Chapter 1818 My Fucking Duty & Service:>Ep28

• Crys Duskchaser, Head of the Guard for the Winter Court, liked to eat her lunch on the crenelations of the Southeast Tower of the Outer Wall. Modest vittles for a light repast: hard bread, cold cheese, and olives from the jar. The view from this particular point on the wall let her see past the gatehouse and far down the only road, all the way to the small town that serviced the castle's needs. Nestled between a copse of conifers on one side and the rolling hills on the other, its liveliness was starkly contrasted by the painting-like stillness of the landscape around it. But she wasn't there for the visuals, nor for the fact that when she spat the pits of her olives, they arced satisfyingly like miniature trebuchet rounds. She was there for the wind.
• There was a breach in the wall beneath her, just too high to be worth addressing immediately by the renovation efforts yet still large enough to be concerning should they become besieged. What caused it was a mystery. Lava rope, failed sapper explosion, a structural defect enhanced by a freeze-thaw cycle that ground lesser structures to powder in decades rather than centuries. Whatever had caused it, the size and height allowed the wind to howl through the gap in the stone that evoked the whipping gusts of the ocean. It reminded Crys of home, of the ships she grew up on. Of family.
• Her wistful sigh was swallowed by another gust. Her fathers hadn't been easy to get along with, either as parents or as teachers. Though they ran a trade empire along the northern coast of the Hundred Island Sea, she was expected to pull her weight on board. Tacking sail, setting a course by the stars alone, even scrubbing the decks. Long hours, few distractions. Even after all those years, she caught herself longing to be back under her family's flag. Wishing she could turn around and see one of her siblings, or feel her whole world rock under her feet, or catch the sea spray against her face.