The Great Grand Plaza of Alika City was transformed into a breathtaking sea of colors, banners, and golden morning light. Beneath a flawless azure sky, hundreds of ceremonial braziers burned with aromatic cedar, sweet desert resins, and dried shyflower petals, sending fragrant white plumes rising into the crisp air.
High atop the white marble battlements, long silk tapestries bearing the heraldic crests of the five founding provinces fluttered proudly side-by-side in the gentle breeze. More than two hundred thousand citizens, visiting delegates, and off-duty soldiers packed the wide multi-tiered balconies and cobblestone avenues, their excited murmurs filling the capital.
