“First Green! Yeah! Told you I could do it!” Zac jumped beside Mahon as the two men approached their new residence.

Their own residence. The building was smaller than their previous house, but they had one only for them. It was a simple mansion, with two bedrooms, a living room and a training room. For the first time since they were at school, they had their own individual room and residence.

“I admit I doubted you at first, but you did good.”

“Doubted me?! Really? But I’m the best, my friend. Watch your back. I’m coming fast!”

Mahon chuckled at his friend’s enthusiasm. Although he had carefully chosen his opponent, Zac still managed a clean victory while fighting and showed he wasn’t afraid of a difficult strategy duel. Mahon didn’t think his friend would manage it the first time, but he had no doubt about Zac’s final success. His friend proved him wrong and succeeded on the first try.

“We need to celebrate!” Zac shouted suddenly.

“You want to buy another instrument?”

“No, no, something bigger. And with Ash too. Oh! Did you find any interesting areas for the picnic? We could go somewhere, just the three of us, and celebrate it properly.”

“As a matter of fact, I did find some adequate and beautiful places not too far from the city.”

“Perfect. Let’s leave before the tournament, then. We’ve got a day off.”

Mahon acquiesced with a sad smile. “We could do that, yes. I don’t want to dampen the mood, though, but there are still Fada cultists to stop.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know… When is the next meeting?”

“At banquet night.”

Zac had calmed down a bit, and the two friends sat on the couch in their living room.

“It’s a full meeting?”

“I don’t think so. They talked about infiltrating someone’s house to steal documents. It shouldn’t involve burning something to the ashes this time, but that’s not a reason to delay the problem.”

Zac sighed, and he crossed his legs on the table in front of them while slumping further on the couch. “You’re right. But what can you do exactly? If the backer isn’t there, you can’t do anything to stop them all.”

“True. I need to talk to Jorik, but I’m starting to get tired of the incessant schemes going around. At least in Nightmare you knew who the enemy was…”

Zac put his hand on Mahon’s shoulder. “Hey, there is no need to be like that. We’ll get rid of the cult quickly and then go to war against Amentiae. You’ll feel better.”

Mahon laughed at his friend’s teasing smile. “First time someone told me that we’ll go fight Amentiae in a reassuring way. But I actually might prefer to fight them than deal with this shit.”

The two friends stayed silent for a bit, enjoying the comfort of their new house, each lost in their thoughts. Mahon started to believe what he imagined his life would be in Ratho was a far cry from what it would really be. Was he really doing what he should do?

It was too different from Nightmare. More convoluted. The Fada cult was just an episode, and Zac was right in saying they would put an end to them soon, now that they knew most of their members. But who was the real enemy? The Amentiae? Or the noble families?

In Nightmare, everyone was fighting to survive, united against the Amentiae. The limit between good and bad was crystal clear. Fighting there had a sense. In Ratho, the limit was more blurred, indistinct. To Mahon at least.

He knew nothing about the noble families when he first came to Ratho, but now he started to get a pretty rough idea of who they were. They ruled Ratho in the shadows by controlling the war. Their role was crucial as they played a big part in preserving the balance, but who could say they did it correctly? They were not stupid enough to blow up the throne they were sitting on, but they clearly did everything they could to increase their power. Including toying with people’s lives. They were maybe not the most dangerous threat, but they were one nonetheless.

On the other hand, Mahon had no clue about the real danger that was the Amentiae. He thought he knew more than most, given what he went through, alas Ratho was also different from Nightmare in this aspect. What was really happening on the front line? What was the battlefield like? Only the noble’s propaganda reached his ears, and he only heard about an endless status quo. There wasn’t even much talk about heroic feats or death count. And it seemed no one was really paying attention to any of it.

Wasn’t the war supposed to be at the center of everyone’s life? Shouldn’t everyone know more about it? The question bothered him since the day he had learned about the nobles and their schemes, and he couldn’t prevent himself from thinking they had schemed with the war too. Mahon was pretty sure the war existed, as it was too big to fake. But there was something uncanny about it.

It was too silent. Too welcomed. Too accepted. And at the same time, everyone seemed to ignore it. Zac wasn’t too bothered by not knowing what happened, but he had lived all his life in Ratho. Mahon had fought in the Nightmare war. He needed to know what happened there. Were there really warriors fighting silently for their life every minute of every hour to defend Ratho? Or was it something else?

