Valen walked the winding dirt road that cut through the heart of the reclaimed settlement, his boots crunching softly against loose gravel and dust. The settlement ,once charred, screaming, and soaked in misery, was quiet now. It had changed little in shape since the Chorsi retook it last year, but the air was no longer stained with weeping or distant cries.
There was peace now. Uneasy, perhaps, but peace all the same.
They had arrived just half an hour ago, yet already his men had settled in with the ease of soldiers who had spent years in similar places. Most stayed in tight groups, content with their own company, but here and there Chorsi warriors approached, exchanging halting greetings in the fractured tongue that had grown between them over three years of cohabitation.
