The council chamber emptied fast. Aiden had already stormed out with his guards, barking orders about reinforced patrols at the outer gates. The rest of the room smelled like sweat, old parchment, and the faint metallic tang of mana residue from the argument spells that had nearly been cast.

Catherine waited until the last noble shuffled away before she caught Flora by the elbow and dragged her into the narrow service corridor behind the throne dais.

"Talk," Catherine said. She kept her voice low. No one else was supposed to hear this.

Flora pulled her arm free but didn’t walk away. She was still in the same leather-and-chain armor from the morning drill, hair sticking to her forehead. "What’s left to say, Mother? You heard him. The Sky Dungeon is spitting out stronger waves every day. He needs us on the front line. All of us."

Catherine leaned against the cold stone wall. "I heard him. I also heard the part where he expects you to stand in the breach if the next swarm breaks through the wards. You’re nineteen, Flora. You’re not a shield for his empire."

Flora looked at the floor. "And you’re his general. You’ve told me a hundred times that power only comes when you stand next to him. Now you want to pull back?"

"I want you alive," Catherine snapped. "There’s a difference." She rubbed the scar on her forearm, the one she’d earned clearing the third floor of the Sky Dungeon six months ago.

"I built this position for both of us. But every time another monster falls from the sky, I keep thinking what happens if you’re the one who doesn’t walk away."

Flora’s jaw tightened. "You didn’t ask me that when you pushed me into his bed the first time. Or the second. Or when you told me to smile and agree with every order so we could rise together."

Catherine didn’t flinch. "I did what I had to. The empire was collapsing. Aiden was the only one strong enough to hold it together. Now the monsters are inside the walls and he’s starting to crack. I see it. You see it too."

Flora exhaled through her nose. "So what’s your plan? Betray him? Run? We don’t have anywhere to go."

"I don’t know yet," Catherine admitted. It was the first time she’d said it out loud. "But I’m not sacrificing you for his throne. Not anymore."

Down the corridor, in the smaller war room that overlooked the training yard, Sabrina and Luna were already arguing. The table between them was covered in maps marked with red ink where the latest monster sightings had been reported.

Sabrina stood with her arms crossed, short sword still strapped to her hip. Luna sat on the edge of the table, legs swinging like she was still a kid instead of the woman who had killed thirty-two dungeon spawn last week.

"You’re hesitating again," Sabrina said. "I saw it in the council. When Aiden said we might have to burn half the eastern quarter to slow the swarm, you looked ready to vomit."

Luna stared at the map. "Because half the eastern quarter is full of people who didn’t ask for any of this. Kids. Families. Not everyone signed up to be Aiden’s meat shield."

Sabrina laughed once, short and ugly. "Since when do you care about random families? You used to laugh when we cleared a floor and the civilians cheered. Now you’re soft."

"I’m not soft. I’m tired of pretending this is all worth it." Luna finally looked up. "You keep talking about the power he’s giving us. But every time I close my eyes I see the last wave—the one with the winged ones that ripped through the barracks. I keep wondering if the next wave is going to take you instead of some nameless soldier."

Sabrina stepped closer. "Don’t you dare make this about me. I raised you to survive. I taught you to take what you want.

Aiden is the only one who can give us a place where no one can touch us again. Not the old nobles, not the church, not the dungeon itself."

Luna’s voice dropped. "And if the price is me watching you die for him? Or him asking me to die so he can look strong in front of the crowd?"

Sabrina didn’t answer right away. She reached out and flicked a strand of hair out of Luna’s face, the same gesture she’d used when Luna was small and scared of thunderstorms. "Then we make sure it doesn’t come to that. But we don’t run. Not yet."

The door opened. A runner in imperial colors stepped in, breathing hard. "Ladies. The emperor requests the full harem in the strategy hall. Immediate. Something about new reports from the northern watchtowers."

Catherine and Flora arrived last. The room was already full: Bela and Calipso stood on opposite sides of the long table like they were measuring each other for a fight. Bela’s white church robes were spotless, the holy sigil on her chest glowing faintly.

Calipso wore the darker, more practical vestments of the inquisitorial branch, fingers tapping the hilt of the ritual dagger at her belt. Isolde sat in the corner, hood up, saying nothing. She always said nothing in these meetings until it mattered.

Aiden wasn’t there. He had sent a message instead—written orders to prepare for a possible breakthrough at the Sky Gate by nightfall.

Bela spoke first. "The church will stand with the emperor. The faithful have already been mobilized. We can bless the outer walls again, but it will cost lives to hold the line."

