Greyvale received them beneath the warm light of the late afternoon, its roads crowded with merchants, laborers, hunters, and adventurers moving through the city as though the day had only just begun.
The southern gate was busy with wagons waiting for inspection, porters unloading crates, and guards checking travel permits while trying to keep the road clear. Sage and the others attracted attention almost immediately.
Their clothes were dusty from three days on the road, several members still carried bandages from the Vault, and the exhaustion on their faces was impossible to hide, yet there was something about the way they walked together that made people stop and stare.
A few recognized Sage first. Others noticed Valeria, Gregor, Brutus, Vanthrice, Lyana, Mina, Boren, Caelis, and the twenty adventurers behind them, and before long murmurs began spreading from one side of the road to the other.
