The emperor's command cracked through the palace corridors like a whip, and within minutes the guards were swarming the great gates of the capital, shoving the iron slabs shut with strained grunts and clattering chains. The clang of metal echoed across the courtyard as the final bar slammed into place; an unmistakable signal of fear disguised as precaution.
But even as the gates sealed, no one was looking at them.
Every soldier's gaze kept drifting upward… toward the mountains that crowned the horizon.
And it was then, just as the last lock clicked home, that one of the younger guards stiffened, breath stalling in his chest.
"Did you see that?" he asked, his voice barely more than a rasp. "The peak… it moved."
The others snapped their heads toward the dark silhouette of the mountain. The fiery glow behind it should have been impossible; mountains did not shift, their peaks did not sway like beasts waking from slumber.
But the mountain did move.
