When the horn sounded from the northern watchtower, the entire wall crew paused. Ludger stood up straight and squinted toward the hills.
A dark line had formed along the horizon—movement.
Five hundred barbarians marched in formation, their furs and leathers shifting like a rolling wave of gray and brown under the sunlight. Yet none of them advanced past the open plains. They stopped far enough from the town to show they weren’t here for a fight.
One man kept walking. Kharnek.
He came alone, his heavy steps echoing faintly against the road that led to the gate. A new iron club rested across his shoulder—roughly forged, scratched with faint tribal markings, and still unevenly balanced. Not better than the last one, but it didn’t seem like he cared about that.
From the battlements, the soldiers shifted uneasily. Bows and spears bristled at the ready, but no order to attack came.
When the gates opened with a slow groan, Ludger, Viola, Arslan, his party and Captain Darnell were there waiting. The air hung heavy with tension, though Ludger made a deliberate effort to look calm—hands behind his back, posture loose, eyes steady.
Kharnek stopped a few steps inside the threshold, his presence filling the space like thunder before a storm. The scars on his arms had healed, the bruises faded, but his gaze still burned with the same fierce pride.
He looked over them one by one—the captain, the girl who claimed the authority of Torvares’ blood, and finally Ludger, the boy whose walls now cut the horizon.
Then, with that same rumbling tone that seemed to shake from his chest rather than his throat, he said simply:
“I am here.”
No titles. No speeches. Just those three words, heavy enough to make even the wind hesitate.
Ludger exhaled quietly through his nose and nodded. “Good,” he said, voice dry but steady. “Then let’s talk.”
And as the gates closed behind Kharnek, the air within the fortress grew still—like the world itself was waiting to see if this meeting would build peace… or spark another war.
The group moved in silence through the streets. Kharnek’s heavy steps thudded against the cobblestone while curious eyes followed from windows and rooftops. The barbarians outside the walls had remained still, disciplined; only their leader had entered. Even that was enough to put half the town on edge.
Ludger led them toward the southern side of town — to a wide, empty stretch of cleared ground where the Lionsguard’s guildhall was supposed to stand. For now, it was just dirt, flattened and packed smooth.
Kharnek raised an eyebrow. “This is where you plan to hold a council?”
“Not yet,” Ludger said. “Give me a minute.”
He crouched, pressing one palm against the ground. Mana pulsed through the soil, vibrating faintly under their feet. The air shimmered, and in seconds, the packed earth began to shift — rising, folding, hardening.
Walls sprang up around them, thick slabs of stone locking into place with a sound like thunder rolling underground. The formation closed off into a compact building, crude but solid, sunlight streaming in through a rough skylight in the ceiling.
Even the captain, who’d seen Ludger build more than half of the fortress, muttered a low curse. Viola folded her arms and smirked faintly, proud and smug in equal measure.
Kharnek just stared, his jaw set tight. His sharp eyes traced every movement, watching how the boy commanded the ground as if it were an extension of his will. The realization sank in — if Ludger had truly gone all out during the battle, those walls and pillars could have been weapons, not defenses. Half his men might never have left that field alive.
He grunted, his grip on the iron club tightening once before he set it aside.
Ludger exhaled lightly and then raised both hands again. The ground rippled once more, and a smooth, circular table rose from the floor, followed by several sturdy chairs. The edges were rough, unfinished, but the symmetry was perfect — carved in seconds, shaped with precision that no mason could match.
“There,” Ludger said, brushing dust off his palms. “Not fancy, but private enough.”
He gestured toward the seats, his expression calm but his tone edged with practicality. “Let’s talk before anyone else starts sharpening their weapons again.”
Kharnek lowered himself into one of the chairs, the structure creaking slightly under his weight. His eyes never left Ludger.
The boy met his gaze evenly, his expression unreadable — part craftsman, part negotiator, and part strategist who’d already begun building something much larger than walls.
Ludger leaned back in his chair, letting the newly formed stone creak beneath him. The room still smelled like fresh earth and dust, but it was sturdy enough for a serious talk — not that he intended to keep it too serious.
“Well,” he started, glancing between Viola and Kharnek with a half-smirk, “we don’t have to talk all stiff and formal. Viola here might have noble blood, but she’s basically a barbarian herself.”
