A Normal Day
Time passed strangely in Bastos. Ludwig had lived long enough that a few weeks hardly deserved to be called time, but the days felt unfamiliar because battles no longer marked their passing.
The weeks brought neither invasions nor awakening horrors. The Usurpers remained elsewhere, and Ludwig received no urgent messages claiming that a kingdom would collapse unless he crossed half the continent within three hours. For once, people simply lived.
The former inhabitants of the Tower spread throughout the old Bastos settlement and gradually began treating it as a permanent home. What started as a collection of occupied buildings became a town, then slowly developed into something resembling a proper city again.
