Lord Regent Cadacus's office was a small under decorated room. The morning light shone in through the window, wonderful and bright. Outside it looked to be a beautiful cloudless day. Inside, by contrast, it was dusty and airless. Shelves of ageing books occupied the limited wall space. His desk creaked beneath the weight of unread reports and unsolicited correspondence that were stacked high upon it. The room's worn carpet grew slowly more frayed as he paced restlessly about. Sitting down felt too much like inactivity yet his pacing did little to alleviate his worries. Corbin stood by the door gaunt-faced and professional as always. He was Cadacus's steward and assistant. He was a professional and said nothing he merely watched his master stress and waited for a moment in which he could be useful.

The news had found Cadacus early in the morning and now he felt like a hapless hiker staring down an oncoming landslide. Several people had been paid to spread the rumours by one of the many claimants. They'd been able to get the name of the person who hired them. It appeared that Lord Galithir was the one behind it.

He owned many business ventures all of which were failing until very recently when they all received a mysterious injection of coin. Cadacus had little doubt as to where that coin had come from. This kind of thing was typical of the neighbouring Kingdom of Carlilis. It seemed they had started to meddle. He wasn't fooled. The other lords wouldn't be fooled either. But you didn't sprinkle people across a city spreading tall tales to convince the lords. That wasn't who the effort was aimed at. And from what Cadacus had heard the rumours had been effective. Scarily effective. Every bar was filled with chatter about it. Every passing conversation on the street mentioned it. There was no one in the city who was not talking about it. The populace truly believed the Obsidian Witch had returned.

"I should have known! I thought the reason the lords were so eager to get the festival running was as a show to the Obsidian Witch. They were racing to outspend each other on it. I thought they arrogantly believed that the Witch's allegiance could be won by displays of wealth and empty flattery. I should have known at least some of them were smarter than that. The festival provides the perfect excuse for her to 'come back'. I should have known!"

Once again Raliec was pushed closer to disaster and Cadacus was stuck watching helplessly. Always he was watching from the sidelines as the people around him discarded logic and reason for avarice and the faint hope of more power. Corbin was unmoving and unexpressive as he watched his lord pace.

"One can hope, Lord Regent, that this scheme of theirs will reveal the real Obsidian Witch and if it does all our problems may be solved,"

"Only if it does," Cadacus snapped "And if it doesn't Corbin. If she doesn't show then we are screwed. This nation is held together by the illusion that the Witch might intervene but this whole scheme takes a gods damned hammer to that Illusion!"

Cadacus was yelling now, veins popping in his forehead as his bottled anger and frustration were unleashed towards the unflinching steward.

"One can hope? We need more than hope Corbin! The worst thing is I'm almost certain it won't reveal her. Divination shows us she's never considered herself as the Obsidian Witch. There's two possibilities there; one she's never heard the name, which means she either dead or has never returned to the Western kingdoms. Or two, she hates it and doesn't want to be associated with it. This is the person who marched past KIng Jour and his forces without even stopping to say hi. I have a hard time picturing her as someone who's going to make an appearance to contest a title she may not even want! But I tell you what is going to happen. Lord Galithir is going to unveil some imposter that has spent a long time preparing to play the role at the upcoming celebrations and she's going to support his bid for the throne. The other claimants will know she's an imposter. But they will need to do something or let Galithir and his imposter have the throne. From there, things will escalate. It'll be the tipping point. The point of no return. After which there will be no control, no containment. Just an entire nation embroiled in civil war!"

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Cadacus's frustration boiled in his veins. It had been eating away at him every day he sat next to the throne in that overblown room. Now Cadacus let loose his frustrations on his assistant. But Corbin had not moved a muscle, cracked a smile or frowned once during Cadacus's tirade. He had stood as still as a statue, not even a flicker of displeasure or annoyance had crossed his face.

"What do you ask of me, my lord?"

Cadacus took a moment to calm himself. Corbin, in his own way, was telling him he couldn't fix anything Cadacus was talking about and to direct him to problems Corbin could actually solve. He had been an ever-loyal and stalwart ally. One of very few. And one of the very few people who did deserve any part of Cadacus's rage.

"I'm sorry, Corbin. I didn't mean to snap,"

"It is alright sir, you are understandably stressed. It is a difficult situation,"

"Has there been any leads on finding her, the real her I mean?"

"No new ones I'm afraid sir. All sightings of her after the battle originate from deep within the Empire. Since then the Empire has only grown more inaccessible to us. We do not even know the current state of their government and ruling powers. Repeated attempts at divination have failed to produce any useful information. We are still looking for the missing records from the Obsidian Guard's stronghold. We have yet to find the culprits who stole the contents of their libraries. But the leading theory is that it was covertly taken and shipped to Jeklein lands as a means of stealing their strength and their secrets. Or perhaps they intended to use what was there as a means to combat the Witch. It would explain the thoroughness with which the membership files were removed. None the less I expect all answers are across the border in the Empire,"

Finally, Cadacus ended his pacing and sat down at his desk and placed his head in his hands. The chair here was thankfully not as uncomfortable as the one that awaited him in the throne room. It creaked loudly as he sank into it. His fingers tapped against his temple as tried to figure out what he could do. How could he fix this?

"Corbin, I need you to find me an Obsidian Witch,"

"I'm sorry sir but as I've explained without effective agents in the Empire-"

"Not the Obsidian Witch, an Obsidian Witch. An imposter of our own. If we can disprove the rumours before people start wondering why the real one isn't showing up we may be able to keep the plates spinning. We need another imposter to throw some doubt on the rumour's claims. By providing a second imposter we make having someone evaluate which is the real one necessary. As the regent, I'm officially a neutral party in the affairs of the lords and claimants. Which means we can position ourselves as the arbitrators of any claims about the Obsidian Witch. We are the only logical choice. From there we can turn the whole thing into a mud-slinging contest of such intensity and vitriol that no one will question why the hell the real one stayed away,"

Cadacus leaned back into his chair. He wasn't sure this was the best solution but it was the only one he had. It was at least an answer.

"The lords won't shut me down while doing it either. Either they will want to prevent their competition from gaining too much power and influence with the people or they will be supporting the imposter and will need to act like they are confident she will pass all tests and trails we come up with. Refusing would make them look like they didn't believe their imposter was real. In order to get the populace on board, we need to get everything in place before the festival. They like grand gestures and they like their big symbols. If we can show that Galithir knowingly supported a person pretending to be the Obsidian Witch in front of a large crowd they'll turn on him in an instant. We need to make it seem like there wasn't a need for the real Witch to respond to this incident if we are to maintain things the way they are. We'll have to come up with a way to clearly disprove both imposters before then so we can do it in during the festival,"

Corbin was still a gaunt-faced statue. The man could act and pretend the best of them but he so rarely had a genuine expression on his face. All of his emotions could be seen in his eyes. Those eyes were thoughtful as he studied Cadacus.

"What manner of test do you propose? Everything hinges on that Lord Regent. It must be convincing, conclusive and not something they can wriggle out of,"

"Well, we have two weeks to come up with something,"