Lady Stealthfire

Greta Eisenhardt earned her commission from Strandhurst Academy and was assigned to lead a platoon in the Great Lowlands. Brutal terrain, constant skirmishes with bandits and raiders. Junior officers usually didn't last long.

Greta did.

Other platoon leaders held fixed positions and barked orders. Greta led from the front with her crossbow in hand, but she never stayed static. Fire from one position, relocate, fire again. Her soldiers learned to do the same. Keep moving, stay unpredictable, hit hard and vanish.

Her troops started calling her "Lady Stealthfire" for the way she fought. Always moving, always appearing where the enemy didn't expect. Fire and smoke and gone.

When she said "charge," they charged. When she said "hold," they held. When she moved through fire to pull a wounded soldier back, they saw what courage looked like. They didn't just follow her orders. They followed her.

When Brave the Bull's task force began failing against Oridum Graybrow, the Ministry mobilized reinforcements. Greta's platoon was among the first selected.

The march west took days. Greta drilled her soldiers constantly, reminded them what they'd survived, what they could do, who they were. As they approached Oridum's war zone, the devastation became clear. Valleys scorched black, rivers boiled away.

Greta checked her crossbow, adjusted her gear, and surveyed the battlefield with the same calm she'd shown in a hundred fights before.

"We've held worse," she told her platoon. "We'll hold this."