Dawn broke over the northern plains, spilling cold pink light across the snow-dusted crags.
Beneath the towering shadow of White-Lotus Mountain, thirty thousand ducal soldiers knelt in the frozen mud.
Their black armor was unclasped, their iron halberds stacked in neat, gleaming pyramids along the roadway.
Flanking the defile were ten thousand White-Lotus Academy disciples and one hundred allied sect masters, their white-and-gold banners snapping in the crisp morning wind.
At the center of the outer ramparts stood Princess Valeria.
She wore a long, flowing mantle of winter-white silk over her silver breastplate.
Grand Rector Shen and Sect Master Horgath approached, carrying an ancient velvet cushion between them.
Resting upon the cushion was the heavy iron-and-sapphire coronet of the Iron-Crown Duchy, recovered from the ruins of the central keep.
