We left Korren at the gate.
He stood on the lower courtyard's western steps in his Kaelthar field coat, two Frost Legion officers a half-pace behind him, the Pass company commander already at his left elbow. He had been at the academy four days. He had drafted, in those four days, the Pass-integration brief that would be filed at the Senate's coordinating chambers tonight, the operational security framework for the founding ceremony's perimeter, the inert-replacement candidate slate Orvyn would advance to the academy review board this afternoon, and a four-page private letter to his mother that he had not shared with anyone in the suite and that I had not asked about. His face this morning was the Pass's gate-formal — the one used for the leave-taking of allied parties at significant departures.
