They did not arrive with trumpets or announcements. They came quietly, unremarked, and yet each carried a weight the city could feel—even before it knew their names.

Captain Rhaem Calder had always moved in the shadows of authority, a man of exacting discipline and quiet observation. A veteran of patrols long forgotten, he knew when a street would bend to his will and when it would refuse.

When the city’s magic wavered for the first time, the patrols faltered. Carts halted, bridges ...