Midnight settled over the steep slopes of Mount Heaven's Reach, turning the basalt battlements of the service division into towering blocks of solid shadow. Behind the high wooden stacks of the Rust Hall supply depot, the cold mountain wind whistled through the narrow drainage gullies, carrying the faint sulfur scent of distant smelting pits. Ye Chen stepped silently from the gloom of the loading bay, his boots making no sound against the frozen gravel as he waited for the prearranged signal.
A faint yellow glow flickered twice near the lower corner of the storage wall, marking the arrival of Han Ping. The fat merchant wore a heavy traveler cloak pulled tightly over his round shoulders, his breath pluming into white vapor in the freezing night air. He hurried across the open patch of dirt
