Chapter 221: The Warning (1)
The crystal woke at two in the morning.
Draven was sitting alone under the World Tree with his back against the pale silver bark and Astraxion asleep across his knees.
He had not gone inside since the tower lit.
'She should not be calling.'
He looked at the violet light crawling under the black surface of the crystal in his palm.
Three days ago Isolde Renwick had bought him a window with fuel audits and paperwork. That was how she worked.
She did not spend anything she could not replace, and she did not reach for a black market comm-crystal bought in a slum unless everything cheaper was already gone.
He pressed his thumb into the facet.
"Elder."
"They are going to kill your workers."
No greeting. No dry joke about her tea. The voice on the other end of the line was flat and old and completely stripped of everything that made it hers.
Draven sat up. Astraxion lifted his head.
"Say it in order," Draven said.
