Envoy Cassian stood on the highest stone battlement of the Iron Keep. He pressed a brass spyglass against his right eye and stared out at the burning horizon. Plumes of black smoke had stained the eastern sky for months. Today, vibrant flashes of alchemical fire pierced through that dark curtain.
The distant boom of artillery fire rolled across the ocean and vibrated against the fortress walls.
'They actually came,' Cassian thought. His hands trembled slightly against the brass tube. 'We invited monsters into our home, but they are finally breaking the cage.'
A towering figure stepped onto the battlement beside him. Apostle Lucian wore a massive suit of plate armor forged from deep-earth steel. The emblem of the Iron Arbiter glowed with a pale metallic light on his chest plate. He did not need a spyglass to see the destruction unfolding miles away. His divinely enhanced vision easily pierced the smoke.
