The border kingdoms did not come one at a time.
That was the first thing — the thing that separated this from the battle at Vel Pass, from every engagement Arameor had fought in the months leading to this morning. At Vel Pass there had been an order to it, a sequence, the kingdoms arriving with the logic of a strategy that had underestimated what it was walking into. This was different. This was all of them, every banner that had confirmed in the spirit realm, every presence that had said yes at the next moon and meant it — Sereveth and Kharzun Vale and Vele and the others, their forces merged into a single body moving across the plain toward Arameor's position with the specific momentum of something that had decided unanimity was the strategy and had committed to it completely.
Elara saw them from the ridge.
