Chapter Text
It was a bright cold day in December. Wrapping his coat around him tighter, Horatio slipped in through the castle gate. He didn’t worry about being unnoticed. That didn’t matter, as long as no one knew that he was a threat. That's the thing about spies. They are parasites. Wriggling their way into the heart of a nation, festering, allowing the quick to know decay. And so he was let in. Planted by Fortinbras, into the unsuspecting nest of political intrigue and paranoia he would soon have to feed off of. And what a feast it would be! The death of kings always opens a little crack in the walls of a kingdom. Just the smallest hairline fracture is needed for the water to seep in. For the worms and the flies to lay their eggs. The doubt. The doubt was the most important of all. With doubt you can turn a nation against itself. Perfect, delicious doubt. Then when the water has permeated the foundations of the wall, One only needs to wait for winter. For the blood to freeze in the veins, for the water to expand, to push against the stone. Stone may be strong but even it gets worn down by water. Horatio shivered a bit as cold air got into his coat.
Stepping into the main entryway of Elsinore, he was greeted with warmth and noise. He could sense all of the lives that had been lived there, all the deaths and births, all the failures and triumphs. Though he was here to watch, he couldn’t help but shake the fact that someone else was watching him. That was the way of the world. No one is unwatched. No one is free of judgement. There may have been no gods in the heavens above, but there were thousands in the world around him. Watching him, watching each other. It is only natural that the watchers are also the watched. One had to learn to live under constant scrutiny.
The first two months passed quickly and uneventfully. This phase of the operation required a lot of waiting, a lot of staying invisible. Elsinore was big. Many people got lost in the cracks. Especially if they wanted to. Softly, Horatio climbed the stairs to where the sentries were waiting.
"Do you have everything ready?" He asked, his breath materializing in a little cloud in front of him.
Bernardo nodded.
“Wonderful. I will get Hamlet. We have spent a long time preparing for this. Don't let it go to waste." They nodded as he made his way back down to the hard, ice-slick ground.
It was the perfect game. A grieving prince in a globe of spies and it was all starting to fall into place. People are easy to manipulate when they have lost something important, and a death serves to make visible the quiet problems. The secrets people thought would stay hidden forever. The tiny, barely noticeable clashes and grudges between people. It wouldn't be long before Hamlet would start to bump into the people around him. Not long before discontent grew in the newly opened sores. Horatio knew this well. His job was to watch, after all. He knew all of Elsinores' problems and neuroses intimately.
He was careful to walk softly as he rounded the corner, hearing the prince lamenting his family's lack of understanding, his desires and fears. Horatio smiled. He could work with that. He entered the room, warmly greeting his old friend before gently asking "Hamlet, have you seen your father?"