The smoking wreckage of The Imperial Sun plowed through the pine forests of the lower valley, carving a half-mile trench of shattered timber and burning snow before grinding to a halt against a cliff face.Inside the shattered command deck, Crown Prince Valen spat out a mouthful of blood and ash. His pristine rune-inlaid armor was cracked, the golden glow entirely extinguished. Around him, high mages groaned in agony among twisted iron beams and burning tapestries."Vorian..." Valen gasped, pushing himself up off the tilted floor. "Vorian, get up! We need to cast a teleportation array!"Archmage Vorian lay pinned beneath a collapsed oak mainmast, his legs crushed, his staff snapped in two. He looked up at the prince with glazed, hollow eyes. "The mana-core... it didn't just break, Your Highness. It was vaporized. The local mana field is completely disrupted. No spells... no portals..."Before Valen could process the horror of those words, the crunch of heavy boots echoed from outside