The southern territory did not welcome visitors.
It measured them.
Glosh felt it the moment she crossed the final boundary stone—an invisible pressure settling over her skin, thick and deliberate, like the land itself was weighing her worth. The forest here was older, darker, the trees twisted with age and secrets. Power slept beneath every root.
She kept her pace steady.
Behind her, Kael walked in silence, his presence a constant anchor at her back. Two dozen elite guards flanked them, all bearing the crest of the southern royal houses—wolves who watched too closely and spoke too little.
The envoy led them toward the capital stronghold, a fortress carved directly into black stone cliffs. It rose like a scar against the sky, massive and unyielding.
“So this is where they rule,” Glosh
