They left the next day before dawn.
The difference was the send-off.
Sael, Marak and Vorak were there. Elder Moss and Sera from Vashari, standing at the gathering's edge. The shamans and The Dusk Claw delegate. And the warriors from the Ashplain and narrows.
Sael stood at the front.
She looked at each person. Alfred, who inclined his head in a bow. Odessa, who met Sael's eyes. Yuki, who met Sael's gaze with direct calm and held it a moment longer than necessary—two people acknowledging something without words.
Sael moved on without either making it a scene.
She stopped in front of Leah.
She reached up and adjusted the clasp on Leah's traveling coat, the maternal gesture of fixing something that didn't need fixing.
"The Auric Pride's daughter goes on a journey into a remembering with a dragon." Sael said.
"The Auric Pride's daughter has been in worse" Leah said. "And came out."
"So she did." Sael's hands dropped.
She stepped back and looked at Owen last.
