Irina's office was cramped and frigid. Dark steel walls, a single wooden desk, one chair, and a steam-lamp that cast a dim, sickly yellow glow. There were no ornaments to speak of. Only a map of the Sea of Mist laid flat across her desk, buried under stacks of reports she never bothered to discard.
It was well past midnight, yet her dark gray uniform remained immaculate. Her stark white hair was pulled back tightly, not a single strand out of place.
Her index finger traced the shipping lane from the port to Northreach. Slowly. Right in the middle of the ocean, her finger stopped. She dipped a quill into red ink and marked a single dot.
A tiny dot. It meant nothing to anyone else. Not yet.
"General." An older officer stood at the doorway, flanked by another who was clearly fresh out of the academy. "This afternoon, you said to only delay them. No casualties."
"This afternoon, I hadn't finished weighing our options."
Irina didn't even glance up from the map.
