They came on the second afternoon.
Not an extraction team. Scouts three of them, moving up from the south track on foot with the specific body language of people who were checking a location rather than taking one. Rhea saw them from the storage house roof before they reached the settlement's outer edge and she was back in the house with the information in the time it took Aelara to register that Rhea had left the room.
"Three," Rhea said. "Moving careful. Former Bloodhowl body language I know what their field training looks like." She was already assessing the room. "They're not Council. Council scouts move in pairs. Three is a Bloodhowl confirmation pattern one confirms the target, one watches the exits, one stays back with the communication relay."
"Kaelen's people," Aelara said.
