Freezing ocean spray whipped across the pitch-black waters as a sleek, black-hulled stealth skiff cut silently through the rolling arctic waves.
Sagiri stood at the narrow bow, his dark fur-lined cloak pulled tight against the howling sub-zero gale blowing relentlessly from the northern ice wastes.
Beside him crouched Grand Marshal Senraki and Lady Kiana, their bodies completely concealed beneath specialized thermal-masking cloaks.
Grand Marshal Senraki had traveled north with the southern vanguard, bringing his lifelong mastery of Daziko stealth, covert infiltration, and tactical reconnaissance.
Lady Kiana knelt beside the low gunwale, her slender fingers tracing intricate void patterns in the freezing air to sustain a shimmering dome of silver mist over the vessel.
The silver mist diffused the thermal heat of their bodies and suppressed their spiritual signatures, making the skiff appear on enemy scanners as nothing more than a drifting block of sea ice.
