The bitter winter winds sweeping down from the Kurogane Mountain Range buried Azure Fall City under three feet of dense, unyielding snow. Two full weeks drifted by following the crushing defeat of General Tokugawa and the reclamation of the eastern border. Within the high, reinforced walls of the city, the scars of the siege were slowly being scrubbed away by thousands of imperial engineers and conscripted laborers. The shattered iron-stone ramparts were rebuilt block by heavy block, the freezing mud of the outer trenches froze solid, and the grand avenues were swept clear to make way for the gilded carriages of the Celestial Dragon Empire's triumphant Vanguard.
