*** Inside Snowkeep - A Few Hours Before the Siege ***

"It's only been a week, and so much chaos has already transpired..."

A paranoid priest spoke; he was just behind the duke's palace, holding a match.

His eyes were glazed with zealotry and sheer insanity. If the duke was willing to fight with the Holy Allied Territories, then what about the priests inside his own duchy?

Will he allow them to operate as normal, or would he punish them all as a warning?

He had already expressed his concerns to the rest of the priests in the city, but most called him crazy, and well... that was a perfect description of him.

"If Raven wins... then surely everything will be okay... right?"

The paranoid priest laughed under his breath, lighting his match. He was in the part of the palace filled with wood due to siege preparations; even a single fire could likely cripple that part of the city.

And his plan was exactly that.

"I advise you to stop."

Fenrix's words boomed behind him, lurking just behind his shoulder.

"W-What!?"

"Hello..." Fenrix laughed.

"Y-You... what are you going to do to me?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to get rid of you."

The priest whimpered. In a direct fight, he had no chance. Sure, he might have a few divine gifts, but most were just classic spells that almost every priest had.

A simple lesser gift granted to all clergymen.

"And... and how are you going to do that!? I'm a beloved figure! There's no way you won't face suspicion!"

"You're too loud..." Fenrix sighed, grabbing something from underneath his cloak.

A dagger.

The priest's frantic breathing echoed against the vaulted corridor walls.

Fenrix did not lunge.

He didn't threaten.

He simply studied him, like one would observe a pathogen under glass.

"A beloved figure…?" Fenrix repeated quietly, amused. "You're a junior cleric. You've been in Snowkeep for less than a year. Your sermons attract fewer people than the tavern singer."

"W-What—!"

"You preach doom, call the duke blasphemous, hint at civil revolt…" Fenrix listed calmly, sheathing his dagger. "And all this time, you thought I wouldn't notice?"

The priest paled.

Fenrix stepped forward, not with aggression, but with certainty.

"And that match you hold," Fenrix said, his eyes narrowing, "wouldn't burn the palace. It would burn the food storage built behind this hall. Supplies meant for our injured soldiers." His voice sharpened, cold as steel. "And you call yourself a priest?"

The priest trembled. "N-No— I-I was just—!"

"You were stirring panic before the walls even fell," Fenrix finished. "Classic Holy Territory tactic. Spread fear. Break trust. Burn morale."

The dagger never touched him.

Fenrix simply raised his hand.

And two shadows peeled from the walls like living ink.

Silent.

Waiting.

Assassins, also Rhyne's former men who had joined Fenrix in his search for a new master.

"A-A-Ah—! Please! I wasn't—"

Fenrix ignored the stammering.

"You have two choices," he said quietly. "Confess, and disappear quietly… or stay, and become an example."

The priest swallowed.

"I… I… want the first option."

Fenrix smiled faintly.

"I thought so."

He snapped his fingers, and the shadows consumed the priest's voice, not killing him, but smothering every sound.

Like swallowing a scream.

The match dropped.

Fenrix crushed it under his boot, extinguishing it with a soft hiss.

"…And that," he muttered, brushing the ashes aside, "is why His Grace leaves internal affairs to me."

***

Hours later, in the ducal strategy chamber…

"Three more priests were arrested," Matthias reported, placing a sealed document before Darius. "They weren't arsonists. But they were spreading panic using Raven's sermons."

"Even in war our job is never done..." Darius tugged at his hair, the only thing keeping him together being the fresh food recipes that Justinian hands him every day or so.

"We need to handle this before it gets out of hand."

Fenrix entered the room, blood in his cloak; it was already clear what he had done.

"I'm guessing even more chose not to go silently?"

"Yeah... with the divine fire and all that, it makes sense the priests would go absolutely batshit insane."

"Is that really the best wording you can think of?" Darius smirked.

"It's true." Fenrix copied Darius' smirk.

"You two..." Matthias couldn't help but feel out of place. While he wasn't one to joke, he was still surprised that they could smile.

"Kids these days..."

Darius and Fenrix looked at him when they heard his words.

"Let's get this under control... I'll have the guards rally the priests, the citizens will instead be comforted by the servants."

"Gathering them into one place?" Fenrix asked.

"Makes them easier to control," Matthias replied coldly, his experience as a steward and the new castellan making him coldly pragmatic.

As long as it benefits the duke, no method is below him.

*** Inside Snowkeep – Same Night

The fire never started.

But word of it spread anyway.

By the time the sun began to bleed through Snowkeep's narrow windows, the story had twisted three times:

A priest tried to burn the palace, a priest tried to burn the wounded, a priest tried to summon divine fire to punish the Duke himself.

No one knew what truly happened.

Fenrix made sure of that.

He let the rumors roam free, but never too far, just enough to direct suspicion, not ignite it.

And in the palace's lower courtyard…

Nervous priests had been gathered by city guards, not in chains, not as prisoners, but as a flock.

Well-dressed servants circulated through the crowd with bread, soup, and blankets.

Calming them.

Isolating them.

Containing them.

All just as Matthias ordered.

From the balcony above, he watched in silence.

"Treat them like traitors, and you'll turn them into martyrs," Matthias muttered to himself. "Treat them like frightened citizens, and they'll beg for your protection."

His entire decree was immediately approved by Justinian without even a second thought, with Justinian only smiling and chuckling the entire time Matthias was proposing his plan.

It seemed like he knew exactly what was going to happen, and he was absolutely loving it.

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