War came to Aethelgard not as a storm, but as the creeping tide before it, silent, inevitable, swallowing the kingdom inch by inch.
The Thalurian Empire's response arrived two months after they received the kingdom's letter, sealed in imperial gold, carried by soldiers who didn't hide their disdain, still thinking that they're above everything. Maximus didn't need to break the wax to know what it would say.
There's no universe in which the Empire, proud, arrogant, and swollen with centuries of conquest, would lower its head to apologize. And certainly not to Aethelgard, the very kingdom they'd spent generations regarding as compliant, docile, and manageable.
Still, he read it.
A curt refusal. A dismissal of Aethelgard's demands. Not a single mention of the oath-breaking sorcerer who had trespassed on their land. Followed by the line Maximus knew would be there: "If Aethelgard insists on pursuing this insult further, the Empire shall treat it as a declaration of hostility."
