Chapter 34. Bound by Command

Morning didn’t come so much as it conceded.

Volamed exhaled its sleepless night and the air gathered color cautiously, like someone remembering the order of breathing. The canals traded their mirrored moons for a mist that smelled of lime-dust and metal. Lora woke before the bells found their key. The body pretended calm; inside, every small muscle listened for what had survived the music.

Her marks lay quiet—too quiet. Dawn under her collarbone no longer burned; it waited, coiled like a clean promise. Dusk along her arm was cool, almost polite. Between them a slow pulse ran—hers, or theirs, or both. When she sat, the bedclothes whispered as if deciding which side to serve. She told them none, and the sound of the word steadied her.

Airenna entered without knocking. She had shed the ink from her palms; faint ghosts of runes still clung to her skin. “They are here,” she said. Her tone carried no direction—merely the fact.

“Envoys?” Lora asked.

“Four of t