The first thing Maria noticed when stepping out of the carriage wasn't the cheering crowd, or the guards in polished uniforms, or even Justinian waiting with that annoyingly calm smile of his.
It was the air.
It smelled like something new.
Freshly carved stone. Roasted cinnamon bread. Melted snow on sunlit tiles. Not quite capital-styled elegance, yet far from anything resembling a frontier town. Snowkeep smelled like a city that had just woken up… and was excited about it.
"Oh my," she breathed, not bothering to hide her surprise as she leaned over the carriage step just a little too eagerly. "You have shops now. Real ones. And—are those… pastry stalls?"
Justinian looked like a man both proud and deeply amused.
"Welcome to Snowkeep," he said. "As you can see, we've mastered the art of feeding tourists sugar until they start worshipping the local economy."
