Ajani brought Karn to negotiations between Keld and New Benalia, where Jodah and Jaya were trying to prevent another local war. The diplomats did not dismiss Karn as a liar. Their hesitation was more ordinary and therefore harder to defeat: armies require locations, leaders must answer present crises and a threat without visible ranks competes poorly with disputes already on the table.
Phyrexia supplied the missing evidence from inside the room. Benalish knights opened into engineered attackers, and a harmless-looking bird revealed itself as part of the same network. The survivors sealed themselves in a watchtower because any companion could be another weapon waiting for a signal. Trust became something they had to test while trapped with the consequences of mistrust.
The attack also clarified the enemy’s scale. Sheoldred had not merely smuggled soldiers onto Dominaria; she had infiltrated the procedures by which Dominarians decide whom to believe. Every delay helped her, yet panic could dissolve the alliances required to oppose her. The defenders would need to build unity without pretending certainty was possible.