The sun bled into a dull copper disc over the western crest when galloping hooves broke along the high ridge line.
The rhythmic sound of churning shale echoed down the limestone walls as a lone outrider rode furiously toward Kun Nakia's command circle.
The rider dropped to one knee on the cold stone, holding aloft a cylindrical bronze scroll-case bearing the crimson wax seal of the Southern Sovereign Council.
Nakia cracked the hardened seal with her thumbnail, unraveling the coarse parchment to inspect the sharp desert calligraphy within.
The message contained no diplomatic pleas, no apologies, and no room for negotiation.
It delivered only a strict timetable, declaring that the iron fortress gates of N'Faya would swing open if Supreme Chief Sagiri remained unreturned by dusk.
The scroll warned that twenty thousand southern spears stood arrayed along the eastern boundary, ready to march across every border fort to Galka.
