In the midst of the triage, Aldric appeared from the records wing.
It was a testament to the man's peculiar, bureaucratic soul that he emerged from the rubble still clutching a bundle of singed ledgers.
He was uninjured, his spectacles miraculously intact, possessed of the kind of extraordinary luck that follows those too focused on their work to notice the world ending.
He didn't waste a second on shock. He immediately began to organize, directing guards to create a perimeter and calling for the healers to establish a central triage point near the north wing's shadow.
He looked at Soren only once, a brief, weighted glance that acknowledged both the miracle of their survival and the crushing administrative nightmare that was about to descend upon them.
Aldric knew better than anyone that an empire without a palace was merely a collection of people waiting to starve or burn.
A moment later, Ryse emerged from the north tower, followed closely by Mira and Rael.
