In the second-to-last month of the first millennium of the Saint Laurent Calendar, reports of Ratfolk and Demon activity in the North came in one after another.
First came the Rikaner Kingdom. It had marched north full of ambition and returned battered and bruised, only for Annan to give it another beating in the south. Now it huddled in a corner, whimpering. Then Rat Tides appeared along the Dimon Kingdom's long western border. Some Ratfolk even got lost and wandered into Zornthut Grand Canyon.
After the Rikaner Kingdom's betrayal, only the two-thirds of Snow Mountain Fortress held by the Dimon Kingdom and Ocas Empire remained in human hands. But Demons had surrounded it from the start, and no one knew what was happening there... It was probably in danger too.
Deepwinter Territory, at least, had built high walls over the past few months and killed hundreds of thousands of Ratfolk. The rats, eager to prey on the weak but afraid of the strong, had avoided it for now.
The strategists of the various nations believed that winter was coming. Temperatures in the Northern Frontier kept falling; if the Ratfolk stayed in the North, half would freeze to death, and the Demons would fare little better. The recent infighting between the two Chaos races might not have been real at all, but a way to stockpile food for war...
Ratfolk had a habit of eating their own kind. So did Demons, as it happened. Each would make a change from the other's usual fare.
Annan could not help worrying about Maria. The stage he had set for her should have let her avoid the worst of the danger and rise further within her people...
Either way, the Ratfolk and Demons would launch a full-scale invasion or hide underground and endure the