The meeting place wasn't what Victor expected.
No hidden compound, no imposing headquarters buried beneath layers of secrecy. Just an unremarkable building on the edge of the city nearest the academy, the kind of place that could have housed a small accounting firm or a quiet law office, nothing about its exterior suggesting it belonged to an organization three centuries old.
"This is it?" Caleb asked, eyeing the building skeptically as Samuel led them toward the entrance.
"Appearances are the point," Samuel said. "The Ashen Circle doesn't advertise, and it doesn't need to. If you're the kind of person who needs to find them, you already know where to look."
