Chapter 1: The Empty Coffin

Three Days Later – Estrath Hall, Main Cathedral Snow fell in silence. Not the gentle, drifting flakes that decorated festive cards, but a dense, smothering curtain of white that buried horses, muffled footsteps, and turned even the boldest mourners into quiet ghosts. Each step in the snow felt like a marker of time, slow, deliberate, and heavy. And for the …