They reached the temple in the late afternoon. The sky held a thin gray that matched the stone walls. No one spoke much on the final stretch of road. The residual monitors had stayed flat the entire journey back. Whatever had stirred in the north stayed quiet.
Inside the main gate the ordinary schedule continued without them. Acolytes moved between halls with the same measured steps. The kitchen fires burned on the usual hours. The outer patrols rotated at the same marks they always had. Nothing looked disturbed.
Selene waited in the strategy room. She had the message already open on the table, written in the tight northern cipher that only a few people in the temple could read without tools. Aiden closed the door. Elizabeth and Kaelara followed.
"Private channel," Selene said. "Not the house we just sat with. A different faction. Smaller. They claim the agreement is already under pressure from inside their own ranks."
