The carriage settled into a gentle rhythm as it moved through the streets of Elaris.
Inside, the four of them arranged themselves without much discussion. Azael and Arista took one side. Aeliana and Liana sat across from them.
The cushioned seats were comfortable, the interior quiet, and the morning light came in through the narrow windows in long pale strips.
For a while, no one said anything in particular.
Elaris would be left in capable hands while they were away, that much was certain. The head knight of their house, Gareth Balmoris, was a man who needed very little direction and even less supervision.
Broad-shouldered and unhurried in the way that only genuinely powerful people tend to be, he carried himself with the kind of quiet solidity that made those around him feel instinctively safer. He had reached the sixth core level, a height that very few knights ever climbed and wore the fact without ceremony. Azael hadn't spent any time with him over the years.
