CHAPTER 54: THE EDGE OF THE KNIFE
The raiders’ retreat bought us no real peace. In the days that followed, word spread fast across the borderlands: the old order’s strongest holdfast had changed hands, and the new alliance had chosen to defend scattered villages instead of locking themselves behind walls. For some, this was proof that we meant what we said. For others, it was a sign of weakness — a crack wide enough to drive a wedge through.
We were sitting around the main hall table one evening, going over reports of new factions forming along the northern border, when a rider arrived carrying a sealed pouch marked with Lila’s personal sign — a broken key wrapped in a single thread of indigo silk. Inside was a short note, written in her sharp, clear hand:
They will not come at you thro
