Morning came wrapped in gray light and the distant rumble of thunder.
Veronica lay still for a long moment, staring at the ceiling, counting the cracks in the stone above her. She hadn't slept well. Dreams had crept in, strange and shapeless. Zareth's silver eyes watching her through smoke. The system's glow burning behind her eyelids like a second heartbeat.
She exhaled slowly and sat up.
Yumike was already awake, sitting on the windowsill with her ears pricked forward, watching something outside.
"What are you looking at?" Veronica asked, voice still rough with sleep.
"There are people below," the fox murmured. "In the courtyard. Soldiers, I think. Lots of them."
Veronica padded over and peered down through the glass. Far below, dark figures moved in neat rows across the stone yard. Their armor caught what little light filtered through the clouds. Silent. Disciplined. Not a single voice carried upward.
A chill ran through her that had nothing to do with the cold.
