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Then the fever comes. Then the hunger. And then they change, and their eyes turn black.

They become feral things that rip through flesh with teeth and nails until a guard puts a blade through their heart. We have burned hundreds already.

“Containment?” I ask.

“Barely holding,” Damaris replies.

Cadex sighs. “You know,” he says, “when I signed up to be a lord of Terraguard, I thought I’d be fighting monsters.” He gestures vaguely around the room. “Not our neighbors.”

“Neither did any of us,” Damaris says.

Silence settles over the war room. Torchlight flickers as I stare down at the map.

White dots everywhere.

Spreading like mold, like rot.

The skin on my arm burns where that single white dot hides amongst my tattoos.

Tiny fissures crackle where I grip the edge of the table.

“What about the healers?” I ask.

Damaris shakes their head. “Nothing.”

Cadex grunts. “Of course nothing.” He gestures toward the map. “Maybe the Gods are bored. Maybe they just want to watch us implode.”

“Cadex.”

“What?” he says defensively. “It’s a possibility.”

I almost smile just as a war horn screams, the sound ripping through the cavern like a blade.

All three of us freeze.

Then Damaris is already moving. “That’s the eastern gate.”

Cadex straightens. “Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.”

The horn blasts again, longer this time. More desperate.

Damaris meets my eyes. “The Jord.” Their words drop into the room like a stone into deep water.

The Jord. The ones who ruled the upper caverns. The ones who signed the Peace Treaty centuries ago, only to shatter it this year.

The ones who fucking stole Akemi, my only light, my Sunrise.

The Underworld territory led by my fucking brother.

Cadex cracks his knuckles. “Well, I guess diplomacy is officially dead.”

I’m already grabbing my blade. Positions, I command directly into my Second’s and Third’s minds.

One by one, we lower our fingers into an ornate jar of war paint, streaking it across our temples as we prepare for what is to come. We move quickly through the corridors of my castle. Coredivers sprint past us, armor clattering, shields slamming into place. The entire fortress vibrates with urgency.

The horn continues to howl.

By the time we reach the outer tunnel, the first clash of steel echoes through the stone.