The dull morning light filtered through the ever-present veil of ash hanging over Ash Crown City, casting a strange bronze hue across the landscape.
Even in daylight, the haze dimmed the world, making torches and flame-lamps glow with an unnatural intensity along the cobbled streets and weatherworn roofs. In the Ember Hollow Hall, the finest inn of the city, the ash-muted dawn touched the edges of the courtyard where Meng Bai sat in the garden, a half-eaten bowl of spirit fruits at his side.
Ashy, chirped lazily from the low-hanging branch of an ashwood tree, while the twin serpents Xiao Yin and Xiao Yang lay coiled beneath Meng Bai's robes, slumbering peacefully.
Little Shrubby lounged nearby on a pile of heated rocks, comfortably absorbing the ambient energy from the earth flame channels running beneath the building. The courtyard had become a haven of calm, a rarity in a city frequented by rogue cultivators, mercenaries, and bounty hunters.
