INTERLUDE
A sliver of moonlight came through the window. Just enough to reveal the four-post bed as a shadow against the blackness. The curtains fluttered in the cool, whistling wind. A pleasant evening if ever she had seen one.
Isara sat on the mattress with her hands folded in her lap, lost in thought. Just then, she wanted nothing more than to go back home to Leyria. Slade's most recent display of incompetence had forced her to travel all the way to Earth, and her prolonged absence meant that several projects had been left unattended.
Worse yet, she had been forced to travel even further from home – as far as she had ever been, in fact – to keep an eye on Pennfield. Her associates saw themselves as clever men, but they had a tendency to lose sight of the finer details. It had been Pe
