Location: Thornhaven Village, Mid Realm
Date/Time: 6 Ashwhisper, 9938 AZI
Lyria woke to birdsong and the pale grey light of early dawn filtering through her window.
For a moment, she simply lay there, wrapped in the familiar warmth of her quilts, listening to the village come alive around her. Distant cockcrows. The creak of cart wheels on the main road. Someone's dog barking at nothing in particular. Normal sounds. Safe sounds. The kind of morning Thornhaven had offered her for fourteen years.
Except nothing was normal anymore.
She could feel them—the demons—even with her eyes closed. Six new presences that had arrived two days ago and settled into the village like stones dropped into still water. The ripples hadn't stopped spreading. Voresh was the largest stone, his essence a constant warmth at the edge of her awareness. The five who'd arrived with him—his quintet, he'd called them—were smaller ripples, but no less present.
