Five years post-treaty, the first major mercenary contract sends 2000 mountain warriors to fight for Korrath in the Southern Reaches. Thorald leads them professionally but 73 die, including 40 in a single magical ambush. Aria is consumed by guilt, personally writing condolences to every family.
Three months after the treaty, scars remain. Elena wakes screaming from nightmares about soldiers and being sent away. Aria and Darius comfort each other in the dark, acknowledging their own trauma.
Marius returns to negotiate seriously, revealing his empire is overextended with six simultaneous conflicts. Aria proposes an innovative solution: mercenary contracts with Northern Clan warriors in exchange for independence and trade. They agree to joint administration of coastal cities.
Three months post-treaty. Darius processes survivor guilt at memorial wall. Castor introduced as political threat at first council. Elena's birthday. Eastern border blight reported. Theron warns about Valdris changes. Seeds of escalating conflict planted.
Day twelve siege climax: Mountain clans arrive with 8,000 warriors. Visceral on-page battle as clans hit Korrathi flank. Aria orders sally from gates. Street-by-street fighting reclaims city. Chief Ragnar featured. Siege breaks, treaty negotiations begin. Family reunited.
Midnight rescue of Darius from Korrathi camp. Kelvin leads team through enemy lines with Roderic talking past guards. Dead zone around mage tents observed. Darius found tortured but alive. Roderic sacrifices himself covering escape. Aria and Darius reunite in healing chambers.
Korrathi siege begins. Aria commands defense from battlements, observing war mage attacks and their physical toll. She evacuates eastern quarter, attends parley where Emperor Marius reveals captured Darius. Refuses surrender. Mercenary Captain Roderic arrives with 300 soldiers.
Marcus is two weeks old when Kelvin returns alone, badly injured. The army is destroyed—17,000 casualties in a single ambush. Darius is missing, possibly dead or captured. Aria refuses to evacuate despite impossible odds. The council pledges to fight alongside her.
Letters from Darius arrive sporadically as the war progresses. First reports show 200 dead in one hour from war mage fire. By week two, 4,000 casualties. Aria maintains stoic governance while terror consumes her. She tells Elena bedtime stories about Darius to reassure her.
War council assembles as Aria spends sleepless nights calculating impossible odds. She cannot lead troops into battle while pregnant, so Darius will command the army with Kelvin as second.
Five years of peace shatter when the Korrathi Empire invades three coastal cities. Aria, now six months pregnant with her second child, watches Elena ride her pony while enjoying domestic bliss with Darius.
Three days of siege from Thorald's POV. Day 1: observes war mage casting limits and environmental drain, brutal breach fighting. Day 2: mages visibly deteriorated, dead zones spreading around camp, market district battle.
