Lord Bovera looked out the window from Lord Galra’s room, seeing the beautiful landscape surrounding Lord Galra’s castle. It was well known that Castle Flower Rock and its surrounding lands were considered the most stunning scenery in all Vanura. In spring and summer, the ocean of flowers planted around the castle would change the land into something out of a dream, enveloping the area in a sweet aroma.

  Despite this, Lord Bovera knew he did not like Flower Rock much; the geographic disadvantage was too glaring. Standing atop a hill, this beautiful castle stood out like a sore thumb, easily cut off from its much-needed supplies. In a long siege, Lord Galra’s castle could never survive without outside influence.

  Taking a deep breath, Lord Bovera turned to the people in the room. Lying unconscious on his bed was Lord Galra, the ugly wounds on his chest still oozing. Next to him stood his wife, Lady Silan, a concerned expression on her usually expressionless face. In the corner sat Lord Para, his arms crossed, folded in front of his chest.

  Glancing at Lady Silan, Lord Bovera kept his guard up. In his opinion, out of everyone in Galra, she was the most dangerous, her meticulous ruthlessness the only reason House Galra was still a Great House. Though no one, not even Lord Bovera himself, had ever uncovered proof against her, he was certain she had orchestrated the mysterious deaths of Lord Galra’s elder brother and nephew. With them gone, Lord Galra had conveniently inherited the Great House.

  Lost in thought, Lord Bovera barely noticed Lord Para grunt before the man shifted in his seat. “So, what is our plan?” he said.

  “My husband nearly died,” Lady Silan cut in, her eyes narrowing as she fixed Lord Para with a steady stare. Her voice was soft, almost calm, but that only made her words sound louder to Lord Bovera.

  “Lord Nazau is a problem that affects all of us,” she continued. “He will find other ways to strike at us. Lord Hector may have stopped him this time, but it won’t last. He will never forgive us. If we wait, it will give him time to gather his forces and set a trap. We must act first.”

  “The fault lies with your son!” Lord Para barked, his face turning red with anger. “If he didn't kill Lord Nazau’s son, we wouldn't be in this situation!”

  “Lord Para, do not forget that you are in my lands,” Lady Silan whispered, her measured voice cutting through the raw emotions that were threatening to erupt. “The fault may have started with my son, but that no longer matters. Lord Nazau blames all our families. For now, his anger ties us together.”

  “Now, now!” Lord Bovera said, raising both his hands. If he didn’t step in now, he was worried Lady Silan would influence Lord Para too much. “I have a solution.”

  “A solution?” Lady Silan echoed.

  “Yes. Currently, the Great Shrine owes me a favor. So, I‘ll ask them for help. They may not be able to do much, but it’s better than leaving this to our families alone.”

  “What kind of favor?” Lord Para asked, unclasping his hands and running his hand down his beard.

  “They promised me a small favor for helping them in the past,” Lord Bovera said, carefully keeping the regret from his voice. Of the three wishes granted to him, one had already been wasted on Calahan’s failed rebellion. “Still, it may be wiser if we offer a monetary gift as well. The favor they promised me is too minor for them to provide much help,” he lied.

  In truth, he saw this as the perfect opportunity to force Lord Galra and Lord Para into paying a large sum to the Shrine. By doing so, he would not only gain greater favor from the Shrine itself but also elevate House Bovera to the richest House within this alliance. By becoming the richest and, in turn, the strongest House in the alliance, he reasoned, he would become its de facto leader.

  “I will take care of the monetary gift,” Lady Silan said. “Neither of you has to worry about it. It is only right, since my son is responsible.”

  Nodding at Lady Silan, Lord Para laughed. “That's the first intelligent thing you said.”

  Feeling an uneasy sweat run down his spine, Lord Bovera frowned internally.

  Why would Lady Silan accept this so quickly? he silently wondered. If he was right about her, she would never throw money at the Great Shrine without ensuring that Lord Para and he would also share the burden. Using Lord Nazau’s looming threat as leverage, she would force both of them to contribute. Feeling uneasy, Lord Bovera tried to figure out her intentions. What could House Galra gain from this?

  “Lord Bovera, are we in agreement? Or do you have something to add?” Lady Silan asked, her calm voice sending chills down his spine. The look in her eyes didn’t change, but the corners of her lips were curled up in a small smile.

  Was she testing him?

  Forcing a smile, Lord Bovera nodded.

  “That is a wonderful idea. If you send them the gift, I will ask them for aid. Once we hear back from the Great Shrine, we can plan a more solid solution to Lord Nazau. Until then, I suggest we remain quiet. Are we in agreement?”

