The prison of Thunder City, a great hall buried deep underground; the air here still retained the chill of winter, unlike the spring breeze caressing the Earth Surface.
There were no instruments of torture here, only icy stone walls and dozens of bloodshot eyes.
Roughly fifty prisoners in prison garb had been gathered here.
Among them were hereditary Sirs, wealthy commoners' sons who yearned to enter the ranks of the Nobles through military merit, and mercenaries swept in by the illusion of wealth.
In that calamity which broke out in winter, it was precisely these men who raised the torches borrowed from the Ryan Kingdom, giving the Northern Vassals the courage to hoist the banner of rebellion, and carrying the flames of war into the heartland of the Campbell Duchy.
It was a pity that the sun of the Ryan Kingdom ultimately could not shine upon them. Theoden celebrated the "victory of winter" in another fashion, while the defeat in the South was treated as if it did not exist.
