Groaning, Corvus stood and stretched out his back. He’d been spending all hours of the day and far into the night for the last week hunched over his desk working feverishly trying to save as many of Valard’s Fae as possible from the coming famine. The Fae Chanar rampage had disrupted so many sites and left so many under-strength during what should have been the harvest season that widespread death from hunger was a real risk. But now he’d done it, many would feel the pinch but he shuffled around the numbers enough so that none should die.

Not that Valard cared in the slightest. Corvus hadn’t even seen him since they’d returned from driving Ireen and his supporters out of Valard’s lands and had been instructed on pain of death to not disturb him for any reason.

The rumbling of his stomach he’d been ignoring told him once again it wasn’t only the Fae of the land who needed to think about their food. Maybe he should do something about that.

A glance out the window and he was unsurprised to see it was fully dark, by this time of night the Tower staff would all be in bed so he’d have to find his own food.

Rubbing his tired eyes he walked toward the door and actually had his hand outstretched turning the knob when he noticed the covered plate on the small table just inside the door. Thanking Gwen, Elsilai’s successor, he picked it up and headed back to his desk, he’d eat then get some long overdue sleep.

He’d just lifted the cover and seen the thick slices of herdbeast swimming in gravy underneath when the door was flung open and a swarm of Tower guards rushed in with their weapons bared, followed closely by Captain Vargaian.

His voice high and excited Vargaian said, “Corvus! Under the laws of the Tower I am placing you under arrest, come quietly or die where you sit.”

With a puzzled frown Corvus stabbed a hunk of herdbeast and dipped it in mustard calmly before saying, “For what? I know you covet my position but what trumped up beastshit charge has your fevered little brain come up with, this time?”

His smile gloating and his voice dropping with satisfaction Vargaian said, “I had to do nothing, your own actions have proven you to be a treasonous dog. I will enjoy your screams as you are flayed alive for it.”

“Treason? Really? What treason? You best have irrefutable proof or Valard will take it very amiss. An unfounded accusation of such vile acts by his own Seneschal.” Feigning unconcern he put the meat in his mouth and chewed slowly.

“Oh I have proof, I will present it and you in chains to Valard once he is not indisposed. I must say that old woman was quite tough, even the knives failed to get her to talk. When they were used on her. Once I moved on to the children she sang prettily enough.”

Swallowing the bite even though his appetite was suddenly gone, with more than a touch of anger he said acidly, “I knew you were a coward but to boast of torturing elderly women and children? You are diseased offal, worth nothing and contaminating all you touch.”

“Save your breath for explaining your actions to Valard. You are guilty of treason and when I present you to him I have no doubt he will reward me well for uncovering you and that nest of vipers you had built out at the edge of his lands” He smiled again when Corvus looked at him sharply, “I killed them all. Every last rebellious man, woman, and child you had hidden out there now lies dead and rotting because of you and you will go into the dark with that knowledge.”

Corvus calmly took another bite of his meal, chewed it thoughtfully and after he’d swallowed said, “You are mistaken.”

“No, I’m not. I have all the proof I’ll ever need and all of my men who were with me know as well. You’re not getting out of this.”

“Oh, not about the treason. You’re absolutely right about that, no what you’re wrong about is you thinking you can capture me or that you’ll survive to be rewarded.” The undead Tower guards mixed in among the living ones drew their swords in a motion almost too fast to see and drove them through the living. Speaking to Vargaian’s heart-pierced corpse he continued, “Because you seem to have forgotten something of vital importance, I’m the one who raised the majority of the tower guardians and only Valard himself can take away my ability to command them.” Taking a few steps forward he kicked the corpse viciously, “You got a much easier death than you should have, trash. But, what's done is done. It’s much too soon for the rebellion to be exposed but too many innocents have died already and will continue to do so. I must make their deaths mean something or I’m no better than the Fae Chanar myself.”

He paused at the door on his way out of the room looking back at the office he’d spent so many turnings in. A brief expression of anger and regret twisted his features, an abrupt gesture and a bolt of lightning flew from his finger igniting the papers he’d worked so hard on. Without a backward glance and with no expression he walked from the room as the flames spread and took hold.

A day and many irrevocable acts later he was standing in the gravelled yard at the farmstead that had been the Rebellion's headquarters as his stomach churned. Not because of the horrific smell, he’d smelled much worse but rather because some of the people laying in this pile of rotting maggot riddled bodies he’d genuinely liked and respected and they were dead because of him.

But as much as it was his fault, truly the system that he’d upheld for so long was to blame. He’d been blind to the suffering and this was far from the only massacre he’d seen, indeed it was far from the only massacre he’d been a party to. In his climb to Seneschal he’d played the grand game with a viciousness none could match and been richly rewarded for it.

But that was the point wasn’t it? The grand game was deliberately fostered by the Fae Chanar to keep a sense of competitive destructiveness among the Fae, to keep them fractured, isolated, stop them organising any sort of effective opposition.

