““Securing this alliance was only part of it. The other part, the bigger part … was the message. Not to Morath. But to the world. To any potential allies watching this continent, contemplating if it was indeed a lost cause. Today her message would thunder across the realms. She was not a rebel princess, shattering enemy castles and killing kings. She was a force of nature. She was a calamity and a commander of immortal warriors of legend. And if those allies did not join with her … she wanted them to think of today, of what she would do, and wonder if they might find her on their shores, in their harbors, one day, too. They had not come ten years ago. She wanted them to know she had not forgotten it.””
