The convoy left the capital complex at mid-morning.
Three carriages in total. Caelum's at the front, two support carriages behind carrying the estate staff and the travel supplies. Four imperial guards on horseback flanking the formation, the same ones who had been assigned by the Herald and had been watching Caelum with that dual purpose attention since the first day. The same one who reported separately from the others was riding second on the left and had been doing so consistently enough that she had stopped noting it as a variable and started treating it as a fixed condition.
She sat across from Caelum inside the lead carriage and watched the capital recede through the rear window.
