The worst of winter had swept through quickly this year, with its icy winds and biting frosts seeming to pass in a blink. Now, as March arrived, the last remnants of the cold melted into the air. The days grew longer, sunlight lingering just a bit more each evening. People began to shed their heaviest cloaks, and a tentative energy filled the air, as if the whole world were taking a deep breath, ready to wake from the quiet slumber of winter.
It had been a brutal winter for the coastal villages. The Free Lords, from across the seas wasted no time to relive the best time of their history ,as they had launched relentless raids, sweeping through the settlements with brutal efficiency. Barns were ransacked, filled with the year's hard-earned stores of grain and produce, only to be emptied or set ablaze . For some villages, this meant facing the rest of winter with little to sustain them, and in the harshest cases, nothing at all.
