Sera's POV
We don't cancel the meeting. We talk about it briefly in the hour after the scout's warning, but cancelling feels like handing Rurik exactly the kind of power his presence was probably meant to have—fear enough to keep us reactive instead of deliberate. Dax doubles the watch instead, positions Ren and two others along a wider perimeter than we'd originally planned, and I ride to the clearing with my pulse steady, or steady enough, the mark at my wrist warm and constant against my skin like a hand resting there.
The clearing itself sits directly on the border's edge, and I don't think either Caelum or I chose that on purpose. But standing at its centre now, I can't help but notice the symmetry of it—the same kind of threshold I crossed half-dead weeks ago, the exact seam betwee
