Location:Seven Peaks — Northern Gate, Command Center, Verdant Spire
Date/Time:TC1855.04.28
They left the way they'd come — without ceremony, without speeches, without the elaborate farewell protocols that Southern cultures used to make departure feel less like departure.
Hrothgar Stoneblood walked through the northern gate at dawn with four warriors behind him and Sigrid at his side and the mountain at his back. He stopped once — at the gate itself, where the formation array hummed its recognition and the living wood of the frame pulsed warmth against the stone.
He turned to Raven.
"Fire-girl." The voice that traveled through floors. "I came to see a mountain. I found a nation."
Raven met his gaze. Up. Significantly up. "Come back with your smiths. We'll make them something worth carrying home."
