"You're right, Governor." Sir Harold's voice was terribly hoarse. "It was an accident. One that none of us had foreseen—or rather, one we refused to believe could happen... The worst possible kind of accident."
He took a deep breath, as if to suppress the emotions churning in his chest. "My father did sense something was wrong and made the necessary preparations. But his initial assessment, even after the passage truly opened, was that it would be a slow leak—long-term pressure from a gradual increase in creatures from the Otherworld."
"Eagle's Beak Peak was being continuously reinforced by the Church Court and the Northern Shepherd Chief District. Logically, even if a problem arose, it should have been a relatively slow process, allowing us to establish layered defenses at Blackstone Fortress and gradually wear them down."
