"It had been a year since the fall of Ize, in truth it felt a lot longer, the rolling walls of Fie had fallen not long after that. Then Crystal Keep and Amberlorn in the same day. Rylan’s Forge, Keln, Havant Fortress, and Fent’s Reach, all followed, along with all the middling garrisons, towns, villages, hamlets, and homesteads in the way, before finally Reik and Cinder fell. All that was left was Wake, a small, run down, garrison, watching over a single coastal village on the far western edge of Hess. The dead faces of the soldiers encamped at the garrison’s entrance watched as the refugees flooded in, seeking a place on the few vessels still running in and out of the small harbour. A normal war, normal dignity would have called for parlay long ago."