The war table was covered in lines, tokens, and worn-out maps, but my mind saw a canvas painted in blood, betrayal, and inevitability.
"Why are there four chicken bones in the supply column?" I asked, tapping a curled parchment where a scout had clearly gotten creative with his icons.
Sarthin, the skeletal demon quartermaster, blinked hollowly. "Motivation."
"…For the troops?"
"No, for the chickens."
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Sometimes I regret giving you the freedom to 'innovate.'"
A few chuckles rippled across the room, Kael, silent and brooding in one corner, cracked the faintest grin. Morgra, our demoness scout with a tongue too quick for her own good, made an exaggerated bow. "Permission to submit a doodle of my own?"
"If it contains anything remotely resembling another chicken", I said, "you're walking into the Holy Alliance's camp as our next peace offering."
Laughter. Light, harmless. But necessary.
Because outside, the winds were shifting.
I turned back to the map. Our outposts were holding, but pressure was mounting from the east. The Holy Alliance had adjusted. Someone clever was finally coordinating them. Maybe not enough to win, but enough to slow me down.
Good.
Let them think they were close to something. It made them predictable.
I traced the river on the map, Murahl's Bend. A natural chokepoint. If they advanced there, they'd bottleneck. But if I made them believe it was unguarded...
"Kael", I said, "send word to our southern scouts. Pull back from the river pass. Quietly. Make it look like we've thinned out."
He nodded. "An ambush?"
"A suggestion. Let them think they're the ones being clever."
Morgra clicked her tongue. "Risky".
"So is waking up every day. But we do it anyway."
A pause. Then Kael asked, softly, "And if they don't bite?"
I smiled. "Then we bleed them somewhere else. But if they do… they'll walk right into a net."
Later, I walked the camp alone, letting the cold sting my skin. The demons saluted me, not with respect, but something deeper. Fear? Loyalty? Maybe both.
I stopped near the southern watchtower. The air carried distant horns, Holy Alliance scouts, testing the borders. I watched their shadows dance across the tree line.
They didn't know I was watching.
They never did.
"You really have changed, Rin."
The voice behind me was familiar, velvety, amused. Valekhar.
"I had no choice", I replied, not turning.
"You always have choices. That's what makes your descent so… satisfying to witness."
"Is that why you keep me around?" I said. "To watch me fall?"
"No". He stepped beside me, his black eyes reflecting the torchlight. "I keep you because you make the world move."
I hated that I liked hearing that.
Back at my tent, I finally allowed the silence to settle. I stared at the small pendant I wore, iron, dull. A token from a long-dead teacher who once told a starving girl in the slums that even broken pieces could cut.
He was the first person who taught me strategy.
The first person who saw the fire under my skin and gave it shape.
I wish he could see me now.
Would he be proud?
Or terrified?
A commotion outside jolted me back.
"Lady Rin!" Morgra burst in. "The prisoner... the holy one... he's asking for you again."
Ah. Him.
I entered the dim cell where the captured Holy Alliance scout was kept. Bruised, but alive. Eyes sharp. A symbol of the sun carved into his gauntlet.
"You again", I said.
He looked up. "You're not a demon."
"No", I said. "I'm worse. I'm someone who used to believe in your alliance."
"What happened?"
I knelt beside him. "They sent me to die."
His face twisted. "Not everyone is your enemy."
I smiled coldly. "But enough were."
After I left the cell, Morgra followed me out, raising a brow. "Planning to convert him?"
"No", I said. "I want him to escape."
Morgra blinked. "That's… unusual."
"He'll go back. He'll tell them stories of the human who walks among monsters. He'll make them afraid."
I paused.
"And when they're afraid, they'll make mistakes."
That night, I sat at the war table again.
I laid out new formations. Drew new lines.
And in the flicker of torchlight, I whispered the next move to myself.
"Check."
The board wasn't finished yet. But the cracks were growing.
Soon, the whole damn thing would collapse.
And I would be the one left standing.