SOREN
The silence that followed was long and heavy. It wasn't anger that I felt, not yet. It was a colder, sharper recognition of how thoroughly Vetra had built this nightmare.
She hadn't just used troops or supply lines; she had weaponized the story itself. She had made the very presence of the Emperor synonymous with a death sentence.
"Tell them," I said, my voice controlled and level, "that the Emperor does not finish what was never his to start."
I didn't wait to see if they believed him. They wouldn't. Not from words.
Further down the road, the message became even more explicit. The imperial banners were still mounted on their posts at the crossroads, but they had been altered with a terrifying, scholarly precision. The colors were there, the symbols recognizable, but the crest of the house of Nevareth had been oriented downward.
