[• This chapter includes suicide and violent content. It is fast-paced and dwells on scenes involving war and death. Please be warned!]
• TITANS LANDING
WOODEN WHEELS CRASHED ON the cobblestones before a great black, spired tower as a folded scroll left the hands of a wiry newsboy and into the silver tray of the Head Butler of House de Vries. It was speedily taken up several storeys of the palatial home into the North wing—the residence of the [Empyrean]. Above, two shuttle wagons circled the obsidian steeple.
The Empress had just stepped out of the tiled baths when the tray was brought in by the hands of a corseted maid.
"Ravenna, have you seen the papers this morning?" Aya Naamah bounced in her canopy bed. "It says a storm's coming."