Kael kept a lookout on the map and his surrounding as he moved. He was making sure that they were neither being tailed or tracked by monster or people.
The streets on the way back felt different than they had earlier, not because the rubble had moved, but because Kael's brain had. Every shadow looked like it could hide a pair of eyes. Every open window looked like a mouth waiting to whisper.
The city was still the same carcass of broken masonry and torn beams, but now he could taste the risk in the air, that thin metallic tang that came when violence had been nearby recently. He kept his pace steady, not rushed enough to draw attention, not slow enough to invite it. His eyes did most of the work, but the mini-map was the real leash in his mind. It didn't make him safe. It only told him where danger was deciding to stand.
