The underground bunker beneath the ruins of Forthold was colder than usual. The storm above had driven sleet through the broken foundations, and water dripped steadily from the cracked stone ceiling. But inside, beneath the wavering gas lamps and timeworn maps, a fire was being stoked—not of warmth, but of resolve.
Five freedom fighters stood gathered around a scarred wooden table. Their names had become whispered legends across occupied Forun: Kael, the scar-faced tactician; Rhea, the eyes and ears of the rebellion; Mora, the silent blade; Devon, the logistics master with an engineer's mind; and at the head, their leader—Asa Brown, a man who carried the weight of a nation on his shoulders.
He stared at them now with a flicker in his eyes that hadn't been there for months.
"We're not stumbling in the dark anymore," he said. "We have eyes inside the beast."
Kael raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you've finally cracked their code."
Asa didn't smile, but his voice carried something close to satisfaction. "No. I've done better."
He reached into the folds of his coat and produced a folded note, edges damp and worn. Carefully, he unfolded it and spread it across the table.
"This," he said, "came from inside a Greenland camp. Just outside Varex Hold."
Rhea leaned in, studying the note. Her breath caught. "That's our cipher."
Asa nodded. "And the signature at the bottom... is G. Brown."
Silence blanketed the room.
"Gad?" Devon said, eyes wide. "You told us he was dead."
"I told you I thought he was," Asa replied. "I hadn't seen or heard from him since the day the capital fell. He was sixteen. They were rounding up anyone fit enough to hold a rifle. I thought he'd been executed or... worse."
Mora, who'd known Asa longer than the rest, met his gaze. "He's alive?"
Asa nodded once. "And he's inside. Recruited by Greenland. Shoved into their infantry like fodder. He's just a new recruit to them—nameless, faceless. That's what makes him invisible."
Kael frowned. "You're telling me a kid—your kid—is feeding us intel while marching with the enemy?"
"He's not a kid anymore," Asa said. "Not after two years in their camps. Not after what they did to his friends, to his mother, to our home. He's young, but he's not soft. And he's smart. Smarter than I ever was at his age."
Devon looked back at the note. "What's it say?"
Asa's voice hardened. "Greenland's preparing a coordinated assault—five days from now. Three targets. Durnhal, Ashen Fold, and the Ember Line. They're moving in silence, pulling forces from the north under cover of civilian relocation. They're expecting confusion, disorder. They want to shatter us once and for all."
"And Gad found this out how?" Rhea asked, brow creased with worry.
"He listens," Asa said. "He plays dumb. He gets passed over, ignored, treated like a dog. But dogs hear everything."
Kael ran a hand through his hair. "And what if they find out?"
"They won't," Asa said sharply. "He smuggled this message out through an old waterline. Used a merchant we've had eyes on for weeks."
Rhea looked shaken. "This boy—your son—is living in a viper's nest. If they even suspect…"
"They won't," Asa repeated. But even as he said it, the weight in his voice betrayed the storm beneath. He knew the risk. He'd sent Gad into the jaws of the machine without even meaning to—and now, his son was turning its gears from the inside.
Mora broke the tension. "What do we do with this?"
Asa stepped forward, tapping the map. "We set traps. We reroute supplies. We reinforce the Ember Line with every soul who can hold a blade. Durnhal can't fall. If we lose it, we lose the coastline. But if we strike first, turn their ambush into an ambush of our own…"
Kael finished the thought. "We make them bleed."
"More than that," Asa said. "We remind them what Forun is. Not a flag. Not a government. A people. Unbroken. And if my son—a recruit in their filthy army—can risk his life to strike back, then what the hell are we waiting for?"
The fire was in him now, burning so bright it lit the faces around the table. And as he looked at each of them—his comrades, his family—he saw that flame spreading.
One by one, they nodded.
Rhea placed her dagger on the map. "For Gad."
Mora followed. "For Forun."
Kael cracked his knuckles. "Let's make these bastards regret every inch they've taken."
And Devon, quiet as ever, said, "Hope is dangerous. Let's make it deadly."
Asa smiled faintly. The first true smile in months. "Then we move."
Beneath the shattered city, in the shadows of defeat, a plan began to take form. A boy in enemy armor had lit the match.
And the fire was just beginning.