Before Maelin's road finished dying, the Armada lantern opened.
Its red shutters peeled back around a wet black center. Something beat inside the light, slow and heavy enough for the sound to cross open dark.
Maelin's guildhall answered.
Living wings missed one stroke. Every black rib in the lower bay drew inward, then opened toward the lantern as if the wounded hall had smelled a road home.
Kessa still faced the place where Maelin had disappeared.
On Kessa's shoulder, the stormmew bit through the collar of her coat.
Pain turned her in time to see the launch.
A red heart crossed the guild roads on a white chain.
It was smaller than Maelin had been and larger than Jiang. Stolen mothglass plated its sides in overlapping scales. Between those scales, pale roots tightened and released around a hollow filled with red water.
Guild roads reacted around its flight.
