Sound layered on sound, pressing close. Color crowded every line of sight: spices stacked in impossible reds and yellows, banners snapping in the wind, polished stone catching sunlight and throwing it back.

  Too much.

  Rowana loved it anyway.

  She moved through the crowd with practiced ease, bartering without breaking stride, laughing when she lost and louder when she won. Tessa stayed close, occasionally tugged into conversation, answering with dry remarks that made strangers smile.

  Lysara walked half a step behind them.

  Rowana noticed immediately.

  When they regrouped near a stall selling string candy, Rowana squinted at her.

  “You’re red.”

  “It’s hot,” Lysara said flatly.

  Tessa glanced at the sky. “It’s overcast.”

  Rowana grinned. “Did you trip?”

  “No.”

  “Run?”

  “No.”

  Tessa tilted her head. “Did you see someone?”

  Lysara adjusted her new glasses.

  Rowana’s grin widened. “Oh.”

  “Do not,”

  “I didn’t say anything. Yet.”

  “You only push your glasses like that when you’re flustered,” Tessa added.

  “I push them all the time.”

  “You’ve done it six times,” Tessa replied.

  Rowana laughed. “All right. Let’s list the suspects.”

  “The knight from Ethics?”

  “Perhaps the second-year alchemist, Rasmus?”

  “The quiet one?”

  Lysara stopped walking.

  She resumed walking. Faster.

  Rowana bit back a grin as Lysara surged ahead, boots striking the stone a little harder than before.

  Oh, she’d felt that.

  Rowana had seen it before.

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  She replayed the moment in her head: the timing, the color in Lysara’s cheeks, the way she’d adjusted her glasses like they were a shield she hadn’t realized she was holding.

  Interesting.

  Rowana’s gaze drifted across the market without really seeing it, cataloging faces by habit. Xyrion had been there earlier—impossible to miss even when he was trying to be.

  Kayden, on the other hand—

  Rowana clicked her tongue softly.

  Kayden didn’t stare—not obviously. He didn’t press or crowd. But he watched Lysara hungrily. He was careful and constant, always aware of where she was without making a show of it. His gaze softened when it found her. His attention sharpened. His voice dipped when he spoke to her, huskier, quieter, as if he’d learned the exact tone that wouldn’t startle.

  Rowana had noticed the pattern weeks ago.

  Rowana glanced back at Lysara’s rigid shoulders as she walked ahead of them now, and smiled to herself.

  Oh, yes. This going to be fun.

  She caught Tessa’s eye and arched a brow.

  Tessa’s mouth twitched. Just once.

  Good. They were thinking the same thing.

  Rowana was very patient when it came to good stories.

  Rowana fell into step beside Lysara, satisfied.

  They paused at a stall selling sweet bread dusted with sugar. The smell was rich, almost cloying. A child darted past, close enough to brush Lysara’s sleeve before vanishing back into the press of bodies.

  Lysara flinched.

  “You okay?”

  “Yes,” Lysara said automatically.

  Lysara scanned the crowd, then shook her head. “I just need—”

  She gestured vaguely.

  “There’s a bench near the west arch, we’ll meet you there.”

  “I won’t go far.”

  Rowana watched until the crowd swallowed her.

  “She’s past her limit,” Rowana said. “Let’s just pick up what we need.”

  They drifted another stall down. Spices. Dried fruit. Someone arguing loudly over weights.

  A familiar voice cut in. “Where’s Lysara?”

  Kayden stood just off to the side, gaze already tracking.

  “She stepped away,” Tessa said. “Too much noise.”

  Kayden nodded once. “I’ll find her.”

  He disappeared into the crowd without hurry.

  Rowana turned back to the stall, half-listening as the vendor talked.

  That was when the color caught her eye.

  Across the way, near the outer stalls, a handful of merchants wore the colors of Velkara. Too pale for the season. Clean blocks of hue that didn’t belong among the dust and riot of Brimward’s trade.

  Rowana felt the reaction hit.

  Disgust. Sharp. Immediate.

  “Ugh.”

  “Alright,” she said, decision made. “We’re grabbing Lysara and Kayden.”

  “We should head back.”

  Rowana knew something was wrong the moment Kayden shook his head.

  “She’s not at the bench, and I looked around the whole gate.”

  “She said she wouldn’t go far,” Rowana replied, even as her stomach dropped.

  Kayden had already slowed near the edge of the district, his gaze lifting past stone and stalls.

  Green.

  “There,” he said quietly.

  Rowana followed his line of sight. Trees. Old growth pressing in where the city thinned.

  They weren’t the only ones who noticed.

  A figure detached from the shade near the park’s entrance—tall, composed, attention fixed not on people but on movement, pattern, absence.

  “Looking for someone?” Xyrion asked, tone cool and even.

  Tessa hesitated, “Actually—yes. We are.”

  Kayden studied Xyrion for half a second.

  Xyrion looked at Kaydens worried face and nodded his head towards the left.

  Rowana blinked.

  Kayden was already moving.

  “Gate access is tightening tonight.”

  They found Lysara beneath an oak near the far edge of the green, curled on her side like she belonged there. Leaves had caught in her hair. A small animal perched boldly near her shoulder, tail flicking lazily as if it had claimed her.

  She looked peaceful.

  Rowana stopped short. “Oh.”

  Tessa let out a breath she’d clearly been holding. “Of course.”

  Kayden crouched a few steps away, slow and deliberate, careful not to break the quiet she’d built for herself.

  “She’s asleep,” he said softly.

  As if hearing him, Lysara stirred. Her lashes fluttered. She blinked, unfocused, then went rigid when she saw them.

  Rowana crossed the distance in three strides and dropped beside her. “This isn’t the bench.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said immediately, pushing herself upright.

  “Okay,” Rowana said, the edge gone.

  Kayden exhaled, relief loosening his shoulders. “You scared us.”