Four days ran out the way Nyx had promised they would, faster than any of them wanted and not quite fast enough for the parts of the estate that had started to feel, in that short a time, dangerously close to a home.
Vane strapped the last pack shut on the courtyard steps while the sky was still more grey than blue. Ashe checked her blades twice, which meant she was nervous, though she'd have denied it flatly if anyone had said so out loud. Valerica stood with her arms folded, watching the household staff pretend not to watch them back. Isole carried nothing that looked valuable and everything that was — Mara had seen to that personally, working through the night to fold a false manifest into her travel papers, a merchant's daughter's name in place of a Sylvaris one, good enough to survive a checkpoint's glance if not a real inspection.
