He had few hours, maybe less.
He moved through them like a man who had traded uncertainty for velocity — not reckless, never reckless, but operating at the particular speed of someone who has accepted the shape of what is coming and is now only concerned with positioning.
First: Maren.
He found her already awake, already at her desk, which told him she’d either predicted this conversation or hadn’t slept either. He laid it out in full — Orren’s testimony, the fragments returning to Lira, the seal failing, what she believed would happen when it did.
Maren listened without interrupting, which for Maren meant she was genuinely alarmed.
“Every Alpha in range,” she repeated.
“That’s what she said.”
“Kael. The three closest kingdom borders are eighteen, twenty-two, and thirty hours away.
