The night was their cloak. They moved like shadows down the slope, their forms blending into the patchwork of moonlight and darkness. The air grew colder as they reached the valley floor, the silence broken only by the chirping of crickets and the distant, rhythmic footsteps of the guard atop the palisade.
They circled wide, keeping to the treeline, until they reached the eastern wall Sera had identified. Up close, the damp patch was more pronounced—a small, sunken area where the earth was soft and muddy. The base of the wooden wall was dark with rot.
"This is it," Sera breathed, her voice barely a whisper. She knelt, running her fingers through the cold mud. "The ward's energy is weakest here. I can feel it—a faint shimmer in the air, but it doesn't reach the ground."
Kael could feel it too. The Mistress Path within him hummed, not with the aggressive dissonance it had near the Umbral Tear, but with a low, focused frequency that seemed to push back against the ward's ordered energy. It was a subtle pressure, like a hand pressed against an invisible wall.
"Can we get under?" he asked, his eyes scanning the top of the wall for any sign of movement.
Sera didn't answer with words. She lay flat on her stomach in the mud and began to dig with her hands, scooping away the soft, wet earth. Kael joined her, the two of them working in frantic, silent unison. The mud was cold and clung to their clothes, but they didn't stop.
After what felt like an eternity, their fingers scraped against rough stone, then empty space. A narrow gap, just large enough for a person to squeeze through, had been eroded beneath the foundation stones of the wall.
Sera looked at him, her face smeared with mud, her eyes gleaming in the dark. "The ward ends at the wall. We should be able to pass through unhindered. You first."
A knot of anxiety tightened in Kael's stomach. He took a deep breath, the scent of damp earth and decay filling his nostrils. He lay flat and began to wriggle into the hole, the cold, wet stone scraping against his back and shoulders. The world narrowed to the press of earth around him, the darkness, and the frantic beating of his own heart.
For a terrifying second, he was stuck, his hips catching on a protruding stone. Panic flared, but then he felt Sera's hands on his boots, pushing him through with a firm, steady pressure. He spilled out onto the other side, rolling into a crouch in a shadowed corner between the wall and a storage shed.
A moment later, Sera slipped through after him, silent as a ghost. They were inside.
The courtyard was larger than it had seemed from the ridge, lit by a few torches that cast long, dancing shadows. The main building loomed before them, its windows dark. From the watchtower, they could hear the guard humming a quiet, off-key tune.
Sera pointed towards a smaller, secondary door on the side of the main building, partially obscured by a stack of firewood. According to the plan they'd pieced together from Theron's sparse intelligence, the diviner's quarters were likely on the upper floor, but the ground floor held the library and meditation cells.
"We need to find her," Kael whispered. "If she's not in her room, she might be in the library."
They flitted from shadow to shadow, their mud-caked forms making them nearly invisible. Sera tested the side door. It was unlocked. She cracked it open, revealing a dark, narrow corridor within.
The air inside was dry and smelled of old parchment, incense, and polished wood. It was the scent of quiet study and devotion, a world away from the mud and blood of the Graywood. They moved down the corridor, their senses stretched to a razor's edge.
A soft light spilled from an open doorway ahead. They crept closer, pressing themselves against the wall. Peering around the doorframe, they saw a small, circular room lined with books. And in the center, sitting at a desk with her head bowed over an ancient text, was Elara.
Her silver-diviner's robes were neatly folded over a chair, and she wore a simple, white shift. Her brown hair was loose around her shoulders. She looked young, even younger than Kael. She was frowning in concentration, her finger tracing a line of text, utterly absorbed.
This was their moment. The plan was to subdue her quickly and quietly, before she could raise an alarm.
But plans, Kael was learning, were fragile things.
As Sera took a silent step into the room, the floorboard beneath her foot let out a sharp, betraying creak.
Elara's head snapped up. Her eyes, a soft, intelligent gray, widened in shock and then flared with a familiar, silvery light. She shot to her feet, the chair scraping loudly against the stone floor.
"Intruders!" she cried out, her voice echoing in the silent hall. "By the grace of the Sun-in-Splendor, I command you to—"
She never finished the sentence. Sera was already moving, a blur of motion. But she wasn't fast enough.
From down the corridor, the thunder of boots and the shouts of guards answered Elara's call. The outpost was awake.
Their quiet infiltration had just turned into a desperate fight.
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