Chapter 434 - 433: The Visitor
Location:Seven Peaks — Main Gate, Verdant Spire
Date/Time:TC1855.02.28
"Visitor at the main gate," Thorne said through the relay. "From Millhaven. Says he has sensitive information. Wants to speak with you directly."
Raven set down Silas’s containment specifications. The reservoir operation was two days from ready — Silas’s formation work was precise, Coop’s staging documentation was complete, and Naida’s assets were in position. Two more days.
"I’ll see him. Send him to the reception terrace."
She found him waiting at the gate’s inner edge. A man in his thirties, road-dusty, the weathering of someone who’d walked the Millhaven route. He held his hands clasped in front of him — the way people held their hands when they were trying to look calm and mostly succeeding.
"Sect Master. Thank you for seeing me." He inclined his head. "My name is Garrett. I work the trade route between Millhaven and Ashford Crossing. I’ve seen things on the eastern road that I think you need to know about, but I couldn’t say it over the relay. I don’t know who listens."
"What kind of things?"
"People. Behaving strangely. Men I’ve known for years who don’t seem... right. I thought I was imagining it at first, but it’s been months, and it’s getting worse, and someone told me that if I really thought something was wrong, I should tell you and not anyone else."
Raven studied him. The concern on his face looked genuine — the furrowed brow, the tension in the jaw, the voice that dropped on not anyone else the way people’s voices dropped when they were sharing something they’d been carrying alone.
"Follow me. We’ll talk in my office."
She walked. He followed. Across the reception terrace, past the morning patrol coming off their rotation, past the garden where Elian and Bryn were doing something with the flower beds that involved more giggling than cultivation. Aren was sitting against the garden wall with his back to the living wood, the frost patterns on his hands geometric and still — the boy at rest, watching his siblings play, the guardian who guarded by proximity.