Chapter Summaries

Santos freed Mizhene to lead a small force in the coming battle while the Faith Order's apostles debated whether to flee or defend their sanctuary. The next morning, both armies assembled, and the Expeditionary Army began attacking the Faith Order's barricaded positions.

• Santos assigned Mizhene and up to two thousand troops to defend a position on the Expeditionary Army's flank while keeping the rest of Mizhene's forces on guard duty.
• The Third Apostle argued for fleeing the valley with the army, but the other apostles opposed abandoning the believers and the Enlightened Sanctuary.
• The First Apostle ordered the Faith Order to keep fighting and preserve the Enlightened Sanctuary, even if they had to negotiate with the enemy later.
• The next morning, Santos's Expeditionary Army and the Faith Order assembled for battle, with the Expeditionary Army attacking and the Faith Order defending.
• The Expeditionary Army sent sword-and-shield troops forward with riflemen providing fire support, avoiding large-scale rifle use against the Faith Order's barricades.

Santos halted the Expeditionary Army’s costly street fighting and ordered artillery to bombard suspected enemy positions. The Faith Order also suffered heavy losses among its Order Warriors, and the apostles hesitated over whether to sacrifice their believer troops instead.

• The Expeditionary Army struggled against the Faith Order’s defenders in the streets and stopped fighting after less than half an hour, having suffered more than 500 casualties.
• Santos saw that nearly half the Expeditionary Army’s casualties were dead or severely wounded and decided not to keep trading soldiers for buildings.
• Santos ordered artillery to move farther into the city and shell buildings that might contain Faith Order troops.
• The apostles learned that more than a thousand Order Warriors had been killed or wounded, about a third of their remaining force.
• The Third Apostle proposed sending believer troops to wear down the enemy, but the other apostles hesitated because those young loyal recruits were potential future Order Warriors.

The Expeditionary Army used artillery and explosives to drive the Faith Order’s forces out of the urban district, while the apostles prepared the Purple-Robed Warrior Corps to unleash over a hundred Judgment arrays. After a patrol found a Judgment metal rod, Santos ordered his troops to retreat and summoned Mizhene to learn how soon the weapon could be used.

• The Expeditionary Army’s engineers demolished buildings alongside the artillery, forcing the Faith Order’s troops to retreat through the urban district.
• The apostles ordered the Purple-Robed Warrior Corps to set up Judgment arrays, despite knowing the chain lightning would kill their own believers as well as the enemy.
• An Expeditionary Army corporal’s squad killed three purple-robed Order Warriors and found a Judgment metal rod hidden in the ruins.
• Santos received the rod and ordered the Expeditionary Army to stop fighting and retreat from the urban district.
• Santos summoned Mizhene to ask when the Judgment artifacts might be ready to take effect.

The apostles discovered that Mizhene had betrayed the Faith Order and suspected Keledu had joined him. The First Apostle ordered them to halt attacks on Mizhene’s troops and conceal the truth from the believers to protect morale.

• Faith Order soldiers recognized Mizhene’s troops as former comrades and alerted the apostles.
• The apostles linked Mizhene’s betrayal to the enemy’s earlier breakthroughs and knowledge of their surprise attack.
• The First Apostle suspected Keledu had betrayed the Faith Order as well, prompting the Fourth Apostle to recall why Keledu had left to establish a new diocese.
• The apostles concluded that an important force now opposed them, though they could not determine whether Keledu considered his actions betrayal.
• The First Apostle ordered the troops to stop attacking Mizhene’s area and keep his betrayal secret from the believers.

The Faith Order’s apostles debated surrender and hoped to use Judgment to destroy the Expeditionary Army, while the First Apostle found their unconscious Lord unable to guide them. Santos’s forces withdrew before Judgment could strike, and the Faith Order decided to negotiate, with the Third Apostle volunteering to approach the enemy.

• The Third Apostle raised the possibility of surrender, but the First Apostle ordered the apostles to focus on battle and later prayed to the unconscious Lord for guidance.
• Santos’s Expeditionary Army began a careful retreat after learning the Faith Order was preparing Judgment.
• The Third Apostle ordered a full assault to stop the retreat, but the other apostles intercepted his order to keep the Order Warriors in reserve for a counterattack.
• The Expeditionary Army withdrew from Judgment’s range, forcing the Faith Order to end the battle without using the array.
• The Faith Order dismantled the Judgment array and the apostles agreed to seek negotiations, with the Third Apostle volunteering because of his ties to Keledu and Mizhene.

The apostles agreed to seek a ceasefire to learn the Expeditionary Army’s aims and give the battered Faith Order time to regroup. Santos asked Mizhene to join the negotiations, and Mizhene recognized that helping end the fighting could spare more believers’ lives.

• The apostles assessed the Order’s severe losses and decided to send an envoy to negotiate with the Expeditionary Army.
• An envoy set out under the Order’s banner toward the Expeditionary Army’s defensive lines.
• Santos stopped Mizhene from withdrawing and asked him to take part in the negotiations.
• Santos explained that Duke Golden Sunflower had ordered the Lord spared and believers who did not resist protected if the Order fell.
• Mizhene accepted that helping end the fighting could save believers from further deaths.

