The grand pronouncements of the Council of the Sundered Sky faded, replaced by the grim, grinding reality of a world at war with itself. For Commander Eva, the signing of the treaty was not an end, but the beginning of a new, more complex phase of the conflict. Her command center in the Royal Guard barracks had transformed. The great map of Aethelburg on her wall had been replaced by a map of the entire continent, a sprawling tapestry of fear and defiance, now dotted with pins of allied blue and Covenanter black.
The Alliance was no longer just an idea; it was a torrent of information. Daily reports flowed in from every corner of the world. A missive from Astrid Stonehand detailing a successful defense of a key mountain pass in Karak. A plea for more grain from a Verdane chieftain whose hunting grounds were being overrun by Ashen. A disturbing report from Matriarch Soraya's agents about a new surge of Covenanter pilgrims marching towards Qar-Teth. Eva was no longer just a city commander; she was a nerve center for a global war.
The most urgent front in that war was the one festering in their own backyard. The rebellion in the Sunstone March, fueled by the lie of the King's tyranny and the poison of Ouen's faith, had become a bloody insurgency.
"Another supply caravan ambushed near the southern pass," General Kyrus growled, slamming a report down on Eva's desk. "The one carrying steel for Lady Astrid's forges. The entire escort was slaughtered. The cargo was stolen."
"This was not the work of common bandits," Eva said, her eyes tracing a pattern of similar incidents on the map. "The attacks are too coordinated, too precise. They are targeting the arteries of our new Alliance, trying to bleed us out before we can even stand."
"It is Ouen's hand, reaching from the desert," Praxus added, his voice low. He, along with King Valerius, was present for the morning briefing. "He is a master of turning our own people against us."
"Then we must stop treating this like a rebellion and start treating it like what it is," Valerius said, his voice cold as iron. "A shadow war. Commander Eva, the War of Order is no longer about containment. It is time for counter-insurgency. I am authorizing the formation of a new unit under your direct command. An elite, covert strike force. You will take the fight to them. You will hunt their leaders. You will dismantle their network. You are no longer the city's shield; you are the Alliance's dagger."
A grim smile touched Eva's lips for the first time in months.
Her new unit was forged in the weeks that followed. It was not a conventional military squad. She needed more than just soldiers. She recruited Finnian, whose scouting skills were unparalleled. She took the three toughest sailors from Malik's company, men who knew how to fight dirty in the dark. And she took her best Royal Guards, including a now-seasoned and hard-eyed Sergeant Corbin. They were her ghosts, a team designed to move unseen and strike without warning.
Their first mission came from the painstaking work of Praxus's intelligence network. By cross-referencing reports from Soraya's agents in Zahram with interrogations of captured Covenanters, they had pinpointed the location of a major operational command post for the southern rebellion: a network of smugglers' caves hidden deep in the hills of the Sunstone March. It was from this base that the attacks on the Alliance's supply lines were being coordinated.
The infiltration was a brutal, nerve-wracking affair. Guided by Finnian, they moved through the hostile territory for three nights, traveling without fire, their faces smeared with mud and dust. They found the caves hidden behind a waterfall, just as the intelligence suggested.
The fight inside was a whirlwind of close-quarters violence. The caves were a maze, and the Covenanters fought with the savage fury of fanatics defending a holy site. But Eva's team was a scalpel. They moved with a silent, deadly efficiency, clearing one chamber after another, their steel far superior to the rebels' crude axes and farm tools.
They found the command center in the heart of the cavern network. But it was an ambush. The rebel leader, a former lord of the Sunstone March, was waiting with two dozen of his best fighters. The battle was desperate. Finnian, using his agility, fought back-to-back with the sailors, a whirlwind of motion. Eva and her guards were a rock of disciplined steel, holding the line against overwhelming numbers.
They were victorious, but the cost was high. Two of Eva's guards were killed, and Finnian took a deep gash in his arm. They captured the rebel lord, a man whose eyes burned with a cold, hateful fire.
They interrogated him there, in the bloody, torchlit cavern. The man was defiant, spitting curses at the "Heretic King's assassins." But when Praxus, who had accompanied the mission as an advisor, spoke to him not of kings but of gods, the man's armor began to crack.
"Ouen is a prophet!" the lord snarled. "He works the miracles of a true god!"
"Does he?" Praxus asked calmly. "Tell me, my lord, what is the latest miracle he has promised you?"
The man hesitated, then a smug, cruel smile spread across his face. "A new kind of soldier for our holy war. A gift from the God of Bargains himself. The Voice of the Tyrant has learned the secrets of the Ashen. He is learning how to make them. How to improve them. Soon, our armies will not be of men, but of monsters, each one a testament to the Tyrant's glorious power."
A chilling silence fell over the cave. Eva looked at Praxus, her face pale. This was a horrifying new development. Ouen was no longer just a prophet building an army of fanatics. He was a mad scientist, a necromancer, attempting to create and control a plague of monsters.
Eva stood over the captured rebel lord, the weight of their costly victory settling upon her. They had cut off one of the serpent's heads. But they had just learned that the serpent was growing new, more monstrous fangs. The Shadow War had just begun, and it was going to be far deadlier than she could have ever imagined.
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The Chronicle of the Fallen
Time Period Covered: Approximately Days 411 through 425 of the Age of Fear
Victims of The Reaping: 5
Victims of the Covenant: 199
Deaths from Ashen Attacks: 401
Deaths from Civil Unrest: 88 (Includes casualties from the raid on the Covenanter caves and ongoing political assassinations in all four major regions)
Total Lives Lost: 693
Of Note Among the Fallen:
— A rebellious lord of the Sunstone March, captured by Commander Eva and executed for treason.
— The leader of a prominent merchant guild in a Zahram city-state, who refused to fund the Covenanters and was found transformed into a lesser Ashen.