The city came in through the transport window in pieces.
First the outer walls. They were old enough that the stone had taken on the specific grey of things that had been weathering for a very long time and had stopped trying to look like anything except what they were. Not the grey of neglect. The grey of persistence. The grey of a thing that had been standing since before the current system's infrastructure existed and intended to keep standing after it.
Then the gate, wide and functional, the eastern ironwork above it in a style that Vane did not recognize from Korreth. Older than Korreth's influence. Something that had been there before Korreth had opinions about what eastern ironwork should look like.
