as Shin (Xin), a young warrior aspiring to be a Great General.
Eira avoided the parades. She could not summon the reverence others felt. Her connection to the medallion was a careful, small thing—like holding a compass while refusing to be led by it. She found comfort in cartography because it offered certainties: curves of river, angles of road. Still, at night, the medallion’s pulse matched the city’s subdued heartbeat and her dreams grew crowded with marches and maps shifting as if animated.
