The patrol found them on the second morning inside Guild territory.
Not because the patrol was looking for them specifically. Because the shell-core made not being found impossible.
Kai had felt it building since early morning. A change in the quality of the road's attention. The air had a particular kind of stillness that came not from emptiness but from something moving through it that had not yet arrived. He had said nothing to the others. He had not needed to. The older man had stopped talking an hour ago. Liora had moved her hand to her coat without touching anything. Even Neral had gone quiet, which was the most reliable signal available.
The patrol came around a bend in the road in a clean line of three.
