The sky above Moonshade City was still dark when Robert stepped onto the inn's balcony, and the streets below held only the earliest merchants beginning their preparations, moving quietly through the pre-dawn quiet without any of the urgency that auction day had produced.
He stood at the railing and looked towards the mountains visible at the city's distant edge, their shapes dark against a sky that had not yet decided whether it was night or morning.
His mind wandered in a way he had not anticipated, not triggered by any specific moment—instead, it drifted back through all the experiences that had led him to this very balcony, in this particular city, with this unique responsibility weighing on him.
