The market road transitioned into the residential district a piece at a time. The stone paving covered the first stretch, then gave way to packed earth where newer construction had expanded the city northward. The smells changed with the road, the sharp spice and cured leather of the market district faded behind them, replaced by sawdust, clay dust, and the woodsmoke from morning cooking fires.
Ahead, the buildings showed different stages of completion. The nearest houses stood fully roofed and occupied, their stone foundations already beginning to weather along the mortar joints. Farther north, construction thinned into half-finished walls and stacked timber. The benchmark standard was clear in the work itself, each course added one layer at a time.
Batu and Suuqai entered the south residential district without slowing.
