The administrative district of Outpost Vester occupied the northern quarter—a cluster of stone buildings that looked more like a small bureaucratic fortress than military infrastructure.

Maps covered every wall. Ledgers filled every desk. Clerks moved between offices with armfuls of paperwork, their faces bearing the particular exhaustion that came not from battle, but from managing those who fought them.

These were the pencil pushers—the same crippled ilk from Grim Hollow, only repainted In unfamiliar hues.

The logistics officers. The supply coordinators. The administrative nobles who'd fled Grim Hollow not because they were cowards—though many soldiers thought so—but because their skills were wasted on a battlefield.

Estovia Armand sat in one of the smaller offices, staring at a requisition form that made no sense.

Request: 200 units standard rations. Approved: 150 units. Reason for reduction: Resource reallocation per Crownhold directive.

She set down the form, rubbing her temples.

Everything in Vester went through Crownhold's network eventually. Every supply shipment. Every personnel transfer. Every resource allocation. It wasn't official policy—the Republic insisted Vester operated under joint command—but policy meant nothing when one house controlled the flow of materials.

Despite the personal power struggles between Adept Vaelith and Adept Rowan, the outcome was decided long before blood was spilled. A tactical mind backed by the full, unyielding force of a noble house was an unbeatable hand—and in Vester, Vaelith Crownhold held the crown.

Across from Estovia, Lieutenant Orin Faulk—another Grim Hollow survivor, a logistics officer with a talent for supply chain optimization—shuffled through his own stack of paperwork.

"This is madness," he muttered. "We've got three squads requesting medical supplies, but the healers say they're short on antiseptic. I checked the inventory logs—we received a full shipment two days ago."

"Where'd it go?" Estovia asked.

"Crownhold warehouses," Orin replied bitterly. "They were marked as 'reserve stock.' Which means it'll sit there until Adept Vaelith decides who deserves it."

Estovia leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling. "Shit!! We're really not soldiers here. We're administrators in a war zone run like a merchant's cartel."

"Welcome to Vester," Orin said dryly.

A knock came at the door.

"Enter," Estovia called.

A young clerk stepped in—a fledgling named Mira, barely old enough to hold a sword, now carrying stacks of inventory reports instead.

"Lieutenant Armand, sir—I mean, ma'am—" Mira stammered, flustered. "There's a discrepancy in the weapon shipment from last week."

Estovia sighed. "What kind of discrepancy?"

"We requisitioned fifty blades. Only thirty arrived. The rest were… redirected."

"Let me guess," Orin said. "Crownhold?"

Mira nodded miserably.

Estovia stood, jaw tight. "Where's the shipment manifest?"

Mira handed it over.

Estovia scanned the document, eyes narrowing. The redirection order had been signed by a Crownhold supply officer—standard procedure, nothing technically illegal.

But it was the third time this week.

"This is a pattern," Estovia muttered.

"It's more than a pattern," Orin replied. "It's policy. Crownhold controls the supply lines. They approve what gets distributed, when, and to whom. And guess who gets priority?"

"Crownhold-aligned squads," Estovia finished.

"Exactly."

Mira shifted nervously. "Ma'am… what do we do?"

Estovia wanted to say something defiant. Something brave. But the truth was simpler and uglier:

"We do our jobs. We process the paperwork. We note the discrepancies. And we hope someone above us cares enough to fix it."

Mira's face fell.

Because that wasn't an answer.

That was surrender.

-----

Elsewhere in the administrative district, in a larger office overlooking the training yards, Warrant Officer Shin sat at his desk, reviewing performance reports for the squads under his supervision.

Shin was one of the few nobles from Grim Hollow who'd managed to secure a position of actual authority in Vester—not through combat, but through connections. His family wasn't wealthy, but they were placed. Cousins in the Senate. An uncle in the Logistics Corps. A sister married to some noble vassal.

He wasn't powerful.

But he was useful.

And usefulness bought safety.

A knock came at his door.

"Enter," Shin called without looking up.

A soldier stepped in—one of Shin's informants. Everyone had one these days. His name was Carris, a mess hall worker who overheard just about everything.

"Sir," Carris said quietly. "Thought you'd want to know—Lieutenant Armand's been asking questions about the supply redirections."

Shin set down his pen. "What kind of questions?"

"They suggest she's aware of the happenings here."

Shin frowned. "Is she making formal complaints?"

"Not yet. But she's documenting discrepancies. And she's not the only one. Faulk's doing the same."

Shin leaned back, steepling his fingers. "They're wasting their time. Crownhold controls the supply chain. Complaining about it is like complaining about the weather."

"Should I tell them that?"

"No," Shin said thoughtfully. "Let them spin their wheels. It keeps them busy. And busy administrators don't cause trouble."

Carris nodded and left.

Shin returned to his reports, but his mind lingered on Estovia.

She was competent. Driven. Angry.

And anger made people dangerous.

Not because they acted rashly—though some did—but because anger made them try to find the reasons for it.. And if you looked hard enough in Vester, you'd see things you weren't supposed to.

Things that could get you killed.

Shin made a note in his mind to Monitor Armand and her potential in being a liability.

