POV: Ayla

The stronghold is quieter than a place with this much history should be.

We enter through the secondary foot path Ryker marked on the first pass, in a tight group under the shared protocol. He takes point. Two of the northern and coastal operators hold the flanks. I move in the center of the formation with Zane on the live link and Caius running the outer command picture. The agreement about my presence on this entry was short and hard: the records the captures described are bloodline records. If they exist, I am not receiving a summary of them after the fact.

The upper level matches the mid-tier...