Adrasta's Palace

The palace hums with tension under Adrasta’s rule, its white marble halls now stained with dried blood from the guard’s stabbing. Tall iron gates groan as Edu unbolts a side door, metal scraping against stone, letting in a draft that carries the scent of crushed minerals from the tunnels below. The main hall’s tiers of balconies drape with silks that catch flickering torchlight, their metallic threads dulled by dust rather than shimmer. Polished floors reflect the chaos—servants scurry past in dark livery, faces tight with fear. At the far end, the obsidian throne looms over the scene’s violence, its surface untouched by the plumes of smoke drifting from the tunnel mouths behind it. The air tastes of iron and old privilege, the palace’s glittering facade now a gilded cage for those caught in Adrasta’s ruthless schemes.