Chapter 216 - Chapter 90: News from Afar

As dawn broke over Valoran, a strange tension filled the air, rippling through the fields and forests and stirring the first murmurs in the kingdom's villages. The early morning sunlight shimmered against the castle walls, casting a golden glow that normally brought with it peace and promise. But this morning, the stillness was fractured by the echo of distant shouts and the hurried trudge of unfamiliar feet. Refugees, haggard, dust-covered, and bearing a fear unlike any seen before, had begun pouring into Valoran from the south.