---
They left Dawn House by the inner front road rather than the side service routes, which Kess noticed immediately and understood as deliberate. Not a secrecy, then. Or not only secrecy. Visibility where chosen. Lower Dawn house moving openly enough to claim confidence, not enough to create spectacle.
Outside the estate, the lamps cast long warm light across the path as they exited the main grounds. The city beyond the house was fully night now, but Slik City did not die in darkness. It merely changed shape.
Day trade folded inward, but movement did not vanish. Shadows thickened. Lantern glow deepened. The honest noise of markets gave way to the quieter sounds of guarded wealth, late wagons, drinking houses, secret deals, and people who only worked when respectable people pretended to sleep.
They had not gone far from the gate when the sound of wheels reached them from behind.
A carriage. Which they will ride to meet Mihos Dawn.
