They chose to leave at dawn.
The same hour they'd once crossed into Fort Kessral's supply yard, though Vane understood almost immediately that the symmetry wasn't accidental.
Hale had arranged for the entire camp to be awake.
No one made a speech.
Vaelkirk had never seemed like a place built for speeches, any more than Ossara had. People here said what needed saying and then got back to the work that kept everyone alive.
But they came anyway.
By the time the first light reached the cliff face, a loose gathering had formed near the treeline. Families stood together. Fighters lingered farther back. Children hovered between adults, trying to understand why the morning felt different without anyone explaining it to them.
Six strangers stood among them, carrying everything they had arrived with and considerably more than that.
Isole spent her final morning in the infirmary.
It had once been Sarel's.
That fact sat quietly in every corner of the room.
