Crisis

The third night after leaving Bran, Richard’s army finally reached Baron Fontaine’s castle, meeting the person the Direwolf Duke had appointed to be his supplier.

The castle was built on a small island in the middle of Lake Windermere, connected to the shore by a short path. This wasn’t a natural landform, built by the baron’s family generation over generation. The manpower and financial resources invested into this task was immeasurable, and yet it had taken an entire century’s worth of construction to reach its current grandeur.

The outer ring of the castle had classical architecture, full of solid cylindrical spires with battlements and a watch tower on each roof. As for the buildings within, they could be...