Lucas stood quietly for a moment after the discussion settled, his thoughts moving beyond the tent and into the wider structure of the war itself. The mission ahead was dangerous, that much was not a possibility but a certainty. Rus was not a weakened outpost or a fractured border region. It was a fallen kingdom that had already been consumed and repurposed, which meant whatever remained inside it would not be passive.
Celestials were certainly a possibility there, perhaps even multiple of them, stationed as enforcers or overseers for the usurpers.
That alone would normally make infiltration nearly impossible.
But Lucas did not stop at the danger.
He analyzed the timing.
The concurrent operation on Lechia changed everything.
