Chapter 88 The Impossible
ARYA
“It means someone might have staged this to look like mutual aggression. Discredit the unity movement by proving different species can’t coexist peacefully.” She zoomed in on the location map. “Look at where it happened. Right on the border between territories, in an area with pre-existing tensions. Perfect place to start a conflict.”
“Theron’s supporters?” Luca suggested.
“Maybe. Or someone else who benefits from division.” Sage pulled up more data. “We won’t know until we investigate on site.”
We arrived at dusk to find the area in lockdown. Both the wolf pack and the Lycan settlement had mobilized their warriors, weapons drawn, ready for war.
“This is going to be fun,” I muttered.
“Define fun,” Luca said.
“I can’t. That’s the problem.”
We set up a neutral meeting point between the two territories, a clearing marked with Unity Council banners. It took an hour to convince both sides to send representatives.
The wolf Alpha, a woman named Kiera, arrived first. She was young, maybe thirty, with anger radiating from her in waves.
“Luna Arya,” she said stiffly. “Thank you for coming. We need justice for our dead.”
“You’ll get it. I promise.” I gestured to the table we’d set up. “Please sit. Tell me exactly what happened.”
“They attacked us during a trade meeting, of all times. We were there in good faith, following the new protocols, when their warriors just—” Her voice broke. “They slaughtered three of our people. Three!”
“Did you see who gave the order?”
“No. It was chaos. But they wore Lycan settlement colors. There’s no question who was responsible.”
The Lycan representative, Lord Eamon, arrived minutes later. He was older, scarred, and equally furious.
“This is your doing,” he said immediately to Kiera. “Your pack provoked this attack.”
“We provoked nothing! You murdered our people!”
“ENOUGH!” Luca’s command made them both clamp their mouths shut. “Both of you, sit down and shut up. We’ll sort this out, but not with you screaming at each other.”
They sat, glaring across the table.
“Lord Eamon,” I said carefully. “Tell me your version.”
“We received intelligence that the wolves were planning an attack. That the trade meeting was a ruse to get close to our settlement.” He pulled out documents. “We have proof. Messages intercepted, supply movements inconsistent with peaceful trade.”
“Those are forgeries,” Kiera spat. “We sent no such messages.”
“Then explain the supply movements.”
“What supply movements? We brought trade goods, exactly as agreed!”
I studied both sets of evidence. The documents looked legitimate. But Sage was right, something felt staged about this.
“May I see the original messages?” I asked Lord Eamon.
He handed them over. I examined them carefully, then passed them to Bardon, who’d accompanied us specifically for his expertise in magical authentication.
He studied them for several minutes, running detection spells. Finally, he looked up.
“These are forgeries. Very good ones, but forgeries nonetheless. Created within the last forty-eight hours using sophisticated dark magic.”
“Impossible,” Lord Eamon protested. “They came from our intelligence network. Verified sources.”
“Verified sources that were compromised,” Bardon said. “Someone planted these documents, knowing you’d act on them.”
“But who?” Kiera asked. “Who benefits from us fighting each other?”
“Anyone opposed to unity,” Luca said grimly. “Which, unfortunately, is still a lot of people.”
“We need to find whoever did this,” I said. “Both of you, stand down your warriors. No more hostilities. We’ll investigate thoroughly and bring the actual perpetrators to justice.”
“And our dead?” Kiera demanded. “What about them?”
“Will be honored and remembered. And their families will receive reparations from the Unity Council.” I met her eyes. “I’m truly sorry for your loss. But fighting each other won’t bring them back.”
She was quiet for a long moment, then nodded. “Agreed. But I want regular updates on the investigation.”
“You’ll have them. Both of you will.”
It took the rest of the night to fully de-escalate the situation. By dawn, both sides had agreed to a temporary truce while we investigated.
“That was close,” Sage said as we finally headed back to our transport. “Another hour and they would have been at full war.”
“Too close,” I agreed. “And this won’t be the last time. Someone’s actively trying to sabotage unity.”
“Then we stop them,” Luca said. “Whatever it takes.”
“Easier said than done when we don’t know who ‘them’ is.”
“We’ll figure it out. We just need to act fast befor they strike again.”
I kept feeling like we were missing something vital. That there was a larger pattern we weren’t seeing. I didn’t know how to start looking for it either.
“Luca,” I said slowly. “What if this isn’t about stopping unity? What if it’s about controlling it?”
“Explain.”
“Think about it. Theron wanted to destroy unity completely. But what if someone else sees an opportunity? Unity means centralized power. A single council making decisions for all species. What if someone wants to be the one controlling that council?”
“A power play disguised as sabotage.”
“Exactly. If they make the unity seem impossible. People will be desperate for solutions that work, that’ll be the perfect opportunity to position themself as the only one who can fix it.”
Luca was quiet, processing. “That’s… diabolically clever. And entirely possible.”
“So we need to figure out who’s playing this game before they win it.”
“Add it to the list of impossible tasks we’re somehow accomplishing.” he said with a sense of humor.
Even though it shouldn’t be funny, I couldn't help the quiet laugh I let out. I leaned into him and added, “i’ll add it right after ‘don’t die’ and ‘change the world.’”
“Those are the easy ones.”
He joined in on the laughter. And he was right. We’d already done the impossible several times over.
What was one more miracle?