High above the North Wood, black clouds gathered in the skies of Kreaton, heavy and brooding, promising nothing good to any who might happen to look up and see them. They lay as a thick blanket from East to West, from North to South. Flashing bolts of lightning did nothing to illuminate the earth below, so dense was their make-up, so unforgiving their payload. No birds flew in that sky, having being terrified into hiding by the Ulrogg war machines which had suddenly appeared where once they and they alone had ruled. The black sky, devoid of anything joyous or peaceful, was an inverted mirror reflecting the feeling of the land below - oppressive and all-encompassing, without hope of escape.
Above the clouds however, a different picture was on display, one which was in direct contrast to that below. Stars twinkled and sparkled, flickering in the black nightscape, waiting patiently as they had done for millennia gone by for the clouds below to pass so they could shine down freely once more. Countless and ubiquitous, silent and unchanging. They had been there for as long as Kreaton had existed and for an age even before that they would be there long after without doubt.
All except one of them.
Not the largest point of light, had anyone been able to see through the clouds they would scarcely have noticed it, being little more than a pin prick in size, but very definitely there nonetheless. Where it hadn't been previously. Nor was it staying there. There were no eyes to see it, nobody to tell of its appearance and even if there were, there would be no way to know how portentous this tiny speck of light could be.
And it was coming closer.