The sea breeze caressed the walls of the Palace of Suns. The golden afternoon sun bathed the gardens in a soft glow, as though all of Norgalia itself was breathing in peace. The shimmering water surrounded the capital's island, and the towers of light, fueled by Electrium, gleamed like eternal banners. It was a normal day. Quiet. Almost perfect.
King Pablo III walked barefoot along the white stone path of the palace's western garden, his light silk robe barely brushing the ground. At his side, the imperial advisor Erivan Thalos read slowly through the reports from the twelve states, his voice calm and measured.
"Fortis has renewed its sky fleets, Your Majesty. Two new models of armored airships are ready for testing… Agrobia has doubled its agricultural output, even after the tragedy…" Erivan paused, his tone softening. "Grey City… well, it is still expanding. And more babies are being born than ever."
Pablo smiled. The thought of children laughing within walls that had once known only war gave him comfort.
"And the state of Hospitale?" he asked, sipping from a cup of tea. "Are the hospitals ready?"
"They have been operating for two weeks now. The Medical University of Hospitale welcomed its first one hundred apprentices. All volunteers. Some are even citizens from Infernara."
Pablo closed his eyes, letting the sun warm his face.
"We've come so far… And yet—" he opened them again, serene but heavy with memory, "I have a strange feeling… as if something dark is moving. Far away. Silent."
Erivan studied him carefully.
"Dreams again, Majesty?"
Pablo gave no answer. He only looked eastward.
⸻
That same night, hundreds of kilometers from the capital, Agrobia slept under its starry sky. The fields, once burned to ash, now flourished through the work of new farmers. Among them was Silvio Marek, a young war veteran who had traded his rifle for a hoe.
"These lands no longer smell of cinder," he whispered to his daughter as he gathered the last of the tomatoes. "The king kept his promise. And as long as he lives, no evil will touch these lands again."
But not everyone shared his faith. On the state's borders, near the Six Pillars of Light of the Beginning—grand obelisks that marked the origin of the energy network—something stirred. Unseen.
Neither the sentinels noticed, nor the Trasporium satellites. Not even the Cintekis sensors.
And when the clock struck 2:17 a.m., the sky broke.
⸻
The explosion was silent at first. A pale flash on the horizon, barely perceptible, as though a star had been born underground. Then came the roar.
A shockwave tore across seventeen kilometers.
Fire consumed the fields. Agrobia's lights went dark. Columns of smoke rose into the night as military sirens wailed like a chorus of warning.
People screamed. Some ran without knowing where. Others only stared at the heavens.
Silvio Marek shielded his daughter beneath a concrete table as their house trembled.
"This can't be happening! Not again!"
From the Monitoring Tower of Fortis, General Anaris Delvo received the alert.
"An earthquake?"
"No, sir… it isn't natural," said one operator, pale as ash. "It comes from within our own territory. It's an explosion… intentional."
In the Palace of Suns, Pablo awoke with a start. Not from the alarm. But from a vision: fire and bodies… screams… and a figure among the flames, smiling like a blade. The name Galeks Morginiun echoed in his mind.
"Erivan… summon the Congress. Now."
"But Majesty, it's three in the morning—"
"Summon them!"
The silence in Norgalia was over.
The flame of peace, like all flames, needed only a spark to turn into a wildfire.