Chapter 368 - Chapter 364 – Morning Wind and Persephone’s Whisper

Morning in Nocture always arrived the same way: slow, cold, and full of secrets. Thin black mist still drifted between the dark-blooming black roses, their leaves gleaming like freshly dew-washed wet obsidian. The pool of dead water reflected faint purple crystal light, small ripples appearing without wind, as though the water itself was breathing softly after a long night. The scent of fresh black mushrooms mingled with the morning breeze that carried lingering traces of thunder and ash from the northern cliffs. The city now breathed more deeply the distant clang of dwarf hammers starting work again in the forges, the lighter, more spirited howls of lycanthropes, the slow-rising mist like the breath of a city just awakened from a nightmare.