The beaten copper scroll hummed with heavy crimson intent, shivering against the granite archway where the iron spike had pierced the stone.
Vice-Dean Karst did not look back. He turned his armored shoulders on the cavern mouth and stomped down the rocky path, his massive war hammer clanking against his steel plate.
Behind him, Senior Disciple Vayne and the four scions followed with gloating sneers, eager to spread the news across the mountain.
During the twenty-seven hours that followed, word of the Forge Eviction Decree swept through the courtyards like a brushfire.
By the afternoon before the deadline, the wide stone plaza outside the Upper Earth-Fire Forge was packed with two hundred disciples.
Banners bearing the crests of House Morvane, House Chen, and the Royal Armaments Guild fluttered in the icy wind.
Iron braziers burned with bright orange coals, sending plumes of oily smoke into the gray mountain sky.
Vayne stood near the foundry doors, surrounded by twenty burly martial cultivators in matching gray tunics.
