Six weeks passed before the messenger returned to Silvermoon City.
He arrived at the outer gates in the late afternoon, dust-worn from the road, and requested an immediate audience with Kael Duskfall through the proper channel rather than waiting for the next scheduled reporting cycle. Elder Wren received the request within the hour and granted it without delay. A senior intelligence messenger did not break protocol to request urgency unless it was urgent.
He was shown to the study an hour after sunset.
Kael set aside the documents he had been reviewing and looked at the man standing before him—older than most field operatives, with particular weathered patience in his bearing that came from decades spent moving through unfamiliar cities without ever appearing to be doing anything more than passing through them.
"Sit," Kael said. "Report."
The messenger sat.
