2 weeks later:
The courtyard of Starfangs had never felt this full before.
People moved everywhere—warriors carrying crates, children darting between wagons, elders standing close together as they spoke in low voices about new homes and unfamiliar lands. The scent of pine from the surrounding forest mixed with wood smoke from the great hearths that had been lit early that morning, the air cool and bright beneath a sky the color of polished steel.
I stood beside Kael at the top of the stone steps, watching it all unfold. For a moment, I didn’t say anything. I simply took it all in.
These weren’t strangers arriving in fear or desperation. Not entirely. But there was still uncertainty in their eyes, in the way they lingered close to one another, in the quiet glances they cast toward Kael
