Two months had passed since the surrender of The Fang. Meanwhile, far across the narrow sea in a different kind of conquest was unfolding.
867 AD, Granada, Al-Andalus
In the newly consecrated industrial quarter of Granada, the rhythmic clatter of water-driven pistons filled every corridor, the first great factory stood as a living monument to the future.
Perhaps no sight in all the Mediterranean could rival the sheer ambition of this creation, for within its vast stone halls nearly five hundred workers toiled without cease at the primitive yet revolutionary looms that Prince Al-Hakam had raised from the sacred blueprint gifted by the Iron Father himself.
Stacks upon stacks of fine linen now filled the royal warehouses to bursting, each bolt destined for ports from Alexandria to Constantinople.
