The training ring below Villa 4 was lit before dawn.
Vane saw it from his window when he woke — a single mana-lamp casting a pale circle on the stone, the ring itself empty-looking from above except that it wasn't empty. Valerica was at the far end, moving through something that at this distance looked like stillness.
He had been seeing this light for two weeks.
He came downstairs and went through the gate.
She knew he was there. She always knew — the Celestial Heart read gravitational mass as naturally as breathing and he had been moving through her ambient field for two years. She didn't stop. He came to the near side of the ring and watched.
