Chapter 40 — The Line That Cannot Be Uncrossed
The city of Valenreach had never known silence like this.
Its streets lay hushed beneath a sky the color of bruised steel, banners hanging limp in the still air. No merchants called out their wares. No children ran between stone pillars. Even the bells in the watchtowers remained untouched, as though the city itself were holding its breath.
Elowen stood at the highest balcony of the citadel, hands resting against the cold stone, eyes fixed on the eastern horizon.
"They're already inside the outer districts," Ryn said behind her. His voice was low, controlled but beneath it pulsed urgency. "Not an army. Cells. Embedded weeks ago."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Alaric learns fast."
Elowen closed her eyes briefly. "No. He planned this."
The reports had come in fragments at first missing guards, vanished council aides, supply caches emptied overnight. Then, at dawn, a single message delivered to the citadel gates.
