The battle hadn’t raged long, but it was already one of the most devastating ones I’d ever seen. I could only make out parts of it, the rest was blocked out by the haze of fires, shimmering air, sudden plant growth and dust as thick as any sandstorm. The foothills around the two clashing armies were torn up and tossed about, and many soldiers didn’t fare any better.

Tenira clenched me hand with a grip hard enough to break bone on most people. I gave her a reassuring squeeze, but didn’t take my eyes off the battlefield. The rest of my group stayed silent, as well, all of us watching disaster and knowing we couldn’t do anything to help.

The Zarian eighth-stagers didn’t mess around. In a way, the chaos of the battlefield was the only thing that saved even some of our soldiers. While the Zarian army was obviously careful not to get in the way, their presence limited their allies’ options if they didn’t want to get them caught in the devastation.

But I could clearly see it was only a matter of time, and not much of it.

The Imperial elites had consolidated their strength. Some of them were holding off the eighth-stagers pretty well, although with the amount of qi they used, they couldn’t keep it up forever. I clenched my jaw as I watched a squad of Zarian elites homing in one of the knots of resistance, scattering them with brutal attacks.

“It’s going to be over soon,” Kiyanu muttered. “Whoever hasn’t made it out already is almost out of luck.”

I nodded. The Imperial army had already sent the signal to retreat, of course, but that wasn’t easy. Two thirds of the Zarian eighth-stagers had spread out northward, hemming them in and hunting them down.

A fiery streak caught my attention. I narrowed my eyes, watching closely as the phoenix, who’d just broken through the storm, raced away. He was pursued by what had to be a Zarian seventh-stager, but acquitted himself pretty well. Soon, they were too far for me to make out anything.

“They can’t possibly think they’ll get away with this,” Elia commented, her voice tense.

I shrugged. “Pretty sure the Moon is already getting the others Greater Spirits to do something about it.”

Of course, I didn’t know how much good it might do, when right this moment they were grinding away the Empire’s strength in the south.

“Hush,” Kiyanu said. He leaned forward slightly.

Before I had the chance to respond, the feel of the qi in the distance changed slightly again. I unconsciously leaned forward, too. Suddenly, the battlefield was lit up even more brilliantly than before, with several spots of brightness that would have been blinding from close up. I blinked, then cycled more qi to my eyes.

The Zarian eighth-stagers in the sky plummeted towards the ground, impacting over their own soldiers. One of them seemed to still be burning, the other was sputtering out. When he reached the ground, there wasn’t much left of his body.

I cocked my head, trying to study the sensation of the qi I felt as well as I could. Well, this is something.

“There’s nothing more for us to see here,” Kiyanu said. “Let’s go.”

I considered arguing, but he was right. The battle had been almost over before this, and now it definitely was. The Zarian had taken some losses, too, but I knew they had gotten off lightly compared to our own. And the rest of their elites were free to roam further afield now.

Kiyanu moved us through the air again, though this time, I had the feeling he was doing it more carefully. I pulled some qi of my own and wove a veil around us that should help hide us from detection by enemy soldiers. It probably wouldn’t stand up to a high stage cultivator, but it couldn’t hurt.

The trip back took longer than before, and it passed in silent contemplation. No one seemed to be in a mood to talk. I looked south, but soon enough, I couldn’t make out anything anymore. I did note an airship and a few cultivators traveling in our direction. So far, they didn’t seem to have to worry about pursuit. That made me hope that at least some of our people would get out of this. It was still a disaster, of course. Even with the Zarian eighth-stagers dead. I wonder how they got them to do that? Maybe blackmail, or they gave them false assurances about being able to protect them. There weren’t that many eighth-stagers here, after all, and there are bound to be a few idiots in any group.

Kiyanu took us straight to the command post set up in the city. When he set us down in the stone courtyard and I suddenly had solid ground under my feet again, I couldn’t help stepping gingerly at first. It looked like the whole city was still in a state of alert, and a lot of eyes were watching us. By unspoken agreement, we trooped directly into the headquarters building, where we could talk with more privacy, except for Elis, who made a beeline to where the Basement had set up.

