While the greater world convulsed, caught in the death throes of a kingdom and the opportunistic feeding frenzy that followed, life within the Steele territory maintained its own peculiar rhythm. The shimmering barrier held firm, an invisible wall separating the burgeoning power within from the escalating chaos without.
But walls, even magical ones, cannot entirely stop the flow of information, especially when carried by desperation.
News travels fast when survival is at stake. Whispers turned into rumors, rumors solidified into reports: Queen Margaret, thought lost or besieged in the crumbling capital, was alive. Not only alive, but residing, along with numerous Royal Consorts, within the strangely secure domain of the Steele Family.
This news spread like wildfire among the tattered remnants of Eloriath's nobility – those lords and ladies clinging precariously to besieged keeps, dwindling supplies, and fading hope.
