'That's not a threat,' he thought. 'He means it as information. The names are available. Someone kept them.'
'Because someone decided they mattered.'
He looked at the memorial field visible past the gate.
At five hundred sixty markers.
'This settlement names its dead,' he thought. 'The demon lord names his settlers. Cael named the thirty people in the margin of a mission file and carried their names to Aldenmere and then here.'
'Everyone here names things.'
He looked at Cael.
"Why did you stay," he said.
Cael looked at him.
"Because this is where the names go," Cael said. "Not in a margin. In a field."
Caldris was quiet.
The settlement moved around them — ordinary, purposeful, the morning continuing.
"The operatives in the treeline," Caldris said.
"I know they're there," Cael said. "I was counting on being able to speak to some of them."
Caldris looked at him.
