The journey to the Eastern Kingdoms took five days by carriage. Our group had grown—Duke Frostborn insisted on sending a Northern delegation, and Prince Kael convinced his father to send royal observers. What started as a small consulting trip had become a diplomatic mission.
Which meant politics. My least favorite thing.
"Stop scowling," Elara said from across the carriage. "You're supposed to be a diplomatic consultant, not an angry vagrant."
"I am an angry vagrant. That's my entire brand."
"You're also the founder of an organization trying to unite the Seven Realms. Try to look the part."
She had a point. The Twilight Order was barely a week old, but word had spread. Nobles wanted to know more about the student who'd won the Grand Tournament and claimed the world was ending. Some were curious. Others were hostile.
All of them needed to be convinced.
"Tell me about the Eastern Kingdoms," I said. "What's the political situation?"
"Complicated," Aria answered. She'd been studying diplomatic reports for days. "Three major kingdoms—Aurelia, Verdania, and Stormwatch. They've been allies for decades, but there's tension over trade routes and border disputes."
"The kind of tension that would make cooperation difficult," I guessed.
"Exactly. If we want their support for the Twilight Order, we'll need to navigate those tensions carefully."
"Or ignore politics entirely and focus on the rifts," Sera suggested. "Demons don't care about trade disputes."
"But the kingdoms do," Elara said. "We can't just demand cooperation. We need to offer something in return."
"Protection," Nyx said quietly from her corner. She'd been silent for most of the journey, reading reports and writing in her personal journal. "We offer to protect their kingdoms from rift incursions. Position Twilight Order members as defensive assets, not foreign infiltrators."
"That could work," Kael agreed. He rode with us, leaving his royal guards to travel separately. "Frame it as mutual defense cooperation rather than political alliance. Kingdoms are always willing to accept help with security."
We refined the approach over the next day of travel, developing arguments and counterarguments for every objection we could imagine.
But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
The second night, I found Nyx on watch, perched on a tree branch overlooking our camp.
"Can't sleep?" she asked without looking down.
"Thinking. What did you find in your research?"
"What makes you think I found something?"
"Because you've been quieter than usual. Which means you're processing information you don't like."
She dropped from the branch, landing silently beside me. "The rift locations Duke Frostborn identified. They match places where known Void Cultist activity has increased."
"That's not surprising. The cultists would naturally be drawn to areas of dimensional instability."
"It would be, except the cultist activity predates the rifts. By weeks, sometimes months." Her amber eyes met mine. "They're not being drawn to the rifts, Cain. They're causing them."
The implications hit like a physical blow. "They're deliberately weakening the barriers. Accelerating the invasion timeline."
"That's what it looks like. And if I'm right, if they can actually trigger rifts instead of just taking advantage of natural ones..." She didn't finish, but she didn't need to.
If the cultists could cause rifts, nineteen years might be optimistic.
"How confident are you in this theory?"
"Seventy percent. Maybe eighty. I need more data to be certain." She pulled out her journal. "But look at the pattern. Every major rift has cultist activity reported nearby within the previous month. That's not coincidence."
"Then we need to stop them. Identify cultist cells, disrupt their operations, prevent them from triggering more rifts."
"Agreed. But that's a completely different mission than what we're telling the eastern kingdoms. We can't admit we're also conducting anti-cultist operations—they'd see it as foreign interference."
"So we work in parallel. The Twilight Order handles overt rift response and diplomatic cooperation. We handle covert cultist hunting separately."
"You're talking about running an intelligence operation against a shadowy organization with members in every realm." Nyx's expression was grim. "That's not a small undertaking."
"I know. But we don't have a choice. If they're accelerating the timeline..." I trailed off, thinking about all the plans that assumed we had nineteen years. All the alliances we needed to build, the preparations we needed to make.
"We might have less time than we thought," Nyx finished. "Maybe a lot less."
───
We reached the Eastern capital of Aurelia three days later. The city was a marvel of architecture—white towers spiraling into the clouds, gardens floating on magical platforms, streets paved with stones that glowed softly in the evening light.
It was also heavily fortified. Guards at every entrance, wards on every building, magical sensors monitoring all traffic.
"They're paranoid," Sera observed.
"They're careful," Elara corrected. "Aurelia has survived three major wars by being prepared. It's actually admirable."
We were escorted to the palace—a massive complex that somehow managed to be both beautiful and defensible. Queen Lyanna Goldcrest received us in a throne room that looked like someone had captured the sun and built a room around it.
She was younger than I expected—maybe thirty—with golden hair and sharp green eyes that missed nothing. Beautiful, but with the kind of beauty that warned rather than invited.
"Welcome to Aurelia," she said, her voice carrying perfect authority. "Duke Frostborn speaks highly of you, Mister Ashford. He claims you saved a village from a dimensional catastrophe."
"Professor Grimoire did most of the work, Your Majesty. I just helped."
"Modest. How refreshing." Her smile didn't reach her eyes. "Tell me about these demons you claim will invade our world. I've heard the rumors."
Direct. I could work with that.
"In nineteen years—possibly less—the barriers between our world and the Void will fail completely. When that happens, millions of demons will pour through dimensional rifts. They'll consume everything. Every kingdom, every city, every living thing." I met her gaze steadily. "I've seen it happen. I know what's coming. And I know we're not prepared."
"You've seen it happen. In visions? Dreams?"
"Memories. From another timeline where I failed to prevent it."
The court erupted in whispers. Queen Lyanna raised a hand for silence.
"And you expect me to believe you're from another timeline? That you've lived this life before?"
