Five in the morning, and the rain had come back overnight.
I stood on the western balcony and watched it fall. Thin and gray, the same not-quite-rain that had arrived with Castellan's carriages a day ago, returned at the wrong hour and on no schedule the leyline grid recognized. Somewhere in the academy's weather instruments a calibration was being maintained that didn't match the world below.
Lucien joined me at five-twenty. He hadn't slept. I could tell from the coat — same line of buttoning as last night, the cravat changed to suggest a fresh start the rest of him hadn't earned.
"The interview chamber is set," he said. "Aether-tuned glass on the observation wall. Ren cleared the readings an hour ago. We'll see the room. Castellan won't see us."
"He'll know the wall is there."
"Of course. He'll behave as if he doesn't. That's the protocol on his side."
"And ours?"
