Nobody spoke for a long moment after they came back.
The Kagu courtyard was too quiet. The fires out in the city had been put out hours ago, but the smell of them still hung over the walls, and under it was something sweeter and worse, the last of Alyssara's perfume settling like dust. The six of them pushed themselves upright one at a time and drifted together without deciding to, shoulder to shoulder, the way seventeen months of training had taught them to stand. Their auras were there, all High Radiant, all intact. They were also dimmer than I had ever felt them, like lamps turned down to save oil.
I looked at each of them, because I needed to.
