Editing Storm's Eye Hill (section)

==In the Dragon's Wake==
The Eponan road, from [[God Crossing]] to [[Celeren]], ended with the blunted finality of an avalanche.  One step, there was pavestone and quicklime underfoot; the next, there was blasted sand.  [[Inam Niu]] stood on the last of the road, her bare toes curling around the edge, and she wept.  She squinted across a mile and tried, through her tears, to see the shape of the house that once stood in the center.

The horizon held nothing but desolation.

"It was the first thing I'd ever built," she said.  "It was like my child.  I knew, as soon as it was gone.  How could I not?  I felt my heart break."

[[Hatsu Shi]] came and put a hand on his colleague's shoulder.  She turned and buried her head in his chest.  The pair stood together, wordlessly, as the sun scratched shadows into the evening.  Finally, Inam Niu gave one last sob and pulled away.  She wiped her eyes on her sleeve.  She steeled herself and, at last, turned back to the broken earth beyond the road.  "How did this happen?  How did we lose?"

"We didn't lost, Niu.  This is a setback.  We didn't lose any men, we can rebuild the house..."

"Rebuild?"  Inam Niu gave a short, humorless laugh.  She held her hand, palm out, in the air before her.  "How?  Can't you feel it, Shi?  The dry stillness in the air?  There's no Essence in there, nothing to harness.  How do you build a manse on nothing?"

"A regular fortress, then.  It won't be as grand, but we can still -"

"It's not about the manse!"  Inam Niu spun around.  "Not about...  You're right, Shi.  We didn't lose.  They did, [[An Oathsworn Circle|our masters]].  How did ''that'' happen?  We thought they could do anything.  We believed in them."

Hatsu Shi blinked.  "'Believed?'"

"I don't know what to think, anymore."  Inam Niu shook her head.  "I'm still loyal; I'd do whatever [[Rivers Between Us|Rivers]] asks.  But since... this...  I've started to wonder.  Did you know that [[Three Hills]] is in a shadowland, now?  And I've heard rumors that the [[The_Southern_Expedition|southern team's]] gone missing.

"What if we can't win, Shi?  What if the Solars aren't strong enough?"

"They're not invincible, Niu.  They seem it, sometimes; like after [[Battle of Breaking Iron|Breaking Iron]].  But they've set themselves up against one of the strongest, most terrible forces in Creation, and it's war.  We knew there would be casualties.  But that doesn't mean we just give in; it means we have to fight that much harder.

"The Solars can do a lot, but they can't be everywhere.  That's why they made us; because they need help.  The [[Mask of Winters|Mask]] is stronger than they are, but not stronger than they can be.  Not with us behind them."

Inam Niu smiled wanly.  "You sounded a lot like [[Storm of Amber|him]], just then."

Hatsu Shi scratched the back of his head and looked away.  "I said what he said to me yesterday, when I came to the [[Pagoda of Infinite Strategy|Pagoda]] with the same doubts you're having."

"Had.  Let's rebuild, Shi.  A wing of mercury ants and damn the strain on the Heavenly bureaucracy.  Let's show the bastard that he can't beat our masters.  Not while they still have us!"