Dawn arrived without asking permission.
A faint pink line appeared along the horizon, slowly pushing back the shadows of the night.
And with the light came the evidence.
The field in front of Dara was covered in bodies.
Imperial soldiers.
Scouts.
Officers.
Spellcasters.
The survivors remained scattered among the units, some wounded, others sitting in the mud, still trying to understand what had happened.
There were no drums.
No fanfares.
For several minutes, the Imperial army remained silent.
Thousands of men stared toward the positions where, only a few hours earlier, the combat mage units had advanced.
Now barely any formations remained.
Officers rushed from one place to another, trying to reconstruct what had happened during the night.
Where had the attack begun?
Who had raised the alarm?
Why had so many messengers disappeared?
Who had ordered the spellcasters to withdraw?
The reports contradicted one another.
Some soldiers spoke of shadows moving between the ranks.
Others claimed they had seen small silhouettes appear behind them.
Several swore they had been attacked from the forest.
But no one could say how many enemies there had been.
They could not even agree on where the incursion had actually begun.
The only certainty was the result.
An enemy unit had penetrated the Imperial lines.
It had first eliminated scouts and messengers.
Then it had attacked the officers.
And finally, it had struck the spellcasters.
By the time the Imperial troops managed to react, the attackers were already retreating.
They had not attempted to seize a position.
They had not attempted to destroy a legion.
They had entered, struck a specific point, and disappeared.
And Dara remained intact.
It was the second Imperial failure in less than twenty-four hours.
During the day, the walls had stopped their assaults.
During the night, a small group had penetrated their own lines.
But this time, there was something worse.
The Empire did not even know exactly what it had fought.
Gareth Helmström was still alive.
Barely.
He had a cut on his shoulder, and his armor was covered in mud and blood.
He sat against a wagon while a healer examined his wounds.
He could not stop staring toward the forest.
An officer approached.
"Gareth."
The veteran raised his head.
"The general wants to speak with you."
Gareth let out a dry laugh.
"About what?"
The officer looked at him.
"About what you saw."
Gareth remained silent.
"I didn't see much."
"That will be for the general to decide."
Hektor Narveth stood in front of the map when Gareth entered.
The commanding general did not immediately raise his eyes.
"Gareth Helmström."
"Yes, General."
"Sixth Legion."
"Yes."
Hektor pointed toward a chair.
"Sit."
Gareth obeyed.
Hektor placed a sheet of paper on the table.
"One hundred and eighty-seven spellcasters dead or missing."
Gareth swallowed.
"Yes, General."
"Twenty-six officers dead or missing."
"Yes."
"Numerous scouts and messengers."
Hektor raised his eyes.
"And you were there."
Gareth nodded.
"Yes."
"Then tell me what happened."
Gareth opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
He looked at the map.
"I don't know."
Hektor frowned.
"You don't know?"
"I know what I saw."
"Then tell me that."
Gareth slowly exhaled.
"We were marching toward Dara. The spellcasters were advancing in formation. Everything was quiet."
He paused.
"Then something moved between the trees."
"Soldiers?"
"I don't know."
"How many?"
"I don't know that either."
Hektor placed both hands on the table.
"Gareth."
The veteran raised his eyes.
"I'm not trying to protect anyone, General. I couldn't see them."
Silence.
"Why?"
Gareth glanced toward the entrance of the tent.
"Because it was dark."
Hektor did not answer.
Gareth continued.
"They weren't invisible. That much I know."
"How do you know?"
"I saw them."
"How many?"
Gareth slowly shook his head.
"One."
Hektor narrowed his eyes.
"One?"
"One was the only one I could clearly distinguish."
Gareth swallowed.
"He appeared in front of me when I tried to raise a defense."
"What did he do?"
"He attacked me."
"With magic?"
"With a sword."
Hektor remained motionless.
"Level?"
"I couldn't determine it."
"Affinity?"
"Darkness."
Hektor's expression changed slightly.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Gareth lowered his gaze toward his hands.
"The darkness moved around them. It didn't make them disappear. But... it was as if the world stopped seeing them for a moment."
Hektor remained silent.
"And the man who attacked you?"
Gareth took several seconds to answer.
"I don't know who he was."
"Describe him."
"Light armor. Dark cloak. Short sword."
"Face?"
Gareth shook his head.
"I didn't see it."
"Height?"
"About the same as me."
"Any distinguishing features?"
Gareth closed his eyes.
For an instant, he was back there.
The mud.
The screams.
The shadows.
The steel.
And those eyes.
He slowly opened his eyes.
"Yes."
Hektor waited.
"The eyes."
"What about them?"
Gareth looked at him.
"Yellow."
The tent fell silent.
"Yellow?"
"Yes."
Gareth clenched his teeth.
"They didn't look human."
One of the officers exchanged a glance with another.
Hektor did not take his eyes off Gareth.
"Anything else?"
Gareth shook his head.
"No."
A pause.
"I don't know who he was."
Hektor slowly leaned back.
That was precisely what concerned him most.
They had no name.
No identification.
No reliable estimate of their numbers.
They only knew that an enemy unit had penetrated their lines and destroyed a significant portion of their magical forces.
Hektor looked at the map.
"And Duke Douglas?"
Gareth raised his head.
"Laurence?"
"Yes."
Gareth hesitated.
"I didn't see him."
Hektor frowned.
"None of the survivors saw him?"
"I don't know."
Gareth shook his head.
"At that moment, we were all trying to survive."