  “Aye”

  “It is agreeable.”

  “If that's the case, I will be taking my leave. Lady Silan, please inform me when your husband wakes. Lord Para, thank you for joining us.” Lord Bovera rose, straightening his clothes.

  Leaving the castle, he rolled his shoulders back, trying to ease some of the tension in them. I need to keep better watch over her, he thought, looking for his brother. Seeing Tulka with his men, he swiftly walked over.

  “Tulka, I need to send a message to the Great Shrine. This is too important to be sent by bird. I am sorry, but I must ask you to deliver it by hand.”

  “Brother, it is no trouble. I’ll take some of our men and leave at first light,” Tulka replied, signaling to a few of his soldiers.

  “I will write the message now,” Lord Bovera said, the cool autumn breeze brushing across his face. Taking out a small piece of paper, he began to write.

  Lord Kon of Silkbug stood atop a hill, a wicked smile twisting his face into a demonic one. If someone saw him, they would have thought him to be a villain, but to his men, he was a deity, a god of war.

  Below him, the battle raged on. The terrifying Highmount King, Borvak’s army howled in fear as Kon’s elite cavalry slaughtered them. Borvak was not a true King, just a bandit who had managed to unify all the bandits in the area, forging them into an army. Once Borvak had gathered enough men, he declared himself king of the Highmount mountain range, a mountain range belonging to Silkbug.

  Taking a deep breath of the metallic stench that saturated the air, Lord Kon slowly exhaled, savoring the taste of victory. It had taken three days and a carefully controlled leak of information to lure the salvage bandits into attacking Castle Kate, but the effort had been worth it. The foolish bandit had fallen into Kon’s trap like a headless chicken.

  “As expected, my Lord, you truly deserve the title of the best military mind of Silkbug. Your brilliance once again undoes the feared Bandit King,” Knight Commander Inoma raved, a zealous gleam in his eyes. His loyalty to Lord Kon was absolute.

  Laughing at the mock title he had given Borvak, Lord Kon watched as his men cornered a splintered group of Borvak’s soldiers. Encircled, the bandits were cut down systematically, their distressed screams silenced one after another.

  Raising his arm, Lord Kon signaled to his bannerman, who spun a flag in a circle to convey his orders. At once, commands rippled across the battlefield exactly as Kon envisioned.

  From the besieged castle came the haunting calls of horns. Slowly, the gate lifted open like the mouth of a beast. With a deafening shout, the hidden forces within burst forth, like a living metallic wave. The disciplined soldiers surged forward to crash into the disorganized bandits. The impact was so powerful that even from the hill, Kon felt the ground tremble. The front line trampled their foes, stamping their dying bodies into the blood-soaked ground.

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  As Lord Kon watched his men slowly drive the bandits back into their own allies, a scout ran up to him.

  “Message from the left flank, urgent!” The scout dropped to one knee.

  “What is it?”

  “My Lord, one of Borvak’s generals has cut a path out of the trap! If he can regroup with Borvak, they’ll have enough men to retreat.”

  Nodding, Lord Kon stroked his chin. His expression didn’t change. This, too, was within his calculation. Disregarding Borvak’s laughable tactics, his generals were undeniably strong.

  Upon hearing the message, Knight Commander Inoma dropped to one knee. “My lord, give the order for us to charge! The knights of Stone can run those dogs down easily. Before the day ends, I will bring you the head of Borvak!”

  Lord Kon felt the itch of battle stir in his blood. His fingers tapped against the hilt of his sword at his hip. The Knights of Stone were an elite group of mounted soldiers, and deploying them at the right moment was critical.

  “I permit you to bring the Knights of Stone to support the left flank,” he finally said. “But don’t chase them into the forest. I don’t want the dense trees to break our horses' legs. I already have another plan for the bandit.”

  He felt a smile come across his face. The joy of crushing Borvak was so close he could taste it.

  “Tomorrow, I’ll ship them all to the Last Sea,” he sneered.

  “Yes, my Lord!”

  Making sure his commanders understood their roles in this battle, Lord Kon called for his armor.

  “Bring me my armor and summon my Guards! I will join the center. You two, follow me!”

  Leading his elite Guards, Lord Kon descended the hill. Within minutes, he reached the rear of his army, his body trembling with anticipation.

  “Make Way! Make Way!”

