Silk & Sabotage

Part 4.2 : The Dahlia Directive

Part II: "The Woman Who Knew"

There is a moment in every war when the hunted realizes they were never the victim — just a shadow in someone else's trap.

Mia Veyra had reached that moment.

She didn't need hard proof. Her mind had always worked in patterns, and Kael — Mino — had become a pattern too perfect to ignore.

No man was that calm under pressure.

No foreign liaison casually memorized tactical positioning while flirting.

No one got past her without leaving a scar.

And yet, Kael had.

Because she let him.

Because there was something about the way he looked at her that didn't feel like a lie.

Which made it all the more dangerous.

So Mia stopped playing defense.

And started setting the board.

---

The traps were subtle at first.

A misdirected dispatch, "accidentally" slid into a file he had access to.

A conversation with her advisor near an open balcony, just quiet enough to sound secret.

An unguarded map left alone in the war room for two minutes — precisely two — before it was secured again.

He took the bait every time. But never obviously. Never arrogantly.

He was good.

Too good.

But so was she.

She began tracing his patterns backwards — reconstructing the scenes she had once walked through blindly.

The wine he requested from the Rician coast — a label discontinued years ago.

The way he always carried a notebook — never once opening it in her presence.

His questions, always framed as curiosity… but always leading toward her father's movements or military scheduling.

He never asked directly.

But he never had to.

Because she gave it to him. Deliberately.

She gave him the illusion of success, just enough to keep him close.

Because what better way to kill a spy… than to let him fall in love with you first?

---

But Mia didn't expect to fall too.

Not fully. Not like this.

It started with heat. With stolen kisses, late-night touches, the slide of his lips against the nape of her neck. But somewhere in between the seduction and the silence — she began to look forward to him.

The sound of his voice.

The way he stood just close enough to touch but never did — unless invited.

The way he let her win arguments… and sometimes, didn't.

He was her enemy.

But he made her feel seen.

And that was worse than any lie he could've told.

---

Mino, meanwhile, was unraveling.

Each kiss felt more like treason.

Every night he stayed was another nail in his own coffin.

Because the longer he remained, the more impossible the mission became.

He began slipping. Missing check-ins. Delaying reports.

He even destroyed the copied seal he'd risked weeks to obtain.

Because the truth was…

He didn't want Dahlia to bloom anymore.

He wanted Mia.

But he didn't know how to want her without destroying everything he was.

---

Three nights before his planned extraction, she came to him.

No armor. No robe. Just a long black slip dress and bare feet. Her hair was down.

Her eyes unreadable.

He didn't ask why she came.

She didn't offer an explanation.

Instead, she sat beside him on the floor of his quarters, both of them backs pressed to the bed. Neither spoke for a long time.

And then she whispered:

"Do you ever want to stop pretending?"

He turned his head. "All the time."

"But we can't, can we?"

He hesitated. "No."

And then, softly: "But I think we already have."

She leaned her head to his shoulder.

And for the first time in his life, Mino Kael stopped thinking about escape routes.

He thought only of her.

---

But dawn was always cruel.

Because no matter what his body wanted…

…his mission was still incomplete.

And Dahlia was not a game.

It was a directive. One he couldn't walk away from without consequence.

If he didn't complete the mission, Irina would know.

And she wouldn't come for him.

She'd come for Mia.

He couldn't risk it.

So he made the only choice he could.

He packed his bag.

Destroyed every trace of his presence.

Left behind nothing but silence.

And the next night, he disappeared.

---

Mia woke alone.

But she didn't panic.

She walked to his room, found it empty.

And on the pillow, she found the flower.

A Dahlia

She clutched the bloom in her hand until the petals crushed.

Not out of rage. But understanding.

Because Mia Veyra had known from the very beginning.

And still… she let him in.

---

Dahlia didn't bloom because Mino succeeded.

It bloomed because Mia let it.

And that was the most devastating part of all.