The silence in the Capitol’s strategy room was heavy enough to bend steel. The air, usually crisp with mountain chill, felt thick with the heat of three separate crises breathing down their necks. Kaelan stood at the head of a hexagonal table of polished basalt, his council arrayed before him like pieces on a board that had suddenly, violently expanded.Before them lay the evidence: Yorin’s report on the shattered Thought-Sink, the scout’s sketch of the golden laurel banner, and Elara’s dossier on the Gnaw-Root/Deep-Dwarf dispute, now codenamed ‘The Silvervein Impasse.’“We are under simultaneous attack from three vectors,” Kaelan stated, his voice the calm eye of the gathering storm. “Espionage from Arcturus. Military posturing from an unknown power to the east. And a destabilizing internal conflict threatening our resource base. We will address them in order of existential threat.”He tapped the scout’s sketch. “Marcus Viridian. Roderick, what do we know?”His brother, now Marshal o

Kaelan’s Tactical Simulation was a churning ocean of probabilities, but its surface in the real world was a tense, waiting calm. The Federation held its breath. Then, the replies came, not with a bang, but with the cold precision of a guillotine’s descent.The first response was from the east. It arrived not with a legion, but with a single rider bearing a scroll case of polished brass. General Marcus Viridian did not deign to write to Kaelan directly. The message was a formal military communiqué, addressed to ‘The Governing Authority of the Northpass Region.’It was a masterpiece of arrogant condescension.“To the Authority of Northpass,Your… geological concerns have been noted and assessed by the engineering corps of the Fourth Tieron Legion. No anomalies were detected. The legion will remain in its current position to conduct scheduled mapping and resource assessment exercises, in accordance with the rights of a sovereign power in unclaimed frontier territory.Be advised that any

The Stoneflower Basin was a masterclass in Roman-esque efficiency. Within a week of their withdrawal, the Fourth Tieron Legion had transformed the high mountain valley into a fortress city in miniature. Earthen ramparts rose in geometric perfection. Roads were paved with crushed stone. A permanent command post, a praetorium of timber and canvas that would soon be stone, stood at the center. It wasn't a camp; it was a colony. The message was clear: they were not leaving. They were institutionalizing their presence.The Federation's response was not to fortify its own border further, but to open it.Kaelan authorized a small, regulated trade outpost on their eastern edge, where Federation fur-trappers and Tieron quartermasters could exchange goods under the watchful eyes of both sides' guards. It was a pressure valve, a controlled point of contact. The Tieron soldiers, under strict orders, were aloof but professional. They paid in strange, heavy coins of imperial bronze for furs and med

The Aegis Cell worked through the night, the air in their hidden cellar thick with the smell of lamp oil, nervous sweat, and the faint, sweet scent of the Gnaw-Root's clay tablets. Kaelan’s directive was clear: they needed to weaponize the narrative they had been feeding Arcturus. They had to plant information so compelling, so dangerous, that it would force a reaction, creating a distraction or a vulnerability in the Empire's flawless facade.The key, they realized, lay in the Silvervein. Not the silver, but the geology. The maps stolen by the dwarves weren't just about tunnels; they were about seismic stability, mineral deposits, and the vast, high-pressure aquifer the Federation had already discovered and quietly weaponized."We give them a secret," Lira said, her eyes gleaming in the lamplight. "But not the secret of the aquifer. We give them a better one. A lie they will believe is worth an empire's attention."They pored over the Gnaw-Root’s deep-earth maps, the ones not shared

Project Mirage worked too well. The chaos it sowed among the Tieron geomancers didn't lead to a withdrawal; it led to escalation. General Viridian, a man who trusted data and discipline above all, saw the magical interference not as a natural phenomenon, but as a hostile act, a confirmation that the Federation was hiding the true Ignium source. The "protective garrison" at Castrum Ignis swelled to a full cohort. Patrols became more frequent, more aggressive, straying over the agreed border lines. A Tieron scout, mapping a ridge, was found by a Federation patrol inside their territory, calmly taking notes. The ensuing standoff ended with the scout's detention and a furious communiqué from Viridian demanding his immediate release and an apology for the "unprovoked aggression."The Federation was a hair's breadth from an armed incident. The strain was a visible crack running through the city. The market square, once bustling with confidence, was now tense. Conversations hushed when Silas