  Using Aether to augment his voice, Lord Kon bellowed. The sound electrified his soldiers, who roared with joy. With the precise discipline that only came from years of experience and absolute trust in their commander, Lord Kon’s army parted in the center, allowing him and his men to push toward the heart of the battle.

  Through the chaos, he advanced, past screaming and dying men. The nauseating smell of blood, bile, and fear filled his lungs, boiling his blood with the thrill of battle. This was where he truly felt alive. This was where he belonged. This was what he was meant to be!

  Reaching the front lines, he pulled upon the Aether surrounding him. Power surged into his body, making him feel invincible.

  “FOLLOW ME!”

  Yelling, he marched towards the retreating bandits, his sword humming with power, a giant golden-ringed dragonfly materializing behind him.

  Lord Kon’s army moved as one—an unstoppable juggernaut of steel and death. Each thunderous step shook the ground, pounding the soft earth into a hard, stone-like surface.

  Beheading a screaming bandit, Lord Kon kicked the falling head. The head flew out and tripped a desperate man, causing him to go crashing into the ground. Kon didn’t even bother finishing the fallen bandit; the soldiers behind him stomped the screaming man into the ground. By dusk, Lord Kon’s army had shattered most of the bandits’ vanguard. The surviving bandits fled into the dark forest.

  As the warmth from the dead bodies cooled with the setting sun, Lord Kon removed his helmet, wiping his face with a handkerchief he drew from beneath his armor. Stuffing the handkerchief back into his armor, he took a breath of the foul air and looked up at the sky. Night’s approaching, he thought. Today’s battle is over.

  “Report!” he yelled, waiting for his scouts.

  “My Lord, the Bandit King escaped with most of his men. We suffered almost no casualties, but he noticed the trap sooner than we expected. We cut down the stragglers to the treeline,” a scout reported, dropping to one knee.

  “One thing Borvak knows how to do is run!” Kon laughed. “Tomorrow we will kill every last one of them!”

  A deafening cheer rose from his ranks, the soldiers around him thrusting their weapons into the air. Some of the more zealous ones even dropped to their knees, viewing Lord Kon as a god of war.

  That night, Lord Kon stood over a table with a map of the surrounding area spread across it, while his commanders watched his every move.

  “Inoma, take the Knights of Stone and a group of archers to this ridge,” he ordered, placing his finger on the map. “When I drive Borvak into this choke point, hammer him with arrows, then break their ranks with the Knights’ charge.”

  “Yes, my Lord!” Inoma replied.

  Kon reached for a cup of wine and drank, savoring the taste while thanking any god who might be listening. In normal times, he couldn’t have cornered the self-appointed Highmount King so thoroughly, but with this year’s poor harvest and winter just around the corner, Borvak and his army were on edge, desperately looking for food. The once-mighty force was turning on itself—an opportunity Lord Kon wouldn’t pass up.

  As they finalized their plans to finish the bandits, a messenger came riding into the camp. “My Lord! Urgent message from the Royal Family!”

  “A message?” Kon snapped, irritated at the interruption. “What does the King want?

  He had little respect for King Walter, viewing him as an old man who had long since lost the qualities that had made him great—a pathetic reflection of his former self. Grabbing the sealed letter, he broke the royal seal without ceremony and read.

  “By the will of the Great Shrine, and the spirit of mercy, I command you to allow Borvak and his remaining followers to depart our lands unmolested…”

  Confusion flashed across his face as he continued to read. By the time he had reached the end, the confusion had turned to rage. Shouting, he kicked over the table, sending wine and wooden pieces representing troops crashing onto the floor. His commanders sprang up in alarm.

  “My lord?”

  Cursing, Kon tossed the letter to Inoma.

  “How dare the Great Shrine ask this of us!” he roared. His body was trembling with rage. A vein on his head started pulsing with his heartbeat.

  “My lord, what is it?” one commander asked.

  Stammering, Inoma told everyone the contents of the letter. “The Great Shrine has petitioned King Walter to allow Borvak and his remaining men to leave our lands. They claim that even the guiltiest deserve a chance at redemption. By letting them leave, the cycle of death and anger between Borvak and Silkbug will be broken. Once the bandits establish a permanent stronghold beyond the lands of Vanura in the Great Wilderness, we are to allow any family members still in Silkbug to join them.”

  “What? Do they truly expect us to let that butcher go?”

  “What is King Walter thinking?”

  The commanders were in an uproar, each of them jumping up and yelling at the same time. For years, they had watched Borvak’s bandits ravage villages and towns. This was the moment they had long been waiting for.

  “Death is the only punishment they deserve!”

