The wind carried the scent of pine and distant snow from the jagged peaks of the Dragon's Tooth mountain range. Below them, the fortress of Skyreach Keep, a vital bastion guarding the northern passes into the heartlands of the empire, was a scene of utter desolation. Its once-proud banners were torn and smoke-stained, its mighty walls breached in multiple places. The rhythmic clang of battle, the monstrous roars, and the desperate cries of men echoed up to where Artemia and Gracier stood, a heavy cloak of sorrow settling upon them even before they descended.
They had been rushed from the Stonewatch Peaks with barely a moment's rest, the dispatches growing ever more frantic. Skyreach was on the verge of falling, besieged by an unrelenting tide of monsters. If it fell, the northern territories would be exposed, a catastrophic blow to the already beleaguered empire.
