They reached the Ashveil shelf two hours before Alignment peak.
It was already crowded.
The shelf itself was a natural volcanic formation north of Ravenmoor's outer edge, a broad flat rise of black stone that provided an unobstructed view in three directions, the city behind and the Ashen Reaches spreading vast and low in front of it, rolling out to the horizon in the permanent amber twilight.
Every major demon clan was represented in the crowd already gathered, Ira Clan in their groups of loud anticipation, Umbra Clan quiet and shadow-still at the edges, Gelid Clan occupying a cooler section of the shelf's northern end where the stone breathed cold. Anima Clan members had claimed a raised section near the centre with formations laid for optimal soul-energy saturation measurement, which was, Azrail thought, exactly what Anima Clan members would do with the greatest visual event of the century.
