The rat was lying in wait at the innkeeper, ready to intercept the woman. As she emerged from her room, the rat followed her and delivered its missive:
"It is time.
Signed in my blood,
Shaidar Haran"
The shadows deepened as the woman was summoned and she found herself in Thakan'dar, before the Hand of the Dark. She groveled, a puny human in the presence of Shaidar Haran. Time passed and the woman who had kneeled as a human, rose as a Dreadlord.
Far away in the south, a farmer leaned on his rake and looked northwards. A shadow loomed, a sign of things to come.