Behind.
To the sides.
I turn my head slightly, tracking the positions, counting without making it obvious.
Too many.
“What is this?” I ask, keeping my voice level even as something colder settles under my ribs.
The man in front—dark armor, unmarked but precise in its construction—doesn’t look at me when he answers.
“Orders.”
Verr stops, and the shift is immediate. It doesn’t ripple outward in a visible way, but the air tightens around him, the kind of stillness that makes everything else feel like it’s waiting for permission to move again.
“Whose?” he asks.
The man meets his gaze without hesitation.
“Your father’s.”
There it is.
“And those orders are?”
The man’s eyes flick to me then, brief and assessing, like I’m already something being processed rather than a person standing in front of him.
“Seize the human.”
The words land clean, without weight, without hesitation, like they’ve already been carried out in his mind.
“Subtle,” I mutter, the edge in my voice sharper than I intend.
The soldiers move.
Fast enough that I don’t get a clean step back before hands close around my arms, iron grip locking in place as they pull me off balance just enough to break my stance. I twist instinctively, trying to drop my weight and shift leverage, but they’re trained for this—one forces my arm higher, the other steps in closer, driving forward just enough to keep me upright without giving me space to move.
“Easy,” one of them says under his breath, the tone almost casual, like this is routine.
“Get your hands off me,” I snap, jerking against the hold.
They don’t.
Of course they don’t.
“Release her.”
Verr’s voice cuts through the moment, low and precise, and the soldiers hesitate—not enough to stop, but enough that I feel it in the slight shift of pressure on my arms.
The man in front doesn’t move.
“Those are not my orders.”
Verr steps forward, not fast, not aggressive, just enough that the line adjusts in response.
“I am giving you new ones.”
“With respect,” the man replies, and the word lands wrong in his mouth, too smooth, too practiced, “you do not outrank him.”
