SILO POV --- Silo had been watching Della Castell since Ziko relayed the gate alert, because watching was what Silo did before deciding what a situation was, and this situation needed watching before it got a category. She was younger than he'd expected — mid-twenties, sharp-featured, with the kind of beauty that presented as aggressive rather than inviting, a face that led with its own assessment of you before you'd finished forming yours. She stood at the gate with the particular posture of someone who'd chosen to arrive alone and wanted it understood that this was a strength rather than a vulnerability. She looked at Silo the way people looked at things they'd decided were in their way — not dismissively, but efficiently. Cataloguing the obstacle, calculating the necessary angle to

