The moment Radeon stepped into the newly raised pavilion, the air changed.
Five wraiths followed him in a loose line, and Calyx came last, as if he could still choose to turn aside.
Every door and window shut at once. Wood thudded into its frame. Glass shivered.
The sound carried upward into a ceiling built too high for any mortal comfort.
"Relax yourselves," Radeon said. "Ceiling's high for a reason."
The five stopped fidgeting, but their eyes did not settle. Their borrowed shapes peeled back.
Limbs lengthened. Tongues lolled. Jaws sharpened into predatory lines, and their eyes burned a dull red.
Radeon looked them over one by one, not as a man might count allies, but as a craftsman checks flawed tools.
"Do you know why you all failed?"
They traded glances. The silence tasted metallic. Oisin was the first to break it, as he always was, eager to argue even with the gallows already measured.
