The Price of Duty

A suffocating, paranoid silence hung over the Scarlet Maw territory, replacing the usual roar of morning drills.

From his high office window, Kaelen watched the courtyard. Whispers died instantly the second he came into view. Down below, his warriors went through their combat forms with a rigid, disjointed hesitation. Mothers yanked their children inside at the slightest noise. The fundamental tr