Today, I finally confronted Kara in her cell, before I then ordered her to be taken to my interrogators. She said nothing about the kelpie motives or aims, but she was quite vocal about her own.
There is a sobering lesson to be learned from her betrayal. I cannot trust anybody. I don’t mean I can’t delegate tasks to anybody, but that I need to always have checks and balances in this long war against Yoth-Atal, especially if there are going to have to involve my ponies.
It turns out her parents had tried to hide her kelpie brother when they found out about his strangeness, having heard rumors of kelpies being culled. I don’t know why or how, but Kara had loved her brother and did her best to raise him, but he was found out and taken away. She hadn’t known what had happened to him, embarking on her own investigation, leading her to eventually find out about the cullings.
I have some inkling as to why would she be saddened by his death, but I don’t understand how that turned into rage. Her brother had to die or he would devour her, devour her parents, devour her own kind! But for some damn reason, she vowed revenge and with her parents help, she contacted the kelpie resistance.
She had proven herself to the kelpies by enlisting into my service and sending them information on my troop dispositions. When I decided to designate her as my double, she had then met Tethys personally, where she and her hand formulated a plan to make her an indispensable source of information in my court.
It damn would have nearly worked, had I not figured it out and tested the loyalty of my subjects. While an isolated incident, I believe I need to create some kind of organization to help me monitor my subjects and insulate me against betrayal. It would have to be able to govern itself, and yet, be clandestine enough to ensure that my subjects are not alarmed. I will have to discuss this with my councillors.
… I have not seen Kara since I questioned her. My interrogators keep me up to date on the information they are extracting from her, though, I have made sure they keep the details of what they do to her away from me. I don’t want… I… I don’t want to think about her. It hurts to think about what she did. What I’ve ordered done to her.