The eastern road bends toward low hills. Qaulitex, the renegade archmage, the ancient royal servant, Lady Serava, and her retainers prepare to depart together, while the ashlands fall quiet behind them.
A soot-covered boy crawls from a dry culvert beside the road. Tavian Orr is a thin human boy with cropped brown hair, a patched gray tunic, and a brass courier clasp blackened by ash.
Tavian Orr
Lady Serava. Vessel. Wait. I carry a sealed royal message, and its sender is waiting beneath the abandoned waystation.
He clutches the letter to his chest, keeping its dark red wax seal turned outward. The ancient royal servant stiffens as a faded winged-crown mark emerges through the soot.
The Ancient Royal Servant
That seal belonged to the royal courier corps. It was extinguished before my tomb was closed. No messenger bearing it should remain alive.
Tavian Orr
The sender told me to find Serava and name her heir. The last line is for Qaulitex alone. They wrote as if they know the vessel personally.
Lady Serava reaches toward the message but stops before touching it. Beyond the road, the abandoned waystation waits beneath leaning stones, its doorway open to shadow.