The Phoenix Legion arrived at Azul at dawn, its banners still wet with sea spray. King Aragon and Prince Vaskar where waiting for them on a temporary camp beside the shoreline.
Their silhouettes were against the low sun, waiting like sentinels for their allies. Percival, Netser, along with the ladies Shaya, Lazira, Aryana, Veronica, and Marjan, who were members of the medical team, arrived with the contingent from the capital.
Azul had been transformed into the nerve center of Estalis's defenses. The harbor, normally a humming artery of trade, now thrummed with war-readiness: war galleys creaked at their moorings, maps and signal flags colored the command tents, and men shouted curt orders while carpenters hammered reinforcements into place.
