Lukas was still turning the situation over in his mind when the sound of fierce fighting erupted from outside.
His eyebrows shot up at once.
Fighting? Who would dare cause trouble here? This is the residence of the Grand Pill Maker.
The question had the specific, sharp quality of someone whose first instinct is not fear but disbelief — the particular, immediate annoyance of having a private line of thought interrupted by something that should not have been happening in the first place. This was White Knight Settlement. This was the Grand Pill Maker's residence, the particular, protected geography of a Rank 3 refiner's home carrying the specific, implicit understanding that bold trouble did not show its face here without consequences.
He moved toward the disturbance.
