Dawn did not break over the Winter Citadel; it merely bled into the sky, a pale, bruised shade of gray struggling against the heavy northern blizzard.
Down at the massive deep-water harbor of the capital, the sheer, terrifying industrial might of the Unified Realms was fully on display. Fifty massive warships sat entirely perfectly organized in the freezing, dark waters. These were not standard wooden galleons. They were Northern dreadnoughts—massive, brutal vessels heavily plated in black iron and etched with ancient, glowing silver runes to repel offensive magic.
At the absolute center of the armada floated the *Nightbreaker*, the Alpha King's personal flagship. It was a completely monstrous vessel, twice the size of the others, with a massive ram shaped like a snarling direwolf exte
