The rider came in hard enough to make everyone stop.
He skidded through the doorway, one hand on the frame, breath dragging in his chest like he had run all the way from the river and then some. His boots left wet marks on the floor. Nobody said a word. They all just turned and looked at him.
Kael was already on his feet.
"What?" he snapped.
The rider swallowed, then looked at the table, then at Lyria. That was bad already. News should not need that kind of pause.
"We found the boat," he said. "And the body. But that is not the part you want to hear."
Kael stepped forward. "Say it."
The rider held out a fist. There was something small in it. Dark. Damp.
A signet ring.
Not just any ring. Lyria knew that shape. She had seen it before on official papers, on doors, on people who liked to remind everyone they were important. The rider dropped it onto the table. It rolled once and stopped.
The room did not breathe.
