The reverberations of Demavend's paranoid fury echoed across the Northern Kingdoms, a jarring discord in the precarious symphony of their alliances. Messengers, their horses lathered with foam, carried heated accusations between Aedirn and Temeria. Foltest, indignant at the perceived treachery, responded with thinly veiled threats and bolstered border patrols. The grand, unified front against Nilfgaard, always more aspiration than reality, now crumbled with alarming speed. To Aizen, observing from his silent post in Dravograd, it was a beautiful, predictable unraveling, hastened by his precise touch.
His research in the Scriptorium had led him to a collection of texts on ancient magical artifacts, relics predating the Conjunction of Spheres, whispered to possess immense, often dangerous, powers. These were not the common grimoires or enchanted swords; these were items said to defy natural law, to bend reality itself. He found detailed accounts of a legendary "Heart of the World", a crystalline relic rumored to be a nexus of primal energy, hidden deep within the Continent's oldest mountains. Its description resonated with his growing understanding of this world's ley lines and their potential for large-scale energy manipulation. This was a direct path towards the type of power that could transcend mere magical ability.
Aizen decided it was time to move beyond simply stirring distrust; he needed to engineer a tangible, undeniable provocation that would force one of the Northern Kingdoms' hands. His target: King Vizimir of Redania, a cunning but easily swayed monarch, constantly vying for regional dominance. Vizimir held a peculiar, almost obsessive, interest in reclaiming the historically significant and strategically vital city of Novigrad from its current, neutral status, seeing it as a key to Redanian supremacy.
Utilizing his established network, Aizen began to subtly influence the flow of information reaching Vizimir's court. He orchestrated a series of "confessions" from captured spies (unwitting pawns, of course, their memories subtly altered by Kyōka Suigetsu), who claimed to be working for Temeria. These false confessions detailed elaborate plots to infiltrate and destabilize Novigrad in preparation for a Temerian annexation. The stories were just plausible enough, playing directly into Redania's long-standing paranoia about Foltest's ambition.
Concurrently, Aizen used his refined Kyōka Suigetsu to create phantom sigils and illusory troop movements near Novigrad's borders. These were fleeting, visual distortions, seen only by carefully chosen Redanian border scouts – enough to provide 'evidence' of Temerian incursions without leaving any physical trace. He ensured the sightings were just vague enough to be dismissed as misidentification by anyone less inclined to believe them, but utterly convincing to Vizimir's already suspicious temperament.
The result was swift and devastating. Vizimir, convinced of Temerian treachery, issued a scathing diplomatic protest, followed by the unprecedented deployment of Redanian forces along the borders of Temeria and even towards Novigrad itself. The "neutrality" of the Free City was suddenly under direct threat. The fragile Northern Alliance, already cracking, now began to splinter irrevocably.
News of Redania's aggressive posturing sent shockwaves through Dravograd. Merchants debated the impact on trade routes, soldiers prepared for potential border clashes, and Master Elgan updated his maps with grim certainty. Aedirn, already at odds with Temeria, now viewed Redania's actions with suspicion, fearful of being caught between two warring allies.
Aizen observed the unfolding chaos with a cool, detached satisfaction. The pieces were no longer merely moving; they were actively colliding, propelled by the precise, invisible forces he had set in motion. He had successfully isolated the Northern Kingdoms, weakening them from within even as Nilfgaard pressed from without. This would create the perfect conditions for his future power grab, eliminating any unified resistance before it could even form. The Continent's descent into full-scale, internecine war was now not just inevitable; it was orchestrated.