The hearth had gone cold sometime before dawn, leaving nothing but gray ash behind. No one had come to light it again.
Beorn noticed the chill before anything else that morning. It stood out more than the platform still standing beyond the citadel wall, untouched after yesterday, and more than the empty desk. For the first time in four nights, there were no reports waiting that demanded a decision before sunrise.
He opened the ledger to a fresh page regardless. Routine still mattered, even when there was nothing immediate to record.
Through the window, the city sounded normal again. Cart wheels rolled over stone. The foundry kept its steady rhythm. The roar that had echoed through the room by way of the crowds the previous day had finally faded.
For a brief moment, his mind tried to summon that sound again. Forty companies striking rifle stocks against stone in perfect unison. The entire colonnade answering with one voice.
