At dawn of the fourth day since the snow bridge, the mist along the southern valley spur lifted just enough to reveal the terraced pine slopes of Ash Reed Mountain rising above the frosted reed beds. Inside Seyun’s chest, the fourth sunrise increment of Ilyra’s Deeper Bronze echo clicked into place beneath his left collarbone. Three dawns leftover until the seventh-dawn threshold demanded its answer.
Before leaving the shepherd’s hospice, Seyun had spent an hour walking the courtyard gravel in slow Returning Step figures, circulating his Dual-Route Flame through his legs and torso to verify his body baseline. The split creases across both palms had closed into firm pink scar lines that no longer bled. Just then, he gripped a stave. The shallow cut along his right thigh pulled only on wide lateral lunges. And the third mark below his chest bone beat with a low, steady rhythm confirming that Nara Soth still held the summit lattice.
He wore a clean, unbadged coat of dark gray wool mended at the elbow by Mother Renn, with his three copper needles tucked inside his inner vest and the decoy blue ledger binding—complete with its original red wax Ash Reed inventory seal—pushed visibly into his outer sash.
