A pointed, obviously fake cough sounded behind Keiser. He didn't even need to look. Even with the voice pitched lower, there was only one person who would deliberately linger on the stairs just to make an entrance.
"…not that I want to interrupt your little reunion," the voice drawled, "but we have to go. Now."
Of course Althira wouldn't appear as herself, that would have been far too obvious, with her green hair and unmistakably elven features. Instead, she arrived in the same disguise she had worn in the dungeon, though this time it was the version he had encountered in the temple, not the slurring, half‑drunk broker.
Even so, Keiser noticed the careful, almost tentative steps she took as she approached. She was testing the 'leeway' granted to her, the limits of the sigil he had placed upon her. Mana threaded toward their wrists, drawn to the runes etched into both their skins.