-----

That evening, Estovia sat alone in the small quarters assigned to administrative staff—barely more than a closet with a cot and a desk.

She stared at the stack of requisition forms piled on the desk, each one a tiny monument to systemic corruption.

Not the grand, theatrical kind.

The quiet, bureaucratic kind.

The kind that happened in triplicate.

A knock came at her door.

"It's open," she called wearily.

Lieutenant Rhys Cavendish stepped inside.

Estovia blinked in surprise. "Rhys?"

"Estovia," he said with a faint smile. "I heard you were here."

"Here and drowning in paperwork," she replied, gesturing at the desk. "What brings you to the administrative wing? Shouldn't you be training with your new Crownhold benefactors?"

She skipped over the fact that the Cavendish adepts had left them to wallow and die in the Hollow. That was simply how nobles were—petty things like betrayal, death, and carnage were not meant to trouble them.

Rhys, on the other hand, had been deposited at Vester by his entourage, who left on their merry way without looking back.

His smile faded slightly. "They're not my benefactors. My father sent the Adepts to extract me. I didn't ask for it."

"But you benefited," Estovia said quietly.

Rhys didn't deny it. "That's a given Armand, I'm not horny to be dinner in some monsters plate."

Silence settled between them—awkward, heavy.

Finally, Rhys spoke. "I came because I wanted to see how you were doing. After Grim Hollow… after everything."

Estovia laughed bitterly. "I'm doing exactly what I was always doing. Pushing papers. Tracking supplies. Watching soldiers die because the logistics don't add up."

"You're still alive," Rhys said.

"So are you," Estovia shot back. "But we both know why.* You because your father's name carried weight. Me because mine doesn't, well, not anymore."

"That's not fair—"

"It's true," Estovia interrupted. "And the worst part? I don't even feel guilty anymore. I just feel… tired."

Rhys sat on the edge of her cot, hands folded. "Vester is different from Grim Hollow."

"No," Estovia said. "It's the same. Just bigger. More organized. More efficient* at grinding people down."

She gestured to the requisition forms. "You see these? Every one of them represents a soldier who needed something—medicine, weapons, food—and didn't get it because some bureaucrat decided they weren't a priority."

"Then change it," Rhys said.

Estovia stared at him. "How?"

"By doing what you do best," Rhys replied. "By being *thorough.* By documenting every discrepancy, every redirection, every delay. Build a case. Make it undeniable."

"And then what?" Estovia asked. "Hand it to the bosses here? They won't care. Hand it to Kadesh? He's complicit. Hand it to Atheon? He's fighting for his life tomorrow."

Rhys met her gaze. "Then hand it to someone who will care. Someone who has the power to act."

"Who?"

Rhys hesitated. "I don't know yet. But you're smart, Estovia. You'll figure it out."

He stood, moving toward the door.

"Rhys," Estovia called.

He paused.

"Why did you really come here?"

Rhys looked back, expression unreadable. "Because I wanted to remind you that even in places like this, there are still people trying to do the right thing. Even if it's hard. Even if it's futile."

He left.

Estovia sat alone, staring at the requisition forms.

She knew the Cavendish boy was playing his own game. She wasn't foolish enough to swallow the rabble spilling from a noble's lips. Still, buried beneath the posturing, there was a grain of truth to what he'd said.

And she was still Estovia fucking Armand—crippling house be damned.

-----

Late that night, in a small meeting room tucked away in the administrative wing, a group gathered quietly.

Estovia. Orin. Three other logistics officers from Grim Hollow. A supply clerk. A junior healer.

None of them were fighters at their positions.

But all of them had seen the cracks.

"We need to talk about Crownhold," Estovia said quietly.

Orin nodded. "I've been tracking supply diversions for two weeks. It's systemic. Every major shipment gets redirected through Crownhold warehouses first. They take what they want, distribute the rest."

"It's not just supplies," the healer said. "Medical resources too. I've got three squads on waiting lists for healing serums because the inventory's been 'reserved.'"

The supply clerk spoke up—a mousy woman named Lira who rarely said anything. "I… I overheard something. In the mess hall. Two Crownhold soldiers talking about Clear Light's Eve."

Everyone turned to her.

"They said Vaelith's planning something big. A demonstration. To remind everyone who runs Vester."

Estovia's jaw tightened. "When?"

"Two weeks possibly," Lira said.

Silence.

Orin broke it. "So what do we do?"

Estovia looked around the table—at the tired faces, the people who'd survived Grim Hollow only to find themselves trapped in a different kind of war.

"We continue documenting everything for now," she said. "Every discrepancy. Every redirection. Every soldier denied resources. We build a case so thorough that even the law can't ignore it."

-----

Far across the outpost, in his chambers, Vaelith reviewed another report.

Armand—notable activity. Meeting with other Grim Hollow administrators. Potential resistance forming.

He set it aside, unconcerned.

Because Estovia Armand wasn't a threat.

She was forgettable in his thoughts.

A minor irritant that would occupy Kadesh's attention while Vaelith consolidated his real power.

Let her dig through paperwork.

Let her document her grievances.

By the time she realized her efforts were meaningless, it would be too late.

Tomorrow, Atheon would fall.

And with him, the last illusion of resistance.

Vaelith smiled.

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