[Eastern Zahryssar — Outside Sah'qir Village — Midnight]
The imperial convoy finally arrived near Sah'qir Village at midnight, and the moment the royal carriage stopped, silence fell, not ordinary silence.
The kind that grips the throat and refuses to let breathing feel natural.
One by one the Red Knights slowly looked toward the village ahead and froze. Because what stood before them was not a village anymore.
Sah'qir looked dead, utterly and completely. The moonlight revealed streets darkened like burned bone while every house seemed covered in ash-gray decay spreading across the walls like disease.
The wells overflowed with black liquid. The lantern posts hanging near the gates swayed despite the wind having stopped completely, and the air—the air itself felt wrong.
Heavy, poisoned, and ancient. Even the desert seemed unwilling to touch the village; for several moments no one moved, no one spoke.
