The room had descended into shouting, but one of the faction leaders had sat silent the entire time, his head bowed, his knuckles white.
That battalion that had been wiped out? That was his. The twenty thousand diggers? Almost all of them were his followers. The fortress that had fallen? That was the outpost he'd been tasked with guarding.
If it had been a fair fight, if the moles had just charged in and overwhelmed them, he could have swallowed it. Bad luck, bad strategy, that happened in war. But this? Fire magic. Lightning magic. Blowing up the entire camp from the inside. And the explosives had been buried right where his men had been digging.
It was too perfect. Too targeted.
He lifted his head, his eyes red with rage, but he said nothing. What could he say? He had no proof. No way to prove who'd betrayed him.
Lex Thorne leaned forward, his voice cold and sharp, cutting through the shouting. "Enough. We all know what this means. There's a traitor in our ranks. Someone's been feeding the moles information, helping them hit us from the inside. Speak up. What do you think we should do?"
The room went quiet for a second, then one of the leaders pointed at the man across the table. "It's him! Roran! Your followers are lava demons and thunderbirds! That's exactly the fire and lightning magic we found at the attack site! It's you! You're the traitor!"
Roran's face turned red with fury. He slammed his fist on the table. "Don't you dare spit that garbage at me! What about you, Gareth? Your lightning elves have lightning magic! And your fire dragons, Torvin! You've got fire magic too! You two had a grudge against Voren, the one who lost all his men! You framed me so you could get his territory! And you blamed the moles to cover your tracks!"
Gareth jumped to his feet, screaming. "Are you insane? Why would I use my own magic to frame you? The examiners can trace the magic residue! They'd know it was me in ten seconds! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"
Roran snorted, crossing his arms. "Exactly! That's why you framed me! Everyone knows my followers are fire and lightning! It's so obvious it has to be me! You thought we'd never suspect you were using reverse psychology to frame me! You think I'm an idiot?!"
Torvin, the third leader, leaned in, his voice low. "Maybe he's right. Reverse psychology would explain it. You've been acting weird ever since the moles attacked, Roran. I knew you were up to something."
The room exploded into shouting again, everyone pointing fingers, everyone accusing everyone else. Seraphina Voss, the former leader of the Wanderers' Coalition, sat in the corner, her brow furrowed, watching the chaos.
This scene. It was so familiar.
This was exactly what had happened to the Wanderers' Coalition, six months ago. Everyone had started accusing each other of being spies, of betraying the group, and before they knew it, the whole alliance had fallen apart.
She bit her lip, looking away. She didn't have any right to speak up. She was just a guest here, the leader of a broken alliance that had already fallen apart. No one cared what she thought. Better to stay quiet, stay out of trouble.
Lex rubbed his temples, his head throbbing. He'd had enough. He slammed his fist on the table, the stone cracking under the impact. "SHUT UP!"
The room went dead silent.
"The enemy is still out there!" Lex roared, his voice echoing off the walls. "And you're here fighting each other! I will figure out who the traitor is, I promise you that. But until I have proof, no one makes a move. No one accuses anyone else. Got it?"
He leaned forward, his eyes cold. "We don't have enough followers left to fight among ourselves. The monster invasion is coming soon. If we split up, if we break the alliance, we're all dead. The monsters will wipe us out one by one. And the penalty for dying to monsters? It's three times worse than dying to another follower. So we stick together. We work together. Or the alliance dissolves, and we all lose."
No one said a word. They all knew he was right. The monster invasion was the biggest part of the tournament, the part that gave the most points. If they didn't have an alliance to hold them together, they'd never survive.
One by one, they stood up, grabbing their reports, and filed out of the room, silent, glowering at each other, every one of them convinced the other was the traitor.
When the door closed, Lex let out a long, frustrated sigh, slumping back in his chair.
He couldn't wrap his head around it. A traitor. In his own alliance.
The fire and lightning magic had been Rank 2 peak, almost Rank 3. And the ice magic that had killed his general? That was Rank 3 peak. Working together, from the inside and outside. His men hadn't stood a chance. None of them had even hit Rank 2 mid.
Who was this traitor? What had the moles offered them?
Lex frowned, staring at the wall. It didn't make sense. The moles were a tiny, insignificant faction. They had nothing. Compared to the Conquest Legion, they were nothing. He paid his followers well, gave them the best supplies, the best training. Why would anyone betray him, risk the entire Legion's wrath, just to work with a bunch of moles hiding in the dirt?
What could those moles possibly offer that was better than what he could give?
He couldn't figure it out. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't see it.
