The warning from the Architect was a cold splash of water in the fever dream of their preparation. They do not fear your fire. They feed on it.
Arden stared at the message on her console in The Archive, the words burning into her mind. She had been so focused on Project Orpheus, on the symphony of chaos, that she had almost forgotten the other player on the board. The player who believed that fire was the only language the universe understood.
General Vorn.
His rise had been as meteoric as it was predictable. In the vacuum left by the Devourer's first visit, fear had become the city's primary currency. And Vorn was a very rich man. He had rallied the shattered remnants of the military, the terrified police force, and the angry citizens who saw Arden's "bargain" as a betrayal. He offered them something Arden could not: tangibility. Big guns. Thick walls. A promise that next time, humanity would shoot back.
He called his movement The Bastion.
And he was winning.
