The envoy arrived at Veskara Keep on a grey afternoon nearly a month after the Aldermere blight, announced by a single rider bearing the crown's seal, and Elira felt the old, familiar tightening in her chest the moment Rhosnyn brought her the news.
"An investigator, my lady," Rhosnyn said, his weathered face carefully neutral in a way that told her he understood exactly how much this particular visit might complicate everything they had built.
"Sent by the dowager's council, officially to assess Veskara's readiness against the raiding season. Unofficially, I suspect, to look into rather more specific rumors."
"Do we know who they've sent?"
"A minister's aide. Someone called Darian Voss."
The name landed like a stone dropped into still water, ripples of memory spreading outward before