We ended up in a standard conference room with faded paintings hanging on the walls. I could sense several presences moving outside, and a few of my guards spreading out. They should alert Kajare and the others.

“Inaris, do you have anything more to say on this matter from the spirits?” Kiyanu asked.

I cocked my head, contemplating the question for a moment. “Not really. I do still feel some sensations, but nothing like a concrete message.”

Before we could continue the conversation, someone opened the door and cleared their throat. I turned to see a high-ranking officer I vaguely recognized. “Your Grace, we have important intelligence from our assets in the Dominion.”

Kiyanu straightened up and frowned. “Yes?”

“There appear to have been disturbances in several of the Dominion’s old cities. The capital has been placed under martial law. There seems to be some commotion at the Princeps’ Palace, and it has been locked down to all traffic. Similar has been done to several important families’ estates. We also have tentative reports that fighting might have broken out in a few of those.”

Elia cursed in a low voice. Kiyanu’s frown deepened. He nodded. “Please check if we can get confirmation of that, Colonel. Keep us posted, and call a meeting of the generals in half an hour.”

“At once, my lord.” The officer saluted and departed.

Silence reigned for a few moments after he had gone. We exchanged looks. Tenira appeared thoughtful, frowning into the distance. I leaned against the wall, while Elia pulled out a chair and lounged on it, her legs kicked onto another chair.

Then the door opened again and Elis stepped inside without bothering to knock or be invited. He looked a little paler than usual, with a slight frown on his face. He carried an untidy stack of papers in his right hand, which he laid on the next available table.

“We might have an issue,” he said. “If you can call it that. The Basement told me of disturbances all across the Dominion’s heartlands.”

“We’ve just heard of that,” Tenira said, nodding. “Disturbances, martial law in the capital, the palace and major houses in an uproar and locked down.”

Elis leaned against the table and sighed. “Yes, I’ve heard the same things. That’s not all, though.”

“What else?” I asked sharply. Kiyanu took a step closer.

“We just got a report from an agent in the countryside to the northeast of the Whitecaps,” he started. “Around a few large towns. He’s not very far up, and it took a while for the report to make it to someone who could send it to us over the established quick channels. The Zarian might already have detected the qi use by his communication talisman and apprehended him.”

Kiyanu nodded. “I see. That sounds like it was an urgent and important matter. What did he report?”

“He happened to see a powerful cultivator in the air, probably watching the countryside or perhaps looking for something. Quite suddenly, the woman started falling from the sky, accompanied by what sounds like a shockwave, and caught aflame. By the time her remains hit the ground, causing a minor earthquake and destroying a field, they were only scattered detritus. With her clearly dead.” Elis took a deep breath. “He was adamant he recognized her as Lin Lian, one of the Dominion’s black stage cultivators.”

There was a moment of silence in the conference room after he’d ended. I forced myself to relax my suddenly tense muscles and took a deep breath. Kiyanu sighed. “Well, isn’t that interesting. It fits with what we’ve seen before.”

“They’ve killed all the Dominion’s eighth-stage cultivators,” Tenira said quietly.

We all exchanged another look.

“That certainly would explain the news we’ve been hearing,” Elis agreed. “We’ll probably get more confirmation on other deaths from the Basement in time.”

“That will be good to have, but I think the matter is clear enough,” Kiyanu said.

I pulled a face. “You’re probably right.”

He glanced at me. “You don’t sound particularly happy, Inaris.”

“I’m not. I mean, there are, or were, almost a hundred black stage cultivators in the Dominion, and it seems like the spirits just killed them all out of hand for breaking our agreement.” I shook my head. “I’m aware they would have needed a majority of them to agree to it, or at least to sending envoys with the authority to negotiate. But some were almost certainly against it in the first place.”