  “My lord, what will we do?”

  Kon stood at the center of the room, fury threatening to overwhelm him. He took the letter from Inoma and reread it, each line causing his jaw to tighten.

  “We cannot defy both the king and the Great Shrine,” he said at last. “But we won’t let them go unchallenged. I want scouts to shadow Borvak closely. Any suspicious movements, anything at all. We will take it as a breach of the peace and eliminate them. Even the Great Shine can’t blame us for defending ourselves. Send the scouts in the morning.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  Two weeks later, Lord Kon stood on the cliffs overlooking Borvak’s former stronghold, thick veins bulging in his neck from anger. Blood rushed to his head as he fought to keep the rage and humiliation from taking over.

  “That inbred bandit!” he finally cursed.

  After carefully tracking Borvak’s men, Kon’s scouts had confirmed that the bandit army had indeed moved into the lands of Vanura. Wasting no time, Kon turned to the plan he and his commanders had devised. While King Walter’s order forbade attacking Borvak’s army, it said nothing about attacking his stronghold. Taking two thousand men, Kon led them deep into the mountains. The plan was to raid and burn the fort, slaughter the bandits’ family, and destroy their food supplies while Borvak was looking for a safe route through Vanura. Even if the Great Shrine reprimanded them, Kon planned to argue that they had not attacked the army itself.

  Eagerly, Kon had spent the better part of two days traversing through the dangerous mountains to appear on the cliffs overlooking the stronghold. When they arrived, the fort lay empty. All the valuables and people were gone. Borvak had moved everyone before Kon’s men had reached the fort.

  It was a clever move, one Borvak would never have thought of. Someone was helping him.

  “My Lord, why would Borvak move everyone from his stronghold before securing a safe route through Vanura?” Inoma asked, waving soldiers to sweep the area.

  “They aren’t planning to pass through Vanura,” Kon spat, disbelief in his voice. “They’re planning to live there.”

  “Live there? But my lord… Lord Hector and the Northeastern Great Lords of Vanura would never allow that. Even Borvak isn’t that foolish!” Inoma said, staring at Kon in shock.

  “You’re right, Inoma. Normally, that would be true. However, with Vanura crowning a new queen so soon after a rebellion, the internal struggle between the Great Houses is in disarray. Worse, if what I heard is true, Prince Mayaga publicly humiliated Kandula’s prince at the coronation. Kandula’s prince lost face. If I were him, I’d be looking for any excuse to go to war. He needs to prove his worth. This puts stress on Vanura; they would put more men at the border between Kandula and them. If Borvak’s bandits move in from the north, Lord Nazau may not get the reinforcements he needs to wipe them out. If Borvak can keep Nazau tangled long enough to set up a new stronghold, Vanura will have a tough time digging them out.”

  “Will they be able to establish a stronghold?” Inoma asked.

  “Maybe—if they survive this winter,” Lord Kon said, nodding. “Their success here was because most of the bandits are local; they have a deep understanding of the land. They won’t have that in Vanura. They’ll suffer badly this winter. But if they endure until spring, they can build a formidable fortress. Lord Nazau must beat them before then.”

  “My lord, your intelligence humbles me!” Inoma stammered, a look of reverence on his face. “What should we do? Should we send reinforcements to Vanura? If Prince Mayaga marries Queen Milina, it would benefit both kingdoms if the bandits were dealt with.”

  “No,” Kon replied, cracking his knuckles. “If I were Lord Hector, I’d seek a marriage candidate for the queen within Vanura. With Vanura’s current state, if the new queen marries a prince from a different kingdom, it is as if they are offering the whole Kingdom to them for free. They won’t choose a foreign prince for Queen Milina. However, if they were to be threatened by someone like Borvak, they may have no choice but to turn to us for help. We can use this to pressure them into choosing Prince Mayaga to be Queen Milina’s husband.”

  Inoma laughed, delighted by the scheme. Turning to the soldiers searching the stronghold, he ordered.

  “Burn it to the ground! Once that’s done, send a large force to secure our borders with Vanura. We will not let the bandits back into our lands.”

  “Yes, commander!”

  Lord Kon watched as his men set the wooden stronghold ablaze. The large timber walls soon caught on fire, pillars of fire raging higher than the watchtowers. As billows of dark smoke rose into the air, accompanied by the snap and crackle of the fire, he felt his body shiver. Years of bloody battles and wars had sharpened Kon’s instincts; now they screamed at him. Trusting those instincts, he smiled. Right now, his whole body was telling him that fire and blood were right around the corner.