"I fear The Hawks are doomed. I found the Reaching Scroll I shared with Bambari scrawled over with unreadable symbols, so dense that it almost looked scorched. Not long after that we had word of a terrible power in the south- where the armies of our enemies marched there lies a wasteland of ash and ruin. The Icewatchers have been forced back, but the settlements they left behind were caught in the blazing flames of The Drake's breath and there has been no word from the forces we had set to harrying them. A strange quiet has settled over the remains of Caris, the stragglers of our armies finding their way north to Merrowvale, a city more canvas than stone these days. We have most of the kingdom's population but little of its food, and much of our most fertile land has been frozen, marched across and now burned. It has been a strange few months, it feels as though the world is holding its breath, waiting to see what happens next." - Extract from a letter sent by Saffron la Gorge, the princess scholar.