I couldn’t help but admit that the commander’s domineering presence could be felt from a distance. Boldly, I drank him in. He exposed no discernible features, his body and face encased entirely in thin onyx metal. All of them wore armor, but the commander’s was covered in obsidian spikes, the tips glimmering in the erratic lighting of the torches that lined the square. A wave of ice weighed my bones, slinking around my thudding heart and squeezing. I shivered as phantom fingers traced down my spine, the mountain breeze tickling my ears like a whispered caress.