“And the Greater Spirits killed them,” Elia said. “You’re surprised?”

I snorted. “No, not surprised. I know spirits don’t have human morality and I never expected them to adhere to it. I’m just uneasy.”

Kiyanu was frowning thoughtfully. “Who exactly did this, do you think? The Moon?”

“No. He might not have even involved himself directly. I get the feeling this was the other Greater Spirits.” I looked around the room. “And you can bet they didn’t do it without a reason. There are other punishments they could have extracted for breaking the contract.”

The others suddenly looked more pensive. I could tell that Elis was excited, and Tenira didn’t seem particularly upset, either. If anything, the gleam in her eyes was intently thoughtful. But they clearly realized this wasn’t the time to start celebrating.

“And what do we do now?” Tenira finally asked. “How do we best take advantage of this?”

“Well, I suppose it’s obvious that we now have the decisive advantage in black stage cultivators,” Kiyanu said. He hesitated, then looked around, taking a step towards the center of the room. “Wait. Something is coming. Inaris?”

I didn’t answer, but looked towards the door, where I now felt a familiar presence approaching. A second later, the door opened again and Mior strolled inside. The spirit was in a relatively solid form, but still looked like mist made of qi more than anything.

“You can’t use your eighth-stagers,” they said calmly, walking inside as if they had no care in the world.

I untensed a little and stepped towards them. “It’s good to see you. What do you mean, though?”

“What I said. The agreement is still in effect for you, as far as the Greater Spirits are concerned. Don’t let black stage cultivators fight unless you want to deal with the consequences.”

Kiyanu narrowed his eyes. “We appreciate the word of warning, honored spirit, but I have to admit it seems strange. Were you sent to tell us this?”

Mior nodded at the regent. “Yes, that’s right. The Moon sent me to let you know.”

Kiyanu and I exchanged a look. I knew we were both thinking the same thing.

“Well, that’s just great.” I leaned against the table and shook my head.

“What does this mean for the war?” Elia asked.

“In the long term, it’s clearly an advantage for us,” I answered, frowning. “But in the short term, it makes things harder. Assuming we even get far enough to consider a long term, I mean. The Zarian just wiped out a good chunk of our strength, and didn’t take as many casualties. And, in practice, neither of us can deploy eighth stagers, still.”

“That’s not the only thing,” Elis said. He looked a lot less happy now. “I mean, I’m not sure if the Empire could survive the loss of all its cultivators in the black stage …”

“Hm.” I ran a hand through my hair, still frowning in thought. “I think it probably could survive. Kiyanu would be dead, but I’d still be around, and so would the rest of the government. With the other eighth-stagers dead, I think Kariva could hold things together in the capital long enough for me to go there and settle them. Of course, other nations would smell blood. We would maybe have to actually turn a few cities to glass to show that, eighth-stagers or not, you don’t mess with the Empire. Still …” I grimaced. “Let’s try to avoid that, shall we?”

Yarani chuckled, shaking her head. Kiyanu nodded shortly, while Elis frowned. Elia was looking at Mior, who didn’t seem in a hurry to contribute anything.

“Right,” Elis said. “I was thinking about the Zarian, though. You know what this means?”

“Chaos, in all likelihood,” Kiyanu answered.

“In what way?” Tenira asked.

I glanced at her, then the others. “Other countries will hear of this and smell weakness. The Princeps just died. So did the heads of every great family in the Dominion, and quite a few of its government institutions. This makes the words ‘political crisis’ sound totally inadequate.”

“We already have reports of what might well be fighting in the capital,” Kiyanu added.

“Right. And the only significant institution who has not been beheaded here is the High Temple.” I shook my head. “The Storm is going to take advantage of this in a way that no one would have dared to dream of before. I expect that he and his followers are going to be practically ruling the Dominion soon enough. Maybe even officially.”

Another grim silence followed my last statements. Tenira stepped beside me and took my hand. I looked around at the others, sensing their reactions.

This had not gotten any easier.