Iron-shod boots echoed across the stone quays of the southern mainland as three hundred heavy transport galleons weighed anchor.
High upon the flagship bridge, Princess Valeria stood in polished silver plate armor, her crimson cloak billowing in the seaward gale. Above her head, the twin banners of the Iron-Crown Duchy and the Seven-Tower League whipped against the mast.
One hundred and fifty thousand continental soldiers stood in rigid ranks across the transport decks.
Every battalion was equipped with heavy repeating ballistas, alchemical siege shields, and three months of dried travel rations. Valeria had spent four months scouring the provincial academies, drilling the levies into an iron-disciplined legion ready to crush the Three Sanctuaries.
“Signal the fleet,” Valeria ordered her grand marshal, her voice ringing with absolute martial command. “Full sail for the Star-Fall Sea. We join our forces with Lord Vance on Void Lotus Isle.”
The crossing took seventy-two hours of hard sailing through choppy grey swells.
As the fleet approached the outer reefs of Void Lotus Isle, Valeria braced herself for the sight of a desperate, war-torn redoubt under siege. She expected shattered seawalls, smoking trenches, and weary sentries nursing arrow wounds behind barricades.
Instead, the transport ships glided into a tranquil harbor that looked like a royal pleasure resort.
