The scouts returned four days later with a name and a problem that changed the shape of everything Hale had been planning around.
"Rennet's Crossing," the lead scout said, breathless from the run. "Same pattern as Aldern. Roads held. Nothing in or out. Soldiers moving house to house on a schedule that isn't extraction."
He paused.
Long enough for everyone at the table to understand there was more.
"Dresk's banner is flying over the garrison command tent."
Hale looked up.
"He's there himself."
The war table went silent.
"Personally," Hale repeated.
The word seemed to require testing.
"Personally," the scout confirmed. "Two of ours got close enough to see him before they pulled back. They said he walks the settlement's edge every evening. Alone. No escort."
Nyx's expression hardened.
"That's not carelessness."
"No."
"That's a message."
She looked at the map.
"He wants people to know he's there. More importantly, he wants word to travel exactly the way it just did."
