Location:Mercenary Compound — Obsidian City Outskirts / Crystal Communication
Date/Time:Early Blazepeak, 9941 AZI
Realm:Lower Realm — Doha
The intelligence report arrived at dawn, and it wasn't good.
Xinglong read it twice at his desk while the compound woke around him — the clatter of the armory opening, the bark of drill sergeants moving the first rotation into formation, the smell of cook-fires and weapon oil that had become the backdrop of his mornings. Human sounds. The rhythms of an army that didn't know what its commander was.
The report was in Daoshan's cipher — compact, precise, the shorthand of a strategic commander who'd lost a wing and gained patience in the same battle. Three bronze patrols had crossed into Shadow Dragon territory in the last ten days. Not deep incursions. Probing flights. Testing response times along the northern ridge where the shadow dragons' aerial patrols were thinnest.