Calipso cut in. "It will cost more than lives. The last blessing drained three priests to ash. If we keep feeding the emperor’s war with our own people, the church splits in two. Some of us already think we’re backing the wrong horse."

Bela’s eyes narrowed. "Careful. Treason starts with words like that."

Before Calipso could answer, the floor shook. Once. Twice. Then the windows exploded inward as something massive slammed into the palace courtyard outside.

Alarms screamed.

Catherine was moving before the glass finished falling. "Flora—on me!" She drew her long blade and kicked the table aside.

They spilled out onto the balcony that overlooked the inner courtyard. Three Sky Dungeon monsters had crashed through the outer wards. They weren’t the small ones anymore.

These were the size of wagons, bodies like twisted iron and bone, wings of jagged crystal that still sparked with leftover portal energy. One of them had already crushed a carriage and was ripping into the stone fountain.

Sabrina and Luna hit the courtyard running. Luna’s twin daggers flashed as she slid under the first monster’s sweeping claw. Sabrina went high, leaping onto its back and driving her sword into the gap behind its neck plate. Black ichor sprayed.

"Stay together!" Catherine shouted. She and Flora took the second beast. Flora’s spear—gifted by Aiden after the last floor clear—punctured the thing’s eye. It screamed and swung. Catherine shoved her daughter sideways, taking the hit across her shield. The impact rattled her teeth, but she held.

"Mother!" Flora yelled.

"I’m fine. Keep stabbing!"

Across the yard, Bela chanted a barrier prayer. Golden light snapped into place around a cluster of servants trying to flee. Calipso ignored the prayer and went straight for the third monster, dagger glowing with purge runes. She carved a line down its flank and the wound sizzled shut behind the blade.

Isolde moved like a shadow between the chaos. She wasn’t fighting hard—just enough to look useful. When she passed behind Luna, she spoke low enough that only the younger woman heard. "He’s not here. Again. Funny how the emperor always finds somewhere else to be when the real blood starts flowing."

Luna didn’t answer, but her next strike was harder than it needed to be.

The fight lasted four brutal minutes. Catherine took a cut across her ribs that burned like acid. Flora got a claw rake down her left arm but kept swinging.

Sabrina finished her monster by ripping its head half off with her bare hands and a strength spell. Luna’s daggers found the weak joint under the third beast’s jaw and it dropped, twitching.

When the last one stopped moving, the courtyard was silent except for the crackle of dying portal energy and the sound of people coughing on dust.

Bela lowered her hands, sweat streaking her face. "The church holds. For now."

Calipso wiped her dagger on her sleeve. "The church is bleeding. Keep pushing like this and half of us walk."

Isolde said nothing. She just watched the mothers and daughters from the edge of the yard.

Catherine found Flora leaning against a broken pillar, pressing a rag to her arm. Blood soaked through. Catherine tore a strip from her own cloak and bound it tight. Neither of them spoke for a long moment.

"You took that hit for me," Flora said quietly.

"Yeah." Catherine tied the knot. "Because I’m done letting Aiden decide who lives and who dies. I built this life for us. Not for him to spend us like coins."

Flora looked toward the palace towers where Aiden’s banners still flew. "What if the others don’t feel the same?"

"Then we make them see it," Catherine said. "One conversation at a time. One fight at a time."

Sabrina and Luna were twenty feet away. Sabrina had her arm around her daughter’s shoulders, checking the shallow cut on Luna’s cheek. Luna was letting her.

"I meant what I said earlier," Sabrina muttered. "We don’t run yet. But if he asks you to stand in front of another wave like that... I’m not sure I can watch."

Luna leaned into her mother’s side. "Then maybe we stop watching and start deciding for ourselves."

Isolde slipped back inside the palace doors without being noticed. She allowed herself the smallest smile. The seeds were planted. The mothers were starting to crack. Aiden’s perfect harem was one good push away from choosing their daughters over their emperor.

Outside, the sky above the capital had that wrong color again—too red, too restless. Another wave was coming. Everyone could feel it. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Catherine helped Flora to her feet. "Come on. Let’s get that arm looked at. Then we talk to the others. Quietly."

Flora nodded once. For the first time in months she didn’t argue.

They walked back inside together, two pairs of mothers and daughters moving in the same direction but already thinking about different futures. The empire’s walls were still standing. The monsters were still falling.

But something inside the harem had just shifted, and none of them were going to pretend it hadn’t.