happened to be correct.

That allowed Master Clair to tolerate paperwork near Vharos that afternoon.

Diana had brought three dates from the sabotage audit.

Each false shipment should have delivered ward-repair material to an outer defensive position.

She did not have classified ward reports.

Only shipment destination, scheduled repair period, and the limited public operational dates associated with Vharos’s older medical summaries.

One date bothered her.

She pointed to it.

Vharos’s condition had worsened sharply during the same period one missing shipment should have reinforced the West Rime ward segment.

Feeding decline.

Sleep disruption.

Bond strain.

Pain.

Two flight cancellations.

The medical report lasted nearly nine days.

Diana slid the false shipment date beside it.

Raigoro read both.

"Same period."

She nodded.

Master Clair said, "We have seen overlap before."

Diana nodded again.

It resembled the imperfect pattern they had already found in Vharos’s older records.

Overlap often enough to matter.

Exceptions often enough to prevent certainty.

Diana wrote: IF THE WARD WAS WEAKER BECAUSE THE MATERIAL NEVER ARRIVED, DID VHAROS REACT?

Raigoro did not answer immediately.

Master Clair looked toward him.

"That question requires ward data."

"Yes."

Diana waited.

Raigoro’s gaze remained on the two dates.

Diana knew the restricted line.

Operational ward strength belonged to military command.

Vharos knowing her did not grant Diana military clearance, and neither did accidentally kissing Blackharrow’s commander. Their unfortunate habit of noticing each other’s mouths afterward probably did not qualify either.

Diana returned to the ward dates.

Raigoro stood.

"Wait here."

Diana looked up.

He left the cavern.

Master Clair collected one of the medical pages.

"No conclusions while he is gone."

Diana wrote: I KNOW.

"You dislike being reminded."

YES.

"Then remember before I remind you."

Deeply unreasonable.

Vharos opened one eye.

Diana looked toward him.

He closed it again.

No support there either.

Raigoro returned twenty minutes later with a narrow folder.

Daric came behind him.

The folder was sealed.

Raigoro sat.

"This is not general ward access."

Diana nodded.

"It contains only the recorded stress range for the West Rime section during the period you identified, with current locations and defensive values removed."

Diana looked from the folder to Raigoro.

"This material would normally remain inside Command."

Diana waited.

"You have established a legitimate analytical reason to see this portion."

Diana looked at the narrow folder again. Raigoro had given her access because her work had made the information relevant.

She wrote: BECAUSE OF VHAROS?

"And because the missing shipment now belongs to an active military investigation."

Diana looked at Daric.

He said, "Do not look pleased. It creates more work."

She was not pleased.

She was curious.

Different.

Probably.

Raigoro opened the file.

A simple timeline had been prepared rather than a full ward map.

West Rime repair due.

Shipment scheduled.

Shipment recorded as delivered.

Repair report delayed because local crews were assigned to another problem.

Ward pressure rose.

Temporary stabilization ordered.

Replacement material requested.

Central Logistics rejected one request because its records showed the original shipment had arrived.

Diana stopped.

That part resembled the outer station receipt from Perrin Corven.

The false record did more than hide theft.

It also made Blackharrow believe the outpost already possessed what it needed.

She read the next line.

Ward stress increased for six days before returning toward ordinary winter range after an emergency transfer finally reached the area.

Diana placed Vharos’s medical record beside it.

His decline began one day after the first recorded pressure increase.

His breathing and feeding improved gradually after the emergency stabilization.

The overlap was ugly.

Diana wrote: IT FITS.

Master Clair answered first.

"It fits."

She looked at him.

"That does not make it cause."

Diana nodded.

Raigoro studied the two timelines.

"Vharos also had declines without recorded ward stress."

Diana pointed to the unmatched pages she had preserved earlier.

YES.

Daric read the timeline.

"And ward stress occurred during periods when Vharos remained relatively stable."

Master Clair nodded.

"Also yes."

Diana disliked all of them.

Mostly because they were correct.

She wrote: THEN WHAT IS USEFUL?

Raigoro answered.

"That the pattern is strong enough to keep testing."

Diana looked at him.

He tapped the West Rime file.

"And that the false shipment may have had a real defensive consequence even before anyone knew it was missing."

That was the larger problem.

Someone had stolen ward material from a position that later weakened, while central records insisted the repair had already happened. That false record delayed a replacement request, the ward experienced increased stress, and Vharos worsened during the same period.

No single line proved the missing stone caused his decline.

The absence still mattered.

Diana looked toward the black dragon.

Vharos had spent years paying for pressures nobody fully understood.

If stolen repair material added even a little to those pressures, the sabotage had already reached him long before Diana found Perrin Corven’s file.

Diana pressed the chalk harder against her slate.

"What?" Raigoro asked.

Diana wrote: HOW MANY WARDS RECEIVED FALSE SHIPMENTS?

Daric answered.

"We have three confirmed."

HOW MANY ARE STILL MISSING MATERIAL?

"Two confirmed. The third later received replacement stock through another route."

Diana pointed toward the dates.

WHICH TWO?

Daric hesitated.

Raigoro answered for him.

"You are not cleared for current ward locations."

Diana stared.

He continued.

"You are cleared to know both are under review."

She kept staring.

Raigoro did not change the answer.

Good.

Annoying.

Both could be true.

Diana wrote: ARE THEY SAFE?

"Currently."

Currently was one of Raigoro’s least comforting words.

He seemed aware.

"It means engineers have been told to verify actual material on site rather than rely on central records."

Better.

A Dragonkeeper entered the cavern carrying Vharos’s afternoon feeding tray.

The conversation stopped while the keepers worked.

Vharos lifted his head.

He took one piece.

Then another.

Diana watched.

The dragonstone remained quiet.

Vharos finished more of the tray than he had the previous week.

Master Clair recorded the amount.

Healer Lou recorded that he had tolerated a controlled wing extension that morning without the breathing distress that had ended the previous attempt.

Neither called it recovery.

Diana had learned enough by now not to call it that either.

After several minutes, Vharos ate enough that Healer Lou, arriving from the lower treatment passage, called the amount acceptable.

No mystery.

Good.

Diana had begun appreciating uneventful meals.

Boots sounded beyond the secured cavern entrance.

A relay clerk appeared carrying northern wax.

Daric rose before the man crossed the threshold.

"When was it sent?"

"Shortly after dawn."

Diana looked toward the high cavern opening.

Afternoon light.

The report was already hours old.

Exactly as battlefield and ward reports usually were by the time the Citadel could read them.

Daric broke the seal and had barely begun reading when Raigoro stood.

"Which one?"

Daric looked at him.

"West Rime."

The folder on the table still carried the old stress record.

Raigoro held out his hand.

Daric gave him the message.

"West Rime reported visible fractures along two outer anchors when this left."

Raigoro looked at the dispatch time.

"Pressure?"

"Rising when written."

"Creature movement?"

"Increasing beyond the outer markers."

There was no way to ask the paper what had happened during the hours since.

Diana looked at Vharos’s old medical timeline beside the West Rime report.

The same ward was cracking again.