At first, Mahon didn’t dig too much, as he was just learning about Ratho, but now he needed to know. He would not spend decades trying to change the pretense of a war that was already at the whim of the noble families. Luckily, he knew exactly who to ask to know more.

“You’re with Ash tonight?” He asked Zac.

“Yeah. Why? You need me?” His friend answered, ready to change his plan for him.

Mahon smiled back. “No, no, don’t worry. Enjoy your evening. I’m gonna see Yordar.”

“You really need to find another girlfriend.” Zac teased him while Mahon left, a smile lingering on his lips.

He walked the long way to the administrative district with determination. He would have answers tonight. It had been a long time since he last came here, with everything that happened in the meantime, but he found his way back to the only lively house with ease. He knocked at the door, and Yordar welcomed him a few seconds later.

“Mahon? You’ve finally got some time? Come in, come in!”

Mahon smiled at the professor and followed him into the room he used to learn the differences and similarities between Nightmare and Ratho. Surprisingly, Elmer was also here. He hadn’t seen his past comrade since he had started the cult infiltration almost two months ago. He had to clear his evenings from any recurrent events, just to stay ready for anything coming from the cult. Even the banquet night hadn’t been an exception to the rules, as per Jorik’s orders.

“The young monster is back!” Elmer greeted him as soon as he saw him.

“You’re still alive, old man?” Mahon answered tit for tat with a smile.

The two men hugged each other briefly before Mahon spoke.

“Finally got time for some good strategy games?” Elmer asked with enthusiasm.

Mahon grimaced. “Not really. The Fada cult is still running, and I need to be on the stand so…” He paused, but seeing Elmer's dejected face, he quickly added. “We’re very close to catching them, though.”

“Don’t worry Mahon, we’ve got plenty of time.” Yordar answered. “You’re just in your first year. We’re used to it being a bit chaotic. The more you progress, the more time you’ll have to spend with us, and we’ll be here.” The Last Blue smiled. “But you’re here for something else, then? You have something to ask?”

Mahon acquiesced slowly. “Yes. About the Amentiae… What are the front lines like?”

Yordar didn’t seem to care much about the blunt question and started to explain.

“I don’t want to spoil too much, and it’s hard to describe it without seeing it for yourselves. There are dozens of walls, more or less ruined between us and the Amentiae, making the battlefield really impressive but also kind of chaotic. You should see it soon, don’t worry. Usually the school brings you there after the first year challenge is over.”

“First year challenge? The tournament?” Mahon asked, unsure.

“No, no, the tournament is something else. The first year challenge is the arrest of the Fada cult in your case. Once the exercise is over, you’ll be brought to the frontline as some kind of reward. You proved yourself by solving a simple problem, and now you can move on to the real enemy.”

Mahon ticked at the words chosen to describe cultists killing innocent people in the streets because of the nobility’s schemes, but he didn’t say anything about it.

“I was more asking about how the war is? What are the Amentiae doing? How are we faring? I’ve only Nightmare as a reference, and this seems… different.”

“Oh.” Yordar simply stated, a knowing look in his eyes.

The old professor was too good at reading people not to know what Mahon’s thoughts were. He also knew who was the best person to explain such things to him, and he glanced at Elmer. The Last White easily understood the signal and started to explain.

“It’s very different from Nightmare, that’s for sure. The battlefield made it so. We’re not spawning in the middle of a fight. There are no citizens entangled in the fray, running for their life. The Amentiae aren’t rushing at us as soon as they see us. It’s more of a trench warfare.”

“Trench warfare?”

“A term we often use to describe two sides not moving from their positions, just holding the frontier.” Yordar intervened. “We’ll see some scenarios next year.”

“And what are the armies doing, then? Just waiting?” Mahon asked with a dubious look.

“Kind of.” Elmer answered. “You’re in a situation where it’s unfavorable for both sides to attack. So each side waits for the other to try something.”

“How does waiting look like a war, then?” Mahon asked after some time, eyeing the reaction of his elders.

“It depends on your definition of a war. If it’s constant battles and skirmishes until someone wins, then yes, it’s not a war. If it’s people dying to defend their territory from invaders, then it is.” Yordar explained with a gentle smile.

