POV: Ayla

The Mage finds me in the east garden just after the morning training session. She does not announce herself. One moment the path is empty. The next she is standing at the edge of the grass with the same unhurried presence she has carried every time she has appeared.

I stop stretching and wait.

“You have been hardening the walls,” she says. It is not a question.

“We have reason.”

“Yes. The network has shifted from patience to demonstration. You felt the change before your people confirmed it.” She walks closer and stops a few paces away. “I am not here about the breach. I am here about...