Lloyd crossed the threshold toward the exterior. His boots resonated with a dry echo on the hallway' s cracked stone, where debris dust still floated in suspension, trapped in the beams of light piercing through collapsed ceilings. The fort now breathed a different air, freed from battle's suffocating pressure, though the smell of rubble and iron persisted in every corner.
Upon exiting to the courtyard, the space' s amplitude and midday's clarity forced him to narrow his eyes an instant.
There, under direct sunlight, the sisters awaited.
