The first sign of trouble came from the northern mountains.
Ethan was in Portside, helping to oversee the construction of a new school, when a scout arrived with news that made his blood run cold. The shadow's child had been defeated, but something else was stirring in the north—something vast and ancient, something that had been sleeping for even longer than the Sleeping Shadow.
"Another fragment?" Ethan asked, his voice tight.
The scout shook his head. "No, sir. This is different. The people in the northern settlements are reporting strange lights in the sky, strange sounds in the mountains. They say the ground is shaking, and the air is growing cold."
Ethan felt a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. "I need to see this for myself."
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The journey to the northern mounta