Viola’s eyebrow twitched. “Excuse me?”
Ludger gestured lazily toward her with one hand. “She studies etiquette every morning, but the lessons run away from her brain like they’re allergic to her. Can’t be helped.”
Her glare could have melted iron. Kharnek frowned, glancing between them as if trying to decide whether this was an insult or some strange form of court ritual.
Ludger only shrugged, his tone casual. “Just saying we can skip the noble nonsense. Makes talks faster.”
When neither of them replied, he sighed and straightened in his chair, his smirk fading into something more measured. “Anyway, what we said a week ago still stands. We want cooperation. Not conquest, not truce under threat — actual alliance. You help us, we help you. The goal is—”
“Stop.”
Kharnek’s voice rumbled across the room like distant thunder. His brow furrowed, and the muscles in his jaw tightened. “Do not call us barbarians.”
Ludger blinked once, surprised by the force in his tone.
Kharnek leaned forward slightly, his deep-set eyes sharp enough to cut stone. “That is what your Empire called us — beasts, savages, lesser. We are not that. We are people of the North. Our ancestors lived on these lands long before your banners came. You will call us northerners.”
For a few seconds, silence filled the room. Even Viola, who had been ready to throw a retort a moment ago, sat quietly.
Then Ludger nodded once, calm and deliberate. “Alright,” he said evenly. “Northerners it is.”
He met Kharnek’s glare without flinching. “Now that we’ve cleared that up,” he continued, leaning forward, “let’s talk about what this alliance actually means — and how we make sure neither side gets crushed again.”
The table between them thrummed faintly with residual mana, the earthy walls holding in the tension as the first real negotiation between the Empire’s frontier and the people of the North began.
Ludger rested his elbows on the stone table, fingers interlaced. The air inside the room was thick — not with hostility, but with the weight of things unsaid. Kharnek’s stare hadn’t softened, and Viola’s arms were still crossed, but Ludger spoke anyway, his tone steady, matter-of-fact.
“This conflict between the Northerners and the Empire…” he began, “it’s been going on longer than any of us have been alive. And it’s not about borders or honor — it’s about the simple fact that both sides were taught to hate the other. The Empire calls you barbarians, you call them tyrants. Every generation just keeps picking up the same weapons and fighting the same war.”
Kharnek’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t interrupt.
“You’re strong,” Ludger continued, looking directly at him. “Stronger than most I’ve seen. And your people? If it weren’t for me, my father, and the others, you could’ve taken this place back. Maybe even pushed farther south.”
Kharnek grunted quietly, but his silence confirmed the truth of it.
“But strength doesn’t fix everything,” Ludger added bluntly. “If the other lords from the neighboring territories had bothered to help when the first attacks started, things would’ve been cleaner. But they didn’t. They want to see this border fall, to see Lord Torvares fail.”
Viola frowned deeply at that but didn’t argue — she knew he was right.
Ludger leaned back slightly, his tone cooling into a sharp edge. “If this town fell, they’d call it a tragedy for the Empire. But behind the scenes, they’d be smiling. Then, after your people retook it, the Empire would send reinforcements — their reinforcements — crush you again, and hand the land to another noble who’d bow and scrape at their feet.”
The words hung heavy in the air.
Kharnek’s expression twisted — not quite anger, but something deeper, older. His jaw clenched, the muscle twitching under his scarred skin. He didn’t like hearing it, but he didn’t deny it either.
He finally said, low and rough, “You think I don’t know that? That’s the way of the south. They talk about unity while carving each other’s throats for scraps.”
Ludger gave a faint, humorless smile. “Exactly. Which is why I wanted this meeting — to stop being their pawns. You, me, the Torvares family — we’re the ones holding this border together. If they want us gone, we’ll make ourselves too useful to remove.”
He tapped the table with his finger once, the sound echoing in the quiet. “But to do that, we’ll need to work together. Even if everyone else hates the idea.”
Kharnek’s eyes met his again — less fire, more calculation this time. The kind of look a warrior gives another who speaks a language of survival rather than diplomacy.
The tension didn’t break. But for the first time, it shifted — from opposition to consideration.
