“Apologies...” she muttered, and Oris sighed.

  “It’s alright, I think...I think I deserved that.” She gestured at the second chair before her desk, the one she had installed for her enchanting (ah) suitor. “May I?”

  “It’s your palace.”

  The Empress chuckled.

  “I suppose it is.” She drew the chair back and sat down, as Cassissa suddenly realized that there was...no one else.

  Her sister was followed by a small army of soldiers and servants at all times. If she was here alone, it was to make a point or ask for a favor. Knowing her, probably both.

  “So. What is it that you wish?” Cassissa asked, and Oris’ eyebrows rose.

  “What, no ‘Hi sis, how are you?’“

  “I mean no offense, but you’re running the Empire. You don’t have time for courtesy visits, much less ones not attended by half a billion flunkies.”

  The Empress smiled, but Cassissa knew her well enough to realize how hollow it was.

  “Well, my little sister is growing up and seeing right through me. I wanted to say...that I’m sorry. I’m sorry for locking you up. I was...worried about you.”

  “And reasons of state.”

  The Empress nodded.

  “And reasons of state, yes. It is a time where we can’t afford to show weakness.”

  “But?” Cassissa said. There was only one carrot she wanted, and they both knew it.

  “But the situation has changed.” The Empress sighed. “Do you remember Allya?”

  Cassissa had no idea what she looked like when she stared at her sister, but the Empress recoiled slightly, a staggering feat in its own regard.

  “Of course you do. My apologies. I am going to assume Erik updated you on her.”

  “He brought news.” Not of Allya, but Oris didn’t need to know that. Of course, it wasn’t a complete lie, and the Empress would sniff it out in a second. But a partial one...

  She saw the Empress’ eyes light up. She’d caught it. But she wasn’t willing to challenge her on it.

  Besides which, there was almost...uneasiness there.

  “Quite.” Oris sighed. “I wish for your...input, on Allya. I will partially lift the lockdown and have intelligence officers brief you.”

  “Input?”

  “Quite frankly, you’re the only one that truly knows her that I can rely on. And now...she’s become a major player.”

  “And one with bigger alliances than you thought.”

  The Empress’ gaze sharpened.

  “Indeed?”

  Cassissa laughed.

  “We both know there’s no way someone didn’t do this without aiming square at Sunrise.” She didn’t need to specify what “this” was. It was the only thing anyone had talked about in the last few days. “And that has you worried.”

  Oris nodded.

  “Of course it does. Something this powerful, this fundamental...”

  “They freed all the slaves, and broke our prisons and the contracts. That’s not fundamental, it’s clearing the board.”

  The Empress paused.

  “I take it...no one has told you yet?”

  “Told me what?”

  “They weren’t broken. They’re no longer possible.”

  Cassissa froze.

  “...What?”

  “Slave brands, magical contracts...from the deeds that bind the World Mage Court together to the brands that kept our convicts in line, and yes, Sunrise’s slave brands, it’s gone. It’s all gone. The magic underlying them...has been rewritten.”

  The princess leaned back into her seat, her thoughts reeling.

  “That’s...that’s not possible. It can’t be possible.”

  “Yet it is. We have the very proof of that before our eyes.”

  “...and now you’re worried that someone who can change magic is allied with Allya.”

  “Or using her.” The Empress grimaced. “There’s something...wrong with what’s happening to Rebirth. It’s too convenient. Too...focused. But that’s not for you to figure out. What I need from you is your assessment of Allya. She’s just presided over the Asarian Assembly and more or less dictated the course of the Kingdom. I also have reliable intelligence that representatives of the Far Reach, the New Republic, and the Tark Hegemony are on their way to Rebirth for some kind of peace summit.”

  “I can’t tell you what she’s planning,” Cassissa warned, and Oris laughed.

  “No. But you can predict which way she’ll jump. You can tell me what drives her, what makes her tick. You...you can give me and my strategists an idea of who is the person that is going to build an Empire to rival our own.”

  Cassissa slowly nodded.

  “You’re not planning on trying to break it up?”

  “No. That would be suicidal. But I may be able to slow it down.”

  “That wouldn’t be wise.”

  “Perhaps. Perhaps not. Just think on what I said, alright?”

  Cassissa watched as her sister got up and moved to depart.

  “I’ll do it,” the princess said, and Oris stopped.

  “I know. You may be...impulsive, but you’re a loyal servant of the Empire.” The Empress turned around, smiling with what felt like genuine warmth at her sister. “Just make sure to be thorough. I’ll be seeing you soon.”

  Cassissa stared at the door for a long time after her sister left, processing what was said.

  An Empire to rival their own...it almost made sense, didn’t it? Everything she’d heard. That she knew the Order was involved...

  Of course, that was only the smallest of the bombshells.

  Cassissa turned back towards the desk and dropped her head into her hands as she looked at the scattering of books upon it.

  Who...what in all the hells and heavens could just change magic like that? Not just the sheer power, but even just the knowledge to⁠—

  She straightened suddenly.

  And slowly took out the talisman from her pocket, hanging it before her eyes.

