The mission was given. The die was cast. Now, the game needed players. Adom sat behind his desk in his office, a stack of student progress reports spread before him alongside his appointment schedule. Parent conferences. Every three months, before the break periods, titular professors met with student families to discuss progress and address concerns.But his mind wasn't on academic evaluations. It was on people.Damus was the obvious first choice. House Lightbringer carried significant weight in Imperial politics, and while Duke Jasper maintained the careful neutrality that kept powerful families alive, there were cracks in that facade. Blood ties to the emperor meant little when those ties came with constant political pressure and increasingly unreasonable demands. Jasper had been growing visibly frustrated with Imperial policy over the past few years, though he was far too experienced to voice those frustrations in public.The duke's son, however, was a different matter entirely. Damus had inherited his father's political instincts but not his patience. He'd been making carefully worded comments about Imperial overreach for months now, testing the waters, seeing how far he could push without crossing into outright sedition.When the time came to choose sides, Adom was reasonably confident he could bring House Lightbringer into the fold. Assuming, of course, that he could present them with a viable alternative to the current mess.Karion Dimitri presented a more complex challenge. House Dimitri had built its considerable wealth and influence by staying scrupulously neutral in political conflicts, maintaining their warrior traditions while carefully avoiding entanglement in broader Imperial politics.Their wealth came from two dungeons gifted to them by the 109th Emperor, a grant meant to last until the end of times. The steady flow of magical resources (...)