Snow fell in soft curtains over St. Petersburg as Mikhail convened his inner circle in the War Room.
Cipher Corps agents had begun decoding rebel communications seized at Kolyma Station. Most were mundane—rations, meeting times, ideological screeds.
But one message stood out.
A fragment of ciphered text, unlike anything the Corps had seen:
"The Phoenix stirs beneath the Iron Crown. East to the Sunken Vaults. 9-3-7."
The code breakers were baffled.
Mikhail was not.
He remembered history—the hidden vaults of Novgorod, ancient repositories from the time of Ivan the Terrible, rumored to hold weapons, artifacts, and heretical texts buried after the Schism.
Could the rebels be seeking power not merely to destroy—but to replace the Empire with something older... something darker?
[New Quest Unlocked: Secrets of the Sunken Vaults]
Mikhail ordered Cipher Director Velesov to assemble an elite strike team.
Their mission: Locate the Vaults before the Children of the True Flame did.
Meanwhile, a second crisis brewed.
Encrypted rebel letters mentioned "Sympathizers in the Court."
Someone within the Palace itself was feeding information to the enemy.
[Internal Threat Identified: High-Value Target]
Mikhail's mind raced. He needed loyalty. He needed surveillance. And he needed it quietly.
Thus was born the Office of Internal Affairs, a secret network that would monitor ministers, generals, even nobility.
[Institution Created: Office of Internal Affairs | Status: Clandestine]
Paranoia seeped into the marble halls. Ministers double-checked their drinks. Nobles spoke in coded pleasantries. Servants who whispered the wrong words simply vanished.
Mikhail knew this was a dangerous game.
But survival demanded it.
At night, reviewing intelligence reports under candlelight, Mikhail whispered to himself:
"An empire built on gears must also run on secrets."
As Cipher agents departed for Novgorod under cover of darkness, a new storm gathered to the south.
British agents had arrived in the Ottoman courts, offering gold, rifles, and promises.
Soon, the borders would burn.
And if Mikhail failed to find the Vaults in time, the flames within Russia might consume it from the inside out.