In the Disputed Lands, four months of construction had transformed Crown Town, sweeping away its former desolation.
Nine sturdy stone piers lined the harbor.
A newly built lighthouse stood at the end of the breakwater.
To tame the surging waves, the craftsmen had built massive granite breakwaters and training walls along the coastline.
The revetments along the shore had also been reinforced and paved with neatly laid stone slabs.
Most striking of all were the rows of enormous warehouses and storage yards that had risen along the shore, filled with mountains of grain.
Dockworkers bustled between the piers and warehouses, unloading cargo or loading it aboard ships.
Barges and small boats plied the waterways, filling the entire harbor district with vigorous life.
From this bustling, clamorous heart of the harbor, a brand-new avenue stretched straight eastward. Thirty feet wide and paved entirely with smoothly cut white marble, it led directly toward Conqueror's Holdfast, rising on a distant hill.
Liu Qian rode along it, his horse's hooves striking crisp echoes that made one instinctively straighten one's back.
He gazed toward the hill.
The outline of Conqueror's Holdfast was already clearly visible.
Two towering gatehouses, one outer and one inner, had been the first to rise.
On either side of the gatehouses, craftsmen were busily building tall curtain walls. The foundations of the round towers had also been laid, awaiting the masonry above.
The white stone walls of the main keep were more than halfway built, revealing its magnificent foundations and portions of its walls.
Inside the hall at the very heart of the main keep, the sight was particularly spectacular.
Massive oak supports held up the emerging framework of the ribbed vault, while masons carefully set stones into place on lofty scaffolding.
On either side of the hall, flying buttresses extended