They think I'm a monster. That's good.
Because monsters can move where humans cannot.
I stood before a fireless table. The map spread on it was marked with red dust and black pins. In the silence, I traced one finger across Murahl's Bend again, then curled it toward the edge, Ravenhill Wood. The place the Holy Alliance had never dared touch. Superstition, they'd said.
I would turn superstition into strategy.
Behind me, Sarthin cleared his bony throat. "Lady Rin. The scouts from the southern outpost returned. The humans advanced into the bend. Just as you predicted."
"Casualties?"
"Minimal. They've camped. They think we've fled."
"Excellent."
I motioned for the others to enter.
Kael arrived first, still silent as stone, his armor now dented and scuffed from patrol duty. Morgra followed, chewing something that may have once been bread, or at least claimed to be.
She flopped into her seat, slapping a rolled scroll down. "Fresh from the humans' side. Rumors of you, my Lady, are spreading. They think you're not real."
"Oh?"
"They say you're a puppet made by Valekhar. A false general. A ghost conjured from battlefield despair."
I smiled, brushing aside my bangs. "Let them believe that. It's easier to fear what they can't explain."
Morgra grinned back. "They're calling you 'the Mourning Fox'."
"…I've heard worse."
Kael snorted. "It's poetic, if inaccurate. You don't mourn."
I looked up at him. "I mourn quietly."
There was a pause.
Then Morgra added, "Loud enough to shatter entire alliances, apparently."
Later that night, I passed the lower trenches. The soldiers didn't see me, I preferred it that way. But I heard them.
"Did you see her eyes?" one muttered.
"I swear she doesn't blink", another said.
"That's because blinking is inefficient", whispered a third, awestruck.
I bit my lip to suppress a laugh. If only they knew I still blinked far too often when exhausted.
Still, fear made them obedient. Obedience led to order.
And order was the difference between victory and annihilation.
Back in my tent, I unrolled a hidden scroll from my cloak. It was old, handwritten by my teacher from the slums. Each character a memory.
"Always assume the enemy is smarter than you. Make them prove they're not."
He used to say that while sharpening knives we couldn't afford to use.
I sighed and dipped a pen into ink. I sketched a new outline: Ravenhill, Murahl's Bend, and three fallback tunnels we'd begun digging a week ago.
Then I added a fourth.
Unreal.
Invisible.
The tunnel that didn't exist… but would exist in the minds of the Holy Alliance by tomorrow morning.
"Deliver this", I told Morgra, handing her a falsified "intercepted" report. "Plant it. Let the humans think they've stolen it."
She raised a brow. "Another fake tunnel?"
"They'll divert half their forces to block it. Meanwhile, we'll hit them where they think they've already won."
She tucked it into her sash and winked. "Your mind's a twisted thing, Lady Rin."
"I consider that a compliment."
Kael remained behind after the others had gone.
He stood awkwardly, as if fighting himself.
"You're thinking something", I said.
"…You know I died choking on my own blood. That was the last thing I tasted."
I blinked. The shift caught me off guard.
He looked at me now, hollow and strong, yet heavy. "But I remember you, when you stood outside our camp gates in the human war. You offered us a plan. And we laughed. You were just a girl."
"I remember", I said softly.
"I think that's why I follow you now", Kael murmured. "Not because you serve the Demon King. But because I see in you… the blade that was never sharpened. Until now."
I said nothing. Words weren't needed.
We were both shaped by betrayal.
The wind outside picked up, whistling across the high cliffs. The Holy Alliance was preparing something, I could feel it in my bones. Perhaps they had a new general. Perhaps desperation was driving them.
Good.
Desperation makes people predictable.
And I had learned to weaponize predictability.
As I extinguished the candles, I whispered a phrase I once heard in the slums.
"The knife in the dark need not shine."
Let the humans light their torches.
I would be waiting in the dark.