---
Mira made the decision before Dawn House's main gate came fully into view.
The older woman would not go to Sekhmet.
There was no point.
She was old, sick, exhausted, and visibly worn down in ways the younger five were not. Even if pure blood had once meant something valuable in her case, the present truth mattered more. She needed medical treatment, food, and rest before she could become anything else. Dragging her before Sekhmet now would only waste time and show him a problem instead of a useful choice.
So Mira stopped in the road before the estate walls and turned to the two guards who had accompanied her from the contract market.
"You will take the old one to Dawn Auction House," she said. "Not for sale. For treatment and holding."
That made the older woman lift her head.
She was tired, but not absent.
