Chapter 370 - Chapter 366 – Black Wings and the Free Western Wind

Several days had passed since the night when the northern wind carried a faint salty scent that had no place in Nocture. The city continued to breathe with an increasingly steady rhythm not the gasping breath of post-war exhaustion, but the calm respiration of a warrior beginning to trust its own strength. Dwarf hammers now rang like the rhythm of a work song, lycanthrope howls sounded like spirited morning chants, and thin black mist drifted gently among black roses that bloomed thicker than before. The reports on Sylvia's obsidian desk had drastically decreased; the once towering stacks of parchment now left only a few thin sheets. Spatial rifts were stable, perimeters secure, trade beginning to flow again albeit under strict supervision. Nocture had stabilized. For the first time in a very long while, Sylvia felt… she could perhaps release a little of the burden from her shoulders.