They did not leave at first light.
Korr raised the idea over the morning meal in the Stone Tusk common room. A second contract had gone up on the guild board overnight—a short-range sweep of the lower gorge trails for a nesting pair of cliff-drakes that had started taking pack animals from the ore caravans. Pay was solid for a high-B team, better with an A-rank on the front. The work would take two days at most, and the city still had rooms.
Venn nodded once. Ressa said nothing, but she did not stand to leave. Aiden considered the open road, the quiet key, the ordered power that needed no urgent outlet. A few more days cost nothing. He agreed.
They took the contract before midday. The receptionist marked the plate, issued the map of the lower gorge, and warned them the trails were narrow after the recent rains. The party moved out under a hard clear sky, the same formation as before—Korr on point, Venn on the flanks, Ressa in the middle, Aiden at the rear.
