The afternoon heat settled over the capital like a second roof. It pressed down on the streets, the rooftops, and the people moving between them, and it pressed just as hard on the room above the cartographer's shop.
The four of them sat around the scarred table with the morning's purchases still between them—water skins, a packet of dried meat no one had touched, and the outdated map Clara had spent an hour pretending to study.
The weight of the city leaked in through the walls. It felt denser than anything they had dealt with in the wizard city. More certain of itself. Less interested in argument.
Eli broke the quiet first.
"We can keep confirming tunnels and channels until the imperial wizard arrives and starts sealing them behind us," she said. "Or we can admit that running only delays the same question." She looked at Atlas, then at Lara.
