The evening sky above held a disquieting quality for the cultivators. Stars that should have blazed in the clear night air still twinkled, but muted - as if seen through the thinnest of gauze. Knowing that it was a level of difference they could notice while mortals could not would not serve as a point of pride.
It just meant they got to be tense due to the signs first.
Few mentioned it directly but it lived in the tightened shoulders and quickened steps of Guild members and free cultivators throughout the grounds. At least, the ones who had not already departed for their assigned defensive positions. Those who remained did so out of duty to see everyone else off, necessity to wait for rail travel, or perhaps for some…
To grasp the last moments of 'peace' before the war.
