The manor walls rose higher up close than they had from the treeline.
Grey stone, smooth in places and jagged in others, reinforced with iron brackets and torch sconces that cast restless light across the outer courtyard.
The patrol routes were disciplined, four-man rotations along the wall, two crossing the courtyard below, one stationed permanently at the gatehouse balcony.
Corin lay flat against the earth just beyond the outer clearing, half his body concealed beneath a low thorned hedge. He had been still for nearly six minutes.
Counting.
One guard scratched his neck at the same corner every rotation. Another favored his left leg slightly when descending the steps from the east tower. The man at the gatehouse adjusted his grip on his spear every thirty breaths, a nervous tell.
Patterns.
Corin's eyes tracked without hurry.
Two minutes between torch swaps.
Seven between patrol overlaps.
A blind angle along the western wall where light failed to reach fully due to a misaligned sconce.
He exhaled slowly.
"There," he murmured under his breath.
Belphegor stood several paces behind him, hands loosely in his coat pockets, gaze wandering across the manor as though admiring architecture instead of security weaknesses.
"You've been staring at walls for some time," Belphegor said quietly.
Corin didn't look back. "You miss things when you rush."
"I do not rush."
"You move fast."
Belphegor smiled faintly at that, crimson eyes reflecting torchlight.
Corin shifted, crawling backward soundlessly until he reached the base of a low rock formation.
"Western wall," he said. "Torch misaligned. Ten-second overlap where no one looks directly down the base. When the two courtyard patrols cross, the gatehouse guard shifts attention forward."
Belphegor tilted his head slightly. "You intend to climb?"
"Yes."
"You are aware there are easier ways in."
Corin finally glanced at him. "Your shadow trick?"
Belphegor's smile didn't fade. "Among others."
Corin shook his head once. "If something reacts to you, we learn nothing. We go in clean."
A flicker of interest crossed Belphegor's eyes at that. Sensible.
"Very well," he said.
They moved when the moment arrived.
Corin broke from cover in a low sprint that barely disturbed the grass, reaching the base of the wall just as the courtyard patrols intersected. He didn't look up immediately, he already knew the angle of vision. Fingers found cracks in stone. Boots pressed into narrow grooves invisible in low light.
He climbed.
Not fast.
Efficient.
Three holds. Shift weight. Pause. Listen.
Above, a guard laughed at something unseen.
Corin froze.
Breathing slowed. Counted heartbeats.
When the laughter faded, he resumed, hauling himself up to the shadow just beneath the parapet. He waited again, letting the rotation pass, then rolled silently onto the walkway as the torches flickered elsewhere.
Belphegor did not climb.
He simply stepped into the deeper stretch of shadow near the wall's base and vanished.
A heartbeat later, he emerged from the dark stretch beneath the parapet behind Corin, as though he had always been there. No sound. No displaced stone.
Corin did not jump. But his jaw tightened slightly.
"Show-off," he muttered.
Belphegor's gaze drifted across the courtyard below.
From here, the manor revealed more.
Additional guards near the main entrance. Two stationed on the balcony above the grand hall doors. Archers in the northern tower, crossbows, not longbows. Heavy draw weight. Armor was standardized, not hired rabble.
Professional.
And near the inner courtyard fountain stood a man in darker attire speaking quietly to a pair of armored captains.
Authority posture.
Corin lowered himself flat against the walkway, studying movement patterns below.
"Three internal access points," he whispered. "Main doors. Side servant entrance. Balcony above the east wing."
Belphegor leaned casually against the stone merlon, completely at ease.
"There is more inside," he said quietly.
Corin shot him a look. "You can see that?"
"I can feel… structure."
That was all he offered.
No alarm bells rang. No wards flared.
The manor breathed calmly, unaware.
Corin's eyes tracked another rotation shift.
"We observe for another fifteen minutes," he said. "Then we move lower. I want interior layout confirmation."
Belphegor's crimson gaze lingered on the illuminated upper windows of the manor's central wing.
For just a fraction of a second, something unreadable passed through his expression.
Interest.
But he said nothing.
Below them, Greywatch slept behind stone and steel.
Above them, the moon drifted slowly toward dawn.