The Hidden Hybrid’s Redemption
The tactical map table in the high keep was not made of wood; it was a slab of raw volcanic glass, cold and dark, imported generations ago from the smoking islands of the deep eastern shelf. Under the flickering amber glow of the whale-fat torches, the map showed the true scale of the sea-wolf territories—islands of jagged obsidian rising from the deep, surrounded by treacherous, swirling vortexes that only a native navigator could thread. Now, the carved iron ships representing the High Alliance armada were clustered at the edge of the glass, like black locusts preparing to swarm the coast.