"Ashes of the Cataclysm"
The sky had not been blue in years.
Cinders drifted like snow across the broken fields outside Kalaman. Where wheat once grew, now only shattered steel and burnt bones remained. And still, the drums of the Dragon Armies echoed from the hills, relentless, unfeeling.
Kaela Sunforged crouched in the shadow of a ruined shrine, her fingers brushing the symbol carved into the stone — a forgotten sigil of Paladine, one of the vanished gods. She wasn't sure why she knelt. She didn't believe in the gods anymore. No one truly did.
But maybe… maybe someone was still listening.
> "Three hundred years ago, they left us," she whispered. "But we're still here. Still bleeding. Still fighting."
Above her, the wind shifted. A glint of obsidian flashed in the sky — a black-winged shape too large to be a bird, too silent to be natural. A dragon, armored and ridden by one of the Queen's Knights.
Kaela didn't run. She stood, adjusted her cracked breastplate, and drew the sword her brother had left behind. He'd fallen at the Battle of High Hill. She had promised to keep fighting. Even if the world ended — again.
Somewhere in the distance, the bells of Kalaman rang out. Not for celebration, but warning.
The War of the Lance had reached her doorstep.
And Kaela Sunforged would meet it with steel.