Avalon's Grand Ball to celebrate New Year's Eve was shaping up to be the most significant political gathering in decades. Everyone major around the entire world had been invited, and as Crown Prince of the Windward family, my invitation had been as inevitable as the northern winds that shaped our continent.
My father wasn't attending, following the grim necessity that kept all Radiant-rankers close to their territories these days. The miasmic species threats that had been emerging across all five continents required constant vigilance from the world's most powerful mages. Each continent needed at least one Radiant-ranker present to respond to potential incursions, making gatherings like this the domain of younger generations while our elders maintained the barriers that kept civilization safe.