He was done playing ‘games’, up until now he’d just been playing at rebellion, treating it as just another phase of the grand game he’d played his entire life. Now it was something he’d happily sacrifice his life for, if it meant a comrade could strike a crippling blow. It was no longer a game to him and he was no longer playing by the Fae Chanar’s rules.

The green energy of Life spread out around the pile of corpses, soon a small copse of trees stood over them. A gesture and dull grey Death tore into the trees, killing them and desiccating their remains.

A snap of his fingers and several bolts of bright pink lightning cracked into the pile of perfectly dry wood.

With a last glance he teleported away from the crackling flames that burned almost the only people he’d ever known well enough to truly care about.

*******

The new Seneschal of the Tower stood holding out a scroll to Valard in his throne room, smashing the scroll to the ground he roared, “Tell me.”

Swallowing the newly elevated guardsman said, “All undead guardians have been put down, all animals and completed experiments have been destroyed, all paperwork has been burned and most stored supplies have been destroyed. The Tower has food for two days at most and only what you had in storage 3c and 4c remain for your experiments, Master.”

“Bah! Replace the supplies for my experiments and drive all the staff other than the guards from the Tower. But make sure the guard is at full strength and well fed. Corvus will strike soon unless I do not know that traitor. We will be on a war footing until his head adorns a pike outside my Tower, all patrols triple strength, all convoys double the guard and kill any suspicious looking Fae on sight. If Corvus himself is spotted I must be immediately informed, I doubt any of the guard can handle him.”

Bowing the Fae left the room, “Your will Master.”

Valard stood and started pacing, He really should have put Corvus down long ago but the chance of new knowledge had blinded him and now he would pay the price of that mistake.

Corvus knew everything there was to know about the day to day running of this land and far too much about Valard himself. He’d be able to counter everything Valard could try easily and fighting any forces he managed to raise was going to be a nightmare.

But, seriously how many could he raise? The Fae of this land were farmers, fear of the guard’s reprisals should keep them from listening to Corvus’ rebellious ideas.

*******

Calling for a break Corvus walked over to the water barrel and dipping a bucket out dumped it over his head cooling his red and sweating face, it was a very hot day for the tail end of autumn and he’d been drilling his trainers hard. These dozen he’d hand picked to polish their training in axe and shield were training another dozen each who would then each train another dozen once they were done and so on until all the former farmers were at least as competent as the guards.

Corvus preferred Greatsword himself but had trained often enough with the guard’s weapons to know them well.

After the bloody purges that he’d performed over the last five tendays there were no loyalists left in Valard’s lands outside of the Tower. The staining on his gauntlets leather linings would not come out, too much blood was on his hands now but he’d do it all over again if he had too. The sleepless nights and guilt of the murderous swathe he’d cut across Valard’s lands were a small price to pay.

Mercy was a luxury he couldn’t afford, none of the rebels could because they would be shown none.

Straightening up and dripping wet he glanced around as his trainees walked off to sit in the shade, the camp was bustling and it alone held more Fae than the Tower guard did. There were another two smaller but much better hidden camps and many Fae still lived at the worksites. This camp would move soon because a fixed camp was a terrible idea for a rebellion, especially when Valard had his undead minions scouring the entire land for them.

As he looked around he fixed the faces he saw in his mind because they were the ones who would pay the cost of this rebellion, realistically most of the people here would die before this was ended.

Waving his hand he said, “You lot get to your teaching. Yeah I know it’s early but I’ve got to go talk to Gader.”

Ignoring the half-hearted grumbling he walked over to the other side of the training ground where mass drills were being run.

Finding Gader had been a stroke of luck, he was a retired Captain of the Tower Guard and had worked under Corvus protecting Valard’s lands from other Fae Chanar for a dozen turnings before an assassination attempt left him crippled.

Without Gader’s knowledge of leading, supplying and quartering troops the rebellion would be nowhere near as advanced.

As Corvus walked up he was sitting in a pile of soft furs under a shade watching a group running through an obstacle course with a critical eye, barking out orders and foul mouthed encouragement whenever any slackened their pace.

Corvus winced at a particularly vile phrase, today must be a bad day for the crippled man.

He smiled, clapping his hands and said, “Ho, Gader! How’s this lot looking?”

“Their conditioning is shit, their drills are sloppy and they’ll die as soon as they face any halfway trained monkey. In short, they’re doing great. Another few tendays and they’ll be as ready as we can make them.”

“Good to hear, we won’t have too long before Valard and his guards start looking for us. I think he’ll keep his brethren out for now, he’s more paranoid about them then he’ll be looking for help to end us. We just need that paranoia and suspicion of them to work in our favour until we kill him, once we have the lands we’ll have a base to strike out at the rest of them.”

Inclining his head Gader said, “They’ll be ready but how do you plan to hold the bastards out of the land once we take it? I know what sort of monsters we’re dealing with and they will not only want this land they’ll want us dead and humiliated even more.”

“Hopefully by that time Raelea will be back and she can prove what shes been saying about Witches.”

