A sudden tap landed on both their backs.
"So what are you two boys up to now?"
Ada stood over them with one hand on her hip and a half-smile that was equal parts exasperation and amusement. Her sleeves were rolled up, flour dusting one elbow. She looked like she had just climbed out of a kitchen fight and won.
Vaidya leaned back on his hands, blinking up at her. "We're hanging out. Which seems like a normal thing to do before the sky falls again."
Ada snorted and rolled her eyes. "And why do you sound like everything is normal when all of us are witnessing an invasion?"
Vaidya gave her a deadpan look. "Because if I don't make it sound normal, I will start screaming."
Ada's mouth twitched. "Fair enough."
She crossed her arms and looked at both of them with the expression of a senior who had decided the younger ones were being ridiculous and therefore needed handling. "I was trying to lift up the mood, for the record. You both looked like funeral attendants up here."
Solis tilted his head. "You did not need to do that. We are totally fine."
"Yeah, I can already see that." Ada said immediately with a tone of sarcasm. "At the end of the day, as your senior, it's my duty to take care of you two."
Solis stared at her. "Umm… you and I are both nineteen, remember?"
Ada's brows shot up. "I am two months older than you are."
Solis opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
He knew better than to continue. Ada, when roused in debate, had the energy of a hammer striking a nail until the nail learned humility. It was simply wiser not to feed the argument.
Vaidya looked away, hiding a grin behind his hand. "You're enjoying this, right?"
"Obviously," Ada said.
Then she cleared her throat in the loud, official way she used when pretending to be less tender than she was. "I came to tell you both dinner is ready. Aunty says if you don't come down soon, she'll come up herself and drag you by your ears."
Vaidya got up at once. "Uhh... that sounds entirely within her capabilities."
Ada pointed at him. "See? Someone is respectful."
Solis remained seated.
Ada glanced at him, her expression shifting into concern. "You're not coming?"
"Oh no no. I will." Solis said. "Just later."
Vaidya paused, and Ada's shoulders eased into worry. "Are you sure? You've been holding that medallion like it's going to answer questions."
Solis looked down at the silver token in his hand. "I want to pay respect to Tedric first. This is important to me, you know."
Ada's face softened. "The grave is not here. He was buried in Mailie, remember, Solis. Is it okay to do it here?"
"I know," he said. "But I don't need to stand in front of it to speak to him. I can see him from up here too. Up in the sky."
Ada studied him for a long second, then gave a reluctant nod. "Alright. Don't stay too long out here. It already quite chilly weather."
Vaidya stepped toward the stairwell, then paused beside Ada. "Come on." he said. "If Dahlia burns the stew, I'll tell her it was your fault."
Ada's head snapped toward him. "It would be a war crime if you did that."
"That's why I plan to survive it. So let's go as quickly as possible."
They both went down laughing in low voices, and the rooftop fell quiet again.
Solis was alone with the sky.
He sat back against the roof pillar and turned the medallion over in his fingers. Below, the shelter murmured with life. Somewhere in the distance, bells rang, faint and uneven. Somewhere beyond the city, war was still moving its ugly pieces into place. But here, for a breath, the rooftop felt like a room suspended over the world.
He lifted the medallion slightly and looked up.
"Tedric," he said softly, "and you too, Dad… if you can hear me."
The night did not answer in words. It never did. But the silence wasn't empty. Solis had learned, over time, that silence could carry weight when the people you missed were near enough in memory.
"What am I supposed to do?" he murmured. "We're holding on, but it feels like the city keeps slipping. Kreg's forces, Orsic's political manipulation, the trust is breaking apart… I don't even know which problem to cut first."
The medallion flashed in the moonlight. He closed his fingers around it.
"I'm trying," he said. "I really am. But still it feels like it's not enough."
For a time he simply sat, letting the rooftop wind move around him. Then, from somewhere below, he heard the soft scrape of shoes on the stairs, a sound too measured to be Ada, too light to be Dahlia. Solis's back straightened. Instinct flashed before thought.
He felt it before he saw it.
A familiar current in the air. Not heat, not cold, but the subtle shift that came with shadow magic when he first encountered it, against Razille. That encounter costed him to lose his sword and the seal breaking of the infamous Kreg, which only deteriorated the trust over Postknights. The hairs on his arm lifted as if he got goosebumps.
Solis set the medallion down carefully in his lap. His left hand slid to the axe handle at his side.
He drew the weapon with a swift, practiced motion and swung toward the presence behind him.
The blade cut through nothing.
No one.
The rooftop was empty, the pillar and the chimney and the moonlit tiles all in their same places. But the energy had not gone. It lingered, a thin, clever thread brushing the edge of his senses like silk.
Solis narrowed his eyes. "That's enough." he said in a serious tone. "Show yourself."
The shadows beside the water tank twitched.
Then, as if the dark had chosen to fold open like cloth, two figures emerged from the cloak of the rooftop's shade.
Princess Lily first, the hood of her cloak still up, her expression careful and steady. And just behind her, Razille, the posture of a person who had stepped into danger and was prepared to own it.
The shadow cloak that had masked them thinned and fell away in a ripple of black mist, dissolving into the night air above the inn.
Razille looked at Solis, and for the first time since her escape from the palace, her face showed the smallest hint of awkwardness.
"Hey..." she said, with a tiny tilt of the head. "I think we didn't interrupt you, right?"