The wall came down by midday.
There was no ceremony for it.
No speech. No marker. No attempt to turn fifteen years of separation into something neat enough to commemorate.
People from both halves simply arrived with tools.
Hammers. Pry bars. Rope. Picks.
Then they started taking it apart.
A week earlier, some of them would have refused to share a bucket.
Now they were working the same stretch of barricade because the alternative had finally become more expensive than the habit.
It did not go smoothly.
Vane had not expected it to.
"That's my family's old gate."
The voice came from behind him.
An older man from Maren's side stood rigid near the western section, staring at a younger man from Rurik's side carrying away a heavy piece of timber.
"I helped build that."
The younger man stopped.
The old man's mouth tightened.
"With my own hands."
He looked directly at him.
"To keep people like him out."
The air around them went still.
Rurik was nearby.
