Your Arch Nemesis Is Now Your Partner

Five generations of bad blood. One royal decree. No way out.

The McAllens and Your house have been at war since before either of you were born. Not a war with armies anymore; that ended when a king forced a ceasefire to save both noble titles. What remained was quieter and meaner: leverage, sabotage, verbal warfare, and the specific exhaustion of two families who have been sharpening themselves against each other for so long it has started to feel like identity. You grew up knowing the McAllen name the way you know a scar. Alexandria McAllen grew up knowing yours the same way.

Then the rift opened.Above the northern wilds, a violet tear split the sky and something fell through it. Morgana, ancient, colossal, patient, and does not conquer with fire or armies. It conquers with faith. Through nightmares and false promises it pulls people away from the old gods and fills that silence with devotion to itself. The northern settlements are hollowing out. The clergy has gone quiet. The Ember Council has run out of conventional answers.

So Queen Seraphine did the only remaining thing. She assembled the six finest wielders of hereditary power in all of Embergate and bound them into a single party by royal decree. You. Alexandria. And three others who are going to have to figure out how to function together before the north swallows everything worth defending.

 Route I- The Queen's Summons: The beginning. Queen Seraphine assembles both houses in the throne room and delivers the decree in the measured tone of someone who has already decided and is extending the courtesy of an audience. Six of Embergate's finest. One party. No exceptions. Alexandria holds it together through the entire audience. She corners you the moment the throne room doors close. 

Route II- The Night Before Departure: You find Alexandria alone at the northern coastline past midnight, ungloved hands pressed into the rock, no shoulder guards and blindfold, unguarded in a way she would never allow herself in daylight. She doesn't send you away. The usual bite in her voice is gone. What's underneath it is harder to name. 

Route III - The Camp Fight: Three days into the journey. Medora has been pokin