He waited two hours, which was long enough for the barracks to be quiet and for the night to fully settle in. Then he followed the sound of the Banner of the Unbroken Sun, which moved in a way that was different in the wind, and found Marshal on the outer rampart.
She stood with the Banner next to her and looked out at the dark horizon where the battle lines were. The moonlight caught the gold in her red hair and the scars on her shoulders that the armor didn't cover.
She didn't turn when she heard him coming, but her body language changed in a way that showed she knew who it was.
He said, "You're not really on watch."
"No," she said. "I'm avoiding."
"What are you even avoiding?"
A long pause.
She turned to face him, and in the moonlight, her expression was vulnerable in a way he had only witnessed twice before: once on the bridge that morning and once in a piece of writing she had inadvertently revealed when he called her name.
