Outside Elysium's main district, the afternoon light was catching the stone buildings at their sharpest angle.
Due was mapping what the meeting had given them, hands moving in their settling gestures while he talked. Not pacing, not performing urgency. Just standing in the street, working through it the way he worked through everything.
"The Unmarked, building infrastructure from below. Caldren, consolidating control from above. Two separate threats moving toward the same outcome from different directions."
He adjusted his collar. "And Sun Harvest is standing in the middle of what they're both reaching for."
"You're saying we're between them," said Alistair.
"I'm saying the space between them is the only space left, and we're already standing in it." Due looked at him. "That's not a metaphor. It's a geographic fact."
Elara had been quiet since they left the building. The name from the meeting was sitting in her somewhere, doing something she hadn't shared yet.
She walked with the same composure she always carried, but it was running warmer than usual.
Eventually, she shared what she knew about the name. She didn't tell them everything, just enough.
"It is related to my family in Therasia. This person… finding this person before Caldren is crucial."
She paused for a moment, then continued. "That's all I can currently tell you."
The way she said "currently" showed that she would share more when she was ready. Not before.
Alistair set this down next to the other things he was already carrying. The stack was getting tall. He would sort through it later, as he always did.
They walked back through the outer area of Elysium, with Osren leading them on a quieter path that avoided the crowded streets. The afternoon was fading, and the markets were starting to close.
The woman with close-cropped dark green hair from earlier joined Osren without a word.
She wore a fitted jacket over a light vest, the kind of practical clothing that allowed quick movement. Her dark green eyes matched her hair, and they moved with the same efficiency she'd shown across the courtyard. Up close, her assessment was more detailed.
She looked at Alistair, held his gaze, and compared her report with the man standing in front of her.
"Smaller than I expected," she said.
Due, without hesitation, "He gets that a lot."
Alistair turned his head slowly. "I don't get that a lot."
"You've never gotten that before, and it's visibly bothering you," Due replied, his expression perfectly neutral.
Estaria looked between them, then at Osren. Osren's expression said this is apparently normal for them.
She seemed more interested than worried. Following that, she looked at Elara last.
Something passed between them in that look, not recognition but something else. An understanding between two women in a group of men who had been talking strategy for hours.
Elara met it evenly, and Estaria nodded once.
A young man appeared next to Osren suddenly. He wore a simple grey shirt and moved like someone who had grown up with Osren, comfortably and without any need for formality. His name was Konir.
He and Osren quickly traded a few sentences, something about a patrol route and a timing change.
Konir glanced at the group. His eyes moved across Alistair, then Elara, then settled on Due.
Due was settling an obligation with a street vendor. He showed focus and patience, his hands still while he talked. The vendor looked confused but willing, which suggested they were making progress.
Konir looked back at Osren. "These are the people who held off both Therasia and Mastic?"
Osren paused. "Only the one that looks like a girl."
Konir looked at everyone again. He focused on Due, who had just finished with the vendor. Due was adjusting his collar and had the look of a man who accepted that this was his life and would always be.
"Huh," Konir said.
They walked through the outer district toward the border of Elysium. The buildings became sparser and the road expanded.
The city released them back into the countryside with the same lack of ceremony with which it had received them. Osren and Estaria said their farewells briefly, Konir nodding once without words.
Alistair's scan registered the border crossing in reverse, the dense Characteristic readings thinning, the concentration dropping, the familiar saturation of Elysium fading behind them as neutral territory reasserted itself.
On the road back, about half an hour from the border, Due slowed his pace.
Alistair matched it without asking why. Due didn't slow for scenic reasons.
"Movement ahead," Due said quietly.
Frument soldiers, a small contingent of about fifteen, were moving toward the main road from a side path.
Their banner was a design Alistair didn't recognize, regional and minor, the kind of faction that survived by being small enough to avoid notice and useful enough to avoid being dismissed.
They halted at a respectful distance, neither threatening nor subservient. Their leader stepped forward.
He was deliberate, every word chosen carefully, the kind of person who thought through a conversation before having it.
"Frument has been watching Sun Harvest since the battle dispatch," he said, his voice calm. "We want to talk when Sun Harvest is ready."
He pressed a small piece of thin paper into Alistair's hand, a written location, then turned and walked back to his contingent without waiting for a response.
He knew that waiting would put pressure on Sun Harvest to make a quick decision. A careful man understood that pressure can lead to poor ones.
They parted ways without incident. The Frument contingent disappeared into the landscape with the quietness of a faction that knew exactly when to be visible and when not to be.
Alistair watched them go. The marker sat in his palm.
Elara spoke first. "They were afraid of you."
Alistair looked at her. "Good."
Hearing this, Due stared at him for a full three seconds.
"That's the first time I've heard you say that without it being slightly terrifying."
The road continued ahead. The Oasis of Grain stretched in every direction, the late afternoon light catching the grain fields warmly.
Somewhere behind them, Elysium's borders held their concentration of power. Somewhere ahead, the name from the meeting waited to be found.
Due walked beside Alistair in the settling silence of two people processing the same day from different angles. His hands worked steadily. Alistair's scan ran its passive circuit.
"We have allies now," Due said quietly. "Or the beginning of them."
Alistair didn't reply. However, something about his walk had changed. His pace was a bit different, his gaze was wider, and he stood as if he was carrying more than he did yesterday.
He wasn't sure yet if this extra weight felt like a burden or a support.
Suddenly, Alistair realized they might not be the first to know the name.