Fay did not go straight for her things like Radeon had told her.
She lingered instead, half behind a pillar, pretending to fuss with a strap as she listened to Radeon and Claudius speak.
Then she heard the words. Other beings watching. They settled in her stomach like cold water.
Her teeth clattered before she could stop them. She expected two pairs of eyes to swing her way at once.
Fay forced herself to look up. Radeon and Claudius were not watching her. Both of them had their faces tilted toward the sky.
Fay saw nothing. No shape. No crack in the clouds. Nothing but empty air and distance.
Still, her gut told her they were holding up the sky itself, bracing something heavy with methods she could not begin to read.
The thought made her throat tighten. It made the world feel unfair in a new and sharper way.
She clenched her fist. Nails bit into skin. She swallowed the complaint that wanted to become a scream.
