The inner strategy hall of the Galka War Headquarters smelled of stale tallow lamp oil, dry charcoal dust, and cold granite.
Outside the thick reinforced walls, the entire northern garrison was on edge, with heavy iron gates barred and patrols marching through the courtyards every quarter hour.
It had taken Seyika Faraku less than ten minutes to bypass the outer checkpoints and smuggle the seven core members of Squad 25 into the restricted sector.
With the High Council placing the district under martial emergency following the political chaos in Alika, no cadet was permitted out of the war academy, let alone within three leagues of the war room.
Any ordinary soldier caught moving unauthorized through the headquarters would have been disarmed, bound in iron chains, and thrown into the holding cells.
