Kravius looked exactly like he always looked, which was somehow more unsettling than if he'd shown up scarred or hunted or changed in any of the ways I'd half expected after weeks of silence — the same unhurried archmage's robes, the same staff he carried more like a habit than a necessity, the same expression that suggested he already knew how the conversation would end before either of us had said a word.
"You vanished after the Cathedral," I said, before he could offer whatever opening line he'd prepared. "No word. No thread Krix could trace. And now you're back at my gate the same week a demon envoy crosses two Hell Layers to evaluate whether I'm worth keeping alive."
"I heard about the envoy," Kravius said, mild as ever, settling into the chair across my war table as though he'd never left it. "Interesting timing, isn't it. Though I imagine you've already worked out that interesting timing tends to mean something, in a life like yours."
