The fortress had changed again.
Not in its walls. Not in its gates. Those remained as they always had, dark and heavy and built to outlast memory. The change was in the way demons moved through it now.
They no longer looked away quickly.
They still stepped aside when Iruen passed. They still kept the distance Kaelith's word had forced into the realm. But the silence around him was different. It was no longer only caution.
It was attention.
He noticed it first in the upper corridor near the western arches. Two demons crossing from the lower hall slowed when they saw him and did not pretend otherwise. Their eyes moved to the mark on his chest, stayed there for half a breath, then lifted to his face before they lowered their heads and moved on.
No one spoke.
That made it worse.
Iruen kept walking.
