Weeks within the icy embrace of the Dragon's Spine Peaks passed with a strange, almost surreal tranquility. The Steele Family, a self-contained fortress of power transplanted into the heart of the Mystic Ice Sect, became a beacon of stability in a world tearing itself apart.
News from the outside world, filtered through Alaric's network of Phone Artifacts and Brita's more… clandestine… channels, painted a grim and chaotic picture.
In Jorailia, the civil war raged. King Rouben Yachvili, his authority shattered, his legions bled white in the futile siege of Noah's alchemical fortress, grew more paranoid and erratic by the day.
Noah, the spurned alchemist, was no longer just a rebel. Fueled by the vast resources and elite martial cultivators of the Celestial Dragon Empire, his small district had expanded, becoming a veritable sovereign city-state within the capital.
