The Hebi-Yama Domain materialized through the cold mountain haze like something that had been built to remind people of their place in the world.
Its walls were thick and dark-stoned, mortared with the kind of permanence that takes generations to achieve, rising against the pale sky with none of the warmth that even the most severe fortifications usually carry. Before the main gate, a line of travelers and merchants stretched back along the road in a slow, joyless procession — each one stopped, questioned, bags opened and prodded, faces studied by guards who wore their suspicion like a second uniform. Even more thorough than Kajiya-Hara's checkpoints had been, and that had already been no small thing. Nathan took one look at it and kept walking.
