Nothing they looked at felt clean enough.

Every route had some kind of problem, something that made it too risky or too obvious, and the more they checked, the more it became clear that there wasn’t an easy path waiting for them. They were going to have to think around the problem, not through it.

Aurelian’s gaze moved slowly across the map, taking in the different regions again, until it stopped on something he hadn’t fully considered before.

The Mournveil Nebula.

He had already passed through part of it during the Voidshade Fenrir hunt, and that mattered more than any secondhand report.

He had seen it himself. He had seen at least two systems inside it, and what he found there stayed with him.

There were no clear signs of organized civilization, no inhabited worlds, no steady traffic moving through it.

Just dust, scattered stars, and large stretches of space that felt like they had been ignored for a long time.

That kind of emptiness wasn’t common.

He looked at the distance between the four-star cluster and the far side of Mournveil, then back again, and the idea started to take shape in his mind.

Before he could say it out loud, Lysara spoke. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"The nebula."

Rhoswen turned toward her. "What about it?"

Lysara gestured lightly toward the map, her tone steady as she explained. "It gives us a way to approach through space that isn’t being watched closely. If what we saw in Redglass and the outer system reflects the rest of it, then most of Mournveil may not belong to anyone in an organized way."

Solenne followed the route with her eyes, her expression tightening slightly as she thought it through. "That would let us come in from an angle they’re not expecting."

Astercourt was already working through the numbers, checking timing and movement paths without being asked. "It also means we avoid most of the systems that would normally flag unusual movement," she said. "Fewer eyes on us."

Aurelian nodded once. "That was my thought."

Rhoswen looked at the nebula marker, then back at the cluster, then back again, putting it together in her own way.

"So we go through the cloud, come out somewhere they’re not watching, and hit them from the side."

"More or less," Aurelian said.

"That sounds excellent."

Caelan didn’t look as convinced. He leaned forward slightly, his voice more cautious. "Unknown space comes with its own problems."

"It does," Aurelian said, not dismissing that at all. "But not all unknowns are the same. We’ve already seen part of Mournveil with our own eyes, and what we saw wasn’t crowded or controlled. That matters."

Seris added from the projection, her tone thoughtful. "Nebula regions can sometimes hide younger systems or areas that haven’t been fully developed. If it really is as quiet as it looks, then it could be useful for more than just this."

That idea settled into the room in a different way.

Because if Mournveil wasn’t just empty space, but space that hadn’t been claimed yet, or hadn’t been claimed properly, then it wasn’t just a path.

It was something more.

A future possibility.

Elowen would have liked that idea immediately, seeing potential in growth and expansion where others saw risk.

Astercourt would probably be less enthusiastic at first, knowing what it would take to manage something like that, but even she wouldn’t ignore it if it proved real.

For now, though, it didn’t need to be anything more than a route.

And it was a good one.

Once that was clear, the discussion shifted into something more focused. They weren’t arguing about whether to strike anymore.

That part was settled. Now it was about how to do it without making mistakes that couldn’t be fixed.

They started talking through the details.

How much force to send?

How much could they afford to take without leaving Haven too exposed behind them?

Whether to bring out the preserved warship from the bastion, even in a limited way, by using a crewed proxy instead of fully awakening it. That idea didn’t last long.

Aurelian shut it down.

Using something like that halfway was a good way to lose it, and he wasn’t going to risk wasting a ship like that just to gain a little extra strength for one operation.

Then the question arose about the four damaged cruisers still awaiting recovery.

Should they go after those first?

Or strike first and come back for them later?

That discussion went back and forth for a while, with different points raised on both sides, until Aurelian stepped in and ended it.

"The four cruisers are still important," he said. "But they come after the first strike. Kharov probe pressure is already starting to increase, and if we wait too long, we lose the advantage of them not fully understanding what’s happening here. We hit them first, then recover the cruisers while they’re still trying to figure out what just hit them."

No one argued after that.

Not because it was perfect.

But because it made sense.

It balanced risk and reward better than the alternatives.

Once that decision was made, the rest of the plan came together more quickly.

Astra would stay at Haven again, acting as the anchor. That part didn’t need much discussion, because someone had to hold everything together while Aurelian took the offensive, and she was the best choice for that role.

Solenne, Lysara, and Rhoswen would almost certainly go with him. They were the core combat strength, and this kind of strike needed that balance of control, firepower, and aggression.

Neris would likely be needed as well. A raid that deep into enemy space wasn’t something you handled without thinking about supply, recovery, and support, no matter how clean the plan looked on the surface.

Astercourt would stay behind with Caelan and maintain the link to the bastion, making sure everything on the rear side kept running while the forward force moved.

Vaeren would continue gathering intelligence, focusing on oppressed populations and potential extraction points within or near the target cluster.

If Aurelian had a chance to disrupt Kharov’s labor systems while he was there, he wasn’t going to ignore it.

By the time the meeting started to break apart, the room felt different.

At the beginning, it had been about holding what they had.

Now it was about reaching outward.

The Crownward March was starting to think like something real, something that didn’t just defend but also chose when and where to strike.

As the main map display dimmed, Rhoswen looked at the route through Mournveil again and spoke with a hint of a grin.

"I liked it more when this was just a hunt."

Lysara glanced at her. "You mean it was simpler."

"Yes."

"It was."

Rhoswen folded her arms, still staring at the map. "I still like this more."

That made Solenne smile faintly, even if she didn’t say anything.

Aurelian let the moment pass and looked one last time at the path they had chosen. Mournveil first, then Redglass, then deeper still, moving through quiet, forgotten systems until they reached a Kharov cluster that had grown comfortable enough to believe it was safe.

Good.

That was exactly the kind of place he wanted to hit.

He didn’t need to fight everywhere at once.

He didn’t need to break the Kharov completely, not yet.

He just needed to make them bleed in the right place, at the right time, in a way that forced them to turn their attention inward while the March continued to strengthen behind him.

And if Mournveil really was as empty as it looked, then once it had served as a path for war, he would send people back through it properly.