  A talisman with never-before-seen arcana. Arcana that achieved things that should have been utterly impossible.

  Fuck.

  “Status report,” Alexandra said as her hologram appeared on the bridge of the Flickerlight. It might not be technically as secure as their simulations, but she was wary of using them too often, far too aware of the risk of an AI completely disconnecting from reality inside their own personal paradise. She had no doubt Emilia would drag her out, but she’d rather not have her girlfriend dig around or have reason to investigate her digital realms.

  Ghost sighed as she flopped into one of the seats, still waiting near each console, waiting for someone to man them. She was very much here “in the flesh,” thanks to her abilities, and she took shameless advantage of that as the form-fitting furniture sculpted itself to her body.

  “Well, I have good news and bad news. Good news, we have a lot of information pouring in from...well, everybody.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If it affects us, it also affects other dungeons. That means the adventurers guild, our allies in the UDC...everyone is asking questions and providing data.”

  Alexandra’s eyebrows rose.

  “The guild is sending us stuff?”

  The apparition laughed.

  “Sweet stars, no! But they’re still talking to some of our allies, and it’s being relayed to us. Plus, individual members are relaying data to the government of their dungeon town, since dungeon monsters and their behavior are so important economically, and several of those dungeon towns happen to be under Allya’s control.”

  “Alright. Bad news?”

  Ghost licked her lips.

  “I’m not...entirely certain how much of it affects us, and it has highlighted some...problems inside our organization. We always took our subordinates’ loyalty as a matter of course.”

  “There was no external control link.”

  “There wasn’t. But we’ve never truly looked into their loyalty protocols. I don’t mean for Seraph or the AIs, I mean for the golems. They were...well, they were beneath our notice. We focused on the officers instead of the grunts. As in completely ignored them. That could have been a deadly mistake.”

  “Could?”

  Ghost nodded.

  “I did some code diving.”

  “We coded the golems.”

  “Wrong. They all come with a package from the dungeon systems. It’s what allowed them to move, sense, and do fundamental threat recognition. Not to mention served as the basis for most of our code until we recovered their source code from Seraph’s databanks and began working off of that. We’ve never done a deep dive into it. After this, I did. I had to. And I found...a lot of interesting things.” Ghost took in a deep breath. “So, from what I’ve been able to discover so far, the loyalty systems between dungeon monsters and a dungeon core are two-stage. The first one is software. Dungeon monsters have a control program, similar to the one we used to have, just completely autonomous. It doesn’t call home or report anything, since it wouldn’t have anything but us to report to.”

  “Or the control program in us.”

  “Yes. But they seemed reluctant to have something other than their command connect to them. Besides which, they’d be out of communication as soon as they were out of our influence.” Ghost shook her head. “That first layer ensures loyalty. It’s why our golems could never turn against us on a fundamental level. It might even explain why CQ...well, why she sided with us against Emilia sometimes.”

  Alexandra raised her hand.

  “Allow me to make something extremely clear. If there is a mind control system, any mind control system, beneficial to us or not, in place on my daughter, you will remove it.”

  “Of course.” Ghost’s tone made it clear she considered it the only course of action as well. “But the second layer is what is more interesting here. Every dungeon monster also had a kind of...geas? Compulsion?” She gestured, and holograms pulled up, showing a complex web of runes. “It’s not so much for loyalty as obedience. It overrides, say, a beast’s self-preservation instinct. It’s what makes dungeon monsters impossible to break, effectively without morale, and obey without question.”

  “And that, Rook broke?”

  “Exactly. We’re getting reports across the world of dungeon monsters retreating or running away from their assigned areas. Even a couple of engagement reports from our allies with the UDC, that both sides more or less broke within minutes of the battle starting.”

  Alexandra straightened as she processed that.

  “They didn’t have...anything to enforce morale. No battle discipline, nothing.”

  “Not when it was never a factor, no.” Ghost sighed. “The issue is that...I genuinely cannot tell how much of an impact that’s going to have on our forces. Normally it shouldn’t, but...”

  “With those behavior packages, and the anomalous behavior, there’s clearly more than we’ve coded in inside our golems,” Alexandra finished, as she remembered all the times her golems had followed unscripted behavior. Saluting her, taking the initiative...She shivered. “We’ve kicked that can down the road long enough, it seems. We’re going to have to get to the bottom of those...anomalies.”

  “Agreed. There’s also something else I came upon. Something that, well...” She shook her head. “You have to see it for yourself.”

  The apparition made a series of gestures, and the hologram of a complex tattoo appeared.

  No, not a tattoo, a brand.

  Sunrise’s new slave brand.

  Alexandra looked in horror as the brand’s runes were deconstructed and put side by side with the dungeon monster loyalty ones.

  They matched.

  “Holy fuck,” Alexandra said.

  “My thoughts exactly. And we know dungeon cores wouldn’t be able to look into their own code, and those kinds of protocols can only be accessed from the inside. There are only two factions we know can mess with dungeon code like that...the Church, and the Order.”

  Alexandra nodded, and froze.

