*Saoirse*
The night was a cloak I gladly wore, its dark folds hiding me from the prying eyes of the Blackstone forces that now infested Hunters Glen. My heart beat a steady rhythm against my ribs as I moved with practiced stealth toward the village that once sang with laughter and life.
It now lay subdued under the weight of foreign banners, their black insignia stark against the gray stone of the walls they erected.
I slipped through the shadows like a wraith, every sense heightened by the familiar yet altered landscape of my childhood. The ground felt unyielding beneath my soft boots, no longer the welcoming earth I remembered but a hard, conquered territory.
A sharp pang of fury sliced through me as I skirted around the edges of the central square. Enemy banners hung limp in the sti
