Among Us

It was only a flicker of movement but Liam was certain of what he perceived with his heightened senses.

He was never wrong but it would not be easy trying to nail down who the mysterious individual hiding in the shadows was.

The unavoidable fact that it could be anyone bothered Liam incredibly.

But if he had to narrow down his search, his suspicion lie amongst the Paragon Knights.

The mysterious person who sneaked on him could either be a Paragon Knight alone or any of their Captains.

No matter what, Liam can't afford for him to be exposed as he was drawing closer to unveiling the mystery surrounding Princess Celestia's death.

Finding himself alone in the hallway with the individual vanishing before Liam could catch the one responsible for spying on him, he can't help but hiss.

A creaking made Liam look towards the chamber council and saw the humanoid palace maid coming out with the kitchen trolley.

With the thought of nailing down who was the spy, Liam approached the palace maid, halting her in her pace and pulling her aside.

Liam expected the palace maid to retaliate, however, she merely held Liam's gaze, her face was blank and her eyes lacked any emotions.

"Tell me, can anyone come by this place at their disposal?"

The palace maid shook her head.

"Only those whom the Light King brings over could come here, sir. The Paragon Knight Commander assigned to serve the Light King and his accompanying knights is the only ones who could enter the Palace."

With this new information, Liam was able to narrow down his search.

Briefly thanking the palace maid, Liam hastily walked away, his footsteps echoing behind him.

Determined to find the individual before his true motives are uncovered, Liam sought to see his squad.

He knew that none of them would willingly admit to anything.

But his experience had taught him enough that Liam only needed to see the suspects in order to find the guilty party.

'Piece of cake'.

* * * * *

Or so Liam thought.

From afar, the sinking sun painted the vast sky with a tinge of orange.

The Paragon Knights in Liam's squad gathered at the inner courtyard of the palace.

A small pond of extravagant workmanship sat in the middle, water sprouting from the center of it from time to time.

Tiny fishes resembling dolphins from Earth leap out of the shallow waters followed after that.

The same otherworldly plant which Liam had seen outside the chamber council surrounded the courtyard.

The still silence made Liam squint his eyes at his squad.

As he had expected, not a single soul was willing to cooperate when he inquired where each of them had been for the rest of the day and what they had been up to.

In his opinion, he did not ask a very hard question either.

So, how was it that none of the Paragon Knights was stepping forward to give him a direct answer?

"Should I assume the worse with what you had been doing aside from training for the day? Is that what your silence means?"

"Why do you expect us to answer such a silly question anyway? Should we be suspicious of you too?"

The sharp response from one of his knights brought Liam to remember NightKorra.

'This must be a friend of his. They have undoubtedly the same streak of rebelliousness in them.'

Despite not wanting to create dispute amongst his squad, Liam knew that for him to catch the spy, he must make use of the authority he was bestowed.

"Perhaps each of you has forgotten the thing called respect. I am your Captain and I will not tolerate such behavior in my squad. It appears that you have a fine running mouth, why don't you answer the question instead of spouting unnecessary remarks?"

Defiantly, the Paragon Knight refused to follow Liam and had chosen to respond to Liam's command with a glare.

Liam let out a sarcastic laugh.

"How many of you feels the same about me? You may step forward and be honest with it. But, you need to give me an acceptable reason why you have chosen to be part of my squad."

The palpable tension was evident in the atmosphere surrounding them.

Amongst the gathered knights, Aaron Williams was sweating even though the approaching twilight provided a cold breeze that seeped through his exposed skin.

He gulped and made sure to keep his head down.

He cannot look at Liam in the eye out of fear for what he must think of him.

The deafening silence made Liam scoff.

"Am I not allowed to know what my knights have been doing while I was away? Is that too much of me to ask?"

Plonk!

The dolphin-like fishes on the pond offered a brief distraction for Liam before he turned back to assessing his squad who still refused to give him any response.

'Huh. I am done playing nice.'

"Alright. I get it. None of you trust me. I will drop trying to know what you have been doing if," Liam paused, his eyes narrowing as he eyed each of his squad.

"If you could defeat me in a fight, right here, right now."

'Brawler Mode activate!'

Seeing the holy fire emitting from their Commander made most of Liam's squad tremble.

Before things could get out of hand, a squeaky Paragon Knight whose antlers were protruding from the helmet threw himself at Liam's feet, the metal armor scraping the ground as he fell on his knees.

He clasped his hands together and lowered his head, pleading his case.

"Forgive me, Captain! I… I… I sneaked in the pantry and stole some bread. I… I didn't mean it but the smell was too alluring for me to refuse. Please don't report me to the Light King."

With the sudden confession, Liam was uncertain how to proceed.

However, he must address it at once and take it seriously.

The tension among his gathered knights was still heavily hanging in the air.

He knew that almost seventy percent of them did not trust him.

But he did not need them to.

After all, his stay at the Light Kingdom was only temporary.