Aldric set the document on the table before they sat down.
Not with urgency — with the gesture of someone who's been carrying something all day and would rather get it off his chest as soon as possible.
"It arrived this morning. Directly from the kingdom."
Kai picked it up.
Read it.
Mara was in the corner chair with the coffee Aldric had served her just as he did with everyone. She had smelled it.
She hadn't tasted it yet. She was staring at it with the concentration she gave to things she didn't recognize.
"Five A-rank hunters?" Kai said.
"Missing. Northern border territory." Aldric took his coffee. "The kingdom says they're not dead. The energy signatures they left before losing contact don't correspond to death. They correspond to... a type of retention."
"Type of retention?"
"Their word. Not mine."
Lira took the document when Kai set it down.
"What energy signature?"
