CYPRIEN'S POV
Valdoria looked nothing like Aurelia.
Aurelia had always carried an air of rigid grandeur. Every road leading to Sunspire was meticulously paved, every estate built to impress, every corner of the capital carefully designed to remind its people of the Crown's power. Even the city's silence felt disciplined, as though every stone had been laid according to someone's grand design.
Valdoria felt... alive.
Not in the chaotic way of a city fighting to be noticed, but in a quieter, more natural rhythm. The streets of Ashkara were filled with merchants calling to one another, musicians playing beneath shaded awnings, and children weaving between market stalls with warm bread in their hands.
The city did not demand admiration.
It simply existed.
Its prosperity was not displaye
