Fort Kessral looked nothing like Verrin's Landing.
Vane understood why Nyx had dismissed that comparison within thirty seconds of seeing it properly.
No sagging palisade.
No bored sentries leaning against posts.
No watch rotation held together by habit and the assumption that nothing important would ever happen.
Fort Kessral had stone walls.
Real ones.
Maintained ones.
The towers stood at even intervals around the perimeter, every platform manned in pairs. Relief arrived early enough that the outgoing guards were still fully alert when the replacements took over.
Inside the walls, soldiers drilled in formation beneath the pale morning light.
Not the slow shuffle they had watched at Verrin's Landing.
These men moved like people who expected someone to notice if they moved badly.
A banner hung above the main gate, clean enough that it had probably been replaced recently. None of them recognized the mark stitched into it.