Santos negotiated with the Faith Order’s Third Apostle but rejected its offers of wealth and livestock, insisting on terms that would give the Expeditionary Army control of the Faith Order and its resources. He ended by demanding the surrender of the Judgment holy artifacts and the Enlightened Sanctuary, while leaving the fate of the Faith Order’s senior members to his lord.

• The Third Apostle arrived at Santos’s command post to seek a ceasefire and tend to wounded Faith Order soldiers.
• The Third Apostle offered 50,000 gold in coins, additional gold and silver ingots worth 160,000 to 170,000 gold, livestock, and yearly tribute in exchange for the Expeditionary Army’s withdrawal.
• Santos remained unmoved by the offer, explaining that defeating the Faith Order would give the Expeditionary Army its wealth anyway.
• Santos demanded that the Faith Order surrender all Judgment holy artifacts and the Enlightened Sanctuary intact, lay down its weapons, and let the Expeditionary Army control the valley’s key points and supplies.
• Santos ordered the Faith Order’s senior members to return with him to his territory so his lord could judge them.

Santos gave the Third Apostle one day to accept his surrender terms, and the envoy returned to the Faith Order with the Star of Splendor as a gift. The apostles agreed to surrender but asked that the Venerable Lord remain in the Parasitic Sanctuary because leaving it would kill him.

• Santos warned the Third Apostle that the Expeditionary Army would resume its attack if the Faith Order did not answer by the next day, and the Third Apostle left a precious gemstone before returning to the city.
• Mizhene identified the gift as the Star of Splendor and explained the Third Apostle's position in the Faith Order.
• Santos and Mizhene reviewed the battle and considered where to attack if the Faith Order rejected surrender.
• The Third Apostle reported Santos's terms to the other apostles, and he described the Expeditionary Army as powerful, orderly, healthy, and polite.
• The First Apostle agreed to surrender on the condition that the Venerable Lord remain in the Parasitic Sanctuary because he would die if he left it.

The Faith Order surrendered to Santos’s Expeditionary Army after the apostles saw the Lord’s failing condition, and the army began taking control of the headquarters while arranging medical care. The followers accepted the surrender and cooperated with the occupying force, while Santos learned that their history of hardship had made them quick to move past suffering.

• The First Apostle showed the apostles the Lord sleeping in the Enlightened Sanctuary’s force field, and they agreed to surrender to the Expeditionary Army.
• The Third Apostle offered the Faith Order’s surrender to Santos and asked that the Lord remain at the sanctuary; Santos agreed, provided the others returned with the army.
• The Expeditionary Army took control of key facilities, and the Faith Order’s clergy cooperated by handing over information, technology, and expertise.
• Santos brought medical personnel to examine the Lord, and they recommended medicine and liquid food that might help him regain consciousness.
• The apostles agreed to the proposed treatment, and Santos sent a wireless telegraph requesting specialists from the territory.
• The Faith Order’s followers helped clear the battlefield and repair buildings, and Mizhene explained to Santos that their past hardships had taught them to put suffering behind them.

Santos’s Expeditionary Army secured Hot Spring Valley while Victor planned to visit the Faith Order Headquarters and investigate its resources. Santos’s survey revealed the Faith Order’s wealth and valuable horse breeds, and the army continued consolidating its control over the valley.

• Mizhene praised the Expeditionary Army’s discipline, and the apostles concluded that the Faith Order could not have defeated it.
• Victor ordered Santos to govern Hot Spring Valley, protect its residents, and treat the Faith Order’s leaders respectfully while Victor prepared to visit in person.
• Victor planned to bring Keledu and researchers to examine the Faith Order’s technologies and resources, while Veronica remained in Two Rivers County.
• With Mizhene’s forces assisting, Santos’s army secured Hot Spring Valley, where the Faith Order’s people were recovering from heavy wartime casualties.
• Santos surveyed the Faith Order’s settlements and holdings, finding substantial wealth, productive farms, and valuable livestock.
• Santos examined the Faith Order’s Long-Maned Horses and judged their cold resistance, stamina, versatility, and calm temperaments useful to the Expeditionary Army.

Santos recognized the Faith Order’s Coldwind Horses and Ice Field Ponies as valuable breeding stock and secured information on its other livestock while maintaining order in Hot Spring Valley. A month and a half later, Victor’s large party reached the grasslands outpost, where he praised Konedia and promised him a barony.

• Santos identified the Coldwind Horses and Ice Field Ponies as exceptional warhorses and arranged for desirable livestock traits to be recorded and sent to the territory.
• Officials and experts from the territory’s medical, research, agricultural, industrial, and commerce departments joined Victor’s journey to Hot Spring Valley, along with a larger military escort.
• Victor led the party across the grasslands for a month and a half, upgrading relay stations into planned footholds for the territory.
• Three days after seeing the Ice and Snow Mountains, Victor’s party reached the Intelligence Department’s outpost and was welcomed by Konedia.
• Victor praised Konedia’s work and promised to enfeoff him as a baron, while considering promoting Orlando to viscount and eventually replacing him as intelligence minister.