Pierce exhaled through his nose. "They're small fish," he said.
"Small fish swim near docks that feed larger nets," Dorian said, first words of the hour.
Liora turned a page in the ledger. "We have enough for warrants," she said. "We will let the crown run ahead of us. We are a school. We will stay a school."
"Does that mean we stop?" Cael asked, not arguing, just checking the edges of the order.
"It means," Liora said, "we do our work where we stand. We keep Refuge honest. We drill our gates. We teach our hands to move when our minds are steady. And we pay attention."
Pierce slid three folded notices across the table. "Tonight, donors arrive for a tour. They will ask about safety and competence and any story they can repeat at supper. We will give them quiet confidence. We will not give them blood."
Mira raised a hand slightly. "We need eyes on their folios," she said. "They always carry ledgers at these things. One page tells us more than ten gossips."
