Meridian's Stonereach district was home to merchants, middle-tier Guild offices, and wide public walkways designed for parades and ceremonial processions. The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the square's polished granite as citizens moved through their daily routines—purchasing goods, filing reports, conducting the business that kept the city's complex machinery functioning.
Few noticed the six figures at first.
Lira and her five companions entered the square from different directions, converging toward its center like slow rivers joining. Each step was precise, measured, deliberate. Each movement a fragment of the Form—rooted, soft, intentional. Their hands remained open, their gazes forward, their breathing synchronized even across the distance that separated them.
