The winds became different the moment Kael left the Velmourn territory, almost as if they were telling him that he had entered another, different territory.
This was the territory of the Stonefangs; the wind here didn't flow around walls and streets, it moved freely across open snowfields, cutting through forests, slipping between mountain ridges, carrying the smell of pine, old stone, and beasts.
By the time Kael got here, the clouds above had thickened again. The snow had stopped, but the world still looked buried in white. For a moment, Kael slowed in the air and looked down.
The Stonefang territory wasn't a city.
It wasn't even a proper village.
It was a hard place built for hard people.
