The old chapel had been standing empty since long before the castle became mine, its roof half caved in, its altar cracked down the middle by whatever previous war had cracked everything else on these grounds. I chose it specifically because nothing about it belonged to me—no memory, no claim, no reason for either of us to fight carefully around something we cared about breaking.
Kravius walked in behind me without an escort, without a single ward raised, and stopped at the edge of what used to be a nave, robes stirring faintly in a wind that had no business reaching this far below the outer walls.
"Zereth will notice I'm not on the field within minutes," I said, not looking back at him. "He'll send someone."
"He won't reach us before this is finished. I've already sealed the passage behind Rena, gently, nothing that will hold longer than she needs to force it open again. I wanted her to follow eventually. Just not yet."
