The Imperial Palace of the Vermilion Empire was an architectural marvel designed to make everyone who entered feel like an ant. Sprawling gardens of spirit-herbs, towers that touched the clouds, and walls inlaid with sun-gold. But to me, as our carriage rolled through the secondary gates toward the inner sanctum, it felt like a gilded mausoleum.
The news of the gate incident had clearly traveled faster than our horses. As we disembarked in the courtyard of the 'Palace of Eternal Spring,' the servants and guards didn't look at me with the usual mockery. They looked with a trembling, wide-eyed dread.
"Stay close," I whispered to Lucy and Veldora. Alice had already shifted into a nondescript maid, blending into the background to begin her work of weaving the Spirit Network within the pala