“So the Amentiae are attacking us?” Mahon tried to decipher what the two veterans were telling him.

“Sometimes, yes. But even if there’re not, just blocking our ways out of this enclave is enough to qualify them as enemies to me.” Elmer spoke.

“I’ve no doubt there are our enemies, but how is the war against them going? Are we waiting behind our walls, scared of their attacks? Are they that powerful? How often do they attack? How often do we attack?”

“You misunderstood. No one is attacking.”

“I don’t understand.”

“A long time ago, it was probably full-out battles day after day, year after year. Nowadays, however, it has become a battle for information. Scouts are sent to probe enemy’s lines and guess their intentions. There is no full scale battle.” Seeing Mahon’s lost gaze, Elmer raised from his seat and cleared a nearby table from its map and figurines. “Let me illustrate this.”

He searched for a specific map on the shelves and laid it out on the table. He added a few figurines here and there and continued his explanation.

“Here are the walls.” He pointed to different structures separating the two sides of the map. There were a dozen of them, and the closest they were to Ratho, the more intact they were. Some of the walls were just piles of rocks spread around.

“There are twelve walls defending us from the Amentiae. Nine of them have already been breached by the Amentiae. It was a long time ago though, and as of today, we’re controlling the sixth wall and higher.”

Elmer pointed at the map which walls he was talking about before continuing.

“We fixed the breached walls, so there are still seven intact walls between our enemy and Ratho. The Amentiae control the second and first walls, but they didn’t really repair them. It’s just where their main forces are. All the area between the second and sixth walls is the battlefield. There are three ruined walls inside, and it’s where most of the skirmishes happen. Scouts from both sides fight in these areas for minor controls. Sometimes a bigger army is sent, but since the walls are broken, we never manage to hold the position for long enough to repair them fully.”

Mahon’s understanding of the battlefield became clearer. “So the Amentiae’s goal is to take over the sixth wall and we aim to reclaim and rebuild the fifth, is that right?”

Elmer didn’t answer directly, looking back at Yordar for help instead.

“Normally, yes. But the reality is we haven’t launched a real attempt to take back the fifth for years now.”

“Why stay so passive? Did we lose the initiative? Do we lack courage to face the Amentiae?” Mahon asked, pushing the subject even more.

He wanted to understand. Were they so overwhelmed by the Amentiae they couldn’t even launch a counterattack? Was the task really so hard when they had multiple people at the level of Elmer or even Yordar on their side? He couldn’t conceive they weren’t even able to fight back that they hadn’t even tried for years.

“No, not really. The Amentiae didn’t attack the sixth wall for years either.”

“What? Then what is really going on?”

“We’ve been in such a stalemate for so long that both sides kind of abandoned their objectives.” Elmer finally said.

“I don’t understand.”

“There is a balance. Some kind of unspoken agreement between the Amentiae and us. They know they can’t breach our wall without losing a big part of their forces. And they’d have to repeat that feat for each following wall. It’s too much, even for them.”

“That’s good for us! Why aren’t we attacking, then?”

“We can’t take back their position, either. They have formidable generals and fighters we can’t beat when they have the advantage of the home ground. And if we lose too much, they will counterattack just after. We already tried it. It’s as we said at the beginning. Both sides will lose too much from a direct confrontation. So we just watch each other carefully, probing here and there once upon a time to see if we’re both still here, waiting.”

A heavy silence followed his declaration, Mahon finally realizing what it was about. The two sides were not strong enough to win against the other. Yet they couldn’t lower their guard, or the enemy would immediately pounce on them at the first show of weakness. The war was only a procession of scouts from both sides, checking on the enemy’s formation and sometimes clashing when they met each other.

“There is no grand war to protect humanity, right?” Mahon asked, but it didn’t sound much like a question.

“No.” Elmer simply stated.

Mahon then turned to Yordar, scrutinizing his face carefully. The Last Blue had once been in the highest position. He knew everything about this fight.

“What are the chances the Amentiae break our defense and invade Ratho?”

Yordar didn’t even hesitate for a single second to answer.

“None.”

Mahon took a deep inspiration before asking the second important question. Or maybe it was the most important one.

“What are the chances we break free of their encirclement?”

Yordar answered with the same assurance and resignation.

“None.”