[KAEL — POV]
They stopped once, at a travel station outside a town called Merwick.
She got out and went inside with the ease of someone who moved through human spaces comfortably, which was—not surprising, but he noticed it. The hunters were trained to pass, to blend, to operate in civilian contexts without friction. She did it naturally.
He waited in the car.
He did not need to eat or drink, but the stop was useful—he used the minutes to send a message to Thessaly through his secondary channel and another to Riven, who needed handling. The message to Riven said: Hold the council. Forty-eight hours. I'm bringing evidence of Architect operation. Tell Damaris I invoke strategic review. Strategic review was a formal Noctis Court mechanism—old, rarely used, it required the general to prese
