Lira’s lattice path held just long enough to drop her onto the foundation stone’s cracked surface. The silver mist boiled around her boots. Up close the wound smelled of wet paper, old ink, and the sharp ozone of memories forced open too fast. She drove the lens into the heart of the light and pushed both refusals outward.
The wound pushed back.
On the balcony Kael swore, vaulted the rail, and slid down a drainage chain with more enthusiasm than grace. Sera followed by the stairs, taking them three at a time. Vesh grabbed Tallen by the collar before he could leap after them and hauled him along the safer route. Sela and Cal remained on the balcony under direct orders that Cal obeyed only because Sela sat on the slate.
The square became controlled chaos. Wardens dragged scholars behind i
