The announcement reached the palace before the riders did.
It moved through Athax without ceremony, passed from gate to courtyard in low voices and knowing glances. Nothing in it demanded attention, yet everything about it ensured the court was ready by the time the banners appeared beyond the walls.
House Valmird's banner had entered the city.
They had not come alone.
Their numbers were modest, but nothing about their arrival felt small. The Valmird sigil rode at the front - dark and unmistakable - carried by men who moved with quiet discipline. Beside them, a lighter variation of the color caught the light in softer measure: House Aro, their presence marked not by force, but by the kind of influence that settled over a place and stayed.
Two houses.
Different in nature.
Aligned in purpose.