Thirty miles away, in the underground fortress, Lirael the Elven King stared at the piles of grain and supplies, grinning so wide his cheeks hurt.
They'd done it. The whole traitor gambit had worked perfectly. The Conquest Legion was tearing itself apart from the inside, just like they'd planned.
"Man, that illusion magic is good," he said, patting Wolfric the Shifter King on the back. "You guys see those idiots? They actually believed there was a traitor in their ranks. They're all pointing fingers at each other. It's hilarious."
Gromm nodded, stacking crates of weapons in the corner. "Yeah, it was perfect. And the cross-attribute magic? No one ever suspects we can learn other elements. They think because we're ice and rock and void, we can't do fire and lightning. They're so lazy, they never bother learning more than one magic. Why would they? They've got their gods giving them everything they want. They don't need to."
Korg grunted, tossing a sack of grain onto the pile. "Right. They think learning other magic is a waste of time. They don't know the Overgod taught us that you can learn anything, if you put the work in. It doesn't matter if the power's a little weaker. It's worth it, if it lets you trick the enemy like that."
Lirael nodded, leaning over the map of the continent, tapping the northern coast. "Right. But we can't just keep hitting the Conquest Legion. If we break them too fast, then the Tide Pact will take over the whole continent. We can't let any one of them get too strong. We need to keep them balanced, keep them fighting each other, so we can pick up the pieces."
He looked up, grinning. "So I was thinking. We hit the Tide Pact's supply lines. Make it look like the Conquest Legion did it. Then they'll get mad, they'll send their army up to attack Lex. Then the two of them will beat the crap out of each other, and we'll just sit back, steal all their supplies, and wait for the monster invasion."
Gromm blinked, then grinned. "Oh, that's brilliant. The sea coast doesn't have any tunnels, right? But we've got Wolfric, and Elowen's illusions. We can sneak in, hit their caravans, leave Lex's mark on the bodies. They'll never know it was us."
Lirael nodded. "Exactly. And if they do start to suspect? We'll hit Lex's caravans too, leave the Tide Pact's mark. They'll be so busy fighting each other, they won't even notice us."
Three days later, Lex got the report.
The Tide Pact. Finn Marrick's sea alliance. They'd sent their army north, landing on the northern coast, marching straight into Conquest Legion territory.
Lex's face turned red with rage. He slammed the report on the table.
"Good. Good!" He snarled, standing up. "Those sea rats think they can take advantage of us, just because we've got the moles to deal with? They think they can walk right onto our land and steal our territory?"
He'd been so frustrated lately. He had the strongest army in the tournament, the best followers, the best training. But he couldn't do anything with the moles. They hid in the dirt, they hit him from the shadows, they wouldn't fight him fair and square.
But the Tide Pact? Those sea rats. They were coming onto land. His land.
Sure, the underground was the moles' territory. But on the surface? This was his home field.
He grinned, a cold, hungry glint in his eyes. He'd been waiting for this. He'd been cooped up, getting hit from all sides, unable to hit back. Finally, he had someone he could fight. Someone he could beat.
"Send the order!" He roared, grabbing his sword. "All followers, assemble! We've got fifty thousand warriors. We're marching north! We're going to teach those sea rats what happens when they mess with the Conquest Legion!"
His men cheered, grabbing their weapons, rushing to assemble. Lex marched out of the fortress, his eyes blazing. Finally. He was going to get to fight. Finally, he was going to get to spill some blood.
---
In her private viewing box, Laia Hayes stared at the scrying screen, watching the fifty thousand Conquest Legion warriors marching north, then at the Tide Pact's army marching south, and blinked.
She'd been eating her cream puffs, calculating how much money she needed for her sandwich shop, minding her own business. And suddenly, the two biggest armies in the tournament were about to fight each other.
"Oh!" She said, clapping her hands. "Wow, they're actually fighting! That's great! If they're busy fighting each other, they won't have time to come after me and my followers! That means I'm safe! I can just sit here, wait for them to beat each other up, and then win the tournament! That's perfect!"
She took a big bite of her cream puff, grinning. This was the best thing that could have happened. She didn't have to do anything. The big guys were going to fight each other, and she was just going to sit back, collect the prize money, and open her sandwich shop.
Life was good.
---
In the monitoring spire, Headmaster Valerius stared at the screen, watching the two armies marching toward each other, then at Laia, who was happily eating pastries in her box, and chuckled.
He shook his head, smiling.
That girl. She had no idea. She had no idea that her followers had just started a war between the two biggest alliances in the tournament. She had no idea that she was about to become the biggest power in the entire realm.
He couldn't wait to see what happened next.