"Report! Commander, Annan refused your summons!"
The messenger shouted from outside the Map Room.
The Orr Empire's new frontline commander, Milk Ibe, turned around. "What did he say?"
"Uh... the messenger said he didn't say anything. He just threw him out!"
"See? What did I tell you?" Paige lounged on a sofa nearby, enjoying himself. "He won't listen to you."
Outside the window, magical radiance and the glow of Fel Energy clashed without pause. Magic Power and Fel Energy remained locked in a struggle before the first Great Wall.
South of the Great Wall, spells fell on magic-starved land and could not muster half their strength. North of it, any Fel Energy that slipped through was purified before it touched the ground.
"And whose fault is that, after you tried to send them to their deaths?" Milk Ibe snorted, staring at the few Map Tokens left on the map.
Paige spread his hands, but the new commander cut him off before he could speak. "Are you going to say he's hostile to an Orr Empire he's never dealt with, or that he's making trouble for you over one dead soldier?"
Paige had no answer. He found it baffling too, so he settled for a sneer. "I don't believe you'd let a Floating City drift around the mountains without doing a thing."
After all, it was a Floating City, the sort of treasure nobles prized. Only some country bumpkin would be willing to bring something like that onto a battlefield...
"Relations with Free City are strained enough already," Milk Ibe said, still refusing.
"Your indecision will get you killed!" Paige snapped.
"I simply don't want to make enemies for the Empire without cause."
Milk Ibe's position was simple: whatever Duke Kingsley's faction supported, his faction opposed. They were hostile to Annan