The languid afternoon sunlight filtered through gaps in the carriage's swaying curtains, falling in patches over Nami. Her journey from Konomi Town back to the Royal City had been long and bumpy, and she had happened to miss the "upheaval at the city gates" that had shaken all of Oykot that morning.
When the carriage creaked to a halt near the Royal City's familiar yet intimidating gates, the sight before her instantly drove away her drowsiness.
A shocking, enormous breach gaped where the towering gatehouse had stood, as though some giant beast had bitten a chunk clean out of it. Broken stones and shattered timber had yet to be fully cleared away. Craftsmen and soldiers bustled like worker ants, shouting and hauling materials as they tried to repair the damage. Dust, sweat, and a faint sense of anxiety filled the air.
The crowds had not dispersed. Instead, people gathered in small groups at a safe distance, pointing and discussing. Fragments drifted into Nami's keen ears: "...salt... battle between ability users..." "...Duke Sergei seems finished..." "...that newly arrived Lord Aaron..." "...the purge has begun..."
Clutching the drawing board she never went anywhere without, Nami lowered her head and slipped through the noisy crowd like a nimble fish. Beneath her short orange hair, her large chestnut eyes darted about as her mind rapidly pieced the information together.
Just dogs tearing at each other, she thought coldly, her nails unconsciously digging into the edge of her drawing board. These big shots up on their pedestals can tear the Royal City's gates apart over salt and money. Better if they cripple each other and all drop dead.
Yet when her gaze swept over the pits of varying depths near the gates, as though gouged out by a giant's fists, and the strange crystalline gleam