The green flames danced below the ridge like hungry spirits.
I watched from my perch, cloak drawn tight around my shoulders. The acrid scent of alchemical fire clung to the wind, mixing with the cries of chaos and command. Some of the Holy Alliance's troops tried to organize. Others fled blindly, crashing into my traps with all the grace of a blind bear in a glass shop.
Perfect.
"Estimated losses?" I asked without turning.
Captain Veris, face slightly blackened by ash and absolutely unfazed, appeared beside me with a half-burnt ledger. "Three units of theirs disabled. Two dozen corpses. And one idiot tried to shield-charge the wagon fire."
"What happened to him?"
Veris flipped a page. "Nothing good. Pretty sure we launched him into another time zone."
Behind us, General Thalor grunted in approval. "Your strategy worked."
"Of course it did", I replied. "It wasn't hope. It was arithmetic."
I turned to the next phase.
"Deploy the Wraith-Hounds", I ordered. "Not to kill... yet. Let them chase. Harass. Make the Alliance think we're toying with them."
"They're already panicking", Thalor said.
"And now we push them from fear into suspicion", I said coldly. "Let's see how loyal their captains are under pressure."
The hounds tore through the lower woods like living shadows, silent, fast, nearly invisible. I'd personally briefed them.
No kills. Only whispers. Broken shields. Scratched helmets. Make the Alliance think their own soldiers were losing their minds.
By dusk, the Holy Alliance had already begun arguing with themselves.
Veris was gleeful. "Heard one guy scream that his boots were cursed. Tried to drown them in a pond. While wearing them."
Thalor raised a brow. "How?"
"Badly."
Later, I walked alone past the camp perimeter.
The stars were back. Cold and clear.
My fingers tightened around the little carved pawn in my pocket.
"Old Hen", I whispered, "I did what you said. I'm using chaos. Turning it into a weapon."
But in the silence between breezes, a question echoed in my mind:
And who will you become, child, when the chaos stares back at you?
I shook it off.
She was gone. I wasn't that girl anymore.
Back at camp, a surprise waited for me.
A captive.
A scout from the Alliance, young, terrified, and very loud.
"YOU... YOU'RE A MONSTER!" he shrieked. "You're the girl who betrayed her own kingdom!"
"I didn't betray them", I replied calmly. "They betrayed me. I just… adjusted my loyalties."
"Demons don't have loyalties!"
I crouched down to his eye level. "Then it's lucky I'm not a demon, isn't it?"
He spat at me.
Thalor moved to strike him, but I raised a hand. "Let him scream. Fear spreads faster than fire."
Veris tossed a cloth at the boy. "Dry off. We're not animals. Mostly."
The scout flinched.
He would talk. They always did. All I had to do was let his fear ferment.
As the night deepened, I stood once more before the war map.
New markers were placed: panic zones, troop dispersals, fractured units.
My influence was no longer a whisper behind enemy lines.
It was a roar.
And I wasn't done yet.
"The next strike", I murmured to myself, "won't be a fire."
Veris perked up. "Ooh? Poison? Mind games? Unleashing a goat herd into their food supply?"
"Close", I said. "Misinformation."
Thalor crossed his arms. "Explain."
I pointed to a freshly scrawled circle, an illusion camp we would set up northeast. Lights. Fires. Dummy troops.
"We'll make them think we're gathering for a full invasion. While they panic to reinforce it, we'll hit the real target."
"And what's the real target?" Veris asked, grinning like a fox at a wine cellar.
"Their morale", I said. "We're going to fake a betrayal from within their own ranks."
Now that made Thalor's eyes widen.
"Lady Ayaka… are you sure?" he asked. "Turning soldiers against one another is dangerous."
I smiled.
"It's also beautiful."