Dawn seeped into the cavern like a timid guest, brushing the jagged mouth with pink-grey light before retreating behind drifting mist. Inside, the hush felt porous—alive with ember-pops and the muted sighs of sleepers curled beneath threadbare cloaks. The coals of last night's watch-fires still pulsed a dull maroon between stones, sending soft waves of heat into air laced with moss, wet ash, and the faint copper tang of sharpened steel.