Chapter 27. The Second Mark

The water kept her light enough to believe that line, long enough to hear her own breath settle into the basin’s hush. It was the first sound that left her body that didn’t sound like running. She held onto it.

Footsteps paused beyond the door. Not the clipped calculation of Keeper Vith; these were quieter, the weight spread as if the walker expected the floor to answer back. The latch turned without fuss. Rael stepped through the narrow opening and closed it with the same careful economy he gave everything—no wasted gesture, no apology for arriving.

“Still awake,” he said. Not a question.

“Barely.” Lora kept her head tilted, ears above the waterline. “Your city has opinions. I decided not to argue with them on the first night.”

“Wise.” He moved to the glass wall and looked out, not at her. The canal looked back with its stitched light. “Volamed prefers patience to bravery. Bravery is too cheap here.”

“I’ll try to be expensive.” She watched his reflecti