An hour before dawn, inside the warded traveling salon of the central carriage at Iron-Blood Pass, Alaric watched the final seconds of Archmage Zylle Mordan's encrypted recording from Black-Reef Bay play across the crystal screen of his Phone Artifact.
Around the low sandalwood table, Matriarch Lyra Steele, Aunt Cassandra Galanis, Noble Consort Cui Yulan, Noble Consort Rong Yuhua, Imperial Consort De Yan Ruyu, and Archmage Lilliana Valtor all leaned in, their expressions turning solemn as they listened to Lord Vortan's words about Second Demon Prince Malakor and the First Expeditionary Force of the Demon Race arriving on the lunar eclipse twelve nights from now.
