After securing the Genesis Knights—bound, disarmed, and left with enough supplies to survive until Rudanavs scouts inevitably found them—the group returned to Ekatarina's carriage.
Lysara Venn came with them. Praktor Aldeus did not. He'd been left with his troops, stripped of communication devices, his mission permanently compromised.
Lysara had made her choice the moment she started talking. There was no going back to Imperial service after that.
The sky serpents carried them northeast for another three hours before Ekatarina told them to descend toward what appeared to be an unremarkable stretch of highland plateau—flat stone, sparse vegetation, nothing visually significant about it whatsoever.
"There's nothing here," Citranganda observed.
"There's everything here," Ekatarina replied. "You're simply not looking correctly."