Gader grunted and said, “That’s a damn slim hope to hang all our lives on.”

Corvus was quiet as he said, “Yes it is, but it’s the only one we have. We just have to remain underground, he must think that our rebellion is limited and he still has mostly loyalist Fae at his worksites. If he knows it’s all his Fae who are in rebellion he’ll do something drastic, that may even be enough for him to ignore his paranoia and bring in his brethren again.”

*******

The Happy Pig worksite smelled of spring and the first new shoots were just poking though the winter fallowed fields when a guardsman detachment trotted up the road.

Captain Kiub led his eighteen man detachment into the centre of the worksite. He wasn’t really used to leading this many men and it had taken time to adjust. Six guards were much easier to manage than eighteen and honestly he found these new patrol sizes a complete waste. The Fae at the worksites were still only farmers, easily cowed by a threat of violence. They were beaten dogs cowering and whining before their betters, he was certain he alone would be more than a match for the whole worksite if it came to a fight.

Still he had his orders and they must have some reason behind them, he knew Corvus had fled the tower but how much damage could one Fae do?

He motioned his men to dismount and move out to gather the Fae in the centre of the worksite as he sat on his horse waiting impatiently for them to be gathered.

A long dreary while later he addressed a sullen group of fifty or so farmers. That was odd there were twice as many Fae as there should be here and his eyes narrowed in thought. But then his nose wrinkled and he forgot that oddity as he was distracted by the beast dung liberally splattered up one of the farmer's bare legs, absolutely disgusting.

How could these wretches be any threat? They were all thin, all dirty, all unkempt, and not an ounce of discipline among them or they’d be cleaner.

He was only here because Valard had made it very very clear to the new Seneschal all wagon disappearances would be investigated thoroughly. It was a waste of his time and talents, Bandits had always preyed on the teamsters and it was undoubtedly just time to hunt down their camps and burn them out again.

Sitting high on his horse in a bored tone of voice he said, “What do you know, if anything, about the wagons that were ambushed just up the path from here?”

As expected there were a lot of blank looks among the terrified farmers, as usual a total waste of time, though wait… that one, he looked shifty. The Captain swung down from his horse and his shield covered him in humming white light as he stalked toward one of the farmers, “You there, what do you know? I can see it on your face that you know something. Talk.”

“I know nothin’ at all about anythin’ and even if I did I wouldn’t tell you.”

“You fieldscum need to learn to mind your manners again when talking to the guards again it seems.” He reached for the short heavy cudgel that hung at his belt and was surprised when the farmer’s hand grasped his wrist, bypassing his shield which should have prevented that and holding his wrist with a surprisingly strong grip.

Stepping right up close the farmer hissed in his ear, “I’ve got a brother in the guard and if you swing that you’ll touch off something you really don’t want. Folks are starving so things are tense, you swing on me… you an’ your men ain’t gettin’ outa here.”

Stumbling back as though he’d been shoved the farmer said out loud, “Sorry, sorry I shouldn’t have got so close but the lack of food made me lose my mind for a moment. We know nothing and beating us won’t get you information we don’t have.”

The Captain looked at him thinking then very deliberately moved his hand away from the cudgel, “You, you say none of you know anything about the ambush?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“I don’t believe you. Sargent we need to question these shitheels more closely, line them up!” but he was very careful to keep his hand far away from his weapons.

The farmers were roughly herded into lines as the overseer’s house was taken over, only the first two Fae had been questioned when there was a shout from one of the outbuildings. A guard walked out dragging a struggling young Fae male.

“Captain! Caught this one in a hidden room in there, a hidden room full of stolen goods from the caravan.” The struggling young Fae’s fist lit with flame and his muscles swelled as he slammed it into the guards unprotected face. There was a crunch of bone and the guard dropped like he’d been hit with a mace.

As if it had been a signal, chaos broke out.

More than half the guards fell almost straight away to the fists and spells of the suddenly not so cowed and not so compliant farmers.

Surrounded by the guards corpses the farmer who’d spoken to the Captain walked up to the young Fae and said, “Eepyk you damn fool idiot, we had the guard under control until you were caught in the store. What were you doing in there anyway?”

“Baaile, he was going to kill me. He’d told me before we came out he was going to make an example of me.”

Baaile narrowed his eyes and repeated with an edge to his voice, “That was not the question I asked. What were you doing in there?”

Flushing red with embarrassment he muttered, “Getting an apple, Horvus said Estell had been asking if anyone had one and I wanted to make her happy.”

“You mean the Horvus that I saw walking up to the back pond with Estell just before the guards arrived, the same Horvus right at this moment standing over there with his arm around her and a smirk on his face?”

Flatly Eepyk said, “Yes.”

Shaking his head Baaile said, “Fool. One: you were played and two: you have exposed the rebellion completely. When Corvus comes by for his update you will be the one who explains this utter stupidity because the loss of a full guard column will not be overlooked.”

With a resigned note in his voice Eepyk repeated, “Yes.”