The letter arrived at dawn, carried by a rider whose horse bore the white-streaked foam of hard travel and harder orders.
Aya was already awake when the guard announced the messenger. Sleep had become a careful negotiation these past weeks - never quite absent, never fully restful. She accepted the sealed parchment in the small solar adjoining her chambers, where morning light filtered through narrow windows and laid pale gold across the table.
She did not need to read the seal to know whose hand had sent it.
Her Brother, Lord Commander Elex, never wrote without purpose.
Aya broke the wax with a thumb, unfolding the letter in one smooth motion. Her eyes moved quickly at first, then slowed, then stilled.
For a long moment, she did not breathe.
Behind her, Bason shifted from his place near the hearth, sensing the stillness that had fallen too sharply over the room. The great dog huffed once, low and questioning.
