Nevara
I hadn’t meant to go outside.
I had been standing at the window longer than I realized, my mind still tangled in everything Thoren had uncovered—networks instead of hierarchies, names that felt too close to be comfortable, the quiet implication that this had been building long before either of us understood what we were facing. I wasn’t really watching the grounds at first, not consciously, until movement below finally pulled my attention into focus.
Salas was running the guards through drills.
Steel flashed in measured arcs, boots struck dirt in controlled rhythm, and voices carried just enough to mark commands without breaking the discipline of it. It was familiar in a way that steadied me, the kind of structure that existed whether I paid attention to it or not, and for the f
