C232 PATHS THAT DO NOT ALLOW RETREAT

The night did not return to normal when the young prince left.

It pretended to.

Torches still flashed. Guards resumed their patrols. The Ash Covenant gates remained locked, stone pressing against stone as though nothing had happened beyond them.

Yet something had moved – not outside the walls, but within the people who stood behind them.

Aria sensed it first.

She could not explain how