Chapter 366 - Chapter 362 – The Awakening of the Black Rose

Night fell over Nocture like a blanket of black thicker than usual, as if the darkness itself had joined in mourning the spilled blood. The stars in this fused sky were never truly bright; they flickered faintly through the permanent mist, like spies too afraid to look directly downward. The cold wind from the north carried the scent of ash and scorched metal, mingled with the smell of freshly blood-soaked wet earth. The city itself breathed slowly the sound of dwarf hammers beginning their work again to repair the walls, the tired but proud howls of lycanthropes, and the rising mist from the dead ground like the exhausted breath of the city.