The wind howled like a warning through the snow-blasted cliffs of the North.
No birds sang here. No animals moved. Even the trees, skeletal and bare, seemed to curl inward as though hiding from something unseen. Far beyond the warmth of Xion's cheerful village, the world in this corner was utterly silent.
Inside a stone fortress carved into the cliffside, fires crackled in the hearths, including the old church shrouded beneath the grey sky.
A hush fell over the gathered acolytes, kneeling in reverent stillness in the small hall. Even when their breaths misted the cold air, they did not move an inch.
Incense smoke curled lazily upward, tracing patterns into the vaulted ceiling of pale marble. And there, at the very center of the sanctum, stood a girl.
Her face was hidden behind a veil of pure white silk, embroidered with gold threads that shimmered when she moved.
