Natalia Day gripped the flag’s pole, its stars blurring against the storm-wracked sky. The air crackled, not just with lightning but with something older, colder. A legion of silent forms watched from the shadows, their empty sockets fixed on her. She held firm, the fabric snapping in the wind as she focused on the fiery bird rising above them all. It pulsed with an unnatural heat, a beacon against the encroaching darkness. The skeletal figures began to move forward, drawn by the light and the flag’s defiant colors. Natalia braced herself; this was only the first wave. She had a promise to keep, a nation to protect, even from itself.