This kind of conversation happened countless times within Stone Sword City. The citizens were terrified of the Ash Empire, wishing to flee from here to the Thrace Kingdom in the south.
On the northern hillsides of Stone Sword City, an opulent fortress was shrouded in the oppression of an impending storm. This was the ancestral residence of the Wilson family, named after the ancestor—Cade Castle.
The heavy oak doors creaked in the cold wind, and the Stone Sword emblem on the gilded chairback faded in the candlelight. In Cade Castle's hall, the current Duke, Eli Wilson, sat at the end of the long table with his hands clasped under his chin, his face grave.
"My lord, the beacon at the Northern Border Watchtower has been lit..." The Guard Commander knelt on the carpet, his voice interrupted by the crackling pine resin in the fireplace: "Our sentinels have spotted signs of the Ash Empire's Wyvern Knights."
