Three days after Kaelen’s voice had burned itself into the comms of every mage tower and soup kitchen on the continent, the first delegation arrived.The Sunfire Empire rolled up to the gates of the Titan’s Anvil with a motorcade that looked like the funeral parade for a murdered god. Fifty carriages, lacquered black, each one ringed with a triple-tier of gold-edged formation mages. At their center, in a shockwave-bent puddle of light, the Imperial Envoy knelt—a man so lacquered in oaths and curses that just looking at him stung the eyes like cut onions.Kaelen received them in the Anvil’s outer yard, seated on a makeshift throne of fused armor and the melted crests of the last three “local governors.” Flanking him stood Silas, face shaved clean for the occasion and suit pressed, though the effect was ruined by the bristling black knives holstered up both arms.The mages of the Empire arranged themselves at a respectful fifty