Ludger let the silence sit a heartbeat longer, watching Kharnek’s chest rise and fall. Then he leaned forward, palms flat on the rough stone table like a man about to sign something that would change the map.
“We don’t just share territory,” he said low, steady. “We share a use. You and your people guard the labyrinth’s depths. We—Lionsguard and Torvares—manage the entrances, the trade, the legal cover. Rangers, guides, joint patrols. If a danger comes out of the deep, we handle it together. If you want to harvest something from inside, we do it in common. No one walks in alone. No one claims it as a trophy. With us, you can gain a lot more by selling the products at decent price and then you can get from us whatever makes your life easier.”
He tapped the table. “That sets expectations for the nobles and merchants. They see joint patrols, mixed parties, joint profits. That quiets the gossip and gives the Torvares family time. The Empire will grumble. They’ll sniff around. But after the conflict and the truce, they’ll have no clean reason to topple him right now . Not without looking like fools. That delay is everything — it’s the breathing space we need to consolidate.”
Kharnek’s jaw flexed. “And if they don’t care about looking like fools?” he asked. His voice was sharper now — suspicion braided with practical worry. “If some lord says this must end, they can bring banners that dwarf your Lionsguard.”
“That’s why we prepare,” Ludger said. “Not just walls and soldiers. Intelligence, trade ties, shared wealth. Make Torvares too useful to replace. Make the labyrinth itself a liability for anyone who wants to seize it. And most important—make the Northerners’ involvement visible and profitable, not a secret shame they can point to.” He shrugged once. “If Kharnek’s men are investors in the route, merchants will lobby to keep the peace. Politics is noisy, but noise can be currency.”
Kharnek’s eyes narrowed, then went hard. “All of that assumes the rumor stays buried. That people believe the truce is… stable.” He leaned back, huge hands folding across his chest. “Besides, why are you intending to operate against the empire?”
“I will make sure to make all that remain buried.” Ludger smiled — not warm, but small and precise. “Because I don’t trust leaving my family’s life to the mercy of men who make fortunes from blood.” He shrugged once, casual as a man picking a lock. “You asked why I operate like I oppose the Empire, because politics, as it works now, rewards cruelty. Sometimes with wine and fines, often with velvet and knives. Men in silk would sooner see Torvares fall than slow their profit.”
He inclined his head toward Kharnek. “You saw the potions. Someone supplied those draughts. They made the barbarians brutal, sure, but who benefits from a field full of corpses? Lords and merchants who can point to instability and demand military contractors, territorial reassignment, new leadership. I don’t plan to hand my mother, or my sister, or Dad over to that system. So yes—I work in the shadows when I must. I dig tunnels, I gather truth, I pay teachers and scouts. I don’t tell the whole world where I place my trust.”
Viola’s jaw tightened beside him, but she didn’t interrupt. Arslan’s face had gone thoughtful; he understood the old calculus the boy described. Kharnek watched the exchange like a man measuring the weight of a blade.
“If someone’s out there giving out those draughts,” Ludger went on, quieter, “they want more than a battle. They want a story: the northerners are savages; the border is lost; replace the lord. I won’t let their story write itself. I’ll make sure proof exists—names, routes, witnesses. I’ll expose it. And if exposure doesn’t stop them, I’ll make it costly enough that their campaign dies in its cradle.” He tapped the table again for emphasis. “That’s what I mean by working in the shadows. Not murder for sport. Not secret alliances with traitors. Intelligence, pressure, sabotage of their leverage—reveal the hand that deals the poison.”
Kharnek’s mouth worked for a long time. Finally he grunted, half-resentful, half-resigned. “You plan to fight their power with the same tricks they use,” he said. “Risky. How can I not assume that you aren’t like them?”
Ludger shrugged. “Everything worth doing is. Because I am here talking with you instead of trying to use you behind the scenes.”
Outside, the sun slid low; the joint guards the boy had quietly arranged during the truce shift position at the town’s edge. Inside the small earthen room, an uneasy calculus settled between them — distrust braided into design, old hatred set against the promise of a shared future. None of it was neat. None of it was certain.
But it was a plan. And for Ludger, that was where change began.
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