"I expect you to look at the evidence. The rifts are appearing more frequently. The dimensional barriers are measurably weaker than they were a decade ago. Ancient texts from the Second Age describe identical conditions before the last demon invasion." I stepped forward. "Your Majesty, I'm not asking you to believe me on faith. I'm asking you to investigate, to prepare, to take reasonable precautions against a potential threat. If I'm wrong, you've wasted some resources on defensive preparations that might prove useful anyway. If I'm right..."
"If you're right, we all die unless we prepare." She studied me for a long moment. "You're either genuinely insane or telling the truth. I haven't decided which."
"Duke Frostborn was similarly skeptical until he witnessed a rift firsthand."
"Which is why I've agreed to this demonstration. Tomorrow, you'll accompany my scholars to a suspected rift site. If you can accurately predict and handle a dimensional incursion, I'll consider your warnings credible."
A test. Fair enough.
"Thank you, Your Majesty. We won't disappoint."
───
The suspected rift site was an ancient battlefield from the Second Age, now overgrown and forgotten. Exactly the kind of place where the barriers would be weakest.
Queen Lyanna accompanied us personally, along with her court mage and a squad of elite guards. She wanted to see this with her own eyes.
"The dimensional readings are unstable here," her court mage reported. "But nothing critical yet."
"It will be," I said, studying the area. Every instinct I had screamed danger. "The rift will form there—" I pointed to a specific spot, "—within the next hour. Probably the next thirty minutes."
"How can you possibly know that?" the court mage demanded.
"Because I can feel it. The way the air tastes wrong, the way magic flows around certain points. It's like..." I struggled to find words for something I'd learned through painful experience. "It's like standing next to a dam that's about to break. You can't see the crack, but you know it's there."
"Poetic but not scientific," the mage scoffed.
"Then take your own readings and compare them to historical accounts of pre-rift conditions," Elara suggested coolly. "You'll find they match."
Twenty minutes later, reality began to tear.
It started small—just a shimmer in the air, easy to miss. Then the shimmer widened, colors that shouldn't exist bleeding through from somewhere else.
"Everyone back!" I commanded. "It's opening!"
The rift exploded outward, a wound in space itself. Through it, I could see the Void—endless darkness punctuated by things that moved with terrible purpose.
And something was coming through.
"Defend the Queen!" her guards shouted, forming a protective circle.
But the creature emerging from the rift didn't care about queens or guards. It was a Void Spawn—smaller than the ones I'd fought in my previous timeline, a mere scout, but still deadly.
It looked like someone had tried to build a wolf from nightmares and given up halfway through. Too many limbs, eyes that opened in places eyes shouldn't be, reality bending around it like the universe itself was uncomfortable with its existence.
"What is that thing?" Queen Lyanna breathed.
"A demon," I said simply. "A small one. The real ones are much worse."
The Void Spawn lunged. Sera met it head-on, her sword cutting deep. The creature screamed—a sound that made everyone's ears bleed—and lashed back with limbs that phased in and out of reality.
"It's not fully materialized!" Elara shouted. "Hit it with magic, not physical force!"
Aria's light magic flared brilliant, and the demon shrieked again, recoiling. Light and shadow were anathema to Void creatures—they existed in neither state, making both painful to them.
I wove binding spells while Nyx hamstrung it with shadow-enhanced blades. The creature fought with desperate fury, but it was weakened from the transition between worlds.
We killed it in less than two minutes.
As it died, it dissolved into nothing, leaving only a stain on reality where it had been.
"Seal the rift!" I ordered. Elara and I worked together, weaving the same spell pattern we'd used in the North. It took longer without Professor Grimoire's power to anchor us, but we managed it.
The rift closed with a sound like tearing fabric.
Silence fell over the battlefield.
Queen Lyanna stepped forward, staring at the stain where the demon had been. "That... that was real. An actual creature from beyond our world."
"Yes, Your Majesty. And it was a scout. A weak one. The real invasion force will be thousands of times larger, with creatures a hundred times more dangerous."
She looked at me with new eyes—no longer skeptical, but afraid. "How long do we have?"
"Nineteen years. Maybe less if the Void Cultists continue accelerating the timeline."
"Void Cultists?"
"People who serve the demons. They're deliberately weakening the barriers, trying to bring the invasion sooner." I gestured at the sealed rift. "Sites like this one—they're being sabotaged. We need to find the cultists and stop them."
"In my kingdom?" Her eyes flashed with anger. "You're saying I have traitors working to destroy the world?"
"Every kingdom does, Your Majesty. The cult has been operating for decades, slowly infiltrating positions of power."
"Then we root them out. Execute them. End this threat."
"It's not that simple," Nyx interjected. "The cult is vast, well-organized, and has members in every level of society. Try to purge them openly, and they'll go deeper underground. We need surgical precision, not blunt force."
"Which is where we come in," I said. "The Twilight Order can coordinate anti-cultist operations across all realms. Share intelligence, identify members, disrupt their activities. But we need official support from kingdoms like Aurelia."
Queen Lyanna was silent for a long moment, clearly processing everything she'd seen and heard.
"I need to consult with my advisors," she said finally. "But tentatively... yes. Aurelia will support your Twilight Order. We'll provide funding, personnel, and political backing." She looked at the sealed rift again. "Because if what you say is true, if that's what's coming for us... we need all the help we can get."
We'd done it. Secured our first major kingdom alliance.
But as we rode back to the city, I couldn't shake Nyx's earlier warning.
Nineteen years might be optimistic.
We might have far less time than we thought.
And the Void Cultists were working actively against us, trying to bring about the apocalypse we were fighting to prevent.
The real war had begun.
And we were just getting started.