Cairn Point Of View.

We were processed, moved like pieces being placed where they were needed. The chief guard did not waste time with speeches or false warmth. He walked ahead of us with the same rigid authority he had shown at the gates, and we followed without question.

The courtyard gave way to narrower stone paths, then into the inner sections of the fortress where the air felt cooler, heavier. Everything here was structured. Controlled. Even the way the guards passed one another, brief ...