Exhaustion weighed on Alora’s shoulders like a shroud by the time she returned to Karag Dûr. The war chamber seethed with voices, deep and rasping, guttural and cold as warlords and Dominions argued across the crescent table.
The Harbingers stood like carved statues against the wall, features sharp in the torchlight above them. The warlords were Wrath Court demons forged for battle, their armored red bodies plated in bone and blackened steel, eyes burning faintly like coals. Opposite them, the Dominions draped themselves in silks and jewels like courtiers rather than soldiers, though the power that hummed in the air around them was no less lethal.
Lady Zinnia was present as well, observant and silent. Two Midland paladins stood closely behind her seat, eyes as sharp as their ears, armor glinting in the candlelight.
And at the head of the crescent table sat Rune. His glowing gaze lifted to hers, and the agitated shadows writhing in thecorners of the room settled. He leaned back in his chair, the visible tension in his shoulders relaxing, albeit a little.
Demon eyes landed on her, then shifted to Commander Caelum and Lord Zuma who flanked her. At her silent nod, they moved to stand with the Harbingers. All bowed their heads as she crossed the chamber and took her seat beside Rune.
You were gone a while,he said through the bond.Did the escort pass without incident?
It went well.She took a breath. For now, her brother and people were safe.What did I miss?
More of the same.A muscle in his jaw flexed.Strategies are formed and dismantled. No one can agree on the best method of attack.
The crescent war table stretched before Alora like a living thing. Shadows coated its surface with a reflection of Argyle, taking the shape of valleys and passes, rivers and ruined keeps. And sigil markers dominated the board. Each one represented a force of thousands. She had learned the numbers quickly, faster than she had ever wanted to.
Ten thousand demons bound to every carved piece. Seven Dominions, each marked by a different sin, each representing ten thousand at their command. Together, it was an army enough to raze kingdoms.
Her gaze lingered on the dragon first.
Pride.
Rune’s sigil stood apart from the others, wings spread, jaws open as if it would spit fire any second. The weight of it settled low in her chest.
Nearby, the other sigils waited. A spider etched so finely it appeared ready to crawl represented envy. Lord Sal’vathar’s host.
The mermaid with gold-scaled tail and hollow eyes represented Greed. A richly beautiful host for Lady Nexia.
A faceless female form carved in exaggerated curves, with dainty horns and thin tail. The Lust sigil looked exactly like Lady Morvenna.
Crossed hammers for Wrath. Straightforward like Lord Ira.
Lady Segrith’s sigil was an hourglass for Sloth, its sands frozen mid-fall, as if time itself had grown weary.
The sigil for Gluttony were monstrous jaws wrenched wide like an endless pit. Much like Lord Balgor now as he alone gorged himself at the table as if this were a mere dinner party.
Then there were the others.
A single silver sigil lay to the east, representing the Midlands. A briar rose wrought in thorns and bloom, delicate and deadly, its polished surface catching the torchlight. Six thousand fae. Fewer than the demons, but sharper and with the magic of the earth at their fingertips.
Argyle’s marker looked small beside the rest. Oak wood with green banners bearing Argyle’s white stag painted into the grain. Two thousand, at best. Mortals. Fragile as kindling surrounded by stone and shadow.
One final marker sat apart from the rest. Unlike the others, Zuma’s marker was the tip of a pale horn bone.
It represented five hundred Minotaurs. A horde rather than an army. Too few in a war of this scale, yet five hundred ferocious creatures to be unleashed where brute force was required.
It was clear then why Rune had not dismissed them. Some forces were not meant to hold ground but to break it.
Alora rested her hands on the table as the weight of it settled on her bones.
She was no longer a piece to be moved.
She was the reason every other piece would move at all.
“Have you decided on the best position of engagement?” Alora asked.
Rune’s brow furrowed as he studied the lay of the land. “If I can assume where Vorak will emerge, it will be wherever you stand.”