Hektor remained thoughtful.
That meant the connection to Laurence was still only a hypothesis.
Perhaps he had been there.
Perhaps he had not.
But the attack had been far too precise to be considered a simple improvised raid.
Hektor picked up the report.
"What happened afterward?"
"The spellcasters began falling."
"How many attackers?"
"I don't know."
"Fifty?"
Gareth looked at him.
"Who said fifty?"
Hektor did not answer.
Gareth slowly exhaled.
"It could have been twenty."
He looked toward the floor.
"It could have been a hundred."
"Why?"
"Because we never managed to see them together."
Hektor closed his eyes for a moment.
Now he understood the real problem.
They could not fight a force they could not even locate.
Shortly afterward, Hektor gathered the main commanders.
Gareth's report was repeated.
The officers argued for several minutes.
Some wanted to reinforce the nighttime units.
Others proposed using magical barriers.
A third suggested sending higher-level soldiers to hunt down the infiltrators.
Hektor listened.
Finally, he raised a hand.
Everyone fell silent.
"We don't know how many there are."
He pointed at the map.
"We don't know where they entered."
Another mark.
"We don't know how they detect them."
And finally:
"We don't even know whether Laurence Douglas was present."
Silence.
Hektor took a deep breath.
"Therefore, we will not fight at night again."
One of the generals raised his eyes.
"General?"
"The nighttime offensive is prohibited."
The order was clear.
"No more incursions into their lines. No more columns advancing blindly. No more nighttime attacks until we know exactly what we're fighting."
One general tried to intervene.
"But the princess ordered us to maintain constant pressure."
Hektor looked at him.
"The pressure will continue."
He pointed toward Dara.
"During the day."
Then he pointed toward the Imperial lines.
"The night will be used to reorganize, reinforce our positions, and study the enemy."
He paused.
"We cannot conquer Dara if we keep feeding soldiers to an enemy we cannot even see."
No one answered.
Hektor looked toward the forest again.
"I want double patrols."
"Yes, General."
"I want redundant communication."
"Yes."
"I want the magical units protected by elite troops."
The officers began taking notes.
Hektor finished:
"And I want to know who those men are."
His gaze hardened.
"The next time they appear in our darkness..."
He paused.
"I want us to be the ones waiting for them."
Several hundred meters away, behind Dara's lines, Laurence watched the dawn break.
The fifty warriors remained gathered among the trees.
Two had minor injuries.
None had fallen.
A captain approached.
"My lord."
Laurence did not take his eyes off the Imperial army.
"Casualties?"
"None."
Laurence nodded.
"The spellcasters?"
"The objective was reached."
The captain hesitated.
"We don't know how many."
Laurence did not seem concerned.
Ahead of them, the Imperials were already beginning to reorganize. More guards. More scouts. The surviving mages had been surrounded by elite troops.
Laurence smiled faintly.
"They learn quickly."
"Will we return tonight?"
Laurence shook his head.
"No."
The captain waited for an explanation.
Laurence raised his eyes toward the sky, where the darkness was beginning to retreat.
The night had been perfect.
The forest.
The shadows.
The silence.
All of it was Douglas territory.
It was a shame they were not on their own lands.
There, in the fortresses of the duchy, darkness did not merely hide them.
It made them disappear.
Laurence turned his gaze back toward Dara.
"Now they know we can do it. I don't think they'll give us another opportunity like this."
"Then..."
"We'll continue defending Dara."
The captain nodded.
Laurence raised a hand.
"Withdraw the men."
The warriors began disappearing among the trees.
One after another.
Without a sound.
Leaving behind nothing but footprints in the mud.
Laurence was the last to leave.
Before entering the forest, he looked at the Imperial army one more time.
Laurence smiled.
They still didn't know it.
But this would not be the last time an army feared the darkness.
Inside the great Imperial command tent, Naira received the report shortly afterward.
She had not slept.
She listened silently as Hektor recounted what had happened.
The missing spellcasters.
The dead officers.
The incursion.
The inability to identify the enemy.
And finally, Gareth's testimony.
"Yellow eyes?" she asked.
"That is what he claims."
Naira remained thoughtful.
Then she looked at the map.
"And Laurence?"
"No witness can confirm that he was there."
Naira slowly tightened her fingers around the pen.
That irritated her.
She had thought that forcing him to fight during the day and night would eventually wear him down.
But now a variable she had not anticipated had appeared.
The Douglas also had a way of fighting that did not depend on the walls.
And she had just discovered it in the worst possible way.
"The nighttime offensive is suspended."
The officer nodded.
"Yes, Your Highness."
Naira raised her eyes.
"But we will not withdraw the army."
She pointed toward Dara.
"We attack during the day."
Then she pointed toward the perimeter.
"We keep them occupied."
Her finger stopped over the right flank.
"And we observe."
"Laurence?"
Naira slowly shook her head.
"Everyone."
She paused.
"I will not send soldiers to fight something I do not understand again."
She looked toward the walls.
"First, we learn."
Then her eyes hardened.
"After that, we attack again."
Outside, the Imperial drums began to sound.
The night was over.
The second attempt to take Dara had also failed.
But for the first time, both sides had gained something more important than a victory.
Information.
The Douglas had discovered that the Empire would not withdraw after a defeat.
And the Empire had discovered something far more unsettling.
In the darkness of Dara...
there were men with yellow eyes who could enter their ranks without being seen.
And no one yet knew exactly who they were.