  “Wait. Inside access...Oh. Oh FUCK! Fuck fuck fuck FUCK! How could we be this FUCKING STUPID! We were planning to do the same damn thing, and we didn’t get it! We didn’t even consider the freaking possibility!”

  “What?” Ghost recoiled as Alexandra tried to grab her by the shoulders and shake her, though, of course, her hologram phased harmlessly through her.

  “Don’t you get it? The advisors, the vampires! They’re not political officers! That’s why Emilia sided with us! They’re TROJAN HORSES! Direct access inside the network in case someone finds the protocols in the dungeon core and cuts them off!” Alexandra’s eyes were filled with fear. “Emilia is the one carrying the last kill switch you insisted had to be there, somewhere! She’s...the advisors, they are the failsafes!”

  THREE

  Plains of Reclaiming, Duchy of Asaria

  City of Asaria, Capital of the Asarian Kingdom

  “No plan survives first contact with the enemy,” or so went the extradimensional saying. A saying Lesly lived and breathed.

  It was scant reassurance now, but it was all that he had.

  Joachim sighed as he looked at the pile of intelligence before him.

  They hadn’t seen it coming. Rook...the amount of ingredients, personnel, and power required for this had to have been astronomical, and they hadn’t seen it coming.

  More concerningly, he had to have had divine assistance. If changing magic was this easy, it would have been done during the Great Night. That meant the God of Light.

  Another deity throwing their hat into the ring was the last thing they needed right now. Or maybe...just maybe, it was exactly what they needed.

  Orbital activity suggested the lackeys of the God of Fire hadn’t been informed. If those actions delayed the Purge, and took the heat off of the Order, it could be worth it.

  As it was, their plan...was done. As it had been, it was no longer possible. Some things could be salvaged, but the Hegemony and the Far Reach would never invade the Republic now, not when half of it was in open revolt after the threat of the slave brands was removed and outrage swelled, and Rebirth was fully clear to swing south and bring down the hammer to help Amelia and her merry band of revolutionaries.

  At least something could be done with the Sapphire Kingdom. They still had the proof that “their” mages had made the brands, and that would give Lesly the leeway to march north. What she would do was anyone’s guess at this point, as she clearly had something in mind besides the original plan for the UDC, but he had come to realize that at this point, it was his job to accommodate her changes and try to help her wherever he could.

  With this particular disaster, it was only a question of time before he was called before the council and removed from his post after all.

  He sighed. It didn’t matter. So long as mankind was free...well, he knew he was going to die at the end of this anyway. By the hands of those he freed or his comrades, it mattered little so long as he fulfilled his duty. That would have to be enough.

  He pressed a button on his desk, calling his aide, as he looked out the “window,” in truth a heavily shielded one-way screen. The atmosphere in the Kingdom’s capital had grown a lot less oppressive, not to mention cramped, as most people had been able to flow out of the innermost fortifications and start reclaiming the other parts of the city. A lot of it was destroyed, but rebuilding efforts were already underway, and Grant the Giant had what little remained of Sunrise’s army pinned inside their own siege fortresses, helped along by a large contingent of highly motivated former slaves that wouldn’t rest until every single one of their oppressors was shrieking on a spike.

  The city wasn’t jubilant, not yet; shock was still dominating as everyone tried to parse through what had happened. But he could see the beginnings of it.

  His thoughts were interrupted as the doors opened and his aide came through, clearly put off by the silent presence of the two Old World constructs at his door.

  “Yes, my lord?”

  “Send a message to our units up north and east. It’s time to make our move.”

  The Adjudicator was trying not to shift uncomfortably. Not just because of the council—having all five of the Custodians present for one was a rarity nowadays—but also the fact that she wasn’t standing by the side of the table or on one of the smaller chairs, meant for Seraphim.

  For some reason, beyond her reckoning, the Custodian that had rescued her from that hellish Order ambush had seated her on the sixth seat, meant for the martyr of the First Purge. The other Custodians had gazed at her, and she felt their judgment, but either they had found her worthy of the honor or simply declined to go against their fellow.

  She wasn’t sure which was worse, the potential for discord among their most hallowed ranks or them finding her worthy despite her all-devouring doubts.

  “Adjudicator. Report,” one of the Custodians said, a booming female voice coming from the towering suit of armor.

  The Seraphim stood up, clearing her throat, trying to avoid appearing too nervous.

  “All factors, from our own observations, data inloads from Central, and reports from the clergy, point towards this being a full-scale modification of the Aether Matrix at a base level.”

  “Which means Hoeth,” another Custodian intervened.

  The Seraphim nodded.

  “Almost certainly, as otherwise it would have prompted immediate retaliation.”

  “Were there any changes in the Aether generators?”

  “Negative. All spy satellites report normal activity. No anomalies, or gate openings.”

  “So no direct intervention, like with that dungeon core.”

  “So far as we are able to tell, no. This was done purely by proxy. Why is...” Not her department, not to mention way, way above her pay grade, but that wouldn’t be wise to say out loud. “...unclear.”