Jin didn't go inside.
He stood in the courtyard for a while as the sky slowly turned from black to grey, listening to the crickets and the quiet creak of the school settling around him. He should have gone to bed. Every part of his body was begging him to. But there was a weight sitting in his chest that had nothing to do with the crown piece, and he knew he wouldn't sleep until he'd set some of it down.
So he turned away from the doors and walked to the far edge of the courtyard instead.
Aesteros was where he always was, sitting at the edge of the old garden with his back to the wall, massive and still. In the grey half-light he looked more like a statue than ever, all rough dark stone and heavy shoulders, his hands resting on his knees. The only sign he was anything more was the faint glow of embers moving slowly through the cracks in his skin, dim and orange, like coals breathing in a banked fire.
Jin stopped a few paces in front of him.
