Midnight settled over Regina with a solemn majesty that transformed the ancient city into a landscape of silver and shadow, where moonlight drifted across weathered stone walls, quiet towers, and sleeping streets before disappearing into the vast wilderness stretching beyond the kingdom's borders, while the cool wind carried the distant fragrance of pine forests together with the faint echo of bells ringing somewhere far below, creating the strange impression that the night itself had paused to listen for something yet unseen.
Torches burned steadily along the towering battlements, their golden flames swaying gently beneath the restless breeze as disciplined sentries maintained silent vigilance, though more than one experienced guard found himself glancing beyond the darkness with an unease he could neither explain nor dismiss because instinct often recognized approaching danger long before reason discovered its source.
