The northern beacons have gone dark. Three years of silence from the frontier, and the Duchy of Valbena has done nothing about it. Now, with rumours growing and patience wearing thin, a patrol of eight is sent north to find out why.

What Captain Arder Tur Cide and his scouts discover is not the quiet of abandonment. It is the quiet of something waiting. Gouged sigils on watchtower walls. Empty settlements stripped clean. And in the passes beyond, an army flying a banner that should have been buried with history.

As the patrol pushes deeper into hostile ground, the evidence mounts: this is not raiders or bandits. This is organised, funded, and deliberate. And the threads lead not only north, but back into the council chambers of Valbena itself.

Footprints in the North is a prequel novella to The War in the North. It is a story about soldiers doing their job in a place their country forgot, and what happens when the silence finally breaks.