Chapter 29 – The Fracture Widens
The longhouse was thick with silence, save for the slow scratch of Lilith's dagger tracing lines across the battered map sprawled on the table. The torches flickered, their light dim and uncertain, casting long shadows that bled into every corner of the war room.
Lysanthir stood by the far wall, arms folded, gaze locked on nothing and everything at once. His presence was as still and cold as ever, but those closest to him—Lilith, Valtor, Kaela—could feel it: the tension, drawn taut like a bowstring.
Valtor's claws tapped restlessly against his armor as he paced, eyes flicking to the map again and again. "That wasn't a raid," he growled at last, breaking the hush. "That was strategy. Coordinated."
Lilith didn't look up. "Yes. Too precise. The mist wasn't just a weapon—it was a message."
She tapped the map hard, her fingertip pressing into a charcoal mark near the northern ridge. "Here. This was their main breach point. The runes along the east wall were also targeted—subtle, but deliberate. Whoever controls them... understands how to wear us down."
Kaela, perched on a beam overhead, dropped lightly to the floor, her golden eyes flashing. "It wasn't a random horde. I followed the trail at dawn—what's left of it. The mist didn't vanish—it's regrouping. Coiling... like it's waiting for a command."
Lilith's eyes darkened. "It is waiting. And we know whose voice it listens to."
She slid a piece of bone onto the map—a token from the demon, still smeared with old blood. "The infiltrator is... cooperating. Too well." Her lips twitched, not quite a smile. "It told me this morning: Morveth's plan isn't conquest. It's dissolution. She wants to rot Valaris from within—break faith, crack foundations, until it crumbles on its own."
Valtor's eyes narrowed. "She's already halfway there. The Duke's guard is stretched thin. And that rune wall..." He leaned forward, claws digging into the table's edge. "The demon says it's old magic. Almost forgotten. If that wall falls—"
"She loses control," Lilith finished.
Kaela frowned, tracing a line between two points on the map. "And Luceris? What of him?"